Soviet Nature - Abandoned Military Training Area (Part 2)

After unexpectedly stumbling into the first building and then finding the second, small building, we started looking for more and more we found.
I really liked this place. Not only because of the beautiful nature, but also because of the really eerie feeling I got when I was walking through a really beautiful part of the forest in the "middle" of Germany and finding a building that had only russian "graffiti" on the walls.

Carved into the concrete walls are (presumably, but that's what I think it mostly is) the names of Soviet soldiers, their units and their hometowns.
The place was breathing history...

Part 1 | Part 2

Soviet Nature - Abandoned Military Training Area

I have found almost nothing whatsoever about this location on the internet.
Only a scientific evaluation about the developing flora in the area.
We were looking for a couple of entirely different locations - East german and Soviet bunkers in the same area - but we didn't have any exact locations for those, only some rudimentary ideas that I got from scanning Google Earth.
One of those ideas turned out to be the shooting range of the local gun club...found that out after walking a mile through the woods...
The next try however turned out to be a little gem.

We found this former soviet training area just walking through the woods. We only found the warning signs as we left - always be careful in these places, there's usually still some old ammunition contaminating the area!

Here are the first couple of photos.

The Soviet Heritage - An Abandoned Garrison in the Woods (Part 4)

The story of the garrison is over, only the buildings are left to tell its tales, and that too might be over sometime in the future.
In 2003, demolition has begun of parts of the building. You can see it by the bricks pouring into the hallways through the side doors. It seems, though, as if there hasn't been a lot of work since back then.
Rumor has it that the old building is supposed to make room for living apartments. Part of it is really shut off with fences and wooden boards, so I think that at least part of the original building will be integrated into a new ensemble. We'll see what happens when I stop by the next time.

Here's the rest of the pictures.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

The Soviet Heritage - An Abandoned Garrison in the Woods (Part 3)

Here is one more story from the not-so-distant past of the building.
In a town not too far from this location, there used to be beautiful aristocratic red-brick horse stables. These are no more, since the Soviets tore them down and used the fire red bricks in reconstructing and repair the damages done to the building during the war.
It is these red bricks that come pouring through the doors as parts of the building are being demolished for development of the area.

Here are the next couple of pictures.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

The Soviet Heritage - An Abandoned Garrison in the Woods (Part 2)

The 530 meter long building used to be the home for more than 1.100 soldiers of the German Luftwaffe from 1937 until 1945.
The airfield existed since 1935 and in 1936, a training unit was stationed there.
In 1940, various fighter squadrons were moved to the airfield in preparation of "Operation Weserübung".
After this, the airfield served as an intermediate stop and station for refitting for a couple of squadrons.
Until the end of April 1945, bombers were still starting from this airfield to fly airstrikes against the Red Army. On May 2, 1945, the place was occupied by U.S. forces and then passed on to the Soviets two months later.

I will say a little more about the use of the facility by the Soviets in the next post, but first, here are some more pictures.
We entered the building through the basement, so these are the first pictures you see. I have to admit - I found the ammunition in the basement pretty cool :)

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4