Tank Regiment G.

As final spot for our short tour of Eastern Germany in June of last year, Lost Places in Schleswig-Holstein und Umland and I chose the location of an East German tank regiment that used to be part of the 8th Mobile Artillery Division.
Getting there was easy; finding a parking spot wasn't. Later I found out that there would have been a good opportunity on another side of the area, but at the time, we took what we found and that was right at the entrance.
It worked out nicely, the place was easily accessible, and the first building was a little jackpot right away, because we found a really cool projector room complete with projectors. It was only a little trashed unlike the rest of the place, so we managed to get quite a few nice shots there.
The other buildings were mostly barracks and empty halls. Some nice decay was also to be found.
When we reached the active part of the area which is used by some company, we turned around and went back to the car.
Just as we had left and were turning on the main road, a police car came and passed us, turning and driving right to were we had parked.
They turned around again, followed us for some time at some distance and were gone at some point.
Guess we were lucky not to get caught.


To find out more about the history of this li'l ol' place and to check out all the photos from this spot, click the button below.

Army Fuel Depot N.

This place is buried deep in the woods, and thanks to a relatively inaccurate map we got from a friend of mine, we managed to take a little longer than planned to find our designated parking spot.
From there, it was only a short walk to the actual fuel depot.
The large fuel tanks with a volume of 7.700 cubic meters haven't been built underground. Only the foundations are in the ground, the rest has been built above the ground and was then covered in earth and over the years overgrown by trees.
The steel walls of the huge tanks make for an amazing sound, and if you're there in the right moment, the sun's rays can be seen shining through the hole at the top of the tank.


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

Operation "Easter Basket" - Prison 93

Due to traffic jams all over the Ruhr area, we arrived at our hotel rather late - but at least the tour had started with the exploration of an abandoned psychiatric hospital.
We went out for dinner and planned our tour for the next day, and we finished the first day of Operation "Easter Basket" with a couple of beers and shots in our hotel room.
The next morning, we got up relatively early and drove for about 70 kilometers to our first spot. We had decided for a more than a hundred-year-old prison that has been left unused for about 5 years now.
Freddy and I had only been to one other prison before, and I had found that experience pretty cool, and this particular prison is huge compared to the one I'd visited in Denmark, so it seemed like a good idea to check this one out.
When we got to the location, we first drove around the block to check for a good place to park and maybe spot a way in. All you could see from the streets were high walls and the central building of the prison.
So we consulted the map one more time and decided to park in the residential area richt next to the prison. We found a parking place near a little path that looked like it led in the direction of the prison, and I hoped that this was the case.
It had started to rain, so there were no people outside that could keep us from exploring, but I could feel the neighbor's eyes on us through their windows...
Anyway, we walked along the path and it deed in fact lead us right to the prison wall. It was like a deja vu - just like in the Danish prison, someone had broken a hole in the wall, and we could climb through easily. Once we were inside the walls, we started looking for the way into the buildings. It took us some time to find an open door that led us into the newer building and through the basement, we were able to get into the large older part.
In spite of all the graffiti that have been sprayed on the walls over the years, exploring this prison was a unique experience. Seeing the facility from the inside and imagining how the inmates must have lived there set a really strange mood. In a way, the prison was still active, because there was still electricity, and the neon lights were humming their typical 50 Hertz song...

After about three hours, more people came for a photo shoot, and they started being loud and making noises, which kind of ruined the mood, so we finished up our exploration and left the same way we came.

There have been recent developments regarding this prison. About one month after our visit, a fire broke out in the prison chapel, and after that, a security service was tasked with protection of the place 24/7.
Preparations for the demolition of the prison have begun over this month, and the demolition is scheduled to take place from February until November of next year.


To find out more about the history of this old prison and to check out all the photos from this amazing spot, click the button below.

The House of Wheelchairs

After finishing our tour of the abandoned power station, there was still a little daylight left, so we dicided to give Freddy from Nordgriller Urbex a short tour of the abandoned crematory that is just a few kilometers away.
Since my wife and I had already been there, we didn't take any photos, but met our friends from Lost Places Knipser again who'd had the same idea.
We finished the day with a nice dinner in the city near our hotel and with a good night's sleep afterward.
The next day was the last day of the tour, but we had some spots planned "on the road" for the way back.
The first was a rather "famous" urbex spot in a small village in the East German countryside - a castle with a long history that had last been used as a senior citizens home, but has been abandoned for a number of years now.
As with some locations, the only trouble here was finding a good place to park. We usually prefer the "impudence wins"-approach and parked relaticvely obvious near where we suspected the access. It worked out nicely. The front door was open, and we got in easily.
During our two hours in the place, a number of other - more or less - urbex people came and left again. I am always amazed at who you can meet in lost places....'nuff said.
Luckily, we had arrived pretty early, so we had no truoble leaving when the "tourists" started arriving in alarming numbers.


To find out more about the history of this really neat spot and to check out all the photos from this amazing spot, click the button below.

Command Bunker P.

It was getting late on the first day of Freddy's  (Nordgriller Urbex) and my two-day trip to Eastern Germany last year.
It was the middle of December after all, so there wasn't much daylight left after a couple of hundred kilometers on the road, two more or less successful locations and an unuccessful one as well...
But there was one location that we still wanted to visit - a former command bunker of the East German National People's Army.
So we drove some more in eastern direction until we found the place.
We did our usual drive-by to check for a way in and for possible obstacles and ended up parking almost right in front of the location. There were neighboring houses, but no one but a dog seemed to be alerted by our presence.
Entering the former high-security military area was easy.
Did you see that barrier tape? What barrier tape? Thought so.
We walked past the barracks since our primary interest was in the bunker and we quickly found that. There was no obvious way in, but we found one after a quick search.
The desturction inside was severe. There is nothing left of the original interior. You can only guess what the two-floor command center must have looked like.
Since it was getting dark really quick and we still had quite a way to go to arrive at the place where we were going to crash for the night, we only took a couple of photos inside the bunker, grabbed some more outside and the headed back to the car.


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