Gaugefechtsstand Wien The Gaugefechtsstand Wien ( regional combat command center Vienna ) was a World War II subterranean command bunker situated in the densely forested Wienerwald western parts of Ottakring , the 16th district of Vienna . Commonly known as the " Schirach - Bunker " ( named after the Nazi governor for the Reichsgau Wien , Baldur von Schirach ) , the facilities were constructed between 1942 and 1945 as a massive underground extension to barracks that had been established in 1940 . Function and layout . The primary function of the Gaugefechtsstand Wien was to provide strategic air raid warning and air defence coordination for Vienna ( which was defended by three Flak tower s ) and to assist air defence in the entire south - eastern region of the Third Reich . The Drahtfunk ( a power line communication system similar to the to Norwegian Linjesender ) was used to broadcast air raid warnings . From the main entrance at the top of the Gallitzinberg hill , a blast - proofed staircase descended 25 meters to the main tunnel ( profile , 2 x 2 meters ) which ran for about 100 meters horizontally to the north , ending in a secondary entrance where a small power plant was situated . Another tunnel diverged eastward towards the 17 x 5 meter actual bunker core . On its upper level were the communications facilities , with landlines to all civil emergency services , the Führer Headquarters , the Oberkommando der Luftwaffe and even the Kriegsmarine . On the lower level were the command center , a meeting room and Schirach ' s personal facilities . The tunnel system had a total length of 340 meters . A tripartite security zone system controlled access to the installation . The Gaugefechtsstand Wien was evacuated , and its entrances were destroyed by explosives , on April 4 , 1945 as the advancing Red Army shock troops took Hütteldorf , a suburb of Vienna situated 2 . 5 km southward of the command center . Post - war period . After the war , rumors and theories about the bunker abounded because the area had been under highly effective quarantine . Popular but unsupported folklore included tales of secret weapon caches , loot hidden by the fleeing Nazis , and a tunnel to Schirach ' s private residence . Most of the remaining groundside structures were razed in 1983 , apparently to end the repeated clandestine attempts to explore the remains of the bunker . By 2009 only some remnants of the northern exit remain , as well as three concrete shelters for the guards and five remote entrances to the drainage system which might not connect directly to the actual bunker . Fragments of an ancillary sentry ( or according to others , gasoline storage ) bunker in the former outer security zone , now mostly buried in the forest loam , can be found close to the nearby road . In 2003 an Austrian government commission briefly opened and entered parts of the former Gaugefechtsstand , avoiding publicity and without directly reporting results of the investigations . Subsequently a Viennese journalist published a book which included sketches and statements by two women who had served at the communications center during the war . His suggestion to excavate the bunker was dismissed . In 2007 the historical communications journal of the city of Vienna published a review article on the construction of the bunker .