Secret Bunker of the State Security
“Objekt Fasan (Pheasant)” - this was a bunker facility where the regional Stasi (the GDR State Security) leaders would have found shelter in an ‘emergency’ and would have directed all actions from here. Every district of the GDR had such a so-called alternative command center.
The one in the small rural community of Ostrau was built between 1969 and 1973 and consisted of a semi-detached house, a large orchard, a workshop and garage buildings. Underneath was a bunker measuring around 750 square meters. It could have accommodated around 100 employees, including the liaison
officer to the Soviet secret service, the KGB. Previously there had been a feeding place for pheasants. This is how the code name came into being. Of course, the “Fasan” construction project did not go unnoticed by the public. There were no announcements about it, so many rumors circulated - nuclear shelter, missile silo, launch pad or the like.
So a legend had to be created, and when the mysterious object was mentioned, it was referred to as an emergency water supply facility - although it looked like a fruit orchard.
A flawed legend, because the property in question had neither a water connection nor pipe systems that would have been necessary for an emergency water supply.
The complex is very spacious and winding, well camouflaged and equipped with numerous emergency exits.
The bunker, which is located behind winding rooms, cellars and electronically secured steel airlock doors at the end of a twisted corridor over 20 meters long and also accessible from the right and left via two well-camouflaged wide staircases hidden beneath two greenhouses, contained a water treatment and air conditioning system of German and Russian design suitable for war.
In the two by eight meter long chambers to the right and left of a double central corridor as well as the adjoining rooms for toilets and supply technology, only remnants of the equipment remain. Scrap metal thieves have left little behind.
The four larger, above-ground buildings, under and behind which the underground Stasi headquarters extend, are largely overgrown and littered. The concrete fence posts of the area, which was once cordoned off with wire mesh, are still standing.
There are two massive bunkers for mobile emergency power systems and diesel drum storage in the vicinity.
Visited: August 12, 2020
Location: Ostrau, Halle Region, Germany
Status: Active (Sold in 2022)
