Sanatorium Beelitz-Heilstätten [Revisit] (Part 3)

Of course, Beelitz has many more things to offer than beautiful hallways and staircases.
There are vast dining halls and gymnasiums, there are the patients' rooms and the entrance halls, and there is the bath house...
So here are more of the amazing views the old sanatorium has to show.

It is impossible to catch all the sights at Beelitz in one eight-hour day, let alone take photos of everything that's worth photographing.
Unfortunately, the decaying beauty of this amazing place will be history soon. In about one week, restoration is scheduled to start in some of the buildings, so only one part of the entire area will be left accessible.

This was probably my last visit to the sanatorium at Beelitz-Heilstätten, but who knows...

To check out the full gallery of photos from Beelitz, please visit my website.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Sanatorium Beelitz-Heilstätten [Revisit] (Part 2)

As I've announced in my last post, I'll be posting a couple of galleries from Beelitz here since there are too many photos to present them all on my blog.
To check out the full gallery, please visit my website.

A couple of days ago, I showed you the beautiful long and vast hallways Beelitz is offering its visitors. Now, here are the stairwells...that are just as beautiful...

Part 1 | Part 2

Sanatorium Beelitz-Heilstätten [Revisit]

On our second day of our trip to Berlin in December of last year, my wife and I had planned a hole day of exploring in the abandoned sanatorium at Beelitz-Heilstätten.
It had been almost two years since our first visit in January of 2013, so we were really happy to get tickets for a "fotobase" with go2know.
Of course that meant spending a lot of money, and I know that some people are strictly oppposed to this "commercialisation" of the hobby of urban exploration (a sentiment that I am supporting to a certain extent).
To me however, the opportunity of visiting Beelitz one more (and very probably last) time clearly outweighs the commercial aspect - even if you have to "share" the place with a bunch of other photographers.

Anyway, we got up pretty early and were in fact able to spend eight hours in the various buildings (the central bath house, the hospital's butchery, the bakery, the heating plant, the men's sanatorium, the men's lung sanatorium and the central laundry).
Of course, there are way too many photos to share them all here in this blog, so I'll be posting a selection of shots here and if you like, you can head over to my website to check out the rest.

My favorite at Beelitz are the corridors. The hallways of Beelitz are just amazingly beautiful. Wide, spacious and light-flooded they give an impression of life in the sanatorium about 100 years ago.
I can almost see the patients walking to the halls, with doctors and nurses hurrying past them...

Next up: The staircases of Beelitz - stay tuned!

Abandoned Sanatorium Beelitz-Heilstätten (Part 1)

As promised, here is the first post from my trip to Berlin this past weekend.
Although our first stop was the "Südgelände", a nature preserve and abandoned railroad area, the trip to the abandoned hospital in Beelitz-Heilstätten outside of Berlin was much more memorable.

The entire complex consists of more than 60 buildings erected between 1898 and 1930 to care for the victims of the tuberculosis epidemic in Berlin. The whole thing is being patrolled by security to keep out vandals, but there are photo excursions available at go2know.de in which a couple of the buildings are unlocked and free to explore for several hours.

Here is the first selection of photos I took.

You can also check out Ghost Hospital Part 2 and Ghost Hospital Part 3.

After 1945, the Red Army took control of the hospital complex and until 1994, it was the Soviet Union's largest military hospital outside of the USSR and in 1990 was the last home of Erich Honecker, former head of government of Eastern Germany.

The hospital is huge and full of seemingly neverending corridors:

Most of the windows are boarded shut, which makes for a lot of interesting light effects. The weather was perfect, because the sun was really playing with the shapes of the windows.

I don't want to make this post too long, but there is so much more material, so there will be a part two soon.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Lost Places - Berlin - Preview

It's been a fairly long time since my last post. There's been so much to do at work and otherwise, but last weekend I took Friday and Monday off to visit my brother in Berlin, and this gave me a chance to explore some really cool sites I haven't had the pleasure to visit before.

I went to see the "Südgelände", an old railroad area which has been used by graffiti artisits and sculptors alike and has been declared a narue preserve. On Saturday we had the privilege of visiting Beelitz-Heilstätten, a complex of overall 68 buildings that were built in the latter half of the 19th century to care for tuberculosis patients. 3 buildings were unlocked and free to explore.
Sunday, I went to an abandoned amusement park and an old brewery...plenty of space!

I am still in the process of processing the photos, so it might take a couple if days, but here are a few first impressions: