Dienststelle Marienthal (SIGNED, edt of 150)

Andreas Magdanz
Dienststelle Marienthal (SIGNED, edt of 150)

Photographs: Andreas Magdanz

Text: Christoph Schaden

Publisher: Self-published

160 pages

Pictures: 96

Year: 2000

Comments: Hardcover with dustjacket, in a box. First edition of 150 signed copies. It comes with the ashtray of the edition of 75 (see pictures). Inside very good condition, edgewear and a little warp on the dust jacket and the box shows traces of use and is a little crushed. Text in English and in German. Included in The Photobook by Parr & Badger, vol.2, p. 282/283. The book stamped and signed by Andreas Magdanz.

The Dienstelle Marienthal (or Marienthal Office) is among the most ambitious but least-known monuments to "thinking the unthinkable" ever conceived. This vast underground tunnel complex, built from 1960 to 1972 outside Bonn, was once so secret that to acknowledge its existence could bring charges of treason in West Germany. Designed to house 3,000 of that government's essential personnel in case of nuclear attack, it represented one of the most exclusive fraternities in the world... [Magdanz] was the first person authorized to photograph there... With a precise and clinical eye, Mr. Magdanz shows the 25-ton doors, the miles of cable and the air ducts that connected the underground denizens, through a series of filters, with the upper atmosphere. The décor is spare, the furniture uniformly modern. There are no gymnasiums or libraries. Fluorescent light and gray airlessness are pervasive.