Lucky for me, my friend Helle, who dropped by for a quick visit last week, had done her homework.
Helle had found this blog about abandoned places in and around Berlin, and decided on one we should visit. We’d actually planned on going when she was here back in February, but it was cold and we didn’t really want to be outdoors much, and now i am so glad we waited.
Now, i’ve been obsessed with reading about abandoned places for many years (this one is my ultimate dream), but i never thought i’d find one this magical in my own backyard.
Then again, i never expected my backyard to be Germany.
The place was an abandoned hospital and the area turned out to be huge.
The buildings were all locked, but just like i’ve always dreamed of doing, we snuck in through half broken basement windows and wandered through a playground of total decay.
Peeling wallpaper, furniture left behind, broken windows, birch trees growing on roofs, all these magical surroundings and beautiful buildings left to rot on their own.
You’d think the place was sad or even scary, some people have suggested that it’s haunted, but for some reason i wasn’t the least bit scared. I was probably too excited, and the weather was just too nice.
There were a few moments, when i was wandering off on my own up some stairs or into a dark basement, where i thought to myself: “you should be freaking the fuck out… this is the part of any horror movie where you start screaming at the TV that they’re all idiots for going off on their own somewhere so obviously full of ghosts and pure evil!”, and i’m sure that same thought occurred to Helle and Allan, but i guess we’re just really brave?
I’m only half kidding, you know.
I felt brave, and it felt good.
I felt like a kid climbing the tallest tree in the woods, or running away from home, if only for an afternoon.
One really great things about seeing this place, you know, besides the obvious awesomeness and being able to take pictures of it?
Knowing that the earth will be ok without us.
It’ll be better without us, and it’ll take very little time to heal itself once we’re out of the picture.
Birch trees growing on roofs.
It’s half sad, half reassuring, right?
Here are some of my favorite pictures from that day, unedited as always.
I have another few ones coming up from another film, but they didn’t turn out as good as these ones, so i hope you like these!
Could you please tell me where this is? I would appreciate it!
Maybe you'd like to take a look on my abandoned pictures: http://www.realitaetsbewusst.de/search/label/abandoned
Nice pictures!
This is beelitz-heilstätten, definitely worth a visit.
Ive been reading about the Bärenquell-Brauerei too, it looks like a cool place.
Soooooo amazing pictures!! Abandoned places are the best!, thanks for sharing, i totally want to go there when i get to Berlin next time
You must! Come by and see me first at the shop and i'll give you directions 🙂
OMG this is so awesome, really made for some gorgeous photos! That one sign above the door seems to be in Russian?
Yes, there was a bunch of stuff in Russian, old newspapers too!
First of all it's nice to see you back on the blog again! The new place looks a.m.a.z.i.n.g. it must be so much fun to have so much space to play with. Can't wait to see more pictures!
I also love to see nature slowly taking over old man-made places. I don't find it sad in the least, it's kinda (morbidly) fun to think about how the world will look once we are all long gone. You might enjoy this link:
http://pinktentacle.com/2010/08/post-apocalyptic-tokyo-scenery/
The title kinda says it all really…
The pictures of the hospital are cool, the pigeon thing, not so cool. I can't understand how they couldn't get them out, isn't illegal to seal helpless critters into walls?!
kx
Thanks, it's really great to be blogging again!
I love those illustrations. There's a tv show called The World Without Us (i think) that you might wanna check out.
I don't know what the law is here, so i don't know if it's illegal or not. It should be.
But they did try. It's just a really dark, narrow space, easy for a pigeon to get into, but hard for humans lying on a roof to reach. Doesn't make it any easier to think about, though.
that hospital is beautiful: i'd love to live there! it's not scary looking at all to me, more romantic? is that weird? maybe it's the lighting. it's kind of dreamy
I guess you've probably been there already, maybe even wrote about it (sorry i'm behind on my reading!) but have you seen the spreepark? I've read that it's being developed so it might not even be abandoned anymore but it still looks pretty cool.
i'm also so sad and sorry to hear about the pigeons. poor little guys
I agree, dreamy and romantic is just what it was!
I haven't written anything on the spreepark, so you didn't miss anything, but i do plan on going there soon. As far as i know it's still abandoned, but it's supposed to be a little trickier cause there's a guard patrolling the area.
I'll keep you updated!
And thanks, i'm still really upset about the pigeons.