The Altlayer "Schießkeller"
Shortly before the end of World War II, work began on driving a tunnel into the mountain at this point. It was supposed to serve the inhabitants of Altlay as a kind of air raid shelter in the event of possible air raids. Because the war ended quickly, it was no longer completed. In 1958, the Reinhard Weber company rebuilt the tunnel so that explosives could be stored in it. At that time, the Weber company was busy building forest paths, which often required blasting due to the rocky material. As you can see on the inscription on the second door, quite a large amount of explosive material could be stored in the tunnel. Up until the mid-1970s, the Weber company was still storing explosives here. After that the tunnel, also known as the “shooting cellar” in Altlayer parlance, was not used for a long time. It was not until 1985 that the Udo and Hermann Fuchs brothers from Altlay stored material for blasting again in the tunnel. At that time, the Fuchs brothers put the Mosella Il slate quarry back into operation in the Hahn district after a period of rest for 35 years. Unfortunately, the productivity was only low, so that on May 30th, 1990 operations were stopped again. Since then, no more explosive material has been stored in the Altlayer shooting cellar. Source: Text information board