Zivilschutzbunker Helgoland

Useful Information

Location:	Lummenstraße/Kirchstraße, 27498 Helgoland. Lummenstraße, Oberland, at the Evangelische Kita Helgoland Windstärke 12. (54.1829841, 7.8855315)
Open:	After appointment. [2024]
Fee:
Classification:	World War II Bunker
Light:	Incandescent
Dimension:
Guided tours:	D=1 h.
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Tourist Information, Lung Wai 27, Unterland, 27498 Helgoland, Tel: +49-4725-808808. E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1890	Heligoland becomes German property and becomes an important harbour for the Imperial Navy.
1940/1941	Civil defence bunker built.
18-APR-1945	Heligoland bombed by the Royal Air Force.
1947-1952	Bunkers destroyed by the British.

Description

The Zivilschutzbunker Helgoland (Heligoland civil defence bunker) is also known as the Zivilschutzbunkeranlage im Oberland (Oberland civil defence bunker). It has rooms where citizens stayed during the air raids. The entrance is located in Lummenstraße, Oberland, at the Helgoland Protestant day-care centre Windstärke 12. First you go through the Fuchsbau under the day-care centre to Mittelweg, from here the Weddigenstollen leads south to R.-C.-Rickmers-Straße. Here the tunnel makes a few more 90° bends and ends at the corner of Von Aschen Straße.

From the entrance, the visitors first descend a staircase with 90 concrete steps. At a depth of 18 metres, they reach the actual bunker. This tunnel was planned with a length of 750 metres to provide space for all Helgolanders. There were wooden benches along the walls, and everyone had 50 cm of allocated space. People had a suitcase with important belongings and some clothes under their part of the bench. A gas mask and eating utensils were part of the basic equipment. This was sufficient for a short stay, but during the air raids in 1945, people were unable to leave the tunnel for two days. And the 50 cm bench was not enough to lie down on, people slept sitting up. Part of the reason why there was so little space was because the tunnel was not even finished yet, only 600 metres of the 750 metres that were planned existed. And immediately after the air raid, the entire population was evacuated and the bunker became obsolete. It only survived the major demolitions after the war because it had no military significance whatsoever.

The guided tour of the bunker is only available on request for groups, there are no regular opening hours. Bookings can only be made at the Tourist Information Centre, Lung Wai 27. The bunker tour lasts one hour and offers an insight into the history of the island's fortifications. This begins in prehistory and is expressed in the many changes to the dune and island. The military history begins in the imperial era, after Helgoland was exchanged for Zanzibar. But the main period of bunker construction was during the Third Reich.

Heligoland was of great strategic importance during the Second World War and was therefore fortified accordingly. At the same time, the island was particularly prone to air raids due to its strategic importance. There were air raid alerts almost every day because Heligoland was in the Royal Air Force's flight path for targets in northern Germany. The residents spent a few hours a day in the bunker, but only a few bombs actually fell. However, on 18 and 19 April 1945, Heligoland experienced massive bombing raids against the naval base and the Heligoland fortress. The residential buildings were also destroyed, the people of Heligoland were left homeless and 3,000 Heligoland residents were evacuated as a result.

After the war, the military installations on Heligoland were a thorn in the side of the Allies, especially the British. Preparations were made for Operation Big Bang, one of the biggest explosions in world history. Thousands of tonnes of ammunition were brought in from the mainland for this purpose. It was the largest non-nuclear detonation the world had ever seen, with 6700 tonnes of ammunition. The aim of completely destroying the island's bunkers and military installations was achieved. From 1947 to 1952, the island was used by the British Air Force as a bombing range to dispose of bombs that were no longer needed after the war. Bombing finally ceased in 1952. In the end, apart from this civil defence bunker and the Unterland bunker tunnel, all military installations were destroyed, as was a large part of the island. Heligoland was no longer habitable.