Tour Report: Gunpowder Factory "Sands of War"

Just two days after our discovery of the World War II execution site, we were already on our next excursion. Once again, the CoViD rules meant that only one tour was possible within the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein. The weather was cloudy, but at least no rain was forecast, so we made our way to the “Besenhorster Sandbergen”, a nature reserve about 120 kilometers away, which is characterized by its dry, calcareous sandy grassland, its dunes and silver grass meadows as well as its old oak forests. 

Of course, we didn't just want to go there because of the beautiful nature, but there are also a few things to see there that will make your Urbex heart beat a little faster. There are numerous ruins of the former Düneberg powder factory on the grounds of the nature reserve.

Parts of the powder factory were built there as early as 1876. From 1935 to the beginning of April 1945, raw powder from the Krümmel dynamite factory was processed here into various types of powder and ballistically tested.

After the Second World War, production and storage buildings were blown up. The ruins are overgrown by the pine forest of the Besenhorster Sandberge and Elbsandwiesen, but are still partly visible and accessible.

As this is a local recreation area open to the public, we didn't have to search long for an unsuspicious parking space and were able to set off straight away. We took our time and walked around the large area almost in its entirety. Spring had bathed the area in a wonderful green, and the ruins blended into the landscape like remnants of a bygone era.

Contrary to our assumption, there were a few drops of rain while we were out and about - but we didn't let that bother us and took a short break in the former workshop building of the powder factory.

After a good three hours, we had finished our tour, walked along the Elbe for a short while and then made our way home.

Even though it's not an “exciting” location with spectacular motifs, I really enjoyed this excursion because I find the combination of ruins and nature really appealing and beautiful.

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

Tour Report: Shooting Range "Swamp of the Dead"

At the beginning of May 2020, we received a tip from a friend that there were “a few abandoned brick buildings somewhere on the moor”. She had found them on a walk. Well okay. So we had a quick look on Google Maps, and lo and behold - there were actually a few walls in a swampy wooded area. As we couldn't make out exactly what they were, we set off to have a look around. We only had to drive for about half an hour to get close to the location. As there is an allotment site opposite the forest, we parked a little further away and set off. When we arrived at the woodland, we could immediately see a massive brick wall. The fence separating the site from the road had been kicked down so far that it was almost non-existent, so we had little hesitation in looking around further.

The brick wall was just that - just a wall. A very thick brick wall. There was a passage to the other side, and from there it was immediately clear what it was: a military firing range. The wall was the bullet trap, and behind it the earth walls of the range were clearly visible. The fact that the bullet trap was made of bricks and not concrete indicated that the firing range had not been built during the Second World War, but probably in Prussian times.

However, a concrete wall next to the old shooting range indicated that it had been extended and also used during the Third Reich.

We did not inspect the concrete wall more closely as it marks the boundary to the neighboring property, from which some chickens had already escaped into the area of the shooting range during our visit and we feared that the owner would catch us trying to collect them again.

The brick walls, however, were very interesting in themselves. They were quite damaged from the shelling (and presumably 80 years of weathering) but made for an interesting sight.

More on a silly whim, I said I'd see if I could find anything else, bent down and dug around in the rubble - and after less than 30 seconds found a piece of stone with a bullet embedded in it!

Unfortunately, the lanes themselves were very boggy - the whole area is a bog, and the weather in the weeks before had been very wet, so the whole place was more than just muddy.

As we made our way back to the car at the end of our exploration, we saw that there was a man working on the neighboring property. The appearance of both the man and the property indicated a certain hermit, prepper and self-sufficient mentality - a combination that is not necessarily conducive to communication after illegal trespassing.

We tried anyway, introduced ourselves nicely and asked if he could tell us anything about the property next door. When he said that it was his property, we apologized for trespassing and told him about the broken fence. He said that teenagers destroyed that fence so often that he doesn't even want to fix it anymore. He seemed to be okay with us trespassing on the old shooting range, but "complained" a bit that we hadn't brought the escaped chickes with us.

Then he told us something that sent a chill down our spine:

The shooting range wasn't just a shooting range - during World War II, it had also been an execution site, where forced laborers, deserters and other delinquents were executed. Often the bodies of the victims were not even taken away, but simply buried in the earth walls of the range. Apparently, these bodies have never been removed. For this reason, he said, these walls are listed as historical monuments. He also spoke of a memorial stone that apparently has sunk into the bog over the years.

He then mentioned that there should be a sort of bunker on the premises that he hadn't discovered yet.

We can't say if anything of what he said is true - but fact is that we couldn't find any information regarding the old shooting range. Public information is often withheld to keep the "wrong people" away - and possibly in this case to keep them from literally digging up the bones from the past.

In any case, we had an interesting talk with the guy - of course not without the tirade against the current government that is quite common in these circles. A price that we had expected to pay when we started the conversation.

To check out all photos from this place, click the button below.

Tour Report: Ammunition Factory K.

After leaving the aqua park, we made our way to our friends at the "Huskyhof", where we wanted to spend the last few days of our November 2019 vacation. On the way, we took a small detour to scout out a place we'd been eyeing for a trip for a while.

