What to See in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler - Top Sights and Attractions

The Government Bunker in Germany, officially named Ausweichsitz der Verfassungsorgane des Bundes im Krisen- und Verteidigungsfall zur Wahrung von deren Funktionstüchtigkeit, in English: "Emergency Seat of the Federal Constitutional Organs for the State of Crisis or State of Defence to Maintain their Ability to Function" was a massive underground complex built during the Cold War era to house the German government, parliament and enough federal personnel needed to keep the government working in the event of war or severe crisis. Located only about 25 kilometres south of Bonn, Germany, in the Ahr Valley between the towns of Ahrweiler and Dernau, it was one of the best kept secrets of West Germany. It was built between 1960 and 1972 inside two abandoned railway tunnels that were built as part of the Strategic Railway, maintained and kept in a working condition for about 30 years and decommissioned in 1997. A small part of the once-secret site is now open to the public as Government Bunker Documentation Site, while the vast majority is abandoned and sealed.^[1]

The Ahrweiler Jewish Cemetery in Ahrweiler in the district of Ahrweiler is a protected cultural monument.

The Jewish community in Ahrweiler initially had a cemetery on Alter Weg in the direction of Marienthal, of which there are no longer any traces. In 1860, it applied for permission to establish a new burial ground on what is now Schützenstraße. It is not known when the 904 m² cemetery, surrounded by a two meter high and 121 meter long quarry stone wall, was completed. The first recorded burial was in 1871 and the last in 1960. The 66 gravestones that still exist today are made of sandstone and the later ones of granite. Obelisks were used several times as a form for the gravestones. Today, on the northern wall of the cemetery, there is a memorial plaque for the victims of the Nazi persecution of the Jews. The cemetery remained essentially undamaged during the Nazi period.