Tour Report: The Forest Ranger's Cottage

A week after our visit to the abandoned brickworks, we found ourselves heading out again on a sunny Sunday in February 2021. The snow had finally melted, temperatures had climbed back above freezing, and it was simply too nice a day to stay indoors.

At the time, Germany was still in the midst of its second strict COVID-19 lockdown, which had already been in place for almost two months. Travel restrictions meant we were not allowed to leave our federal state, so I started looking for abandoned places closer to home that we hadn't explored yet. Eventually, I came across two promising locations: a small cottage in the middle of a quiet village and a much larger farmhouse with a barn and several outbuildings.

The cottage turned out to be particularly interesting. During my research afterwards, I discovered that it had most likely been the home of the Holzvogt - the forester or woodland steward - of a nearby estate. Sitting right on the village's main road, however, parking anywhere near the property was out of the question.

Instead, we left our car in the parking lot of a temporarily closed restaurant on the edge of the village, where we met up with our good friend Elmar, who had travelled down from Hamburg. From there, we continued the rest of the way on foot.

The property itself wasn't fenced off and was easy to access, but unfortunately it had already become a dumping ground. In places like this, it's often difficult to tell which items actually belonged to the former occupants and which were discarded there long after the house had been abandoned.

Inside, the rooms were extremely cramped, so we took turns entering to give each other enough space to photograph the interior without getting in one another's way.

As expected, there were a few interesting details to discover, but the heavy clutter and the generally poor condition of the building meant that we only came away with a handful of worthwhile photographs.

Even so, it was a pleasant way to begin the day's exploration and, more importantly, a great opportunity to spend some time exploring with our good friend Elmar once again.

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

Tour Report: Estate House "Field of Reeds" [Revisit]

Just three weeks after our first visit, we found ourselves returning to the old manor house once again.
Our initial exploration on Boxing Day, accompanied by my mother and mother-in-law, had been a wonderful experience.

Unfortunately, I hadn't brought my camera with me and had to rely on my aging phone for photographs. Since we still had a few weeks between our trips in early January and our planned holiday in mid-February, we decided to squeeze in one more small adventure.

A second visit - especially so soon after the first - is usually a rather relaxed affair. The surroundings are already familiar, and there are fewer surprises waiting around the next corner. Instead of focusing on navigation and orientation, you can fully immerse yourself in the atmosphere of the location.

This return to the abandoned manor was no exception. From the moment we arrived, everything felt comfortably familiar. And because we already knew the layout of the building - and this time weren't accompanying any first-time visitors - we could take our time and focus entirely on photography.

The weather was noticeably better than during our first visit. The sun occasionally broke through the clouds, casting beautiful shadows across the rooms and hallways and creating some wonderful opportunities for photographs.

For more than an hour and a half, we wandered through the manor once again, exploring every floor and revisiting our favourite rooms. Eventually, with memory cards full and another memorable exploration behind us, we headed home.

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

Tour Report: Farmyard for Sale

The final spot we explored on our tour in November 2020 with our dear friend Biggi from Der Schlittenhundehof was an old, abandoned farmhouse located right in the middle of the village. It was easy to get onto the property - the construction fence was basically just leaning loosely against a wall, so we could just slip right through. We hurried into the buildings so that no one would see us wandering around the yard. The doors to the buildings were all open, and there wasn’t much to see. Some of the ceilings had already collapsed or were on the verge of doing so; the same was true of some of the walls. On top of that, it was slowly getting dark, so despite our flashlights, we couldn’t properly assess the condition of the floors. So we stayed in the rooms that seemed reasonably safe - even though the old wood creaked and cracked in every nook and cranny.

The rooms were completely empty - but we did find a few relics left behind by former residents.

In the end, they were just a few small items, but even these were fragments of a life and tell stories about it - such as the correspondence between Edeltraud and Erna, two young girls, friends who had apparently been separated by the division of Germany.

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

Tour Report: Anti-Aircraft Missile Site FRA-134

As the last location on our tour of various Cold War relics in northeastern Germany in October 2020, my buddy Andreas and I explored the remains of an anti-aircraft missile unit of the National People's Army of the GDR.

From the abandoned maintenance unit at the former Soviet air base, it was just over 30 kilometers to the former site of the GDR air defense.

The site is located a good distance outside the nearest town and can be reached via an old paved road. We found a parking spot right at the entrance and set out to explore the grounds.

First, we reached the accommodation area and the service and utility buildings. Unfortunately, we discovered that cable thieves and local vandals had done a thorough job – it really wasn't a pretty sight, so I didn't even bother taking any photos inside these buildings.

Passing a large vehicle hall, we made our way through the now heavily overgrown grounds to the command post. This consists of a garage bunker with six garages built next to each other, connected at the rear by a cross corridor, as well as two smaller annexes.

Here, too, we were confronted with a scene of destruction: the exterior is covered in graffiti, the garage doors have been torn out, as has the electrical installation inside the bunker.

On the bunker hill, we discovered the location of the “PW cabin,” the missile guidance radar of the S-75 “Volchov” anti-aircraft missile complex.

It was getting late, so we decided not to search the heavily wooded area for further relics and headed back.

On the way to the car, our assumption that the area was used by local youths as a party location was confirmed: a group of young people with mopeds and cars had gathered in the parking lot and were ending the weekend with music and drinks. It didn't look like they planned to take their trash with them...

