Beelitz Heilstatten (Day 1) - April 2012

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rectory-rat

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A few days ago I visited the awesome site that is Beelitz Heilstatten, Germany. It was a visit spread over two days, and this report covers the first of them...the second will come soon. :)

My apologies for the long write-up, and image intensity, but I feel the site deserves it.

A Brief History:

Beelitz Heilstatten (roughly meaning Beelitz Healing Place in English), is a suburb of Beelitz Stadt. It contains around 60 buildings, most hospital buildings and nurse's accommodation . There are also station buildings and some remaining residences. Its original purpose was as a tuberculosis sanatorium, hence the prevalence of airing courts and balconies from a time when clean air exposure was the only attempt to cure TB.

Designed by architect Heino Schmieden, the site was designed for self sufficiency with its own power generation, laundries and kitchens, all connected by a network of underground service tunnels. From the beginning of world war one, the hospital's purpose changed dramatically. It was commandeered by the German Imperial Army, with Hitler himself being treated there after being wounded at the Battle of the Somme.

The same use was made of it in world war two - the RAF bombed the women's pavilion in 1944. The site was, however, taken by soviet forces in 1945. It remained this way until the soviet withdrawal in 1995, although many buildings have been abandoned much longer than this as the soviet forces simply had no use for such a large site.

The majority of buildings remain derelict to this day, although part of the North East sector now includes a fire and rescue services base and rehabilitation and research centre for Parkinson's disease.

The Explore:

As I had been staying in Munster, in the West of Germany, despite setting off early, I did not arrive in Beelitz until the early afternoon. Having assumed that I would stay until dusk, I soon realised my organisational skills were lacking. I had to be in Poznan, Poland later that evening to check in to my hotel, and after some frantic timetable searching, I realised that I could, in fact, afford to spend just 2 hours in Beelitz. This was, naturally, disappointing, and it was on the train to Poland that I decided to return for a second day, but this is another story, in another report :mrgreen:

So, on arrival, I headed randomly for the South East sector, the sector to include the bathouse and Hitler's pavilion. However, I never got to them, as I first came across some smaller buildings nearer the railway line, and some of the auxiliary buildings to the power plant. After a quick skirt round these, I stumbled on two occupied vehicles on site, so moved on...

The dereliction starts as soon as you get off the train
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My guess is that this is some kind of pump/boiler house
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The on site power plant
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Boilers?
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On site residence
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Lots of Soviet newspapers around in these places
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And then, it was time to move to another location, and I chose the North West section, with the bombed female pavilion and surgery building among its grounds. I slipped through the fence, and followed the line of manholes through the forest that I assumed traced the path of a service tunnel. Occasional pump houses offered a glimpse down, but the metal staircases were either rotten or stolen, so no way through there.

Soon, I saw the skeletal roof of the bombed pavilion jutting through the trees that have made their homes on it. Access here was simple, with the main entrances being open to all. I came across two other explorers here, as I made my way through the building...

Throught the trees
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The enigma sign...don't suppose anyone's figured it out yet :p
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Corridor shot
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Cyrilic writing again
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Through the trees from the 'roof terrace'
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Now where do I recognise that from?! ;)
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Time was moving fast, and I couldn't afford to miss my train. I wanted to do the surgery, but a cursory inspection showed no access, only many new looking boards with very shiny nails. Moving on to the still intact female pavilion, I found access with just a little clambering. And so I explored the final building of the day...

The intact pavilion
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The shell of the airing courts
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It was only later on on the train I decided I needed to return, and return soon. As soon as I arrived in Poznan station, I booked a ticket back to Berlin for the next day...and that report is coming soon!

Thanks for taking the time to look through all this, I hope it made interesting enough viewing. And also, thanks a million to those who helped me out with access tips, information and history before the trip - it was invaluable :lol:

-RR :)
 
Last edited:
I've been wanting to go to Beelitz for a while now and seeing your photographs makes me want to go even more!

Thanks for sharing these :)
 
Really nice report, I would have done the same thing heading back, away to read the 2nd report right now!
 

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