Tour Report: Brick Factory "City Forest"

At the end of March 2021, we visited a dear friend in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Naturally, we took the opportunity to explore a few abandoned sites in the surrounding area.

Our first destination was an abandoned brickworks, about an hour's drive from our friend's home.

The region has a long tradition of brickmaking, thanks to its rich natural clay deposits. Clay has been extracted here since as early as the beginning of the 13th century, and the brickworks itself can trace its history back to around the 16th century. Its heyday came much later, towards the end of the 19th century, when industrialisation transformed brick production on a much larger scale.

Over the decades that followed, the works grew into a sizeable industrial operation. Like many brickworks, it relied not only on the clay pits surrounding the factory, but also on a narrow-gauge field railway to move raw materials and bricks around the site. Some of the locomotives once used here survived long after the works themselves had fallen silent.

After the end of the GDR in 1990, the brickworks finally closed. In the years that followed, some parts of the site were given new uses, but most of it was simply abandoned and left to decay.

When we reached the former factory grounds, our first task was to find somewhere to park. Fortunately, this proved surprisingly easy. Parts of the surrounding area are used for recreational activities—there is even a climbing park in the nearby forest—and consequently, there are several parking areas in the vicinity.

From where we left the car, we only had to follow a small path through the woods. Before long, the remains of the old works appeared between the trees.

There were a few concrete barriers intended to prevent vehicles from entering, but there was no real fence or continuous perimeter anymore. The site had, quite literally, been left open to the forest—and to anyone willing to walk in.

The factory buildings were in a sorry state.

Some structures, including the old ring kiln, had been completely demolished, while others had only partially survived. Judging by what remained, we suspected that at least some of the old bricks had been salvaged and reused as building material elsewhere in the surrounding area. There was something strangely fitting about that: bricks that had once left this place by the millions were now becoming part of something new, while the factory that had produced them slowly disappeared.

In some places, we were slightly puzzled by the condition of the site. Certain areas looked as though someone had actually cleared them out. After I later came across photographs taken in early 2019, I began to suspect there might be an explanation.

In February 2019, a 14-year-old girl was seriously injured in an accident on the abandoned site. I suspect that the rescue operation and the investigations that followed may have resulted in certain hazardous materials being removed. In particular, asbestos-containing debris that was clearly visible in some of the older photographs was nowhere to be seen during our visit.

The further we ventured into the former works, the more obvious its decline became.

Many of the roofs had collapsed. Machinery and technical equipment had largely vanished, leaving behind little more than fragments of the industrial infrastructure. Walls stood without buildings, buildings stood without roofs, and in places it was difficult to tell where the factory ended and the forest began.

Nature was steadily reclaiming everything.

Fortunately, spring had not quite arrived yet. The trees were still mostly bare and the undergrowth had not yet awakened, which made exploring the site considerably easier. A few weeks later, the same paths would probably have disappeared beneath a wall of thorny vegetation.

Despite the destruction, there were still plenty of fascinating details to discover. The remains of the old production facilities, fragments of brickwork and concrete, and the traces of a once-busy industrial complex offered occasional glimpses into what this place must have looked like when it was still operating.

Some of the surviving structures were difficult to identify with any certainty. Decades of decay, demolition and vegetation had erased much of the original layout, leaving us to piece together the function of individual buildings from whatever clues remained.

One particularly intriguing structure stood on the southernmost edge of the surviving site. Raised above the ground on a massive concrete framework, it looked almost more like a bridge than a building. At first glance, I wondered whether it might have been connected with loading or the dispatch of finished bricks.

It was only later that I learned that the structure had apparently been used as a drying shed during the later years of the brickworks. Its elevated, open construction makes considerably more sense in that context: fresh bricks needed plenty of air circulation before they could be fired. The field railway may well have played a role in moving the bricks to and from structures such as this one, although by now the tracks themselves have almost completely disappeared.

It was fascinating to stand among these remains and imagine the activity that once filled the place. Where we found weeds, fallen leaves and silence, there would once have been the constant movement of workers, machinery and small railway locomotives, with freshly moulded bricks passing through the various stages of production before eventually leaving the works.

By the time we visited, almost all of that had vanished.

Still, there were enough traces left to make the exploration worthwhile. We tried to look at everything that was still accessible, even though much of the site had already disappeared beneath the advancing vegetation and decades of neglect.

And then, towards the end of our exploration, the weather decided to make things a little more atmospheric.

A steady rain began to fall.

By that point we were already wet, a bit tired and partially covered in whatever dirt the abandoned brickworks had managed to throw at us, so to speak. So we made our way back through the trees, leaving the ruins behind us in the rain.

Another forgotten industrial site, slowly returning to the forest.

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

Tour Report: Brick Factory P.

On our way home from Hotel Gutsmann, we still had a little time to spare, so we decided to make a short detour to the ruins of an old brickworks.

We had already visited the site back in 2013, but it's always fascinating to see what time and the elements have done to an abandoned building. The extra stop also gave us the perfect excuse for another walk through the snow-covered winter landscape.

About forty minutes later, we arrived and parked our car beside a vast, snow-white field. The deep blue sky, the untouched blanket of snow, and the crisp winter air created a truly beautiful atmosphere.

From our parking spot, it was only a short walk to the old brickworks - although by then, very little of it remained.

Even in 2013, the buildings had already been in a severely dilapidated state, which was hardly surprising 45 years after the fire that marked the end of the brickworks. Another eight years later, after well over half a century of abandonment, even less of the original structure has survived.

What did surprise me, however, was that the tall chimney was still standing after all those years, and that parts of the main building continued to withstand the relentless forces of nature.

The tree that had grown through the front bumper and radiator grille of a delivery van - left behind decades ago by a former furniture store from Lübeck - had grown even larger since our first visit. 

