Tour Report: The House in the Woods

After our unexpectedly successful visit to the former correctional facility, we still had some time for another exploration before heading home. We didn't really have anything else planned when I came across a tip about a small, old house hidden deep in the woods. Even better, it was right along our route home. That's how it should be!

We had no idea what to expect, and we weren't anticipating anything particularly spectacular. As a result, the chances of being disappointed were relatively low.

After about an hour of driving and 50 kilometers on rural roads, we arrived.

The destination was indeed well hidden in a patch of woodland, and there were no designated parking areas nearby. We managed to find a spot to pull off the road and park our car on a relatively dry patch of ground.

Then we set off through the woods. The walk turned out to be shorter than expected, and within just a few minutes, we could make out the house between the trees.

At first glance, it appeared to be a self-built structure. An inscription above the entrance confirmed this impression:

Built in 1957 – Destroyed by Force in 1963 – Rebuilt in 1966

Inside the house, we found some remaining furniture, dishes, pictures, and other items. There were plenty of traces of its former occupants, but unfortunately, nothing that revealed who had lived here or for how long.

A small shed next to the house contained a few tools and old bicycles. A little farther into the woods, we came across several old agricultural plows and a few other items, including an old scythe.

One possible explanation is that the house was originally built without official permission. Perhaps its owner or occupant repaired or collected old equipment and bicycles? We simply don't know, and ultimately, any such explanation would be pure speculation.

Whatever the story behind this place may be, the little house had escaped vandalism. That alone made the visit something special. We also thoroughly enjoyed the walk through the woods!

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

Tour Report: Prison "Down on the Farm"

When we visited this abandoned prison in September 2020, it was firmly sealed off. We couldn’t find any way inside. We also met a man in the surrounding area who told us that the cameras covering the grounds were still active and that the police regularly patrolled the site. According to him, people had already been arrested for attempting to gain unauthorized access to the facility.

The electrical cabinet opposite the prison’s main entrance was still powered, as the deep humming noise clearly indicated. So the claim about the active cameras didn’t seem all that far-fetched.

We therefore decided not to take any chances and to return at a more suitable opportunity.

Whether the timing was any better or not, we had no idea when we found ourselves standing in front of the prison walls again about eight months later. The electrical cabinet was still humming, and there still appeared to be no way in. Nothing seemed to have changed.

So we walked once around the outer perimeter and enjoyed the short walk in the beautiful sunshine.

I don’t remember what made me do it, but on our way back to the car, I gave the large sliding gate a good pull – and, much to our surprise, it opened without any resistance!

Now we had a problem.

We had already been on site for quite some time and had no idea whether the cameras were still active or whether the police might already be on their way. There was also the possibility that security personnel were currently patrolling the prison and had simply left the gate open – which would have meant a serious risk of finding ourselves unable to leave if the gate was locked again.

The latter seemed relatively unlikely, though, as there wasn’t a single vehicle anywhere on the entire site apart from our own.

But there was no way we could pass up this unexpected opportunity.

Without going back to get any of our other equipment, we started what could best be described as a quick, tactical-style exploration. Our plan was simple: just our phones for taking pictures, a quick run through the buildings, back out through the hopefully still-open gate, and then get away as quickly as possible.

And that’s exactly what we did.

We moved really fast and certainly missed quite a few potential photo opportunities – but we made it. There wasn’t actually all that much to see anyway. As the prison was relatively modern, the interior was fairly sterile and functional, and most of the rooms were almost completely empty.

In a way, the place itself helped us keep our visit within a very tight time frame.

But the lack of photo opportunities and the time pressure certainly didn’t diminish the value of our exploration. For one thing, you don’t get the chance to see the inside of a prison all that often. But what really made this visit special was the sheer luck of finding that gate open – followed by such a spontaneous and unplanned exploration.

It is definitely one of those stories we will keep telling for years to come.

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

Tour Report: Mansion "Hunter's Dream"

The second and final stop on our tour at the end of March 2021 was an abandoned manor house. We had discovered it more or less by chance the evening before, while looking for abandoned places in the surrounding area. The manor, which is now in a very dilapidated condition, consists of three sections. The main building dates back to the late 17th century and was built on even older walls. The extensions were added in the mid-19th and early 20th centuries.

Architecturally, the building therefore represents the development of Mecklenburg manor houses over several centuries, which makes it quite special in itself.

It took us about an hour to drive there from the brickworks we had visited earlier, but the journey also brought us considerably closer to our accommodation, so we were already heading in the right direction.

The manor is located on the edge of a very small village between two lakes. There were no inconspicuous parking spots nearby, so we had no choice but to park directly opposite the manor. We simply hoped that nobody would pass by, or that anyone who did would assume we were heading for a walk in the nearby park.

The manor was not fenced off, and we were able to enter the grounds without any problems. It looked as though the vegetation around the building had been cleared relatively recently. The grounds were neatly cleared, and there were tire tracks from agricultural machinery. Of course, the lack of dense vegetation meant that we could not approach under cover and had to move quickly, hoping to remain unnoticed. On the other hand, it also made finding an entrance surprisingly easy: an open basement vault provided access to the ground floor.

We reached the grand entrance hall via a staircase and two rather dilapidated small rooms. The hall was divided into two areas: the large entrance section, with a wide staircase leading to the first floor, and the “Great Hall”, featuring an ornate ceiling, heavy wooden doors and a locked entrance leading towards the garden and park.

On the first floor, directly above the hall, was another large room with a dark wooden coffered ceiling. Several corridors branched off from this room, leading to numerous smaller rooms.

It was impossible to miss that the building had undergone many additions and alterations over the centuries. This was particularly evident in some rather unfortunate modifications made during the GDR era, when the manor was used as a refugee home, village shop, nursery and residential building. Walls had been added, others removed, and in some areas it was difficult to tell which part of the manor we were actually standing in.

There were almost no remnants in the form of furniture, documents or similar items. Nevertheless, there were still some interesting details to discover, including an intricately designed curved iron staircase, heavy wooden doors, stained-glass windows and empty bottles of various herbal liqueurs - although those clearly dated from the period after German reunification.

Simply because of its size, we spent a long time exploring the old building, making sure we had seen all of its rooms. Looking back, the most interesting aspect was undoubtedly being able to recognize the different periods in which various parts of the manor had been built or modified.

Since we had never heard of the manor before our visit and had not seen any photographs of it, we had no great expectations for the exploration. But I think it was definitely worth it!

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