Ruins of a Westwall bunker

In the area of the Schneifel near Prüm in the Eifel, around 170 bunkers were built between 1938 and 1940, some of them only a good hundred meters apart. In the old district of Prüm there were a total of more than 1,200 bunkers. In addition, there was a 13 m wide hump line over a length of 35 km, which could stop tanks up to 36 tons. Today only overgrown concrete ruins can be seen. A Westwall Bunker hiking trail is excellent. The mood is a little depressing, as it is evidence of a dark past. Nevertheless, the moss-covered ruins are worth seeing and preserving as contemporary witnesses and memorials.

Over the decades, the bunker ruins have developed into valuable habitats for wild cats and bats, among others, and represent valuable retreats for animals and plants in the densely populated and intensively used cultural landscape. The crevices in the ruins and tunnels are ideal summer and winter quarters for Bats. Reptiles like the wall lizard or sand lizard can be found again and again.

Destroyed eyewitnesses from World War II.