Tinet in Beelitz Heilstätten

Introduction

2009-01-06T15:42:00.000+01:00

This is a small gallery of photos from my trips into abandoned buildings. As you can probably guess by the places I've visited I live in Berlin.

The cameras I've used are my Olympus C-765 and, on one trip, a Nikon E8400 (easily discernible by the wider angle). An indisposable tool in these conditions is my cheap aluminium tripod (a gift from my dear sister).

Links:

My other photos, on Flickr
The photos of Ilan, my frequent companion on these trips (aka "some hairy guy")

Abandoned summer house in Orust, Sweden

2009-01-06T15:14:00.004+01:00

From where my mum lives in the middle of the woods, it's an hour's walk down the hills and through the forests to a small supermarket. Not far from the store you walk along a road on a steep hill with numerous summer houses. One of them has been abandoned for a couple of years now.

When Ilan and I passed it by the other day we went to take some photos from outside. I don't know what that curtain on the roof is for.

"Ice flowers" formed by the frost on the cold window panes.

Something has been dragged in front of the back door to block it. The inner roof seems to have partly fallen down.

Some hairy guy taking frosty photos. Note the shower contraption in the corner.

It's still a decent house on a very good location (maybe 2 km from the sea, with a fairly nice view), so I hope the proprietors get their act together and sell it or fix it up themselves before it's too late. Time is running out for this building.

Kinderkrankenhaus Weißensee: Main building

2008-10-06T19:16:00.004+02:00

The children's hospital in Berlin-Weißensee was opened in 1911, and closed 1992. It was the first communal childen's hospital in Prussia, and in its early years, until 1920, it had its own cow stables for producing high quality milk for babies in need of breast milk substitute, and also for "milk therapy" for older children.

Since 2005 the complex is privately owned, and an investor is/was supposedly going to build a center for cancer research there. However, the old hospital remains abandoned and is falling further apart each day.

Impressions from the main building:

The wallpaper has a cute pattern suitable for a children's hospital.

Ilan has a nice photo of the red ceiling, though he artsy-snobbishly labels it as "commercial", and is fearfully awaiting Flickr comments like "AWESOME!".

Pressing the camera against the wall in the staircase ...

The graffiti in this room looks really evil.

The roof is falling apart. In the attic, there were some chocolate and soft drink packages as well as empty (to be used for marijuana) or unsmoked but flattened by rain cigarettes. Young people have obviously been using it for a romantic hanging out space.

When we compared photos afterwards, it turned out that both Ilan and I had felt the irresistible urge to climb this ladder and take photos of the higher attic up there in the tower. But in the end my photos didn't turn out to be very interesting ...

Looking at the tower through a window in the attic.

This is probably the in my personal opinion nicest graffiti I have seen in any abandoned building. A lot of it is just unartistic vandalism, anyway.

There should be more oval windows in buildings.

Kinderkrankenhaus Weißensee: New building

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This part was added to the complex in the 1980's. Each floor consists of two corridors of patient rooms, built in a kind of panopticon system - there are windows between each room and the nurses could overlook them all from a central position. There are also individual windows from the corridors into the bathrooms, but at "grown-up" level.
I guess that in a children's hospital surveillance was more important than the patients' privacy.

Ilan uploaded a photo with the windows between the patient rooms. We both took photos of this same view using his camera (my camera's batteries had run out by then ... ;_;), but we forgot who took which photo, so there is a possibility that it's taken by me.

The balcony outside the rooms on the second floor, taken with Ilan's camera.

Kinderkrankenhaus Weißensee: Small southwest building

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There is a small building to the southwest of the complex, with half-timbered elements.
The side entrance is to a staircase that leads to a single room and also the attic of the building.

There is still some furniture in the room. What are these small yellow pearls that are lying around everywhere? Rat poison??

The attic.

Some hairy guy in the attic.
The roof has blown off completely, and lies now scattered across the yard. It's a sad sight ...

Downstairs, accessible through the main entrance, is a series of rooms.

Ilan took it upon himself to take a photo of this chandelier using the tripod ... It's a lot less blurry than mine. Whee!

Kinderkrankenhaus Weißensee: The big building to the west

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All the heating and other facilities used to be here. There are several different parts with different functions joined into this one building.

Slightly dubious German skills:

There is still a key here. I didn't check if it really fits this particular lock.

Another blurry photo, from a room with a very nice wallpaper.

I wonder who designed it. It occurs here and there in some other rooms in this building, as well.

The same view, but with more light and colour:

There is a lot of mold here.

Somehow quite a lot of the peeling wallpapers with fun patterns are yellow. Makes me think of The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman ...

I guess no one has answered the phone around here for a long time now.

We actually forgot to enter the smaller building that is closest to the street. It looks really beautiful from the outside.

Here are Ilan's photos from the same trip, among them quite a few exterior shots.