It is a large ammunition factory that was built in the 1930s, initially to produce ammunition for large-caliber guns. It later began producing chemical weapons in the form of grenades and aerial bombs. After the end of the war, part of the site continued to be used for the production of armaments such as hand grenades, fuses and landmines, including the PPM-2 infantry mine and the SM-70 automatic firing system.

Another part of the site was later used by the Red Army as a garrison base.

It was already early afternoon when we arrived, so we only had time for a short exploration tour. We found a parking spot right next to the road that bordered the site.  There is an industrial area on the other side, so another car didn't really stand out. To our surprise, access to the site was not sealed off - the only sign we saw told us not to dump any garbage. But that wasn't our plan...

We had to climb over a few tree trunks that had fallen onto the paths, then we reached the first buildings relatively quickly.

We had no idea what to expect, so we were all the more surprised at what we found.

Most of the buildings we found were from the time of the war - recognizable by the large windows, which ensured that the detonation energy was dissipated to the outside in the event of an explosion - and only windows and personnel had to be replaced, but the building itself suffered as little damage as possible.

Ammunition factories built in this way remind me again and again of the cruelty and inhumanity of war, and not just on the battlefield.

The part of the site we were looking at belonged to the area that continued to be used for the production of ammunition during the Cold War. One building in particular caught the eye. A meter-high concrete wall had been built on each side at a relatively short distance, again to protect the surrounding area from the effects of an unplanned explosion.

These huge, smooth walls are obviously an invitation to graffiti artists, as they were full of paintings - and some of them were really beautiful! The huge whale in particular really inspired us - for me one of the most beautiful works of art we have ever discovered in an abandoned place.

As it was getting late, we still had a good hour's drive ahead of us and were expected for dinner, we decided to cut our visit short but come back the next day.

This visit should also be very exciting and bring some unexpected surprises..., so stay tuned!

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

Tour Report: Army Test Center for Motor Transport

On the third day of our November vacation in 2019, we slowly made our way south. On the way, we stopped at a former military facility whose history dates back to the 1870s, when the German Empire set up an artillery firing range there.

The Wehrmacht operated a development and testing center for new weapons systems and equipment on the site until 1945. From 1939, work was also carried out on the so-called “uranium project”.

We hadn't really looked into the size and layout of the site beforehand, so we approached the whole thing somewhat naively - but in the end it was reasonably successful and we were able to take away a few fascinating impressions.

The site is huge, divided by a country road and secured with fences all around. Signs assured us that the area is regularly patrolled by a security guard. So we looked for a parking space that was far enough away - even though our license plate clearly did not identify us as local residents, which is always suspicious in such areas.

From this parking lot, we set off on foot, first along normal forest paths and then along the fence until we found an opening that gave us access to the southern part of the site. Both my wife and I had an uncanny feeling the whole time - be it because of the foggy, gray weather or the long dark history of the place. We did not feel at ease. The path through the forest was rough, and we had to keep taking detours due to trenches and the ruins of buildings, but eventually we reached our destination - the test hall for the “Panzerkampfwagen VIII Maus”. It was an impressive sight, although it was by no means the largest building - the massive concrete skeleton with the vaulted roof is an imposing structure.

We didn't miss the opportunity to climb all the way to the top of the stairs. It wasn't a good feeling, because although the concrete is steel-reinforced, it is still quite crumbly after almost 80 years.

However, the view from the top made up for the discomfort on the way.

After the descent, we set about exploring other buildings in the vicinity.

After the war, the site was used by the Soviet army and we found some interesting relics - from murals in the sports hall to propaganda posters and Cyrillic graffiti. We even found a plaster bust of Lenin, which was no longer really recognizable as such.

When we looked out of the window on one of the upper floors, we saw that a security vehicle had driven up. For now, we stayed calm and continued to take our photos. But when the driver opened the gate and drove onto the grounds, we took to our heels and disappeared along the forest path that we had used as an entrance.

The humorous finale to our excursion came when we reached our car. Behind our car was a speed camera - safely hidden and unsuspicious by our foreign license plate. In the 5 minutes it took us to stow our things, he caught several cars - it was certainly a successful day for the officer. At least until we drove off, because we could see in the rear-view mirror that he left the scene shortly after us.

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

Tour Report: VLF Communications Bunker

The abandoned Nuclear Weapons Depot had been a really great start for our New Year's Tour last year. The weather was perfect, and we had one more open-air location planned before visiting another cold war facility and then heading home.

The second location we had on our list was a fortified VLF communications hub that had been built during World War II for communicating with the submarines in the Atlantic. The hub would have consisted of three antennas on massive fortified substructures. Only one of those substructures had been completed when the construction of the facility was no longer deemed necessary in 1941.

With the exception of the many graffiti, the bunker has not been altered since construction stopped almost 80 years ago.

Accessing the place was easy - there was a hole in one of the entrances that had been walled up at some point in the past.

The shape of the building along with the colors of moss and graffiti and the sunlight made this place fascinating, but also kind of surreal to explore.

It was a nice and easy location from a bad time in history, and I'm glad that we took the time to check it out.

To find out more about the history of this relic from the Cold War and to check out all the photos, click the button below.