Bunker

Parts of today's Rhenish Open-Air Museum in Kommern lie on the Siegfried defence-line, which was intended to secure the western border of the German Reich during the Second World War. The bunkers built into this fortification were strictly purpose-built, with walls and ceilings of a thickness between 30 centimetres and one and a half metres. In addition to the garrison, there was room in the bunkers for weapons, ammunition and stocks of provisions. The average space allocated to each man was about one square metre. In order to enable the men to relieve themselves, there was a metal drum placed in the entrance area of the bunker, which also doubled as an air-lock against gas attack. At the top of the drum was a toilet-hole and next to it some peat to scatter on top. One of these bunkers from the West Wall installations was discovered in the course of digging the foundations for the new exhibition hall. Through the hole in the bunker's ceiling, one can form an impression of what it was like for an anti-aircraft soldier to stay in the bunker.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower, later President of the USA, said this about the fortifications:
„The West Wall on the Siegfried Line was a remarkable installation. The fortifications included large minefields, an intricate system of booby-traps, anti-tank ditches, concrete bunkers disguised as log cabins and heavily armoured machine-gun nests, supported by artillery and auxiliary weapons, connected by an outstanding telephone network."
(Zitiert in Willems, Willem und Manfred Groß, [Hrsg.]: Der Westwall. Vom Denkmalwert des Unerfreulichen, Köln 1997, S. 62.)

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