FLUGPLATZ BRAND [DE]

Exploration #216 Flugplatz Brand. Flugplatz Brand is an abandoned airbase about 50 km south of Berlin. Its construction started in 1938 for the Luftwaffe and in 1939, the airfield was equipped with a 1000 m long grass runway. It served as an operational airport and, until September 1944, as a training airfield for the pilot school. A school building was erected especially for the pilot training school.

The Soviet forces, who remained in Germany as occupation forces after the end of the Second World War, extended the small airfield in 1950/1951 by adding a 2500 m long concreted northern main runway. In 1958, another 2000 m runway was added as an auxiliary fighter runway. In later years, there was even a command post and a weapons warehouse that could be used to store nuclear aircraft bombers and MIG-17 as well.

The Soviet left the base and the buildings in 1990 and the site was transferred to German authorities. In 1998 the society CargoLifter bought the area and started dismantling the northern runway and built the most extensive unsupported hall in the world to construct cargo airships. After the insolvency of CargoLifter in 2002, the airship hangar was sold to an investor from Malaysia, who has been operating the amusement park “Tropical Islands” there since 2004. On the contrary the buildings are nowadays abandoned.

HAUS DER OFFIZIERE [DE]

Exploration #206 Haus Der Offiziere. Haus Der Offiziere, also known as the Forbidden City or Little Moscow, is a big abandoned military complex located in Wünsdorf, a small town not far from Berlin. The town was the headquarters of the Soviet forces in communist East Germany and was the largest military base in Europe. From 1994 it is abandoned.

The history of this place begins in 1910 when a military training camp and the Prussian military railway were built. The complex “Haus Der Offiziere” was built in 1914 as a military sports school. During first world war Wünsdorf became the headquarters of the Reichswehr, the German military. After the war the site was also used as a gymnastic training camp to take advantage of its facilities and during the race to 1936 Olympic games some of the Olympic team trained here.

Everything changed drastically in 1945 when the town was occupied by the Soviet army and the Germans surrendered without fighting. The soviets transformed Wünsdorf into a closed town which become the largest Soviet military camp outside of the Soviet Union. A daily delivery via a direct rail link from Moscow allowed the town to isolate itself from the surrounding areas, having its own shops, bakery, and hospital. In preparation for the construction of the Berlin wall Commander-in-Chief Marshall Ivan Konew organised the Soviet armoured protection for the project from here. The Haus Der Offiziere was certainly the best most elegant of town with leisure facilities such as a theatre and swimming pool and the locals were not allowed on site to enjoy the luxuries the Soviets had. A giant statue of Lenin stands was also erected in front of the central building.

Wünsdorf changed again in 1994 when the Soviets left the area and its population dropped from about 60.000 to 6.000 people. Many former Soviet buildings were left abandoned and are still up for sale.
Haus Der Offiziere was also abandoned but luckily it was preserved and today is guarded, waiting for future development projects. The statue of Lenin is still in its original position and it is one the few statue still surviving outside Russia.

If you like this exploration you can also have a look to others abandoned military sites in Germany: the CCCP pilot school, the abandoned soviet hospital.

PANZERKASERNE BERNAU [DE]

Exploration #16. This place was originally built to host part of the buildings of the Heeresbekleidungsamt, the central manufacturing site and depot for Military uniforms during Nazi period. It was constructed between 1939 and 1942 using reinforced and shatterproof concrete, with the exterior being covered in bricks. Its size and scale soon earned itself the nickname as “the Führers wardrobe”. The Germans used the buildings only for 3 years as the Soviets arrived in Bernau on April 1945.

Around 1946 the Soviet Red Army began shifting troops around, specifically the 1st mechanized Krasnogradsky Red Banner Corps.
Soviets left the Panzerkaserne Bernau between 1991 and 1993, but it took until 1997 for Bernau to receive back the ownership rights of the Panzerkaserne. Then, the huge buildings have been abandoned until 2016 the municipality decided to redevelop the 36 hectares into a new city district.

NATO STATION “IDGZ” [IT]

Exploration #110 NATO station IDGZ. We are in the middle of the Cold War. Everybody is spying. The NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) base, called in code “IDGZ”, was built for this very purpose at the Maniva, Dosso dei Galli. This station, which operated from 1969 to 1995, was connected in the north, in Troposcatter, to the German station of Feldberg by jumping with the Troposcatter signal over Switzerland, while in the south it was connected in microwave with the station of Monte Giogo.

