Tour Report: Brick Factory A.

In mid-April 2020, the coronavirus pandemic had Germany firmly in its grip. The first nationwide lockdown had been in place for around four weeks, and it was expected to last a good two weeks before the first slight easing.

It was spring - a very sunny spring with correspondingly high temperatures; Easter a week earlier had even brought a few summer days with it.

In the three weeks since our last tour, we had hardly left our yard, so we were anxious to get out of the house again. I looked for a place to go - not too far, since due to the lockdwon, we weren't allowed to leave the state - and came across a brick factory that I had visited once in 2014. The news said that the property had been sold and was soon to be developed.

So we decided to pay a revisit to this place.

It was a short drive - after just under an hour we were there and looking for a parking space. It was quickly found. There were a few commercial buildings at the eastern end of the brickworks site, and as it was Sunday, the parking lots were empty and available to us. To get onto the site, we just had to climb over a small embankment - and we were standing right in front of the brickworks' materials warehouse.

We explored the entire place with the exception of the manufacturer's villa, which was unfortunately completely locked and secured.

Due to the beautiful weather, we took our time and explored the whole site at our leisure.

I particularly liked two motifs on this trip: the materials store with the little “houses” and the room with the water basin where the clay for the bricks was prepared. The water in the basin shimmered in the sunlight in all sorts of bright colors - probably due to algae, perhaps also due to pollution or contaminated soil.

Towards the end, we met two other people who had used the beautiful day to escape the confines of the lockdown - other than that we were completely alone the entire time. It was a nice short trip and a good opportunity to get out of the house again.

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