Tour Report: Air-Raid-Shelter "Dripstone"

The first time I stepped inside this bunker, I was fascinated.

I had seen mineral formations in abandoned bunkers before, but never anything remotely like this. What we found inside was completely unexpected.

It was early March 2021 when a friend told me about a bunker not far from home. The entrance was open, although the structure would normally only have been accessible through an opening in the roof.

That was enough to make us curious.

We set off almost immediately, and just 20 minutes later we were already looking for a place to leave the car. Despite the rural surroundings, finding a discreet parking spot turned out to be surprisingly difficult. Eventually, we managed to find somewhere suitable and set off on foot.

Rubber boots were highly recommended - and we soon understood why.

In fact, there were two bunkers of identical design. They had been constructed during the Second World War as air-raid shelters for a labor camp, which housed workers employed at a large oil storage facility nearby. The facility had been developed from the late 1930s onwards as part of the area's wartime infrastructure.

According to the information we had received, the entrance was open.

So we stepped inside.

The history of the site had left its mark.

After the war, the camp was used as a reception centre for displaced persons. The bunkers themselves were later deliberately rendered ineffective as shelters by the British occupation forces. Their roofs and walls were perforated with pneumatic tools, destroying their original protective function.

Those openings changed the bunkers in another, completely unintended way.

For decades, rainwater, soil, leaves and other organic material had been making their way inside. The corridors were now filled with muddy earth and decomposing vegetation, while plants had taken advantage of the holes in the ceiling to grow inside the concrete structure.

But then we entered the rooms alongside the corridors.

And suddenly, the bunker looked completely different.

The floors were covered by between 10 and 20 centimetres of water. Along the damaged concrete walls, beautiful mineral formations had developed — and they covered much more of the bunker than I had expected.

There were stalactites hanging from ceilings and walls, while stalagmites had formed on the floors. Some of the formations had joined together, creating intricate structures that looked almost like the interior of a natural cave.

Except they weren't.

These formations had not taken centuries or thousands of years to develop. They had appeared within just a few decades.

A cave made of concrete.

The reason can be found in the concrete itself.

Due to material shortages during the Second World War, concrete containing a relatively high proportion of lime was used in the construction of many structures. Over the decades, water slowly penetrated the porous concrete. As it passed through the material, it dissolved minerals and carried them towards the interior of the bunker.

Once the mineral-rich water reached the walls and ceilings, it began to evaporate, leaving behind tiny deposits of calcite. Drop by drop, year after year, these deposits accumulated — eventually producing the remarkable formations we found inside.

The result was a strange combination of military architecture and a geological process normally associated with natural caves.

Outside, the bunker was slowly being reclaimed by vegetation.

Inside, the concrete itself had begun to grow its own cave.

There was, however, one less pleasant aspect to the experience.

The decomposing organic material in the corridors produced a strong smell of decay, despite the relatively cold water covering the floors. It was certainly not the most pleasant environment to explore.

But that wasn't going to stop us.

We made our way through every room we could access and spent a considerable amount of time photographing the formations, the flooded interiors and the traces of the bunker's past.

By the time we were heading home, one thing was already clear to me:

I would have to come back.

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

Tour Report: The House of Bric-a-Brac

Hidden behind tall trees on an overgrown property, bordered by a quiet country road on one side and a golf course on the other, stood an abandoned thatched-roof house waiting to be explored.

On a chilly Sunday in February 2021, my mother joined us as we set out to visit this forgotten place. I had seen a few photographs beforehand and hoped to capture some of the countless details that seemed to fill the house.

After about an hour's drive, we reached the area and began looking for a place to park. Leaving our car in the golf club's parking lot didn't seem like the best idea - it tends to attract attention when you unload backpacks, tripods and safety boots instead of golf clubs before walking off in the opposite direction.

Fortunately, we found a small lay-by further down the road, allowing us to approach the property without drawing too much attention.

Getting inside turned out to be easier than expected. An open garden gate led onto the grounds, and the patio door of the house stood wide open.

