Tour Report: Socialist Summer Camp "Lost Village"

Our 2020 New Year's tour took us to an abandoned village. Well, not a “real” village in that sense, but an abandoned pioneer camp of the former GDR.
We had already driven past it several times on our excursions, but never had the time to take a closer look - this time it was actually on our list.
We found an official parking lot not too far away and went straight to the large main gate. There was a small gate next to it. It was open, so we walked in at our leisure.
It was a really nice day. The winter sun was low, even though it was only 2pm, so we had some really nice light in places.
Of course, the buildings were mostly empty, and the vandals and local teenagers have had a "proper rampage" over the years.

The grounds were originally much larger - there was room for around 600 children. Nevertheless, we were able to get a good idea of what it once looked like here.

We explored the remaining huts and rooms and enjoyed the cool weather.

After a long New Year's Eve, the fresh air really did us good!

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

Tour Report: WWII Maintenance Bunker [Revisit]

The last location we visited in 2019 was the remains of a bunker from the Second World War. We had already visited it a little over two years earlier, but as we were in the area anyway and didn't have too much time before the New Year's Eve party, we made a quick stop here. In fact, we walked through the forest beforehand to take a quick look at the airfield's former nuclear weapons depot. This is used by the munitions clearance service and is therefore not open to the public. We were aware of this, but wanted to have a look at least once anyway.

So back to the World War II bunker.

During the war, it was probably used as a maintenance hall for the Rechlin test site. It was blown up after the war; only the side walls remained standing. Due to the blasting, you can see the dimensions of the facility very clearly. The floor plan is rectangular with an area of approximately 1,200 square meters with wall and ceiling thicknesses of three to four meters. A huge building!

The ceiling collapsed downwards into the building as a result of the blast, so that not one stone inside is left standing on another. Over the decades, stalactites have formed on the concrete, some of which decorate the protruding steel reinforcements.

On the walls, you can still clearly see the graffiti of the Soviet soldiers who served in the Lärz airfield's radio transmitter station, which was set up on the site in an AU-13 arched shelter around 1980.

We climbed around a bit in the ruins of the bunker and took our photos. There's not much to see apart from the bunker, and the Soviet broadcasting station doesn't offer any special motifs either, as it is used by local farmers as a hay store.

So we enjoyed the sunny weather for a while and then made our way out - after all, there was a party waiting for us :)

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

Tour Report: Soviet Ammunitions Depot R.

It was our last tour of 2019 and we had made our way to Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania with a friend to celebrate New Year's Eve at a good friend's house.
On the way, we made a short stopover to see another Soviet relic near the Lärz airfield.

Over the years we had already explored not only the airfield itself but also the bunker of the fighter control center and the command post of the 125th Fighter Bomber Division as well as the local Soviet garrison.
The object of this tour was the airfield's ammunition depot. Many Soviet airfields had two separate depots for ammunition. One depot was used to store conventional ammunition, while some airfields also had an area for storing nuclear ammunition.
In the case of Lärz airfield, the storage bunker for nuclear bombs is used by a branch of the munitions recovery service.
This bunker is located directly on the border of the airport grounds.
The ammunition depot for conventional ammunition is located a good distance north of the airfield and approx. 1.6 kilometers east of the former Soviet garrison.
On satellite images and maps, it looked as if the area was openly accessible, and so it was. We were able to park directly on the road and walked the rest of the way. We could see from the vehicle tracks that the area was probably being used as a storage site by the forestry authority.

That's why there wasn't much for us to see. The two large storage bunkers, the warehouses and the vehicle garage were locked. Only the protected vehicle hall was open and accessible. But even here there wasn't much to see apart from a bit of garbage.

So we didn't spend too much time on the site and made our way relatively quickly to another location.

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