Scattered across the site were still countless remnants of old machinery, slowly being reclaimed by time. We spent a good forty-five minutes trudging through the snow, exploring every corner of the abandoned site before finally setting off for home - for real this time.

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

Tou Report: Brick Factory "Dusty Stuff"

After exploring only one location on New Year’s Day, we decided to slowly raise the bar and visit two spots the following day.

We had picked out an abandoned brick factory and a former Soviet communications bunker. The brickworks would be our first destination.

After a drive of a little over half an hour, we arrived at the site and started looking for a place to park. There were no nearby residential areas, no public parking spaces, and the village itself was some distance away, so we decided to simply leave the car on an unused field opposite the property.

The brickworks was not fenced off, and judging by the overgrown vegetation, nobody had been there in quite some time. The first building we came across was the former owner’s house. At the time of our visit, it was completely boarded up and securely locked, with no obvious way inside. We didn’t bother trying any further and moved on.

Next, we started exploring the factory buildings themselves - and what we found left us genuinely surprised. There was no vandalism, no graffiti, and hardly any signs of previous explorers. Instead, the site was still filled with countless small remnants of both business and private life. We found tools, booklets containing industrial production guidelines from the former GDR, medicine packaging, furniture, and even a few old machines. Many of the documents dated back to the 1950s.

Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust, which is why I later gave this place the nickname “Dusty Stuff.”

From a photography perspective, the location had a few nice highlights, though nothing particularly spectacular unless you were interested in digging through the many documents and details scattered throughout the buildings.

Still, we spent quite a while inside the old brickworks. Before leaving, we walked once more through the ring kiln, then made our way back to the car.

To our surprise, the shepherd had arrived in the meantime. He kept his sheep on a nearby field right next to where we had parked. As expected, he didn’t look particularly pleased to see us coming from the abandoned factory, though he didn’t say anything. We greeted him politely as always, and he simply grumbled a brief “Good day” in return. At least he didn’t start asking uncomfortable questions, so we quickly loaded our gear into the car and headed off toward the next location.

And there, another encounter was already waiting for us — but more on that later...

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: The Halls of Carpets [Revisit]

In June 2020, we met up with two very good friends for a little exploring. We thought that it would be nice to pay a revisit to the abandoned carpet factory that we had first explored about a year before. At the time, we hadn't seen everything, because at some point, someone started driving around the premises with a black van, and we didn't know if it was the owner or copper thieves or a security service, so we decided to cut our visit a bit short.

Little did we know that we were going to come across that black van again during our second visit...but one thing at a time.

We met up with our friends Katto and Marco late in the morning. The parking place that we had used the first time was occupied, so we had to look for another one, and we did find one a little farther away, which was okay, because we didn't want to arise an suspicion.

We had first planned to use the access that we had found the first time, but unfortunately that ladder that allowed uns to climb over the wall was gone. So we had to find another way in. Around the side of the premises we found a construction fence through which we could easily enter the site.

From there, we made our way through the huge halls of the once flourishing carpet factory. The architecture had lost none of its appeal for me the second time around, so I really enjoyed this exploration. What's more, we found some areas that had eluded us on our first visit, but which we were able to see at our leisure this time, such as the administration building and the water treatment plant.

As we were examining the latter, the black van suddenly drove up, a door opened and a dog jumped out and ran into the building barking.

Regardless of the situation, it was a funny sight: We had hidden to the side of the hallway to avoid being spotted immediately, and the dog didn't manage to stop due to extremely slippery tiles on the floor. So he then slid on all fours down the corridor into the next room, struggling to stop as he saw us standing right there. It wasn't an aggressive dog, he was just sent in by his owner to scare us.

Of course, we went out, because obviously we had been seen, and we have made it our policy to never run away, but to approach people and be friendly.

The driver of the van was friendly as well. He asked us if we were just taking photos, which we confirmed. He was fine with that and allowed us to go on. He also asked us how we got on the premises and asked us to please close the access when we left.

This situation shows once again that if you are friendly and don't make extra work for people by running away, you usually don't have a negative experience, but on the contrary often even get permission to continue with your exploration.

So we continued our exploration for another hour or so, before we left the place on the same way he had entered it - and of course, we closed the conctruction fence after we left.

To find out a bit more about the history of the place and to check out all the photos, click the button below.

Tour Report: Peenemünde Power Station

This decommissioned power plant on the island of Usedom is not an abandoned place. It is a museum. The power plant was built to supply the nearby oxygen factory with enough electricity to produce the fuel for Germany's A4 (V2) rockets. It is the last remaining complete building of the Peenemünde testing facilities and conveys the industrial character of work within the armaments projects. The entire building is designed as a freely accessible monument.

On a beautiful day in June 2020, we drove to the island together with a friend who does not partake in the hobby of urban exploration, but does have a historical interest. In the way, we made a short stop at the ruin of the oxygen factory, only to find out that it wasn't accessible anymore. It would have been nice to have another look at it, but this way, we got to the museum pretty shortly after it opened that day.

A short path leads from the parking lot to the power plant site. Among other things, a V1 (flying bomb) and a V2 are on display on the forecourt. You can also take a look at a few wagons from the former factory railroad.

Upon entering the museum, we were almost completely alone in the huge halls of the old power station, which was a blessing, because I could take photos using a tripod without people walking around in the scene. We took the opportunity and explored every accessible area of the main building before exiting again and checking out the technical building.

As the museum was populated by more and more visitors, we took some time to look at the exhibits in the outdoor area before walking over to the harbor to check out the old Juliet-Class Soviet submarine.

This was a really nice day with sunny skies, warm weather and - contrary to most of our other explorations - without the risk of getting caught by security.

To find out a bit more about the history of the place and to check out all the photos, click the button below.