Panic rooms and private bunkers are all the rage in Germany

KI am Kardashian Americans spotted the trend early, true to form. In 2021, the American reality star and her sister Khloé went bunker shopping. They tested out a $200,000 shelter built by a company called Atlas Survival Shelters, which offers 500 square feet (46 square meters) of safe space. Mark Zuckerberg, the billionaire founder of social media empire Meta, is reportedly building a less cramped 5,000-square-foot shelter beneath his ranch on a remote Hawaiian island. Now, many Europeans are taking shelter, too. And not just plutocrats.

In the days following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Bunkers Shelters Systems Germany (BSSD), a Berlin-based company, began receiving up to 1,000 calls a day from potential customers. Founded in 2014 and employing 100 people, it was the only German company making bunkers for private customers at the start of the war in Ukraine. Its founders, Mario and Katrin Piejde, quickly set up a hotline to deal with the avalanche of requests. Since then, its order book has tripled, as more and more Germans worry about the possibility of uncontrollable conflicts.