Hanna Mattes. Naked Janitor

Naked Janitor portrays the caretaker of a former GDR nuclear bunker and the 450 acres of forest that sit above it.

Built in secret, the bunker was disguised as a weather station. It is three floors deep, covering 63 x 40 metres with 3 metre thick walls and a 7 metre thick reinforced-concrete roof. The steel and concrete structure rests on giant shock absorbers and could host up to 455 people. It was equipped with air and water filtration systems, a nuclear decontamination station, and had food and supplies to last for one month. It was intended to quarter the entire Polit-Bureau, the Chief of Staff of the military defense forces, and the security apparatus of the GDR. Fortunately, it was never used.

The site itself is 2 square kilometres of mixed forest and it contains a handful of small buildings and one large ‘Staff Building’. The smaller structures each hide an external part of the bunker’s systems: air vents and intakes, exhaust from the generators, plus two main entrance stairs and an escape ladder. The larger building has two storeys and was added later than the rest of the construction. It held several offices and conference rooms that were never intended to be used. The forest is home to many birds and wild animals including eagles, owls, woodpeckers, boar, red deer, foxes, and wolves. The grounds are teeming with insect life; berries and mushrooms litter the forest floor.

My friend Olly was hired as a caretaker in the spring of 2023. He is the first constant inhabitant that the bunker and all its above-ground buildings and forest have ever seen. He allowed me to photograph him in his new surroundings and contributes to this publication as a writer.