Wenn man den Laptop aufklappt, den Browser öffnet und die Internetseite Bunkercoin.io aufruft, sieht man etwas, das wie ein Computerspiel aussieht. Ein Countdown läuft, und in einem Video wird man gefragt: „Mark has one. Elon has one. U got one?“
Es geht um nichts weniger als „das größte private Bunkerprojekt der Welt“. Er befindet sich im 13 Kilometer langen Stollensystem des ehemaligen Konzentrationslagers Langenstein-Zwieberge. Der Bunker ist Privateigentum eines Investors. Das wirft Fragen auf: Warum ist ein Ort, an dem Zwangsarbeit verrichtet wurde, Privateigentum? Und was soll dort entstehen?
Aus den Antworten setzt sich eine unglaubliche Geschichte zusammen, die vom ehemaligen KZ in Sachsen-Anhalt bei Halberstadt über Warschau bis nach Adelaide führt. Es geht um einen Gynäkologen in Australien und seinen Großvater, ein verworrenes Insolvenzverfahren in Magdeburg, Kryptowährungen und eine Untergrundstadt für Prepper.
13 Kilometer Stollensystem
Vier Tage überlebte Tadeusz Koter Langenstein-Zwieberge, das ein Außenlager des KZ Buchenwald war. Am 13. August 1944 wurde er dort eingeliefert und später in die Außenstelle verlegt. Die Personalkarte mit der Häftlingsnummer 72727 bescheinigt ihm „eine gehobene Nase, ein rundes Gesicht und eine schlanke Gestalt“. Als Inhaftierungsgrund ist „Politischer Pole“ vermerkt. Koter kämpfte im Warschauer Aufstand gegen die Deutschen. Seine Tochter, Jahrgang 1939, sah ihren Vater zuletzt als Fünfjährige.
In Langenstein-Zwieberge trieben die Gefangenen ein 13 Kilometer langes Stollensystem in die Thekenberge, in dem unter dem Decknamen Malachit V2-Raketen und Flugzeuge gefertigt werden sollten. Am 11. April 1945 wurde das Lager von den Amerikanern befreit. Häftlinge starben auch danach noch an den Folgen der Zwangsarbeit, so auch Tadeusz Koter, der am 15. April 1945 mit 43 Jahren an Unterernährung starb. „Manchmal verdunkelt der Hunger mein geistiges Bild von dir“, schrieb er in seinem letzen Brief an seine Frau. Das Leid der Häftlinge wurde von den Nazis nicht nur billigend in Kauf genommen, sie sollten durch die Arbeit vernichtet werden.
Ein Ort für Phantasie?
Nach der Wiedervereinigung übernahm die Bundeswehr den Stollen von der NVA. 1994/95 wurde er von der Bundesvermögensverwaltung an eine Privatperson veräußert, einen Rechtsanwalt aus Köln. Er hatte wirtschaftliche Interessen, überließ aber 120 Meter des Stollensystems unentgeltlich der Gedenkstätte, die dort Führungen anbietet. Von der Gedenkstätte ist der Stolleneingang gut 2500 Meter entfernt.
When the man died, an insolvency administrator took over the tunnel. The place, whose construction resulted in the deaths of an estimated 2,500 prisoners, became an insolvent estate, an object of speculation, a place for fantasy. “The market for places of safety and retreat is growing steadily, especially in times of global uncertainty,” says the company’s website.
In the insolvency proceedings, two parties competed for the historic property: the state of Saxony-Anhalt and a private investor who already owned the part of the tunnel that was used by the NVA at the time. The investor was awarded the contract, and there are allegations that the state was too hesitant to acquire the tunnel. As early as 2018, the Langenstein-Zwieberge Memorial Association called on the state parliament of Saxony-Anhalt in a petition to make a clear “vote for the preservation of the tunnel” “and to be willing to provide financial resources in the future to expand the tour through the tunnel.”
