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Here is our second report from our trip to Beelitz-Heilstätten near Berlin last week and it covers ONLY the bombed women's pavilion. Watch this space for reports on the remaining three explorations from the trip.
Having been disturbed shortly after gaining entry to the Male Pavilion adjacent to the Badehaus we skedaddled sharpish and made our way north west across the site. The heavily bomb damaged Women's Pavilion in the Frauern Lungenheil-stätten sector was our next port of call on the first day of our October 2011 Beelitz-Heilstätten visit.
In the Great War the German Army had used Beelitz as a hospital to treat wounded soldiers and they did the same again in the Second World War. In 1944 the RAF mounted a bombing raid over the area and one of the women's pavilions down towards the bottom of the north west quadrant of the site was severely damaged. It is not clear why this happened because the bombing of hospitals was strictly forbidden by the conventions of war prevailing at that time, however the most likely reason is that the site was mistaken for a military barracks complex or possibly an industrial installation. Bombing by night from a high altitude was the norm for the RAF at that time so with the inadequacies of a system which was little better than bombing blind it is not hard to see how the mistake might have happened. Sadly too it does not look like the raid was a one off because immediately behind the building on the south side from where we approached we found a small complex of underground air raid shelters a few yards from the walls.
The site at Beelitz is vast - so vast that the post war Soviet occupying forces had more than enough buildings to service their needs. As a result many of the buildings on the site were never used again after the war and stood empty, preserving a time capsule quality which is a huge factor in the appeal of this site. There was little sense then in them spending vast sums re-building the bomb damaged women's pavilion so it has stood empty ever since, slowly being swallowed up by the forest - indeed even the upper floors and the remains of the roof tops have grown quite substantial trees over the years and it is a distinctly strange feeling wandering around a woodland several stories up, especially when you wander rather too close to the edge!
The cellars of the building are easily accessed and when we approached from the back of the building through the woods it seemed obvious to go in that way then look for a route up once inside. As it turned out we needn't have bothered for had we wandered a little further around to the north of the building instead there were several open doors and windows which afforded a much easier entry, whilst avoiding the hazardous asbestos which seemed to be lying around just about everywhere you looked down in the cellars. The other problem was that over the years the occupants of the few houses local to the sanatorium have used the cellar tunnels here as a dumping ground for all manner of household rubbish - there were TVs, lawn mowers, old fridges... in fact just about everything you might expect to find in the skips at your local council tip back home! We got extremely p*ssed off fighting our way through the huge mounds of junk and old bin bags and we were just about to call it a day for this building when we spotted a tunnel leading off roughly due east, so we wandered along it as far as we could go. The tunnel had old steel hooks mounted every few feet in the brick built, barrel vaulted ceiling, in order to carry services, and with this observation the penny dropped as to the purpose of the tunnel and it's likely destination. Heating and electricity were all generated centrally at Beelitz over the other side of the north - south road in the Power Complex, so this was in all likelihood the supply tunnel. After a long walk we found a shaft at the side of the tunnel which led off to the surface however it's internal steel staircase had collapsed so it was not possible to climb up and take a look at where we were in relation to the pavilion or to the power complex.
We turned round and wandered back. A short scrabble up a tunnel to the surface brought us out within 25 feet of an open doorway and then we were in the pavilion proper. Although the bomb damage, subsequent abandonment, and countless years of being left open to the elements, has all extracted it's inevitable toll, this building is still in a remarkably solid state and is therefore a serious tribute to German construction engineers. It also offers some amazing opportunities for photography due to the great light and pools of deep, ebony shade. One of my favourite images from urb-ex in general, and Beelitz in particular, is the cover photograph on a book I would highly recommend - "Beauty In Decay" - (ISBN-10: 0955912148).
