Visitors Get True DDR Experience At Bunker Museum

SUHL, GERMANY - OCTOBER 17: Young visitor Jesset Kogel, 15, who is dressed as an East German NVA army soldier, checks off the names of fellow visitors assigned to bunk beds during an overnight stay in the Bunkermuseum Frauenwald on October 17, 2014 near Suhl, Germany. The bunker was built by the East German secret police (Ministry for State Security, or Ministerium fuer Staatssicherheit, also called the Stasi) in the 1970s and was one of at least 15 similar bunkers meant to serve as command and administrative centers in case of war. The bunker could house up to 130 people in its 3600 square meter facility, which had supplies for three weeks and decontamination systems against chemical attack. Today the bunker is a private museum that offers tours and overnight stays in which visitors are given the option of dressing as East German army soldiers for a more authentic experience. Germany is commemorating the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which signalled the collapse of communist East Germany (also called the DDR, or Deutsche Demokratische Republik) in 1989, in November of this year. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)