No sale from insolvency estate
If you ask in Magdeburg, you will learn from Rainer Robra, the Minister of Culture of Saxony-Anhalt, that the state was indeed interested in acquiring the tunnel. However, “it was an unfortunate course of proceedings in which I assume that at some point the insolvency administrator ranked his interest in completing the proceedings higher than in contributing to the success of the negotiations.” Ultimately, the undeveloped tunnel was sold to the investor in 2022 for 500,000 euros.
According to Robra, the insolvency administrator demanded a sum of 1.1 million euros from the state for about a fifth of the area, although the market value of the property was estimated at 420,000 euros. The insolvency administrator did not want to comment on this. The state wanted to achieve something again with the right of pre-emption under monument protection law. This did not succeed because – as the Magdeburg Administrative Court ruled on April 29, 2024 – “the sale was made from an insolvency estate”.
Since then, the legal owner has been GPM Projekt 58 UG. It is managed by Peter Jugl from Markkleeberg in Saxony. The specialty of Jugl’s GPM GmbH can be seen on the homepage: real estate – “the bigger, the more interesting for us”. The tunnel system is big. But when does big become megalomania and tactlessness?
The 19-page white paper makes it clear: The project is planned down to the last detail. The tunnel is intended to provide “a safe place of refuge in times of geopolitical tensions”. Shares in the bunker can be purchased using cryptocurrency, the Bunker Coin Token. Each token buys one cubic centimeter of space in the bunker. The project is to be financed through the sale.
Cinemas and pharmacies underground
The operators are advertising the apocalypse: “In the event of a crisis, the value of the tokens will increase as the demand for safe havens increases.” In addition, a “decentralized autonomous organization” is planned, which will be responsible for managing the bunker. Cinemas, pharmacies and a swimming pool are planned. The Saxony-Anhalt Memorials Foundation says: “A bunker complex that advertises dystopian scenarios and paramilitary guards is incompatible with the special character of the place.” A request for a discussion about what the bunker plans are all about remained unanswered, both by GPM GmbH and by the website operators.
Marcin Stankiewicz, however, picks up when his phone rings shortly after midnight in Adelaide, the capital of the state of South Australia. He is Tadeusz Koter’s grandson and medical director of a fertility clinic. He speaks calmly, but the topic is close to his heart. Last year he visited the memorial site of the former camp where his grandfather was imprisoned for the first time. His children accompanied him. It was important to him to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps to Langenstein-Zwieberge. He took stones from there back to Australia as a souvenir.
For Stankiewicz, they are “sacred”. And he does not understand how a place where people were murdered can be commercialized. The Langenstein-Zwieberge Memorial Association calls the bunker plans a catastrophe. The site has symbolic character, says chairwoman Hanka Rosenkranz. The fact that the bunker operators themselves are selling their plans as a democracy project borders on cynicism: “The aim of the project is to offer people a safe refuge that is controlled by democratic access.”
Understanding the full extent of forced labour
And what does the support association want? In any case, it is not an event location, but access to the deeper and undeveloped tunnel areas. Stankiewicz also wants deeper access into the mountain. He believes that this would enable the full extent of the forced labor to be recorded. The foundation would like to see the historic, undeveloped part transferred to public ownership. This would be possible, provided the investor is willing to sell.
The “2nd Generation Group”, which consists of children and grandchildren of former prisoners, is also vehemently opposed to the privatization of the tunnel system. The bunker operators, however, write in their white paper: “It is crucial to create a fair and safe environment in which all members treat each other with respect and responsibility.”
This Wednesday, a discussion will take place at the memorial between representatives of the second generation and the state of Saxony-Anhalt. Marcin Stankiewicz will not be there, but he is planning a trip to Saxony-Anhalt in November. A memorial plaque for his grandfather will be placed at the southern mass grave. Stankiewicz’s mother, the 85-year-old daughter of Tadeusz Koter, who last saw her father in 1944, will also be there.
You should take the operators of the Bunker Coin website at their word when they write that their goal is to “create a source of light, confidence and hope from this dark place with its dark past.” An underground city as an event location will not achieve this. The countdown has begun.
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