Feuerstein Castle

Burg Feuerstein, on the edge of the Lange Meile near Ebermannstadt in the Forchheim district, looks at first glance like a medieval castle — by design. The ensemble was built in 1941 for physicist and entrepreneur Oskar Vierling as a camouflaged research facility for high-frequency technology and electroacoustics in service of the Nazi war effort. Up to 250 staff worked here until 1945 on weapons and communications systems, including torpedo guidance and surveillance technology. The castle-like exterior was a deliberate disguise to conceal its military purpose from aerial reconnaissance and passersby. Today the complex is a listed Bavarian monument set in the Fränkische Schweiz nature park — an unsettling piece of engineering history whose theatrical appearance only deepens the contrast with what happened inside.