It's pretty cold for a trip to the Frankfurt City Forest.

It's five degrees, the sun just came up a few minutes ago.

But the Lattemann couple came up with this plan anyway – because the two of them have to leave their home indefinitely by 9 a.m. this Wednesday.

Eight hours later, the fire brigade will announce that everything went well: the 500 kilogram, 1.40 meter long World War II bomb with a diameter of 35 centimeters, which was found during construction work in Bockenheim, could be defused.

But in the morning there is tension in the air: 20,000 residents have to get to safety.

Kim Maurus

volunteer.

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For all those who cannot go to friends or relatives, the city has made the ball sports hall in Unterliederbach available, a total of 300 people will be accommodated there this Wednesday.

That's out of the question for the Lattemanns: "No mass accommodation, I don't want that in the Corona period," says Manfred Lattemann.

The couple are evacuation-tested, several times in the past few years they had to leave their apartment because of a bomb disposal.

"It's just like that, what should you do?" says Karin Lattemann.

"We've lived here for 55 years."

"I have plan B with me"

The police have set up a restricted zone with a radius of one kilometer around the site near the Katharinenkreisel.

This also affects the A 648, which will be closed towards the city center from the Westkreuz, and local public transport in the evacuation area.

People are crowding at the Leonardo-da-Vinci-Allee tram stop this morning, many of them carrying or pulling luggage.

"I go to work," says one woman.

"But I've got a plan B." She points to an extra bag.

According to hotel director Andreas Kriener, the street is busier than usual. His Best Western hotel is at the bus stop, just a few meters from where the bomb was found.

Guests must vacate their rooms by 8:30 a.m.

Nobody showed any incomprehension, says hotel employee Manuela Tammen.

"Some were a bit nervous."

There is also a nursing home in the restricted area, the residents of which have to be brought to safety.

As the head of the facility, Hans-Hermann Rieck, says, the people are quartered in a former hotel that the Johanniter converted in a "night and fog operation".

A total of more than 200 people live in the home, about 40 have been accommodated privately.

15 residents have to be brought to the hotel lying down, the others are driven in buses.

The mood in the house before the evacuation is reminiscent of a "class trip," says Rieck.

"It's good, it's solved." Beforehand, people had talked a lot about the situation.

There are also emergency chaplains in the hotel: "Some people have memories of the war." Altogether, aid organizations and the fire brigade brought more than 280 people with restricted mobility to safety on this day.

600 emergency services from several counties are involved in the evacuation.

Aysen Hartings, who is waiting for the tram at the tram stop, is also upset by the bomb find.

"After so many years, we are suffering from the consequences of this war," says the elderly woman.

"It doesn't matter which religion, which country: God gave us the world, but no borders.

Who has the right to kill people because of borders?

No one!

Anyone who takes this right does not have all the cups in the cupboard.”

Until the afternoon it remains unclear how and when the bomb will be rendered harmless.

The fire brigade provided large quantities of water and sand for a possible explosion.

"You want the splinters to fly as little as possible," explains a spokesman for the fire brigade.

The explosive ordnance clearance service first has to remove the dirt from one of the two detonators of the bomb with a special machine - this can only be done once the area has been completely evacuated.

But the transports of several nursing patients from private apartments hold up the diffusers, they were not registered.

According to the fire brigade, some people are also refusing to leave the restricted area.

A police helicopter is also used to find the last remaining ones.

The second detonator was the problem

The bomb disposal team can only start work around 2:15 p.m., more than two hours later than planned.

Around 4 p.m. it is clear: the bomb will be defused.

"A detonator was removed from the bomb," says a fire department spokesman.

"It's like a small explosive device that has to be destroyed." A few minutes later, the fire department reported on Twitter: "We have good news!

Defusing was successful.

The closures will be lifted shortly.”

The man responsible for the bomb disposal does not describe his team's approach quite so easily.

It is now early evening, Alexander Majunke is standing in the parking lot of the stadium at Brentanobad and has had a long day.

"Everything went according to our ideas," he sums up.

The problem was the bomb's second detonator, the rear detonator.

In contrast to the head detonator, he was only able to know exactly which detonator it was after he had cleaned it of the dirt.

Plan A was to defuse the detonator by hand from the start, but Plan B was to detonate it, depending on the type of second detonator.

After the identification, the actual defusing followed: "The basic idea was to remove the detonator in order to avoid the blast."

After removal, he had to render the two detonators harmless on the spot because they could not be transported.

Did he worry in the meantime that something might not work out?

"That's an ugly question," says Majunke and laughs.

He doesn't want to say more about it.