Tour Report: Vacation Camp "Beds of Decay"

I have to say: in terms of decay, this abandoned vacation camp was a real hit. We hadn't even planned to visit - in fact, we didn't even know this place existed. We had met two people at the location we had visited first that day, got talking to them and they gave us the tip to visit this vacation camp.

The route there wasn't really far, which suited us well, as we had spent a lot of time in the old foundry and didn't want to spend too much time on the road given the still short daylight hours. 

We were on site in just 15 minutes. However, the search for a parking space proved to be somewhat difficult, as there were almost none. The residential area only offered enough space for - the residents. So we had to search a bit until we found a parking space, and we had to walk a few minutes to get to the old vacation camp.

The camp is located in the middle of a residential area. There are residential buildings to the north, south and west, and the eastern area is almost impassable due to the forest and dense vegetation.

It was therefore virtually impossible to enter the site without the risk of being discovered by the neighbors.

So we did what we usually do: find an entrance and go in. The outside area of the camp was so big that we would be seen anyway. 

There was an “open” path onto the site and we just walked straight into it.

There were several small cabins and a larger communal building with a large kitchen. First we looked around the huts. The long vacancy in combination with the rather light construction of the huts had caused some fantastic decay. There was hardly any vandalism - probably due to the location in the middle of the residential area.

Even pillows and blankets were still available on the double bunk beds - but no longer recommended for an overnight stay ;)

In the outdoor area we found the obligatory concrete table tennis table, which we felt existed in every GDR vacation camp. Time had covered it with a beautiful carpet of moss.

Unfortunately, the communal building no longer lived up to the promise of the other buildings - one part had already collapsed, the vandals had already struck, and the local teenagers seemed to be using the building as a substitute for a club.

As we left the property, we saw a neighbor watching us from the property across the street. We greeted him kindly and politely, and he asked if we had taken any photos, to which we replied in the affirmative. We struck up a conversation with him and he was at least able to tell us that the vacation camp belonged to a large leather factory in Saxony-Anhalt. Unfortunately, as he wasn't from the area himself, he couldn't tell us much more. Nevertheless, it was a very nice conversation, which once again showed that openness and friendliness usually go a long way. 

After this positive conclusion to our exploration, we made our way back to the hotel to get going again in good time so that we wouldn't have so much trouble finding a restaurant that day...

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

Tour Report: Recreation Home "Mountain View"

Somewhere in the Saxon hill country near the Czech border rises a mountain on which a remarkable building between tradition and modernity was erected. It was built in the late 1920s and served first as a recreation home for the workers' youth, later as a camp for the "Bund Deutscher Mädel" and in GDR times as an SED party school.

We had decided to pay a visit to the building during our summer vacation 2019 because of its striking architecture.

However, getting there was not as easy as we had imagined. A lot of construction sites and closed roads and paths prevented us from taking the direct route to the site, so we ended up taking almost an hour longer than planned.

Eventually we did arrive, and in the absence of a normal parking space, we parked the car at the edge of the field next door.

The grounds and buildings were wide open, so we didn't have to overcome any other obstacles as we explored.

Even though there was no longer any furnishings and the building looked as if it had been at least partially gutted in the course of construction preparations, we could sense its former glory: The main entrance is reminiscent of a festival hall, there is a high, impressive festival room with a stage, and large panoramic windows and other elements have a strong reference to the surrounding landscape.

After exploring all the rooms, we went back to the car, packed up our gear, and discussed which way back would be best given the problems on the way there.

The end of the story was that Birthe uttered the magic words "Then I'm a construction vehicle!" and took the short route directly across the construction site. Luckily it was the weekend and there were no construction workers on the road :)

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

Tour Report: Hotel "Porphyrite"

After exploring a cave the day before and having to walk a really long way for that, we decided that we wanted a location with a parking spot not too far away to start out the following day. And so we went to check the map and the list of potential objects I had made, and we did find a nice spot.

The old abandoned hotel is located nicely near a public parking lot and right next to a hiking path, which was a nice way not to look suspicious walking around the abandoned building with backpacks and tripods.

The weather was on our side as well - just as we arrived, it started raining, so there weren't too many hikers. We parked the car, got our gear together and waited until there were no more hikers in sight. Then we "hiked" up to the hotel, and I tried the door. It was open.

Upon entering, we didn't really feel safe. A part of the hotel is massively deteriorating. Some floors are beginning to collapse on the floors below them. The other part is in surprisingly good condition, and although you can see that many "interior decorators" had their way with the rooms, there is not much vandalism.

We took our time to explore all the rooms that we could access. Due to the heavy decay however, some rooms remained off limits for us. There may have been another way into that part from the outside, but there were workers on the property next door, so we refrained from trying that.

When we were finished, I made a short video (link below), and we went back to the car to drive to the next location.

To find out about the history of this place and to check out more galleries from abandoned places, click the button below.

Tour Report: Anti-Aircraft Shooting Range

After exploring the command post bunker, another abandoned military installation was the second destination on the first of two days of our short tour through the northeastern part of Germany back in January of 2018. We had actually planned this spot only for one special relic that we'd seen photos of, but in the course of the research, it turned out to be part of a far larger area with many relics that point to a vivid history over the past century.
As we arrived at the place, we found one thing to be very obvious: fences.
The entire place seemed to be fenced in. And we could see trucks and people working on the premises.
I'm sure that there would have been possibilities to enter the area by sneaking through the forest looking for a hole in the fence, but since at least part of the place seemed to be in use by someone, we decided not to take the risk and attempt a different approach.
We rang the bell at a house near the main gate of the area. A woman opened up, and as we confronted her with our desire to explore the area, she surprisingly said yes - under certain conditions.
She allowed us to walk around in the front part of the premises, if we didn't bother the people working in the back of the place.
Luckily, the permitted part contained the "special relic" that I mentioned above so that the main goal could be achieved.
This special relic are the remains of an old anti-aircraft cannon that probably dates back to World War II, but it could also be a leftover from the use by the East German military; there is no real information.
I addition to the cannon, there were also some smaller buildings and shelters to be found - the main ammunition bunkers remained out of our reach - but we were informed that there might be the possibility of a visit if we ask in time before we get there...so there might be another visit in the future :)


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

Tour Report: Command Post W43 [Revisit]

A little more than two months after my wife and I had discovered the abandoned command bunker in the woods, we returned to this place.
We were a crew of four explorers, and only my wife and I had visited this bunker - on a dark and rainy day and with no tripod for the camera, so it was only logical to return and check this place out one more time.
The good thing was that we didn't have to look for the bunker anymore, because we'd already found it and marked the coordinates on my GPS.
As I've said, there were four of us. Our friends Norgriller Urbex and North Urbex joined us for a large portion of our tour. This bunker was our first spot for the weekend, and we met up at the parking spot that my wife and I had identified as perfect during our first visit.
The weather wasn't perfect, but at least, it wasn't raining. Since we'd saved the coordinates, we didn't have to roam through the forest for one and a half hours, but we took the way that was little bit longer to get a look at the entire area. There are a few more buildings surrounding the main bunker - nothing noteworthy, but interesting in the context.

As you may have seen in my previous post about this place, the bunker isn't really big, so the exploration itself didn't take too long, and since we had one more location planned for the day and a reservation for dinner that evening, we didn't linger around longer than necessary.


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

Here's a video we made of our tour - you will see more than the bunker in this post, because it was a two-day tour:

And here are the photos from our explore: