Tour Report: Linoleum Factory "Smell of Chemistry"

This place can be explored officially, and that is what we tried during our summer vacation in 2019. We didn't have a phone number, so we just drove by on the way from another location. It was a pretty long drive along winding roads through the forests of Saxony. As we arrived at the impressive building, we had high hopes of being able to explore it within a few minutes. We parked the car at the main gate, looked around and found a sign with a phone number. No one answered. We heard a phone softly ringing in one of the buildings, but it seemed like no one was around. We tried a few more times in the slim hope that maybe someone was in the bathroom and would open the gate for us shortly. This hope was dashed; no one responded to our calls.

So we set out to explore an alternative location. After about 15 minutes, my cell phone rang. It was the owner of the linoleum factory who had seen our call on the phone. He was indeed not in the restroom, but had been grocery shopping.

We asked if a tour was still possible, and after he agreed, we immediately turned around and drove back.

At the factory, we were received by his wife, who went through the formalities with us (declaration of exemption, rules of conduct, obolus, etc.). Afterward, she briefly explained to us where and how we could move around in the building, gave us the tip to definitely look at the laboratory and let us in.

Since it was already relatively late in the afternoon, we hurried to be able to look at as much as possible in sufficient light.

The place is really incredible. Large production rooms, machines, almost no graffiti or vandalism, great decay - and chemicals. I have only visited one other place in all these years that had a similar level of chemical exposure. The smell in some areas was almost unbearable, and given the age of the substances, I can imagine that they are not necessarily healthy...

But something like that has never stopped us before, so we went from area to area, room to room, looking at everything.

We did not find the laboratory.

Fortunately, we met the owner in between, and she explained where we would find it.

At the end we chatted with her a bit, and as a special surprise she allowed us to take one of the beautiful French glass bricks we were so excited about.

Despite the probably non-negligible health risks, it was a really wonderful location - lots to see, great colors, friendly owners, and a goodie at the end - what more could you ask for?

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