The Gossberg () is a hill with the highest point of 483m in the municipality of Wüschheim close to the border with Hundheim in the district of Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis in the low mountain range of Hunsrück in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The summit was excavated 30m deep in the period of 19841989 and transformed into the NBC (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical) bunker operated by U.S. Forces to serve as a fortified center of highly-secure communication among all NATO troops in Europe and a potential missile launch control center for the nearby missile base Pydna in case of anticipated (at that time) World War III.
Geography
The Gemarkung of Gossberg lies on the north of the municipality of Wüschheim and to the southwest of the border between municipalities of both Bell (southeast of Hundheim) and Hasselbach. Wüschheim is an (a municipality belonging to a — a municipality in the district of Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis) that is a part of the Verbandsgemeinde Simmern-Rheinböllen in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The Gossberg hill, being a part of the low mountain range of the central Hunsrück, is located 3km to the east from “Hunsrück Heights Road” ( — a scenic route through the Hunsrück, initially used as a strategic military road built on the orders of Hermann Göring), officially known as the federal highway B327 connecting Kappel (6km to the southwest of Gossberg), Kastellaun (6km to the north of Gossberg), and Koblenz. South of Gossberg, there is the Landesstraße L226, which connects Wüschheim with Simmern (8km to the southeast of Gossberg) and B327. The Frankfurt–Hahn Airport is 17km to the southwest of Gossberg via B327.
History
Excavations made in the 1930s in the vicinity of Gossberg revealed findings of a Roman past, in particular a villa rustica.
In general, from 1978 to 1992, the NATO's reconnaissance unit Metro Tango (MT), led by U.S. Forces, provided guidance and coordination of tactical missiles and air forces respectively. Name of the unit derives from the first letters of the "Missile Training" collocation, that indeed accurately describes the primary mission of unit's location in the municipality of Wüschheim.
Gossberg, historically being militarily and strategically important area (since 1956, was a location of a radar system of the U.S. Forces), during 19841989 was excavated 30m deep in order to accommodate the subsequently constructed NBC (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical) bunker to be operated by the MT unit, which was already stationed about 4km southwest of Gossberg in the direction of Kappel on the federal highway B327. Responsibilities of the MT unit at Gossberg included the signals intelligence (SIGINT), the communications security (COMSEC), the radar, the determination of targets, the air defense, and most prominently the control of ready-to-fire launch facilities for cruise missiles carrying nuclear warheads (and their corresponding guidance) located at the nearby (approximately 3km north of the bunker) missile base Pydna (known under the code name of the ) between Bell and Hasselbach.
Hahn Air Base, today known as the international airport, Frankfurt–Hahn, participated in preparations for deployment of BGM-109G Ground Launched Cruise Missile (GCLM) units from 1982 to 1985, as well as their maintenance by the reactivated (on 1 April 1985) 38th Tactical Missile Wing (TMW) at Pydna from 1985 to 1990.
At the beginning of the 1990s, the facility was given up on the basis of the overall relaxation of geopolitical tensions between the Eastern Bloc and the Western Bloc (see Cold War), globally recognized decrease in the probability of the nuclear warfare threat, and the associated disarmament. As a result, the bunker was never put into operation.
As of 2017, the Gossberg bunker is available for sale and rent at negotiable price.
The Bunker
Construction Cost
The total construction costs approximately amount to up to the end of construction in 1992.
Construction Data
The bunker has two nested shield hulls, the inner and the outer, each produced out of reinforced concrete. The thickness of the inner shield hull is 0.80m, while of the outer one is double of the former. Both shield hulls are separated by hollow space with a width of 2.00m, which serves three major purposes: provide two escape routes to the corresponding emergency exits; ventilation of interior spaces; in case of an actual (nuclear) rocket strike, the outer shield hull would (potentially) collapse into that hollow space (potentially) damaging the inner shield hull but leaving the interior structure bed intact (the same principle as spaced armor).