The NATO station IDGZ was a central node in the chain of maximum security military radio communications between Europe and America. The signals also included 5 encrypted telephone channels used exclusively by the military leadership and the American President, called Hot Lines. The communication chain started from Turkey, the last bulwark of NATO placed in the espionage of the transmission of the former USSR and its satellite states, and passing through Greece, Italy, Germany, Norway, Greenland and Canada finally reached the United States. Almost all transmissions were carried out in Troposcatter signal, a transmission that used the troposphere as a vehicle for radio waves and avoided physical obstacles such as the Alps. This technology required the enormous Mickey Mouse ear antennas.

The base was built with thick reinforced concrete walls, was surrounded by barbed wire and was constantly watched over by soldiers and carabinieri from an armored garret on the roof. In addition, the military personnel of the Genio Trasmissioni were stationed on a flat time for the operation and maintenance of the equipment. During the winter months the station was isolated for a few weeks and supplies were carried out by Italian Army helicopters or snowcats. Technical note for the most engineers: the station was equipped with an innovative no-break system consisting of an electric motor-fly-dynamon which was constantly running and which would allow the operation of the electrical equipment for a few seconds (maximum 20 seconds) thus allowing the ignition of the powerful diesel alternators in case of power failure from the valley.

The end of the Cold War and the obsolescence of Troposcatter transmissions led to the closure of the base and the entire communication line. The base was emptied of all equipment by the military and then abandoned. Today it is now part of the panorama of the splendid valley and its “Mickey Mouse ears” antennas are still visible miles away.

SKRUNDA-1 [LV]

Exploration #71 Skrunda-1. Skrunda-1 is a special ghost town: during the period of activity it was a closed city and Soviet military base in Latvia. Skrunda-1 housed almost 5000 military, technicians and scientists (with related families) on duty at a radar station called in NATO slang “Hen House” (name deriving from the fact that it resembled a large chicken coop). It was one of the six radars built at the beginning of the Cold War in the peripheral areas of the then Soviet Union, capable of monitoring possible ballistic missile launches to Russia. The city was built in 1963 and had around 75 buildings spread over an area of more than 100 acres. The city was self-sufficient and inside there were schools, residences, a small hotel, a prison, places for leisure and bunkers.

The Russians left Latvia in 1994 but Skrunda-1 remained operational for a few more years. The city was finally emptied of all its valuable material and then abandoned by the Russians in 1998. The Latvians demolished the radar towers on the occasion of the exit of the Soviets, but the rest of the city was left abandoned in the middle of the forest.

In my urbex adventures I explored several ghost towns, but Skrunda-1 was a different experience. First of all, the vastness: we are not talking about a village but a real town with main roads and secondary avenues. Then the buildings: multi-storey apartment buildings, all the same in classic Soviet style that follow one after the other. Walking in these avenues was like experiencing the post-apocalyptic film scene. Inside, everything was devastated, but some small memories of the inhabitants remain, the ones that most impressed me, some small posters of some Russian teenagers who spent their childhood in Skrunda-1.

This exploration dates back to 2014. From 2016 it became an almost official tourist attraction and local authorities asked for an entrance ticket. Since 2018, however, the city has been under army control and is used for training and therefore unfortunately it can no longer be visited.

VICTORIA BARRACKS [DE]

Exploration #69 Victoria barracks. Victoria barracks was a military facility situated in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. From 1956 until 1970, the site was used by the Canadian Forces. The infrastructure was vast: two churches, a theatre, a bowling alley, garages, hangars, and accommodation for over 16,000 troops. From 1970 until 1994, the end of the Cold War, the soldiers of the British Army of the Rhine were stationed here.

Since 1994, the base is abandoned and slowly taken back by nature. Unfortunately we could stop only for a short time, but the place was worth to be explored longer. The site has been totally demolished in 2020-2021.

You could also check my explorations of other abandoned military sites: Haus Der Offiziere, Skrunda-1 ghost town.

