ThyssenKrupp Magazin

sources of disturbance. Even if no one uses the term “atomic bomb security” here,
Stachowiak notes that the surrounding granite and gneiss rock is highly resistant, that
there is an overflight ban applying to military jets, and that tanks must not come within
five kilometers, or about three miles. And, as this official in charge of the storage
area likes to point out, “We place great value on the top quality of our containers.”
Indeed, Klaus Kettner’s outline of the closure technology alone provides a hint
of the sort of quality standards required of containers that have to resist high pressure;
the stainless steel flanges are welded on the inside and the outside, a nut is
worked into them, and a copper ring is placed in the nut. “We used to use a rubber
ring, but that was too soft and became porous,” says Kettner. So they tested rings
made from composition rubber, but those tore and dissolved.
“Today,” adds Kettner, “we use pure copper insulation. The copper is rounded
and welded at both ends, creating a slight bulge that is calibrated. The weld seam has
to perfectly match the diameter in the original material. Only thus can we ensure total
insulation.”
In the end, everything is bolted together, and should remain sealed for several
centuries. If a container has to be opened, the ring will have to be renewed because
it is destroyed in the process. “It is a relatively complicated production process that
requires a lot of manual skill,” Kettner says.
Deep inside the mountain, there is no hint of that, only that the containers stored
here today differ from their predecessors insofar as the latter were marked by a lot of
welding seams. Their successors’ exterior intactness also applies to the interior. Sixteen
rolls, each containing 1,520 meters of microfilm, can be stored on the “pie crusts”
in a stainless steel container, effectively forever. As a sample for inspection, color
copies of archived documents have been placed on a few containers. If, far in the future,
someone wants to know more about the Peace of Venice in 1174, the title page
of the Golden Bull of King Wenceslas of 1400, the Basic Rights of the German People
according to the Empire Administrator Johann or Emperor Frederick August I’s call for
public tenders on June 27, 1694, the answers will be found in the Barbara shelter.
STEEL CONTAINERS FOR ‘THE LAND OF POETS AND THINKERS’
Which leads to the “why” question. The German Interior Ministry provides just €3 million
for this type of archiving per year, which Stachowiak, without a trace of smugness,
describes as a laughable sum for the self-styled “land of poets and thinkers.” He considers
it a duty to carefully preserve cultural goods for future generations, an effort
that needs to be thought through on a long-term basis immune from short-term mon-
TK Magazine | 1 | 2004 |
OBERRIED 109
etary concerns, specifically the German government’s
cash crunch. “For years I have tried to point out what is at
stake here, but the response from the federal and state
ministries in charge of cultural protection leaves much to
be desired,” Stachowiak says, somewhat resigned, because
the shelter is such a remarkable project: the triple
white-blue sign has been awarded just five times worldwide
– and only once in Germany.
A HERITAGE LASTING 1,000 YEARS
The notion that digital archiving technologies will render
this sort of storage area superfluous is rejected outright
by Stachowiak. Together with the Fraunhofer Institute for
physical measuring technology, the Central Office for Civil
Protection is working on transferring digital data onto analog
color film, because film lasts much longer than digital
data carriers. And, he adds, the Internet would allow for
the current usage of filmed archived material if this idea
were put into practice. The fees for electronic representation
on the Web would amortize a considerable share of
the costs of archiving in Oberried, he says.
So the Barbara shelter will be needed for a long time
yet, and demand for its services may even grow. UCON
will be happy to hear that more containers will be needed
from 2004, to accommodate the microfilming of more library
contents. The expert for the protection of cultural
heritage points out that a second storage gallery will have
to be opened up in the near future – for the sake of a future
that preserves the past: in the dark, optimally air-conditioned,
earthquake resistant, and surrounded by stainless
steel. One that will last 500 or 1,000 years, maybe
even 2,000 years or longer.
It is therefore reassuring to learn that, unlike in the
legend, there is no Barbarossa here who could leave the
underground gallery to cause mischief among the people
above. 7