It was taken in this building and we were very keen to identify the stairwell which is the back drop for the photographer's model who walks up the stairs dressed in a black knee length coat and a Soviet era gas mask. It took us a while to find the spot but in the process we came across several other staircases presenting equally great "stair porn" photographic opportunities. We progressively worked our way up through the building until we eventually came out on the roof. High up amongst the twisted steel beams and tree trunks of the "air forest" we found a huge water tank, still in superb condition, together with a bathroom, one end of which had been laid open by a bomb... talk about a loo with a view! In very few places has the roof itself been penetrated by the tree roots despite being built of brick rather than reinforced concrete so it's quite amazing that trees as large as some of those we saw there can actually withstand the wind. But it appears they do and in some of our photographs below I defy you not to be amazed at the tenacity of mother nature!
REPORT 2 - Bombed Female Pavilion...
Having been disturbed shortly after gaining entry to the Male Pavilion adjacent to the Badehaus we skedaddled sharpish and made our way north west across the site. The heavily bomb damaged Women's Pavilion in the Frauern Lungenheil-stätten sector was our next port of call on the first day of our October 2011 Beelitz-Heilstätten visit.
In the Great War the German Army had used Beelitz as a hospital to treat wounded soldiers and they did the same again in the Second World War. In 1944 the RAF mounted a bombing raid over the area and one of the women's pavilions down towards the bottom of the north west quadrant of the site was severely damaged. It is not clear why this happened because the bombing of hospitals was strictly forbidden by the conventions of war prevailing at that time, however the most likely reason is that the site was mistaken for a military barracks complex or possibly an industrial installation. Bombing by night from a high altitude was the norm for the RAF at that time so with the inadequacies of a system which was little better than bombing blind it is not hard to see how the mistake might have happened. Sadly too it does not look like the raid was a one off because immediately behind the building on the south side from where we approached we found a small complex of underground air raid shelters a few yards from the walls.
The site at Beelitz is vast - so vast that the post war Soviet occupying forces had more than enough buildings to service their needs. As a result many of the buildings on the site were never used again after the war and stood empty, preserving a time capsule quality which is a huge factor in the appeal of this site. There was little sense then in them spending vast sums re-building the bomb damaged women's pavilion so it has stood empty ever since, slowly being swallowed up by the forest - indeed even the upper floors and the remains of the roof tops have grown quite substantial trees over the years and it is a distinctly strange feeling wandering around a woodland several stories up, especially when you wander rather too close to the edge!
The cellars of the building are easily accessed and when we approached from the back of the building through the woods it seemed obvious to go in that way then look for a route up once inside. As it turned out we needn't have bothered for had we wandered a little further around to the north of the building instead there were several open doors and windows which afforded a much easier entry, whilst avoiding the hazardous asbestos which seemed to be lying around just about everywhere you looked down in the cellars. The other problem was that over the years the occupants of the few houses local to the sanatorium have used the cellar tunnels here as a dumping ground for all manner of household rubbish - there were TVs, lawn mowers, old fridges... in fact just about everything you might expect to find in the skips at your local council tip back home! We got extremely p*ssed off fighting our way through the huge mounds of junk and old bin bags and we were just about to call it a day for this building when we spotted a tunnel leading off roughly due east, so we wandered along it as far as we could go. The tunnel had old steel hooks mounted every few feet in the brick built, barrel vaulted ceiling, in order to carry services, and with this observation the penny dropped as to the purpose of the tunnel and it's likely destination. Heating and electricity were all generated centrally at Beelitz over the other side of the north - south road in the Power Complex, so this was in all likelihood the supply tunnel. After a long walk we found a shaft at the side of the tunnel which led off to the surface however it's internal steel staircase had collapsed so it was not possible to climb up and take a look at where we were in relation to the pavilion or to the power complex.
We turned round and wandered back. A short scrabble up a tunnel to the surface brought us out within 25 feet of an open doorway and then we were in the pavilion proper. Although the bomb damage, subsequent abandonment, and countless years of being left open to the elements, has all extracted it's inevitable toll, this building is still in a remarkably solid state and is therefore a serious tribute to German construction engineers. It also offers some amazing opportunities for photography due to the great light and pools of deep, ebony shade. One of my favourite images from urb-ex in general, and Beelitz in particular, is the cover photograph on a book I would highly recommend - "Beauty In Decay" - (ISBN-10: 0955912148).
