Tour Report: Goodbye, Lenin!

Lenin's head stands in an overgrown meadow in a small town in Brandenburg - alone, half-hidden behind a bush, as if history itself had become entangled here. The stone bust rises silently from the ground, almost absorbed by nature, and yet it is impossible to miss. The sight of it is irritating and captivating at the same time: in the middle of this hidden area, far from any official place of remembrance, it seems to be a fragment from another time - resistant, forgotten and yet unbrokenly present.

It is as if the head has found shelter in this place - a kind of silent exile after the end of the ideological age that once elevated it. The bushes and growing trees seem like a natural veil, like they are protecting something that does not want to be found. The fact that this memorial has survived hardly seems coincidental: since the withdrawal of Soviet troops, the region has been systematically cleared up - memorial plaques removed, statues toppled, traces erased. But here, in a no man's land between consciousness and oblivion, the head remains. Neither officially preserved nor destroyed, it seems to have stolen itself from the field of vision of time - like a silent witness waiting for something that will never happen again.

Not far away are a few residential buildings that were expropriated by the Soviet army after the Second World War. After reunification, they underwent extensive renovation and were converted into modern living spaces. Behind the largest building is a small green area with playground equipment - a place of everyday life. But behind it begins an undesigned wilderness left to its own devices. The bust lies right on the threshold between a cultivated habitat and a natural mess - without a pedestal, marked by decay. Its nose is damaged and a gaping hole in the back of its head reveals a hollow interior with only dried leaves and scattered pebbles. The view inside is sobering - and yet there is something mysterious about it, as if this place holds a secret that eludes quick access.

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Tour Report: Agricultural Seeds Center

The second place we had on our list for my wife's birthday tour in 2020 was only about five minutes away from the old cemetery we had visited first.

Here, too, there was a parking lot right outside the door, so to speak. However, the building - a former seeds station - is surrounded by a fairly large open space. It is therefore almost impossible to enter unnoticed. So we looked for a point on the path surrounding the site where the building was between us and the residential area opposite, so that we at least had the feeling that we wouldn't be seen immediately as we walked across the field.

When we arrived at the building, we immediately saw an open door through which we were granted access.

Given the exposed location and the fact that the location is relatively well-known, I wasn't expecting too much - but we were really pleasantly surprised. The vandalism was limited and we found many things that indicated the former use of the building: Magazines on agriculture and genetics, files on plant breeding and cross-breeding, various specialist literature, packing materials and a large quantity of coffee sacks.

Even a few technical devices had survived the long time of abandonment.

So after the old cemetery, this was the second location in a row where you could discover an incredible number of exciting details. Although many of them are not really relevant from a photographic point of view, they offer a great insight into the work that has been carried out on this site for almost a century.

Here, too, we took plenty of time to take it all in before making our way back to the car.

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Tour Report: Vacation Camp "Beds of Decay"

I have to say: in terms of decay, this abandoned vacation camp was a real hit. We hadn't even planned to visit - in fact, we didn't even know this place existed. We had met two people at the location we had visited first that day, got talking to them and they gave us the tip to visit this vacation camp.

The route there wasn't really far, which suited us well, as we had spent a lot of time in the old foundry and didn't want to spend too much time on the road given the still short daylight hours. 

We were on site in just 15 minutes. However, the search for a parking space proved to be somewhat difficult, as there were almost none. The residential area only offered enough space for - the residents. So we had to search a bit until we found a parking space, and we had to walk a few minutes to get to the old vacation camp.

The camp is located in the middle of a residential area. There are residential buildings to the north, south and west, and the eastern area is almost impassable due to the forest and dense vegetation.

It was therefore virtually impossible to enter the site without the risk of being discovered by the neighbors.

So we did what we usually do: find an entrance and go in. The outside area of the camp was so big that we would be seen anyway. 

There was an “open” path onto the site and we just walked straight into it.

There were several small cabins and a larger communal building with a large kitchen. First we looked around the huts. The long vacancy in combination with the rather light construction of the huts had caused some fantastic decay. There was hardly any vandalism - probably due to the location in the middle of the residential area.

Even pillows and blankets were still available on the double bunk beds - but no longer recommended for an overnight stay ;)

In the outdoor area we found the obligatory concrete table tennis table, which we felt existed in every GDR vacation camp. Time had covered it with a beautiful carpet of moss.

Unfortunately, the communal building no longer lived up to the promise of the other buildings - one part had already collapsed, the vandals had already struck, and the local teenagers seemed to be using the building as a substitute for a club.

