CyberBunker: the full story / Netflix documentary

01 / NETFLIX · 81632983The film

Cyberbunker: The Criminal Underworld, in German Cyberbunker: Darknet in Deutschland, was made by the German production company btf and directed by Kilian Lieb and Max Rainer, produced by Stephan Arapovic and Teresa Messerschmidt. It premiered worldwide on Netflix on 8 November 2023. [2] [3] For both directors it was their first feature-length documentary. [5] It runs 1 hour 41 minutes. [7]

The film’s selling point was access. Herman Johan Xennt, the main defendant, discusses the case on camera for the first time. [2] Sven Olaf Kamphuis, CyberBunker’s long-time spokesman, also appears, [5] as do other members of the group [4] and the police officers and prosecutor who brought the case. [7] In the film, police describe how they lured Xennt and his team out of the bunker before going in. [8]

Netflix’s own synopsis calls Traben-Trarbach a “NATO bunker”. For most of its life it belonged to the Bundeswehr’s weather and geoinformation service: see the site report. [1]

02 / CONTENTWhat the film covers

According to Help Net Security’s review, the film follows Xennt from his interest in bunkers and his early computer business, through the purchase of the Dutch bunker in 1995 and the 2002 fire that revealed an MDMA lab, which Xennt says he knew nothing about, to the move to Traben-Trarbach in 2013, police surveillance from 2015, network monitoring from 2017 and the raid. [4] It mixes interviews with private footage, police material and re-enactments, and keeps technical detail to a minimum. [4] [6]

03 / LOG · CONTEXTThe story around the film

A 100-minute film has to leave things out. These are the parts of the story that this archive documents in more detail, each with its sources.

1. 1982INFO

   The bunker before CyberBunker

   Activists of Onkruit occupy the Kloetinge bunker, then a nuclear-proof war post of the Dutch provincial military command. The Kloetinge bunker →

2. 2005INFO

   “Largely photoshopped”

   CyberBunker admits that the photos on its own website were largely photoshopped or not real. Pictures of the bunker →

3. 2010–2015WARN

   The Dutch bunker changes hands

   BunkerInfra takes over the Kloetinge bunker, says CyberBunker is no longer there, opens a data centre and goes bankrupt. The BunkerInfra years →

4. Mar 2013CRIT

   Spamhaus

   A record DDoS attack on Spamhaus is linked to CyberBunker. Kamphuis is arrested in Spain and in 2016 gets 240 days, of which the part beyond the time he had already served was suspended. [13] The Spamhaus attack →

5. Dec 2021CRIT

   The verdict

   The Landgericht Trier sentences Xennt to five years and nine months for membership of a criminal organisation, and acquits all eight defendants of aiding the crimes hosted on their servers. [9]

6. 12 Sep 2023WARN

   Upheld

   Two months before the premiere, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) upholds the convictions, which are now largely final. [10]

7. 2024–2026INFO

   The bunker for sale

   The confiscation of the Traben-Trarbach bunker becomes final in March 2024. [11] In April 2026 the state of Rhineland-Palatinate had 54 interested parties but no buyer. [12] Traben-Trarbach now →

04 / REVIEWSWhat reviewers said

• The Review Geek, 6/10: “interesting but overlong”; the first half is padded, and “a sharp, concise 75 would have sufficed.” [6]
• Heaven of Horror, 3/5: the opposite complaint. Too short; so much of how the case evolved is left unsaid that it might have worked better as a three-part series. [7]
• VARAgids: “interesting premise, somewhat flawed execution”. The makers get almost everyone in front of the camera but do not press them, so the film stays on the surface. [5]
• Help Net Security: captivating and easy to follow, with a clear timeline, and suitable for a wide audience because it does not burden viewers with technical detail. [4]

FAQFrequently asked questions

REFSources

1. Netflix: Cyberbunker: The Criminal Underworld
2. Realscreen: Netflix sets true-crime doc “Cyberbunker” from Germany’s btf (24 Oct 2023)
3. Filmstarts: Cyberbunker: Darknet in Deutschland
4. Help Net Security: Review: Cyberbunker: The Criminal Underworld (16 Nov 2023)
5. VARAgids: Cyberbunker: The Criminal Underworld, interessante premisse, ietwat gemankeerde uitwerking
6. The Review Geek: An interesting but overlong Netflix documentary
7. Heaven of Horror: Cyberbunker: The Criminal Underworld (Netflix review)
8. Wikipedia: CyberBunker
9. LTO: LG Trier, Haftstrafen im Cyberbunker-Prozess (Dec 2021)
10. LTO: BGH bestätigt Verurteilungen im Cyberbunker-Verfahren (12 Sep 2023)
11. it-daily: Gericht bestätigt Rechtmäßigkeit der Einziehung von Cyberbunker (Mar 2024)
12. aktuell4u / dpa: Cyberbunker vor Verkauf, Interesse wächst weiter (Apr 2026)
13. DutchNews: Dutch hacker found guilty of 2013 cyber attack but won’t be jailed (Nov 2016)