February 14, 2022

Tour Report: Sanatorium "Bauhaus"

We had tried to visit this place once before. In Summer of 2014, we drove up the mountain to explore a beautiful abandoned sanatorium that was built in the late 1920s and designed in the style of "Neues Bauen" (Bauhaus).

At the time, however, we met some people on the premises that told us that they were the owners and that we were not welcome there. At the time, ownership of the place wasn't really clear - personally I think that it was "between two owners", so to speak. And I do think that the people we met were in fact copper thieves. So this was our first try at exploring this building.

Before we drove up to the Harz mountains in November of 2018 to visit our friend Jens, I contacted the new owners to see if it was possible for us to take a few photos. It didn't take long, and we got the answer that it was in fact possible and that we should contact them again to set up the time.

We did as we had been told and were greeted friendly upon our arrival. The place is now operated by a group of people with the goal to set up a community on a cooperative basis that combines housing, working and living together. They are living inside the old buildings and are renovating them bit by bit to slow down the decay of the past 20 years.

First, we were told which areas are off limits because they are used as living quarters for the inhabitants or because they might be too dangerous to explore. Then we got a very detailed history about the place by a young man who lived in the community and happened to be an art history major at the university - perfect for showing us through this architectural gem!

Towards the end of the first walkthrough, we were told that we could roam freely from then on and explore on our own - with the exception of the mentioned areas, of course. There was no fixed price for the exploration and the tour, so we gave a little something for the community. It may have been a little more than they'd expected (we thought it was more than adequate for the tour we got and the time they took for us), because they then unlocked another building - which is usually off limits because the community uses it to store their tools - and said that we were allowed to explore this one as well.

So we took a few more hours to explore the place. We checked out every room that we found and managed to get quite a few nice shots.

If you are interested to visit this place, contact the community on their website Freie Feldlage.




To find out about the history of this place and to check out all the photos, click the button below.



















































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