Special report: Carabanchel prison, Madrid

2008-08-20T15:33:00.007+02:00

I apologise for the fact that many of the photos are not of very good quality (it's mainly because I did not bring my tripod on this trip).

--

This summer Ilan and I made a little trip around the Iberian Peninsula (Lisbon, Madrid and Córdoba). We flew with Vueling from Lisbon to Madrid (it was by far the cheapest option), and in their inflight magazine Ling, of all places, we found out about the Carabanchel prison. The magazine had a tiny little notice within a silly feature about "interesting locations for picknicks".

Of course, we had to check it out. Ling had featured a little map of the area, with the metro station Carabanchel (line 5) marked out. On July 23rd we took the metro there, headed northwest of the station according to the map, and kind of followed our insticts. We walked on, past the next station on the same metro line (Eugenia de Montijo), through a somewhat rough park, past a churchyard, and then we saw a high red brick wall. What we could discern behind the wall looked very much like a prison, and very abandoned. We walked around the wall and came to a sports ground. There was a chainlink fence separating it from the prison complex.

Shots through the chainlink fence.

In front of the yellow building there was a kind of basketball court, now covered with wads of barbed wire.

We found holes in the fence, so we entered.

The yard was pretty much being used as a garbage dump.

First we went to check out the yellow building.
It was full of shit. Especially the ground floor was apparently being used as a public toilet.
The second floor was not that bad, though.

But it was rather dangerous. This broken glass pane was waving in the breeze:

Since this used to be a prison, all this aggression against its structures is quite understandable.

There is some amazing art there. This artist has been using the structures very creatively. This is only one of several works by the same artist. Ilan has some more (here, among all his other photos from the trip).

Another nice piece of art.

Files.

Flies.

The spider already broke off.

After exploring the yellow building we walked along the wall.

A couple of families have set up their homes in the ward houses outside the complex. They gave us slightly suspicious looks, but we were respectful to them and didn't bother them, and they did not bother us. A lot of people come to visit the prison, so I guess they are used to it.

Inside the prison gate there are *really* big heaps of garbage.

"R.I.P. - Alejandro aka Sandro - Oscar aka Biti - Siempre en nuestro corazón"
As I later found out, this graffiti was painted especially for a music video that was shot in the prison. The guys are friends of the artist, and they are really dead, but they didn't die in this prison.

The perimeter.

On the ground floor of that part, there was a heavy fire at some point.

Weird patterns in the soot - was someone beating a rope against the ceiling here?

At least the prisoners got a little bit of privacy with the walls in front of the toilets.

Unfortunately part of this statement has been destroyed. What it says is:
"[I am?] condemned [...] kill [...] and assassinate [...] a crime [...] a man and [...] a state."

Close-up on the werewolf graffiti:

The main wings of the prison are connected in the middle with a huge dome, from where the wardens could control all of them.

The wing on the right was never finished, but the rest of the prison was in use for 44 years, as I later found out.

Ilan insisted that since neither of us had health insurance, we shouldn't climb these stairs. :o(

Big-mouthed monster.

"Merry Christmas and the best of the best for '95!"
"The poorer currency with which you can pay your friends is advice; the only good currency is help.
Regards to all, and special greetings to Carlos.
Chao
your brother Manolo"

Some hairy guy whom I made pose for me. Of course, the composition is not the greatest - Ilan's nose is right on the line of the roof.

The dome from another wing.

That hairy guy again, in front of some very nice graffiti.

We were mostly interested in the structure itself, so we didn't explore all of the identical wings. But later on I realised that the prison is an amazing gallery of graffiti art. If you're in Madrid and get tired of all those old sexist Christian guys displayed at the Prado museum (though one can, of course, never, EVER, tire of Hieronymus Bosch), why not come to the Carabanchel prison to see some amazing contemporary art full of vibrant energy.
One of the many masterpieces that we missed is a reproduction of the great RanXerox. I don't know in what part of the prison it is, but criSis has a photo of it on Flickr.

We didn't know anything about the Carabanchel prison when we went there, but later on I read up on its history. It was built by political prisoners after the Spanish civil war, and was in use between 1944 and 1999. During Franco's regime it housed a large number of political prisoners. The capacity was 2000 male and 500 female prisoners.
Since its abandonment, there have been debates about what to do with it. The neighbourhood community wanted a hospital and other public facilities to be built in the area, and part of the prison to be preserved as a memorial to the struggle for democracy in Spain. But the authorities wanted to sell the land for development, and apparently the prison will be demolished already in October this year!
According to these plans, on the territory of the prison 650 apartments, a hospital, parks and offices will be built. Neighbourhood groups still fight for all of the area to be used for public facilities, and against the demolition of the whole prison.

Here is the blog of a neighbourhood action group (in Spanish).
The Carabanchel Prison Flickr group, with lots of interesting photos (but some boring fashion photoshoot pictures, too).