It was taken in this building and we were very keen to identify the stairwell which is the back drop for the photographer's model who walks up the stairs dressed in a black knee length coat and a Soviet era gas mask. It took us a while to find the spot but in the process we came across several other staircases presenting equally great "stair porn" photographic opportunities. We progressively worked our way up through the building until we eventually came out on the roof. High up amongst the twisted steel beams and tree trunks of the "air forest" we found a huge water tank, still in superb condition, together with a bathroom, one end of which had been laid open by a bomb... talk about a loo with a view! In very few places has the roof itself been penetrated by the tree roots despite being built of brick rather than reinforced concrete so it's quite amazing that trees as large as some of those we saw there can actually withstand the wind. But it appears they do and in some of our photographs below I defy you not to be amazed at the tenacity of mother nature!
The photos...
Here is a selection of the photos we took but there are also some interactive panoramas you can pan and tilt to your heart's content dotted throughout the "normal" pix.
We hope you enjoy them...
THE FIRST OF OUR INTERACTIVE PANORAMAS is of the northern aspect of the pavilion hidden away amongst the forest. CLICK THE IMAGE TO VIEW...
The first view of the southern side of the bombed pavilion is something of a shock because of how much the forest has swallowed up the ruins over the years...
The northern aspect of the bombed pavilion gives a far better idea of just how big this building was. It occupies a huge footprint and is several stories high...
Like all the Beelitz buildings the windows are large to allow the maximum natural light. Here elements of the aesthetic architecture are still apparent despite the massive bomb damage from the air raid...
The steel skeleton of the roof can be seen clearly here where the tiles were blown off in the raid...
What the devil this was all about we have no idea, and a translation program offered "user" from Italian if we put an extra E on the end.
Suffice it to say it's made of concrete and another classic Beelitz enigma!...
This was one of the cleaner cellar corridors - most were crammed with black bin bags and dumped household appliances...
Although heat and electricity generation was centralised at Beelitz Heilstatten and then piped in via underground tunnels most of the buildings still have boiler rooms in the cellars...
...so I assume these were auxillary boilers as standbys in case of failures over at central power house?
Machine - purpose unknown!
The tunnel we found here led off roughly due east, straight towards the central services plant on the other side of the road I think. So we had a very long wander along it!
The vaulted ceiling of the corridor is constructed of engineering bricks and steel hangers run the entire length to carry the appropriate services...
Part way along the corridor a ventilation or service shaft went up to the surface but we were unable to climb up it because the steel staircase had collapsed...
Back in the building proper this staircase led up across the back of the east wing exercise hall to the first floor...
Although all the plaster has long since gone the corridors and rooms are still very water tight and in great condition,
especially in view of the fact that the building was seriously bombed 67 years ago and has been open to the elements ever since...
Yummy scrummy Stair Porn Pt 2! ...
...and here's Stair Porn Pt. 3 - the way up to the "air garden"!
Another skeletel roof...
Organic vs. inorganic, in places it's hard to tell which is which up here ...
A bog with a view! I wonder if anyone was sat on the throne when the bomb landed?
67 years exposed to the elements but the steel of this roof top water tank is still rock hard with no sign of rusting through yet anywhere that we could see ...
From the forest floor down to the other forest floor 3 stories below!
No sign of tree roots penetrating the roof yet despite the overhanging root ball showing clearly that there's a tree directly above. That says a lot for German brick quality...
Clearly the windows on the lower floors are exterior but the corridors opening out into fresh air and the broken support beams would seem to suggest that there was a large veranda here before a bomb exploded?
Is this justifiable criticism of the RAF's bomb aiming abilities?
THAT CORRIDOR properly lit... ...
And our attempt at THAT CORRIDOR lit for artistic effect. Now where's my gas mask? ...
The east wing exercise hall could only be accessed from the first floor because the ground floor entrance had been bricked up
for some obscure reason and the external windows were too high to climb in through without a ladder ...
THE SECOND OF OUR INTERACTIVE PANORAMAS is of the exercise hall taken from the first floor balcony. CLICK THE IMAGE TO VIEW...
