In many German cities, you can find World War II air raid shelters in various designs. These buildings, which have long remained untouched, are among the forgotten and often deliberately suppressed artifacts of National Socialism. Today‘s generations have a less prejudiced perception of the air-raid shelters than those who still lived through their period of use or grew up in the post-war period.
The a result of this development is an increasingly unprejudiced perception of air-raid shelters.More and more bunkers are being acquired by private individuals. This process of reuse of the artifacts is often unreflective and thoughtless, because the necessary comprehension of the dark history of the bunkers is often not present.
In the following thesis a foundation for a comprehension of air-raid shelters of the Second World War is provided, from a historical as well as an architectural point of view.
The work is providing a background on the circumstances of the construction, the structures as well as an overview of the structural guidelines and typologies. Based on these results, possibilities for the conversion of the specific typologies are discussed. Those results are meant to be used as basic information for the conversions of Air Raid shelters and serve as guideposts in future projects.
