Munitionsdepot Dülmen-Visbeck, Military ammunition depot in Dülmen, Germany
Munitionsdepot Dülmen-Visbeck is a fenced depot about 4.5 km south of Dülmen's centre near Haus Visbeck, built 1963–1965 for around 800,000 DM. Its special weapons section held two bunkers, watched from the concrete tower ALPHA and the steel-frame tower CHARLY; CHARLY also overlooked the neighbouring Bundeswehr depot with its 25 bunkers. Double fencing, a lamp line and seven fighting positions with walkways, added in 1989, remain.
Construction began on 25 April 1963 and was completed on 22 September 1965 at a cost of about 800,000 DM. From 1 June 1969 part of the site served as a specially secured US Army special ammunition depot; nuclear munitions were removed in 1991 under Operation Silent Echo, and conventional ammunition was stored until 1996. The city of Dülmen bought the site in December 2017, and since 2022 it has been developed as an extracurricular learning site.
The site draws visitors interested in its structure and military purpose. The preserved bunkers show how the Cold War shaped infrastructure in this region.
The site lies in the Dernekamp farming hamlet, northwest of the former Haus Visbeck estate and west of the former Krupp testing ground; access is via a road off the Kreisstraße 27, formerly Bundesstraße 474. The depot has been a listed monument since 9 December 2019 and has been developed since 2022 as an out-of-school learning site, so visits depend on that use rather than on regular opening hours.
The smaller steel-framework watchtower "CHARLY", built around 1980 at the northwest corner, looked straight into the neighbouring Bundeswehr ammunition depot with its 25 bunkers. From 1989 seven concrete fighting positions with connecting walkways replaced the sandbag positions that had defended the site.
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