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

Tour Report: Sand-Lime Brick Factory L.

On the way back from our tour to the abandoned dialysis clinic, we had two more locations planned. The first one was an abandoned prison, which of course promised to be an interesting exploration - if we had found a way in. But at the time, that wasn't in the cards. However, six months later, I did return and had more luck - but that will be another story!

The second location was more or less a last resort, because we didn't have anything left that was en route. So we tried it out.

The place was located right next to a residential area which conveniently offered a public parking lot only a short walk from the old factory building.

As we arrived at the location, we could already see that there weren't going to be many photo opportunities: lots of trash had been dumped on the premises, the walls were covered in graffiti, and there were no windows left intact.

The fence around the area hardly deserved that name, so we could just walk onto the premises as we pleased.

We only needed about an hour until we had all the photos that we wanted, so it was a short visit. It wasn't spectacular, but at least we got to see the place before it was demolished a few yeas later.

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

Tour Report: Soviet Airfield S.

As the final stop of our summer trip in 2020, my wife and I decided to return to the former Soviet airfield S., about four years after our first visit.

Back then, time had been short. We had only managed to explore the hangars and a few surrounding buildings. This time, we wanted to take things a bit slower and use the opportunity to explore more of the former garrison area.

The surroundings of the airfield had changed noticeably in the years since our last visit. A busy commercial zone had developed nearby, full of movement and everyday activity. Yet our old parking spot was still there — the same one we had used four years earlier, right next to the narrow footpath leading onto the airfield grounds. There was still no fence, no gate, nothing to suggest that access had changed. Reports from other photographers supported this impression, so we made our way in calmly and without haste.

We consciously skipped the buildings we already knew from our first visit in order to focus on new areas. It was another extremely hot midsummer day, and anyone familiar with former Soviet garrisons knows how vast these places can be. The distances between buildings are long, the paths exposed. Having at least a rough plan felt important — even if it was clear that we would inevitably deviate from it. After all, abandoned places have a habit of pulling you in unexpected directions.

Our exploration began in the large dining hall and the adjoining kitchen. From there, we moved on to the sports hall, discovered a small theater, and eventually stood in front of the well-known mural of Plotbot Ken. In another building, we unexpectedly came across yet another small theater, complete with stage and rows of seating — one of those quiet finds that make places like this so compelling.

We then spent some time wandering through the outdoor areas. Even in the height of summer, the grounds carried a distinct, almost post-apocalyptic atmosphere that we wanted to capture in our photographs.

Throughout the entire visit, we were completely alone. No other explorers, no workers, no passersby. In the oppressive midday heat, even birds and insects seemed to fall silent. The stillness gave the place a strangely suspended feeling, as if time itself had slowed down.

With a long walk still ahead of us, we eventually had to leave some areas unexplored. Even so, it turned into a deeply atmospheric and rewarding tour through this vast and fascinating site.

According to my information, the airfield was declared an official redevelopment area in February of this year, and initial steps toward preparing the site have already begun. A provider of lost-place photo tours removed the airfield from its program in March, which suggests that change is imminent. Looking back, our visit in the summer of 2020 was most likely our last chance to experience this place in its abandoned state.

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

Bunker of the East German State Security S.

As our 2020 summer holiday slowly drew to an end, we still had a few places on our list—spots we’d been meaning to check out before heading home. Two of them were remnants of the Cold War, and we had arranged to meet our good friend Jürgen for a small exploration.

Our first destination that day was an unfinished bunker complex once planned for the Verwaltung Rückwärtige Dienste (Administration Support Services) of the East German Ministry for State Security (MfS, Stasi). Hidden in the forest near a former MfS holiday retreat, the bunker had been under construction since 1987, but work came to a halt after the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989.

We met Jürgen as planned at the access road of what is now a cluster of holiday apartments. From there, we continued on foot. After a short walk, we reached the old holiday facilities once used by Stasi employees. The buildings today are little more than gutted shells, yet it’s easy to understand why people would have spent their vacations here—the location, deep in the woods and right by a lake, is genuinely peaceful.

But the bunker was what we had come for, so we moved on. Another stretch through the forest brought us to a large hall made of corrugated metal panels. At first glance it looked like an ordinary warehouse—except for the fact that it stood alone in the middle of the woods.

Inside, at the southern end, we found a “building within a building” structure. Entering it led us to the mouth of a 65-meter access tunnel made of prefabricated concrete segments. The tunnel opened into one half of a connecting corridor belonging to a Type 1/15/V2 bunker - an installation usually intended as an alternate command site for central and district-level authorities. This particular bunker was the last of its kind ever started in the GDR, and it was never completed.

The interior was mostly empty. A basic lighting system had been installed, and the water storage tanks were already in place. A few crates with Cyrillic markings remained, presumably used during the construction phase, and all pressure- and gas-tight doors had been mounted. We also stumbled across some metal bed frames, though it’s hard to tell whether they were brought in during the build or dumped there later.

One thing that stood out was the lack of graffiti. For a place like this, the walls were surprisingly untouched. Maybe the site had stayed off the radar for years—or perhaps it had simply been secured better in the past.

We took our time exploring the corridors and chambers. Outside, temperatures were well above 35°C, and the bunker’s cool air made the visit even more pleasant. Eventually, we made our way back to the car, ready to move on to the next location on our route.

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