Tour Report: Villa "Kidney"

About a month after our summer vacation in 2020, it was time for another exploration tour. The plan sounded perfect: the evening before, we met up with our friends from Pixelcracker and Lost Places in Schleswig-Holstein und Umland at our place and enjoyed a great barbecue together.

Unfortunately, the evening ended with a small accident. My wife seriously injured her right foot, tearing the ligaments and breaking her tailbone. As a result, only the three of us were able to set off the next morning.

Still, the tour promised to be an exciting one. Our chosen location was already well known and quite overrun at the time, but it was also famous for offering many fascinating and beautiful photo opportunities: a huge villa that had been built in the late 1970s and early 1980s as a dialysis clinic, combined with the private living quarters of the doctor.

After the doctor passed away, the clinic continued to operate under a successor until 2009. Since then, the entire complex had been left abandoned.

We started early, as we were planning to meet another friend on site. She wanted to explore the clinic as well, accompanied by a former employee — which was especially interesting, as it often means you can pick up additional background stories and details about the place.

After roughly two and a half hours on the road, we arrived in Boye and parked in a nearby residential area. There we met Andrea and her companion, and just a few minutes later we entered the property.

We quickly found an open door and stepped inside the villa. It became obvious almost immediately that we weren’t alone. At least two other groups were already inside, wandering around and taking photos.

So even early in the morning, the place was surprisingly busy. We decided to move quickly, knowing that the infamous “urbex bus” could arrive at any moment.

The villa itself absolutely blew me away. Even the large entrance gate to the property had a thatched roof. There was a garage with a car lift, high-end furniture throughout the building, partly gold-plated fittings, fabric-covered walls, and parquet floors that must once have shone like a mirror. The swimming pool was designed like a jungle grotto — an almost surreal touch of luxury.

Sadly, vandals had already done significant damage. Valuable items had been stolen, and the walls were covered with poorly executed graffiti.

While we were taking our photos, even more people arrived and started roaming through the house. We hurried even more, and when we heard someone flying a drone over the property, we decided it was time to leave. At that point, there were around 20 other people inside the building — not all of them behaving responsibly. There was shouting, smoking, and littering, all things we deliberately avoid on our tours. For us, respect for these places is essential.

With so much illegal activity in a high-end residential neighborhood, there was also a real risk of neighbors calling the police — something that had reportedly happened there more than once.

So we left the site, leaving the “amateurs” and “idiots” behind, and headed off to our next location.

Looking back, it’s a shame that the place was so crowded that we couldn’t explore it in peace. But I’m still glad we went. Just a year and a half later, the villa was completely demolished.

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

Tour Report: Soviet Airfield S.

As the final stop of our summer trip in 2020, my wife and I decided to return to the former Soviet airfield S., about four years after our first visit.

Back then, time had been short. We had only managed to explore the hangars and a few surrounding buildings. This time, we wanted to take things a bit slower and use the opportunity to explore more of the former garrison area.

The surroundings of the airfield had changed noticeably in the years since our last visit. A busy commercial zone had developed nearby, full of movement and everyday activity. Yet our old parking spot was still there — the same one we had used four years earlier, right next to the narrow footpath leading onto the airfield grounds. There was still no fence, no gate, nothing to suggest that access had changed. Reports from other photographers supported this impression, so we made our way in calmly and without haste.

We consciously skipped the buildings we already knew from our first visit in order to focus on new areas. It was another extremely hot midsummer day, and anyone familiar with former Soviet garrisons knows how vast these places can be. The distances between buildings are long, the paths exposed. Having at least a rough plan felt important — even if it was clear that we would inevitably deviate from it. After all, abandoned places have a habit of pulling you in unexpected directions.

Our exploration began in the large dining hall and the adjoining kitchen. From there, we moved on to the sports hall, discovered a small theater, and eventually stood in front of the well-known mural of Plotbot Ken. In another building, we unexpectedly came across yet another small theater, complete with stage and rows of seating — one of those quiet finds that make places like this so compelling.

We then spent some time wandering through the outdoor areas. Even in the height of summer, the grounds carried a distinct, almost post-apocalyptic atmosphere that we wanted to capture in our photographs.

Throughout the entire visit, we were completely alone. No other explorers, no workers, no passersby. In the oppressive midday heat, even birds and insects seemed to fall silent. The stillness gave the place a strangely suspended feeling, as if time itself had slowed down.

With a long walk still ahead of us, we eventually had to leave some areas unexplored. Even so, it turned into a deeply atmospheric and rewarding tour through this vast and fascinating site.

According to my information, the airfield was declared an official redevelopment area in February of this year, and initial steps toward preparing the site have already begun. A provider of lost-place photo tours removed the airfield from its program in March, which suggests that change is imminent. Looking back, our visit in the summer of 2020 was most likely our last chance to experience this place in its abandoned state.

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

Tour Report: Soviet Communications Base L.

After exploring the Stasi bunker earlier that day, we set out to investigate another Cold War relic. We had suggested this location to our friend Jürgen, who simply replied, “I didn’t even know there was a bunker out there – why do the folks from Kiel have to show up before we find these things?”

So this was uncharted territory for all of us.

Our destination was a communications bunker built in the 1960s by the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany. It’s tucked away on the edge of a vast forest in Brandenburg, an area that once served as a major military training ground.

Because of the remote setting, finding a discreet place to park was already a challenge. Eventually we found a spot, though uncomfortably close to a small residential settlement. We suspected we might draw some attention - and at least one very loud guard dog certainly noticed us. Its barking echoed across the entire area as we stepped out of the car. We hurried into the woods, hoping to avoid further notice.

With temperatures above 35°C, the walk quickly turned into a minor endurance test - especially since we always wear long pants and sometimes even jackets, even in midsummer, to protect ourselves from thorns, ticks, and anything else a forest might throw at us.

Our GPS guided us reliably through the forest, though the route itself was anything but straight. We weaved our way forward in loose zigzags until we finally reached the first structures of the former facility.

We started at the above-ground buildings: the guardhouse, the staff building, and the heating plant. Despite heavy vandalism, plenty of traces of the Soviet era were still visible - wall paintings, maps, even pieces of clothing and old boots scattered around.

But our main goal was the communications bunker. Since we didn’t know its exact position within the site, we had to search for a bit. Eventually we found the structure, including its entrances - one of which was open.

The bunker’s interior was in poor shape. Cable thieves and vandals had clearly been busy over the years. It wasn’t a pretty sight, although a few control panels and massive cable conduits still gave hints of the bunker’s original purpose.

Nevertheless, we had achieved our primary mission: we had found the bunker.

We wanted to locate the remaining parts of the complex as well: a small USB-type bunker, the emergency power bunker, and the two switching cauldrons rumored to be somewhere on the grounds. So we continued the search.

Suddenly, a white van drove onto the site! Our immediate impression was that the driver was looking for us, especially when the vehicle suddenly accelerated. That was our cue to leave - quickly. Not only was the terrain fenced off, but we were also trespassing in a forest area under the highest wildfire alert level. Both a potential security patrol and the forestry authority would have had good reason to question what we were doing there.

So we made a tactical retreat - straight back to the cars and out of there!

This way, the second part of our trip ended sooner than planned, and by the time we reached the vehicles, we were drenched in sweat from sprinting through the sweltering forest.

Still, it was an incredible day—two fascinating locations and the best company one could ask for!

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