Monday 28 January 2008

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The Beelitz sanatorium, about one hour's train ride from Berlin, is today for a large part in a state of decay. A working hospital occupies some buildings, and a few others have been renovated and now house a museum, restaurants and residential homes, but many others have been abandoned since 1994.

The Beelitz TBC sanatorium was built between 1898 and 1930. During WWI and WWII the complex was used as a military hospital (in fact, Adolf Hitler spent a few weeks there in 1916). After WWII, during which some of the buildings were heavily damaged, the Soviet army declared the whole area a military exclusion zone, and from 1945 to 1994 the complex was the largest Soviet Army military hospital outside of the USSR.

The property owners went bankrupt in 2001, and questions about further use and renovation of the dilapidating buildings - all of them officially protected as historical landmarks - are on hold. Most of the abandoned buildings are very easy to enter, and while being a popular location for photographers like myself and film makers like Roman Polanski (The Pianist) or Bryan Singer (Valkyrie, starring Tom Cruise), the already heavily damaged structures are also victims of various forms of vandalism.

In 2007 the complex was bought by an investor who so far seems serious and reliable, and the buildings are slowly being restored.

Read more about the sanatorium.

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"Work"

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"Sportsman fighter"

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Sports hall.

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"We were here 12.05.94" - written in charcoal.

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Attic.

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Someone with a spray can had an opinion about this.

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A mattressed door with a nice lace curtain over the doorway.

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Still in the autopsy room - some other jokers wish people would clean up after themselves but ran out of paint, while a third set of jokers might have been inspired by crazy German washing products. (Glossary: sauber = clean, Bär = bear, Sau = sow, female pig)

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An autopsy table. Some jokers have left rags with red paint next to it.

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These used to be diagrams of various damages and illnesses to different organs and body parts.

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The kitchen next to the dining hall. Some joker has placed an assortment of dishes on the counter ... One of them was never meant for eating out of.

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Dining hall.

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Some hairy guy taking a photo of a sink that someone has thrown out of the window onto the roof. Here are the other photos by the hairy guy, Ilan, from this trip.

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From the newspaper The Soviet Army: "There is no higher duty"

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Pasted newspapers from the 1980's appear underneath the peeling paint.

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Moss.

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