Because of a 250-kilogram World War II bomb in Sinzheim near Baden-Baden, the A5 motorway will be fully closed on Thursday evening between the Bühl and Baden-Baden junctions – from about 19:30. The Rastatt district office announced this, as reported by SWR and the German Press Agency, among others. Motorists were asked to make a wide detour around the area.
An excavator driver had discovered the explosive device on Thursday morning during construction work between the Sandbach and the A5, near a shared sewage treatment plant. The bomb disposal service plans to defuse it in the evening at around 20:00. For this, people within a one-kilometre radius of the find site must leave their houses and flats. How many people are affected initially remained unclear.
The authorities are on site and are informing the affected residents about the evacuation. The Bürgersaal in the Sinzheim municipal town hall serves as a meeting point for evacuees. Further information on the course of the evacuation and the duration of the closure is to follow on the Rastatt district’s website and its social media channels.
Unexploded bombs are no rarity in the south-west
The find is not an isolated case in the region. At the end of August, a likewise 250-kilogram World War II bomb was discovered in Karlsruhe and defused the same evening; rail traffic was temporarily suspended, SWR reported.
In mid-May, a 1.8-tonne World War II bomb in Pforzheim had caused larger evacuations, with up to 30,000 people affected. The Baden-Württemberg bomb disposal service made safe 19 unexploded bombs weighing at least 50 kilograms each last year; in 2024 there were 13. 17 were defused and 2 were deliberately detonated in a controlled manner, according to a statement by the Stuttgart regional council. In 930 operations (2024: 811), the specialists collected around 18.8 tonnes of explosive ordnance and ammunition (2024: 16.6 tonnes), found on construction sites, private properties or in open countryside.
100,000 tonnes of dropped munitions in Baden-Württemberg alone
The dimensions behind this are enormous: around 1.35 million tonnes of munitions were dropped on the territory of the then German Reich during the Second World War. “Baden-Württemberg alone accounted for around 100,000 tonnes of dropped munitions,” dpa quotes the regional council as saying. Of this, about 10 to 15 per cent did not explode. Therefore many unexploded bombs are still suspected in soils and bodies of water.
How the authorities deal with a find depends on the location and the condition of the World War II relic: sometimes they act immediately, sometimes several days pass between discovery and evacuation, during which the clearance is prepared. In Sinzheim there is no time for this – the bomb is to be defused that same evening.
Editor’s note: For motorists on the A5 and commuters in the region, the evening means a short-notice but wide-ranging diversion; anyone travelling between Bühl and Baden-Baden should postpone the journey or make a generous detour. Whether the closure will last beyond the evening is open – the Rastatt district office intends to provide information on its channels.