Inside, the house presented a chaotic but fascinating scene. The former owner had clearly travelled extensively and seemed to have filled every room with souvenirs collected over many years. These were exactly the kind of details I had hoped to photograph. Unfortunately, previous visitors had already removed many of the most interesting items - and, perhaps even worse, had left everything in complete disarray. Judging by the empty bottles and other traces, the inevitable party crowd had also discovered the house long before we arrived.

Even so, there was still plenty to discover. According to local rumours, the entire house had been built almost entirely by its owner, a skilled craftsman. Whether or not the story is entirely true, the quality of the workmanship certainly supported it. Every room reflected remarkable dedication and attention to detail. The fireplace, the small bar, the staircase leading upstairs, the handcrafted shelving and the wood-panelled walls all suggested that someone had invested countless hours into creating a home that was both practical and deeply personal.

The upper floor contained piles of clothing along with a number of personal documents. Most revealed little about the former occupants, although a few provided brief glimpses into their lives. Among the papers were official documents dating back several decades, including records that reflected the turbulent political history of post-war Germany. Together with family papers and photographs, they offered fleeting glimpses into the lives of the people who had once called this place home - without ever revealing the full story.

A short distance from the main building stood a second structure that felt almost like a small house of its own. It contained a compact kitchen, sleeping quarters and a surprisingly spacious workshop. My guess is that it once served as a guest house, a hobby room or simply a private retreat - a place where its owner could spend time working on projects or enjoying a quiet evening.

We spent around ninety minutes exploring the property and came away with a collection of photographs that captured both its craftsmanship and its gradual decline.

Looking back, I sometimes regret being too hesitant to examine the personal belongings left behind. There is a significant difference between browsing production records in an abandoned factory and opening family photo albums or reading private letters and documents inside someone's former home. It feels far more personal—almost intrusive. Yet it is often those forgotten papers that preserve the final fragments of a place's history. Without them, many stories are simply lost forever.

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

Tour Report: Farmhouse "Calendar"

After exploring the forester's cottage, we returned to our cars and headed for our next destination: an old abandoned farmhouse on the very edge of a small rural settlement.

About 30 minutes later, we arrived and parked roughly 100 metres away near a former railway crossing. Judging by its condition, no train had passed through there for a very long time.

The abandoned farm was neither fenced nor otherwise secured, allowing us to enter the property without any difficulty. Shortly after arriving, we met two young women who had apparently come up with the same idea. During a brief conversation, we learned that they had already finished exploring the site. They also admitted they were a little proud to run into an urban explorer who was fairly well known within the scene.

After saying goodbye, we began our own exploration, starting with the outbuildings along the roadside. Whether they had served purely as garages and storage buildings or had once been used for other purposes was impossible to determine. What we did find, however, was an astonishing amount of clutter. Containers, bicycles, old shoes, radios, and even trophies from dog shows were scattered throughout the buildings.

We then turned our attention to the farmhouse itself, where the amount of abandoned belongings was even greater. Piles of old newspapers, countless calendars, clothing, and household items lay everywhere. Much of the furniture had been overturned, and it was obvious that someone had searched through the cupboards and drawers in the hope of finding valuables.

The resulting chaos meant that there were hardly any worthwhile photographic subjects left inside the house. Far more interesting were the numerous magazines, documents, and working records related to cattle breeding. Among them were several issues of the magazine Rind im Bild and even a cattle insemination record from 1989. These discoveries strongly suggested that the former owner had been a cattle farmer and that the farm was still in active agricultural use at least until the late 1980s.

A visit to the barn reinforced that impression. We found the typical drinking bowls used for cattle, while an adjoining building still housed a machine for mixing animal feed.

Part of the barn had been filled with large quantities of cut firewood, alongside a few pieces of old furniture, including worn armchairs. Whether the wood had already been stored there by the farmer remains unclear. By the time it was stacked inside, however, the building could no longer have been used to house livestock. It is therefore equally possible that a later owner or occupant had simply converted part of the barn into a wood store.

Unfortunately, we were unable to uncover any reliable information about the history of the farm, so any conclusions beyond these observations would be purely speculative.

With our exploration of the abandoned farmhouse coming to an end, so did our day of urban exploring. We returned to our cars and began the journey home - unaware that just a month later, the farmhouse would be destroyed by fire.

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