Back to Beelitz

2008-04-05T13:55:00.002+02:00

Last Thursday I made a second visit to the Beelitz sanatorium. I read in the papers that a somewhat trustworthy speculant has recently (finally) bought the sanatorium complex. It's a firm that has previously successfully renovated many properties in Potsdam. Until now, all potential Beelitz developers had gone bankrupt before having gotten anything done. Here's hoping that the old buildings will be restored with respect and love and put to new use in a constructive way that will be rewarding for the whole community.

Since the area will be off-limits once the restauration begins at some point in the future, I wanted to make sure that the first time I went there wasn't the last time. There were some buildings that we didn't visit back in January, and though we explored the surgery building, we somehow managed to miss the perhaps most interesting part - the operation rooms.

The hallway that leads to the operation rooms.

One of the most popular photoshooting locations in the complex ...

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Light

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Care was taken to ensure plenty of natural light in the surgery halls, with glass roofs and big windows facing north.

The old graffiti is peeling off the tiles

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Green, pink, blue, pink

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Blue corner

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Pig

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I refuse to believe that this graffiti is anything but a cubist pig. His eyes are two wall sockets. (There was a guy outside here doing something, but I think he didn't see me.)

The hallway again.

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Cabinets

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Blue OP

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Penis room.

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Some visitor was a little obsessed. The cracks in the paint on the wall outside almost look like flowers, in the same kind of random pattern as the penises inside. Beautiful!

Blue OP part two.

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This time I brought with me a slightly more professional camera that I got to borrow for a work project, because it has a blissfully wide angle compared to my own little Olympus.

Another of the top ten most popular photoshoot locations here

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Maybe I, too, should have made a self portrait seated on that sofa.

The staircase around the elevator shaft

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The elevator is stuck on the top floor. Maybe now it won't fall down before they get around to renovating the surgery building, after all. I'm a bit curious how exactly they'll dismantle it.

The elevator shaft

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Don't put your head inside it if you go there - just in case ...

3

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The sanatorium had a pretty self-sufficient food supply within the complex. They raised cattle and poultry and grew vegetables in greenhouses. This is most likely inside the pig death row ...
I didn't notice the number '3' when I took the photo, so I don't know if it was painted there, or if the paint has peeled in a funny way. In the original photo it looks more like it's peeled like that, but the glare makes it hard to tell for sure. Oh well.

Interior of one of the sheds

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A sofa, an armchair and a Soviet soldier's boot.

A burnt-out car in the farmyard

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I'm not sure from what era it is. There's a sink that someone has carried inside it for whatever reason, but it doesn't show from this angle.

Some electrical stuff on the wall of the pig house

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Greetings

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When entering, you soon realise that during the Soviet period, not only some Kazakhs, but many more of the soldiers and others stationed here left their greetings or "Kilroy was here"-marks in this building. This is a common tradition among Soviet Army soldiers - to write their names on some structure before they are demobilized.

Entry forbidden

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This is outside the one of the women's sanatorium buildings that has been heavily damaged since WWII. Already during the times as a Soviet military hospital, entry was forbidden (but technically not now, as there are no warning signs in German).
In black, it says "The building is heavily damaged - entry forbidden". In white, below, it says "Greetings to the countrymen from Kazakhstan - '76-'78".

Again, "Entry forbidden" in black, and in white, "Nurlan Kurlantai - Kaz. SSR"

Yurochka

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Usually, they've written their names and their hometowns, maybe with a date or a year. Here is someone from Moscow, Marif from Andizhan and Yura from Nevinomysk.
(Hey, I know a guy from Nevinomysk - but does he know Yura, I wonder?)

Deck chair

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In this building the weaker walls have mostly caved in, and have been reduced to rubble on the floors. Someone placed this deck chair in here next to a little table.

In the rubble

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Vaulted ceilings

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I'm curious what they'll do with this building. While being heavily damaged, most of the main frame is still intact, and it is utterly beautiful and well constructed. I hope they'll rebuild it.

Almost flowery

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The peeling paint has formed its own patterns in this wall.

Vadim and Sergei were here 1977

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Main entrance

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Outside, there are concrete letters forming the words "GUTEN TAG".

The dining hall, I'm guessing.

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The roof to that part caved in.

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Second floor.

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Interesting

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Nice graffiti covering the Soviet greetings.

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There seems to be more graffiti in this building than in the others.

"Depeche Karpaty" - Ukrainians?

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More nice graffiti art

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Colour

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Trees

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Third floor - there are trees growing here and there on the building. I feel a bit sorry for them when thinking of the future, when this will likely either be rebuilt or demolished.

Graffiti room

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There is another staircase to a fourth floor.

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Did I climb it? Sure I did.

