Government
World War II Bombs Still Pose a Threat to German Cities
More than 70 years after the war ended, unexploded bombs are being unearthed with remarkable regularity—in part because of a nationwide building boom.
It’s been 74 years since World War II ended, but the bombs that fell on German cities decades ago still pose dangers today at a surprising rate.
Barely a week goes by without news of an unexploded World War II bomb, shell, or grenade, being discovered and defused by Germany’s bomb disposal experts. Last month, there were even more than usual, with at least 19 bomb alerts across the country, in the cities of Cologne, Berlin, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Augsburg, Dortmund, Essen, Münster, Halle, Rheinberg, Bochum, Potsdam, Freiburg im Breisgau, Xanten, Erfurt, and Gelsenkirchen, as well as in the countryside near Berlin and near Bremen, and, alarmingly for drivers, close to the Autobahn near Nuremberg.