Bundesbank bunker in Cochem: That’s why secret money was stored on the Moselle

In Cochem on the Moselle, a treasure trove of billions was stored in the so-called Bundesbank bunker for a good 25 years. Hardly anyone knew about it, and the money was never used. The air raid shelter has been a museum for five years and can be visited.

A minibus drives into the bus station in the small town of Cochem once an hour. The goal: the Bundesbank bunker on the opposite side of the Moselle. It goes over the Moselle bridge to the Cochem district of Cond, the “Bunker Shuttle” roars at a slow pace up a steep village street. After a few minutes you will reach your destination, at the end of the cul-de-sac “Am Wald”. A rather inconspicuous flat roof building borders a turning hammer. Just two words at the entrance make it clear that this is not a normal house: “Bundesbank Bunker” is there in black and white.

“The whole purpose of the Cochem bunker was to store the replacement series BBK II. That was the reason why this air raid shelter was built,” explains museum director Antonia Mentel in the ntv podcast “Learned again”. Since 2016, the history of the Bundesbank bunkers can be explored on guided tours.

The museum has reproduced the countless packages of money in the bunker.

(Photo: Bundesbank Bunker Cochem)

BBK II, which stands for Bundesbank Series II, was the name of the replacement banknote series for West Germany. BBK I, these were the D-Mark banknotes that were in the wallets of German citizens. The banknotes were issued from the early 1960s to the early 1990s. BBK II bills were never used to pay. They were only meant for emergencies. “The replacement series should cover various scenarios. The files say it was just in case. What exactly that means has not yet been fully clarified,” says Mentel.

Replacement money for an emergency

Two scenarios are thinkabler, explains the studied art historian: on the one hand, a glut of counterfeit money and the resulting hyperinflation. “That had massively affected the German economy. The replacement series should ensure that one remained able to act.” The second scenario: prevention against diseases, viruses and bacteria. “Back then it was already conceivable that these would be carried over by banknotes. In such a case, they wanted to create a replacement as quickly as possible. Producing a series of banknotes can take several years. They wanted to shorten that,” says Mentel. In an emergency, the goal was to exchange the cash within 14 days across Germany.

Why the secret hiding place was built in Cochem of all places has something to do with chance. At the beginning of the 1960s, a piece of land was offered for sale in the Cond district on which two houses were already standing. The property could also be extended to the rear. Perfect for the Bundesbank’s bunker plans. She strikes, buys the property and from 1962 to 1964 builds the secret bunker and a training center under or in the two houses that later served as camouflage. The first banknotes were stored as early as 1965.

Moselle valley “particularly protected” from atomic pressure waves

“You felt particularly protected on the Moselle. You thought that a possible atomic pressure wave in the Cold War would pass over the Moselle valley and that you were particularly protected here below the ridge,” explains the museum director in the podcast. The proximity to the Bundesbank headquarters in Frankfurt am Main as well as to the then federal capital Bonn and the government emergency seat in Ahrweiler were good reasons for the location in Cochem.

Because residents kept complaining about the deafening noise during construction in the early 1960s, the Bundesbank told them that an air raid protection system was being built. This was not unusual during the Cold War. As compensation for the construction noise, the residents are promised that they can stay in the bunker in the event of an attack, together with the training participants. In an emergency, up to 175 people should have survived closely for a few weeks in the deep, according to the plan. Self-sufficient with drinking water wells, diesel generator electricity, sand filters for the air supply and decontamination rooms for atomic radiation.

“Secret project” of the Deutsche Bundesbank

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The access tunnel to the former money hiding place.

(Photo: Bundesbank Bunker Cochem)

The Bundesbank actually organizes seminars in the training center in the following years after the facility is completed. The participants have no idea of ​​the billions of dollars among them. Only initiated examiners and the trainer count the money every few months. The only keys to the vault door, which weighs tons, are at the Bundesbank headquarters in Frankfurt.

Nowadays tens of thousands of visitors come every year to look at the bunkers and vaults. In about three quarters of an hour it goes through the underground passages. There is no longer any money, but the museum has recreated the heavy money packages. Imitations of the BBK-II replacement series can be bought at the entrance and exit.

The front of the notes looked exactly like the main series BBK I, only the back was designed differently. The emergency money should inspire confidence, but still be clearly distinguishable. “The replacement series was a secret project of the board of directors of the Deutsche Bundesbank. However, there was a stipulation that the Bundesbank actually had to inform about it when it produced a new banknote series. It did that, but only in its own publications,” reports Soyter of more or less secret project. Bundesbank employees or those involved in banknote production were of course aware of this, but the majority of the population did not.

Without any significant incidents, 15 billion emergency marks have been stored in Cochem for almost 25 years and a further 11 billion in the federal bank vault in Frankfurt. In addition to the replacement series BBK II for West Germany, there was also the so-called “Berlin Series” for West Berlin. In contrast to the BBK II, it also has a 5-mark note.

In 1988, bills end up in the shredder

At the end of the 1980s, however, the emergency currency would expire. The Cold War is not over yet, the wall has not yet fallen, but there is far too little replacement money for an emergency anyway. “In addition, there was the problem that the color copier came on the market, with it you could easily produce forgeries because the BBK I and BBK II had no special security features,” explains Mentel in the podcast. The lack of protection against forgery and the insufficient quantity for a 1: 1 exchange led to the decision to “break away from the principle of the replacement series”.

In 1988 the 15 billion are transported from Cochem to Frankfurt, where they are put into a large shredder together with the remaining billions from the BBK II series and – to be on the safe side – burned afterwards. Since then, individual original banknotes from the replacement series have only been stored in the Money Museum in Frankfurt – officially. According to unconfirmed reports, individual bills were lost during disposal. Antonia Mentel can neither confirm nor deny this. “Everything that turns up is stolen goods. We also have no more bills.”

After the banknotes were removed in 1988, the bunker system was initially no longer used. The Bundesbank held a few seminars in the training rooms until the beginning of the 1990s, but then a new conference center was built in Eltville am Rhein.

The flood of the century in December 1993 finally gave the Cochemer Volksbank an idea: Because their customers’ lockers were flooded, the money house looked for a flood-proof place for the lockers and found the former bunker. Volksbank buys the property, including the camouflage houses, and sets up lockers for 500 bank customers. The bunker will be used until 2008.

Bus operator couple buys bunker

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Then the facility will be empty until 2014, when the local bus entrepreneur couple Petra and Manfred Reuter bought the property. The bunker is being converted into a museum. Since 2016, there have been daily guided tours through the approximately 300-meter-long and 1,500-square-meter facility from May to October. Visitors walk through the dead straight, 80 meter long access tunnel, go through heavy steel vault doors, visit the living and supply rooms in case of emergency, the communication system including telex and telephone system and come across countless (simulated) money packages. As soon as the corona situation allows it again, readings or music events will take place in the bunker, and in the long term it should even be possible to stay overnight in the facility.

A popular question at the end of a bunker tour is: is there a replacement series for the euro? The answer: You don’t really know. However, there is almost nothing to be said for it. Too expensive, too inflexible.
The Bundesbank came to this conclusion at the time. The BBK III, these were the last new D-Mark notes, already had no replacement series. And so nowhere in Europe is there a secret hiding place worth billions like in Cochem.

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