Tour Report: Underground Junkers Factory

Continuing our tour in May of 2019, we left the abandoned "Sanatorium Hydro" to explore a place that played a part in Germany's arms industry during World War II.

Since 1943, the Nazi government had decided to relocate war-related factories underground. The companies found space mostly in old mines, railway tunnels, caverns or in newly created tunnels.

The manufacture of wings for the Ju 88 night fighter and the partial manufacture of cells for the Ju 88 and Ju 162 were among the production facilities that were relocated underground for bomb-proof production. They were relocated into a cave system in the Harz mountains that was previously used for beer storage by a restaurant in the nearby city.

We parked the car and started walking the path that took us up the hill until we reached a fence surrounding a (possibly) vacation home. There was an open door through which we could see a small entrance into the rocky wall of the mountain. We didn't know if the buildings were still in operation - it looked like the lawn was mown regularly - so we only took a quick peek. Behind the small entrance was access into the mountain, but we didn't see any way further in. So we retreated from the garden and made our way a little further up until we reached the second part of the cave system. It was wide open and easily accessible.

The day was warm, but upon entering, cool air surrounded us, which was very pleasant after the long and exhausting ascent.

Exploring places like this always is a bit ambivalent for me. On the one hand, almost 80 years ago, forced labor was used to prepare these places for production and for the production itself - so after all, the place is a place of terrible human suffering.

On the other hand, if you don't know about its history, the cave nowadays is just that - a cave, and a beautiful and exciting location to explore.

We didn't find any real relics from World War II - only a few brick walls and remains of steel beams tell the story of this cave as a war factory. When we had checked all rooms of the cave, we spent a little time flooding the place with lights of various colors - something that I had not tried before. The photos came out quite okay, I think.

I do hope that I will have the chance to explore the other parts of the cave system in the future - after all, this exploration is still incomplete ;)

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: Prison of the Navy

In May of 2019, we got the chance to legally explore a historically significant building in my hometown: The abandoned former prison of the Navy. It was built in the early 20th century and used as a prison until after World War II. Many delinquents waited in one of the narrow cells for the transport to the local shooting range - to be executed.

The association that takes care of many of the old Navy buildings in the area organized an exhibition a few years ago, and I had the pleasure to contribute a few photos from the abandoned former military hospital, so I was able to establish some contacts which I used to get permission to explore the old prison.

I met up with my good friends Pixelcracker and Lost Places in Schleswig-Holstein und Umland at the parking lot right across the building, and we only had to wait a few minutes until the president of the cultural association drove up to us and nonchalantly handed the prison keys over through the car window.

The building is abandoned, but had been used a year earlier to stage a play about the Kiel sailor uprising of 1918, and some of the stuff had not been cleaned out yet, so in terms of photography, the place was a nice mixture of a little decay, long hallways, old furniture and historical "gimmicks", such as posters, cartoons, etc.

Since we had permission to be there, we wee able to take our time without the risk of being caught, and we did. We checked out every room on every floor and took a lot of photos - not forgetting that for the first 40 years of the 20th century, this must have been one of the most feared places in the city...

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