Germany originally had 2,000 public air-raid shelters. In 2007, the federal government decided, in agreement with the states, to give up the shelter concept and stop maintaining the shelters. In January 2025, the government told the Bundestag that 579 shelters with about 478,000 places were still formally dedicated to civil protection. None of them was functional or ready for use. The head of the Federal Office of Civil Protection, Ralph Tiesler, said there had never been shelters for more than three percent of the population. The process of giving them up was stopped in March 2022, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine began. Planning for a national shelter concept is under way.
The shelters were given up in calm times. Planning began again only when the worst case looked realistic.