Bundesbank bunker, Cold War currency bunker in Cochem, Germany

The Bundesbank bunker is an underground facility beneath the hills of Cochem containing multiple secure vaults and control rooms spread across different levels. The installation was designed to store large quantities of banknotes and protect them in case of emergency.

The Deutsche Bundesbank built the bunker between 1962 and 1964, about 30 metres below the Cond district of Cochem, to hold an emergency currency, the BBk II, printed in case the Eastern bloc flooded West Germany with counterfeit notes. Up to 15 billion marks were stored until 1988, when the currency was destroyed. A Bundesbank auditor checked the stock every three months; apart from them, nobody was allowed inside.

The bunker's cover was a Bundesbank training and recreation home; the two large camouflage houses above ground are now a hotel. The emergency currency was the specially printed BBk II series of the Deutsche Mark, kept ready in case the Eastern bloc flooded West Germany with counterfeit notes. Only Bundesbank auditors from Frankfurt, who checked the stock every three months, and the home's director could enter.

The bunker can be reached through the main entrance at Am Wald 35 or via the basement of the former training home; the emergency exit sits in the garden's cooling tower. A shuttle bus runs from Endertplatz in Cochem from May to the end of October. Guided tours have been open to individual visitors since March 2016.

Only the director of the disguised training home could enter the bunker; the vault keys were kept in Frankfurt, not on site. Sensors in the vault walls reacted to shocks and noise and alerted the local police, who were not told what the bunker held. The emergency exit sat in the garden's cooling tower, hidden by trees and shrubs.