Tour Report: Children's Sanatorium "Helmut Just"

For my exploration of the former children’s sanatorium “Helmut Just” in Bad Frankenhausen in November 2020, we were incredibly lucky.

I knew that this abandoned building existed in the small town of Bad Frankenhausen/Kyffhäuser, but I had never consciously seen photos from inside. When we visited our dear friend Biggi at Der Schlittenhundehof in November 2020, we decided to take a small excursion - and the old sanatorium was our first destination.

To be completely honest, I didn’t expect us to get inside at all. As we drove along the road, I already spotted the tall stone wall surrounding the property. That didn’t look promising at all. All the more surprising, then, was the sight of the large gate leading onto the grounds standing wide open. Of course, we weren’t brazen enough to park directly on the property, so we drove a little further down the road and left the car there.

From there it was only a short walk back to the sanatorium. Slowly we passed through the gate and began looking around. There were cars parked in the courtyard, so it was safe to assume that people were on the premises. Then we noticed that the main entrance to the building was open.

An open door and potentially people inside - situations like this are, in my view, a perfect opportunity to ask for permission to look around. So I stepped through the door and called out loudly, “Hello!”

Two people came down the stairs almost immediately. After we politely introduced ourselves, they explained that the building was planned to be reused in the future and that they were currently checking whether protected bat species had chosen the old sanatorium as their habitat. Since we strongly support bat conservation ourselves - and, for example, never enter buildings during the winter months if they serve as hibernation sites - we apparently made a good impression.

We then asked whether it would be possible for us to take a quick look around and snap a few photos. To our surprise, we were given permission to move around the building until the conservationists left - which they expected would be in about half an hour.

We thanked them enthusiastically and immediately set off. Going back to the car to get our “proper” gear would have taken too long, so we rushed through the corridors and rooms armed with nothing but our phones. Time was short, and we wanted to see as much as possible. We didn’t manage to check out the basement or the attic - and I’m pretty sure this was the fastest exploration we’ve ever done!

The building was completely empty, but considering it had been abandoned for almost 30 years, the condition was remarkably good. There was hardly any vandalism at all, and the decay was relatively limited - probably due to the lack of vandalism and the fact that nearly all the windows were still intact.

This exploration was a real surprise, so with happiness in our hearts, we set off to explore the next location of the day!

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

Tour Report: Sanatorium "Crooked"

The collapsed roof with the three gable windows was a scene that I had wanted to photograph for a really long time, and after we had explored the knight's manor, the relative proximity gave us the opportunity to look for an entrance to the old sanatorium.

The site, picturesquely situated on the edge of a small forest, is bordered on the north and south by new residential development, which makes access from these sides almost impossible - or at least reckless.

So we looked for an appropriately secluded parking spot so as not to attract the suspicion of local residents. From there, we sneaked a little off the forest paths through the woods and finally found an area of the fence that had been trampled down and was even completely missing in parts.

From there, we entered the site nicely concealed, without being seen from the residential buildings.

One can still guess how beautiful this sanatorium with its park-like grounds must once have been; today, decay and a whole lot of graffiti dominate the scene in the old walls.

The green of summer and the yellow of the afternoon sun helped somewhat to overlook the graffiti, even though it was omnipresent.

The main subject, however, was just as spectacular as I had imagined. To me, it's a perfect picture of natural decay as it should look. The collapsed roof and the three gable windows that seem to be leaning against each other, working together to delay the impending collapse. The whole thing framed by a cloudy blue sky and green nature - it's still one of my favorite urbex scenes.

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

Tour Report: Sanatorium G.

As the second location in our summer vacation 2019 we had decided to visit the abandoned former sanatorium at the Grabowsee. It was conveniently located on the way between our first two accommodations, and we had planned to meet up with our friend Toeppi, who had also never visited the old sanatorium.

Toeppi had made an appointment with the sanatorium's leaseholder - a spontaneous visit is possible, but it can happen that one is then turned away - so we would not travel there for nothing.

We met at the appointed time at the entrance to the site and went in search of the overseer. A short phone call later he appeared to briefly explain to us which areas we were allowed to enter and which not - and so that we could pay the obligatory contribution. 

It is often a matter of principle - some people from the so-called "Urbex Scene" are convinced that only illegal entering is "real" Urbexing. I, on the other hand, enjoy the opportunity to explore a place undisturbed and with unlimited time and not having to worry about a security guard escorting me off the premises or being reported to the police.

It was a little weird in this case, because the area is partly inhabited by a kind of artist commune. There were "strange" people wandering around everywhere, sneaking through the buildings. We tried to avoid them as much as possible, and for the most part we succeeded.

The weather was moderate. It was a fairly warm day, but the sky was cloudy and it rained at times. Not heavily, but there were a few annoying little showers.

However, you don't let a little rain get in the way of an excursion - we took plenty of time to explore all areas as much as we could. The cellar was unfortunately not accessible due to work that was going on, but the rest of the facility was already worth the visit due to the great architecture. It took us several hours to see and photograph everything.

Afterwards, Toeppi went home, while we drove on to Potsdam to meet up with a couple of friends for a feudal dinner.

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

Tour Report: Sanatorium "Hydro"

It was a beautiful, warm day in May of 2019, and we met up with our friend North Urbex for a short tour of the beautiful mountains in Germany. The first part of our excursion took us to an abandoned sanatorium in a well-known spa town. Since we're always keen not to arise any suspicion, we didn't want to park right in front of the place, and looking at the map, there weren't too many possible parking spots near the location, so we decided to take the long way.

We parked about two kilometers away near the woods and had to walk for about twenty minutes until we arrived at the location. It was sunny and warm, and the springtime had taken care of a beautiful green and colorful flowers all around us, so it was a really nice walk.

Once we were at the sanatorium, getting in wasn't too hard. We just had to walk along the fence until we found an opening. Then across the small park and around the building - there was an open door. The smell of mold and humidity was oozing toward us and made us hope for various stages of decay.

We weren't disappointed. Although the vandals have had their go at the building and its interior, nature had done a beautiful job painting the place in beautiful colors. The windows were partly boarded up, and the vegetation around the building had grown pretty tall, so it was fairly dark inside, which added to the mysterious atmosphere.

We had the whole place completely to ourselves, and we took our time exploring every single room. This was one of these locations, where you really have to check everywhere to get to the good parts. There were even some instruments left, and a few rooms looked really nice - decorated, but nice! When we were finished, we walked back to the car and headed to the next spot.

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

Tour Report: Sanatorium J. [Revisit]

A short vacation in March of 2019 took us to the Harz Mountains to visit our friend Jens. On the morning after our first night, we had explored a small old original 1970s apartment, and in the afternoon, we returned to chop some wood for the next night and prepare the fire for the evening barbecue.

We decided, however, that there was still enough time to use the (admittedly bleak) afternon light to go for another quick tour of the old sanatorium on the site. The rain/snow had stopped, and even a few blue spots could be seen through the thick cover of clouds.

What I didn't know at that point was that the photos I took that day were the last ones I was going to take at this place for more than three years.

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