But going into abandoned buildings is potentially very dangerous. There are serious risks of falling through floors, cutting yourself up on broken glass, having pieces of the roof fall on your head, stabbing yourself with rusty metal, etc. No one is keeping an eye on the state of the buildings and the things that are inside them, so you're entirely at your own risk. This particular building is very damaged, and when I looked at the roofs from the lower floors I wasn't sure if I wanted to go up there at all. But I was careful to stay close to the walls and tread very lightly.
So, do not attempt this. Let crazy (and lightweight) daredevils like myself bring you these views on photographs, and enjoy them safely at home.

I didn't go on this staircase.

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On the roof

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I left my tripod downstairs and climbed up those scary stairs, and on the roof, there is this water tank.

My common sense (albeit limited) kept me from going up the ladders to check out if you could see what is inside the tank, although now that I think about it, it might have been interesting. (*remembers the "Dark Water" comic book ...*)

Okay, down the stairs again ...

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The beautiful main staircase

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"Alma-Ata '91 autumn"

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Hallway

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In the women's sanatorium in the south-western part of the complex.

Panes

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The rude scribblings on the window panes look strangely beautiful.

Doorway

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Green staircase

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Windows

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Soft light

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Gaping holes

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This wall most likely didn't cave in by itself, but it was broken by humans. So unnecessary ...

Tower

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One of the buildings in the complex that have already been renovated is the heating works, which supplied the complex with power and made it entirely self-sufficient on that front. You can visit it in the summer. I have to say the tower looks somehow very ... potent.

The south-eastern section of the complex is off-limits now. There are signs pointing this out, and there were lots of local people around, so trespassing didn't cross my mind. It makes sense that they should begin the work there, since the most well-preserved building - the bath house - is there. It has been used as a location for a few films. In February we couldn't find any way to enter it, save for part of the basement and an inner yard, as it had apparently been bricked up quite well after the last film session with Tom Cruise.
This time I even brought my rock climbing shoes in case climbing the rain pipe from the inner yard to the second floor would seem doable, after all, but now that it's off-limits I didn't have to use them.

Colourful

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Since there were so many people around this section, I felt the urge to excuse myself by playing innocent tourist and making lots of photos of the buildings from the outside. (I'm sure some locals think it's a bit annoying how people come there, and I most certainly didn't want them to suspect I was a vandal or something ... ;_;)
At one point a gray-haired man caught up with me and started lamenting how they had let these amazing buildings decay, "after all the tax money we from the West have paid them" ... "These buildings are works of art! It hurts my heart", he said. "I'm a customs officer, you see!", he added.

Doorway

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The weather looked dull, so I considered going home, and walked around the train station a bit to pass the time until the next train would come.

Train station

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The station building is deserted and adorned with graffiti, like many other provincial station buildings in the former DDR today.

Cute

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But then, the sun suddenly came out, and I couldn't miss this opportunity, but headed back to the still wild and abandoned north-west section.
I passed by some cute graffiti on the ruined women's sanatorium building ...

The frame of a greenhouse, and a deck chair in front of it

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Sunlight inside the sheds

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Sunny accents on a graffiti painting

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Watch where you step!

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These guys were basking everywhere on the ground ...

Rusty

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Wrought-iron on the shed.

Yellow glass

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Sunshine and smiles over the broken yellow glass in a door to the other, still intact, women's sanatorium building in the north-west section.

Hallway

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Towards the dining hall.

Dining hall

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Revisited with a wider angle than last time.

Documents

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An office - the text on the shelf in the cupboard says "Documents from 1981"

Office chair

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Cornered.

Blue

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Staircase.

Obsessive writing on the tiles in this room

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A stretcher and a sink have found their way here somehow.

Peeking through

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This shot has been done hundreds of times already by other Beelitz photographers, but I couldn't resist it, either.

Probably my favourite room

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Revisited with a wider angle.

Rust

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Also in the room for cleaning medical utensils.

View

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From the toilets to a room with an unidentified function.

Yes

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Everything is broken.

Batman & Robin

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They broke that little fridge, maybe?

A safe and an issue of Pravda

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It's from 26th of October 1986.

Video

2008-01-30T15:16:00.000+01:00

In desperation about my camera's narrow angle, I also made some video footage of the sanatorium. I compiled it here and set it to the tunes of Би-2 - Кого ты ждешь ("The one you're waiting for"). I'm sorry if the music makes it a bit cheesy, but I didn't record any sound on the films, and it was a bit boring when it was all quiet.

January - 166

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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.

January - 165

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January - 164

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January - 163

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January - 162

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January - 161

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January - 156

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"Work"

January - 155

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"Sportsman fighter"

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January - 153

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Sports hall.

January - 150

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"We were here 12.05.94" - written in charcoal.

January - 148

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January - 147

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Attic.

January - 143

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January - 141

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Someone with a spray can had an opinion about this.

January - 138

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

January - 133

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