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LIEPAJA NORTHERN FORTS [LV]

Exploration #68. The Northern Forts were part of Liepaja’s fortress. The fortress was built at the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of 20th century to provide shelter to Liepaja’s naval base in case of enemy attack. The line of the outer fortification system surrounded the whole city. However, in November of 1908 after less than ten years of construction, Tsar Nicholas II approved a decision to shut down the sea fortress in Liepaja since the whole fortress was considered a strategic misstep.

Some of the cannons were dismounted and brought to the Kaunas fortress in Lithuania, others were melted. There was an attempt to blow up the gun batteries, the underground structures and the gunpowder depots but this did not prove effective. Nowdays the sea has started to take its toll and part of the Northern Forts complex has collapsed to the waterline.

POLVERIERA DI TAINO [IT]

Exploration #53. The story of the Polveriera di Taino starts in 1907, when Eng. Ottorino Magnani’s company bought a plot of land in Campaccio, owned by the sisters Cristina and Angelica Mira d’Ercole with the intention of building a factory for the production of dust explosive “Albite”. However, this company lacked the funds necessary to carry out the project and the land was sold to the French company DAVEY BICKFORD & SMITH.

The first two deposits for explosives were built in 1913 and the following year, the production of fuses and detonating capsules began. Initially 50 women and 13 men were employed. The great expansion of the factory occurred in the years between the first and the second world war (1915-1945). The factory, pressed by needs wartime, gradually expanded the initial modest plants by purchasing other land and it came to employ up to 1500 employees. In 1930 the Polveriera di Taino expanded with the construction of new warehouses for the production of electrocuted, electric primers and retarders. In 1935 the Italian Bickford Society merged into one concentration of various explosives companies that took the name of GENERAL COMPANY OF EXPLOSIVES AND AMMUNITION (SGEM) with deposits e plants in various parts of Italy.

On July 27 occurred the most serious accident. At 2.35 pm the packaging department blew up: 35 people perished, of which 33 women. In 1943 the company was later named NOBEL-SGEM of the merger with the company S.A. Nobel dynamite. After September 8, 1943, the factory was manned by a German military command under the orders of Major Rose. Vain attempts were made by the Allied planes to hit the factory, very well protected from the embankments and hidden by trees.

After the war, the factory continued its activity, producing among other things thousands of kilometers of detonating fuses used for the Mont Blanc tunnel. In 1952 the factory was acquired by the MONTECATINI company. In 1969 following the merger of Montecatini with the Edison it became part of the MONTEDISON group and from that moment they started profound changes. The factory was no longer profitable and, after some space attempting to transform its production, the property decided to dismantle it.

At midnight on November 25, 1972 the Polveriera di Taino was permanently closed and buildings emptied and abandoned.

CCCP PILOT SCHOOL [DE]

Exploration #14 CCCP pilot school. This place, known as CCCP Pilot School, was a flight school originally established in 1933 to educate and train engineers and mechanics for military aircraft.

The Luftwaffe took over the site before the second world war and in October 1933 there were already 1,500 students. Only one year later this was the biggest military training area of the Reich – though nobody knew about it officially. The Nazis added many buildings to the complex and the school was developed into a fully functioning military airfield to aid in developing the countries flight skills in preparation for the war. Next to nearby barracks, a military training area, and an airbase this was part of a new and massive military compound. The ensemble with a parade ground in the middle of it gets dominated by the semi-circular main building.

In 1945 the Red Army took over the site as part of its occupation within East-Germany and several units of the Soviet Air Force were based here. They even extended the runway and added an anti aircraft missile site nearby. The airfield was handed back to Germany in 1992 and it seems to have laid dormant since.

BLUE THEATRE HOSPITAL [DE]

Exploration #1 The blue theatre hospital. The blue theatre hospital, know as the CCCP Hospitalis, is a sizable derelict military Russian hospital complex located on the edge of one of the biggest bases of the former DDR.

It would appear the hospital was built around 1890-1900, as the architectural style is similar to other military buildings of that period. In 1930 the hospital was extended, not only soldiers were treated, but also family members and people from the village. The new hospital had place for 400 patients. After the war, the Soviet used the hospital and based on some of the murals on the wall it would appear that at least the upstairs of the building was used for treating children. It was abandoned in the early 1990s when the Soviet army left following the reunification of Germany. It has lain abandoned ever since.

Not far from this hospital it is possible to find a former flight school, also used by the Red Army and now abandoned: the CCCP pilot school.