Nosegay

 

The Nazis called it Ostwall (East Wall) or Festungsfront Oder-Warthe-Bogen (fortified front between Oder and Wartha) and the locals called it Regenwurmlager (earthworm camp). It was an elaborate series of bunkers and interconnected tunnels intended to defend Germany from invasion by Russia or Poland. Construction started in 1932 in what used to be eastern Germany (it’s western Poland now). It was intended to be finished in 1951. When Hitler himself visited the construction site in 1935, the system of tunnels was already twenty miles long and 130 feet deep. The modern-day equivalent of $100 million was spent building the system, which included railway stations, workshops, engine rooms and barracks. But Ostwall saw little to no actual wartime use. Today, parts of the fortifications are open to visitors. But most of Ostwall has become the world’s largest man-made bat preserve, housing some 37,000 flying mammals.