Towards the end of our tour through Eastern Germany in April of 2019, we had one more abandoned building on our list. It was an old estate house in a small farming community far away from any larger cities. As we drove up, we didn't have high hopes, because first of all, the only possibility to park was right down the street, which in these small villages is always suspicious - if you have a license plate from any place farther away than a 30-minute drive. Secondly, we could see the neighbor working in the garden, so it would have been impossible to enter the abandoned house unnoticed.
So we did what we mostly do in these case - walk up to the neighbor and start a friendly conversation. It worked perfectly! We introduced ourselves and asked him if he could tell us something about the "beautiful old house" next door, and he did. He didn't have much historical information, because he hadn't lived in the village for more than 20 years or so, but at least he knew something about the current owner. He also told us that he suspected that the place would keep deteriorating and eventually collapse at some point.
In the end we asked him, if it was okay with him if we strolled around the place and checked inside to take a few photos, and he said that he was pretty sure that the owner wouldn't mind - but he demanded that we be extremely careful due to the ramshackle condition of the house.
We promised that we were going to be careful and to tell him when we left that we were all okay. Then we started walking around the old house. We quickly found an open door, and the neighbor was right - the place was in pretty bad condition. Parts of the walls and ceilings were already collapsing, and walking on the wooden floorboards on the upper floor somehow didn't feel right. We still managed to check out the entire place. It wasn't spectacular and looked more like a farmhouse, which isn't uncommon for estate houses in smaller villages - especially because these houses were frequently used by farming combines under the socialist government of East Germany.
I still really liked the place. On the one hand because there still were some nice shots to be taken - the colors and the decay were nicely accentuated by a beautiful afternoon sun. On the other hand, the place showed once again how far you can get with a friendly, open nature and an honest interest in the stories other people have to tell.
Before we went back to the car, we made good on our promise and told the neighbor that everyone had left the building without any injuries :)
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