THE THIRD (and last) OF OUR INTERACTIVE PANORAMAS is of the main staircase behind the principle entrance hall. CLICK THE IMAGE TO VIEW...
And here is a "normal" photo of the same staircase. is this place awesome for piccies or what???
Hope you liked the piccies! If you want to see some more then the full set is on our website, linked below.
Report 3, "The intact northern female pavilion" will follow soon.
Thanks for looking...
Here is a selection of the photos we took but there are also some interactive panoramas you can pan and tilt to your heart's content dotted throughout the "normal" pix.
We hope you enjoy them...
THE FIRST OF OUR INTERACTIVE PANORAMAS is of the northern aspect of the pavilion hidden away amongst the forest. CLICK THE IMAGE TO VIEW...
The first view of the southern side of the bombed pavilion is something of a shock because of how much the forest has swallowed up the ruins over the years...
The northern aspect of the bombed pavilion gives a far better idea of just how big this building was. It occupies a huge footprint and is several stories high...
Like all the Beelitz buildings the windows are large to allow the maximum natural light. Here elements of the aesthetic architecture are still apparent despite the massive bomb damage from the air raid...
The steel skeleton of the roof can be seen clearly here where the tiles were blown off in the raid...
What the devil this was all about we have no idea, and a translation program offered "user" from Italian if we put an extra E on the end.
Suffice it to say it's made of concrete and another classic Beelitz enigma!...
This was one of the cleaner cellar corridors - most were crammed with black bin bags and dumped household appliances...
Although heat and electricity generation was centralised at Beelitz Heilstatten and then piped in via underground tunnels most of the buildings still have boiler rooms in the cellars...
...so I assume these were auxillary boilers as standbys in case of failures over at central power house?
Machine - purpose unknown!
The tunnel we found here led off roughly due east, straight towards the central services plant on the other side of the road I think. So we had a very long wander along it!
The vaulted ceiling of the corridor is constructed of engineering bricks and steel hangers run the entire length to carry the appropriate services...
Part way along the corridor a ventilation or service shaft went up to the surface but we were unable to climb up it because the steel staircase had collapsed...
Back in the building proper this staircase led up across the back of the east wing exercise hall to the first floor...
Although all the plaster has long since gone the corridors and rooms are still very water tight and in great condition,
especially in view of the fact that the building was seriously bombed 67 years ago and has been open to the elements ever since...
Yummy scrummy Stair Porn Pt 2! ...
...and here's Stair Porn Pt. 3 - the way up to the "air garden"!
Another skeletel roof...
Organic vs. inorganic, in places it's hard to tell which is which up here ...
A bog with a view! I wonder if anyone was sat on the throne when the bomb landed?
67 years exposed to the elements but the steel of this roof top water tank is still rock hard with no sign of rusting through yet anywhere that we could see ...
From the forest floor down to the other forest floor 3 stories below!
No sign of tree roots penetrating the roof yet despite the overhanging root ball showing clearly that there's a tree directly above. That says a lot for German brick quality...
Clearly the windows on the lower floors are exterior but the corridors opening out into fresh air and the broken support beams would seem to suggest that there was a large veranda here before a bomb exploded?
Is this justifiable criticism of the RAF's bomb aiming abilities?
THAT CORRIDOR properly lit... ...
And our attempt at THAT CORRIDOR lit for artistic effect. Now where's my gas mask?
...
The east wing exercise hall could only be accessed from the first floor because the ground floor entrance had been bricked up
for some obscure reason and the external windows were too high to climb in through without a ladder ...
THE SECOND OF OUR INTERACTIVE PANORAMAS is of the exercise hall taken from the first floor balcony. CLICK THE IMAGE TO VIEW...
THE THIRD (and last) OF OUR INTERACTIVE PANORAMAS is of the main staircase behind the principle entrance hall. CLICK THE IMAGE TO VIEW...
And here is a "normal" photo of the same staircase. is this place awesome for piccies or what???
Hope you liked the piccies! If you want to see some more then the full set is on our website, linked below.
Report 3, "The intact northern female pavilion" will follow soon.
Thanks for looking...
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