As we left the property, we saw a neighbor watching us from the property across the street. We greeted him kindly and politely, and he asked if we had taken any photos, to which we replied in the affirmative. We struck up a conversation with him and he was at least able to tell us that the vacation camp belonged to a large leather factory in Saxony-Anhalt. Unfortunately, as he wasn't from the area himself, he couldn't tell us much more. Nevertheless, it was a very nice conversation, which once again showed that openness and friendliness usually go a long way. 

After this positive conclusion to our exploration, we made our way back to the hotel to get going again in good time so that we wouldn't have so much trouble finding a restaurant that day...

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Tour Report: Cultural Center "X"

This abandoned socialist event hall, or "Club House", was the final location on our tour through eastern Germany during our vacation in November 2019. We had seen the impressive building a couple of times before, as a highway runs right next to the site.

From the highway, we could already see that the neoclassical building was no longer in good shape - there were no windows to be seen and the building was covered in graffiti. So we didn't have high hopes, but we didn't want to miss the chance to take a look anyway.

We parked our car in a "parking lot" a little way behind the building. Presumably this was the former access road or parking lot of the cultural center - now it was used by a few truck drivers to take a nap. So we parked between a few trucks and didn't attract any attention.

There was no fence around the building, there were no signs warning us not to enter, and we quickly found an open door.
As expected, we were greeted by walls covered in graffiti. Unfortunately, they weren't even particularly artistic, but the typical "teenage graffiti". Nevertheless, we were impressed. The main hall of the former "clubhouse" was huge! There was a revolving stage, and in the early 2000s, various levels of concrete were added when plans were made to convert the building into a large disco - a plan that was never finally realized.

These concrete levels gave the main room (and other areas) a very modern and, in combination with the graffiti, somehow surreal appearance.
We climbed the many stairs to take photos from different angles. I admit: I got a little queasy when I moved around on the concrete floors built high up in the room - without railings...

But in the end, everything went well and we were able to complete our exploration without any casualties ;)

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Tour Report: The State Security Hotel

During our fall vacation in November 2019, we took a short tour through the German state of Brandenburg. To start the tour, we had visited the old Soviet memorial from the Cold War on the way to the hotel, which was a good start for this tour, as the area is full of relics from this period that were either used by the Soviets or the GDR authorities.

This was also the case with the two objects we had chosen as our destinations for the following day.

As it was late fall and the days were already very short with little daylight, we skipped breakfast (we usually only have a small snack on the way) and drove to the first location. We could have walked the 3 kilometers, but as we had another stop about 50 kilometers away, we decided to take the car.

Our first destination was the ruins of a hotel that was going to be used by functionaries of the GDR State Security (Stasi) for recreation. It was under construction when the Wall fell and the building was never completed as a result.

We parked our car in the public parking lot of a nearby thermal spa. From there, we made our way to the old building. After a few hundred meters, we reached the forest path that would take us to our destination. After just a few minutes, we could see the first outbuildings through the trees, but we ignored them for the time being as the main building was our destination.

After a little more walking, we reached it and, as we had expected, there were no fences or doors to stop us on our way.

So we got into the building without any problems and took our time looking around. There was graffiti everywhere and quite a lot of garbage lying around in some areas. We had already suspected this from the pictures we had seen online beforehand.

The most interesting thing was the architecture. Although it's difficult to make out due to the many trees, the restaurant building has an unusual shape, reminiscent of an octagon, and an atrium-like staircase connects the restaurant with a roof terrace and the wellness area. There is a relatively small pool, which is now filled with rainwater and garbage.

As we looked around the hotel rooms, we were overcome by the feeling that we were no longer alone. It seemed to us that we kept hearing footsteps, but we put this down to raindrops falling from the ceiling in the corridors. We were mistaken. At some point, we ran into the arms of a gentleman. We got a bit of a fright, but this is not an unfamiliar situation for us, so the shock was limited. The gentleman was around 60 and asked what we were doing. It turned out that he was a local resident who had made a habit of chasing away teenagers who were using the building as a party location so that no fires were started on the site in the middle of the forest, which would spread to the forest, which was very dry in places.

We were friendly and explained to him what we were doing and he left us alone. What else could he have done - he doesn't have the right to enter the site, and calling the police for two people in their mid-forties taking photos would have been a bit excessive.

After the encounter, we took our time to explore the rest of the building before walking back to the car. On the way back, we took a quick look into the outbuildings, but they seemed to be the illegal dump for the neighborhood, so we didn't even bother going inside.

Upon reaching the car, we had the aforementioned snack and went back on the road to get to the next location.

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