Abandoned places in Berlin

In its long history since 1650, Dammsmühle Castle has experienced a lot: from its original use as a mill, to the conversion to a manor house (where Napoleon also visited), at times as a place for entertainment and during the Nazi regime as a satellite camp of Sachsenhausen concentration camp. After the war, the Red Army occupied the Dammsmühle, followed by the Stasi.

Nothing came of the plans to open the baroque manor house to the public again after reunification. Despite this, or perhaps because of this, the decaying Dammsmühle Castle with its enchanted forest and swamp landscape is a fascinating destination for excursions that you can wonderfully explore from the outside.

getting there
Reachable on foot or by bike in 2.7 kilometers from Schönwalde train station.

The former radar station from the Cold War era towers high above the city. If you don't just want to see them from the outside, you can gain legal access to the historical buildings by purchasing a ticket via teufelsberg-berlin.de. There are different price categories available, depending on whether you want to explore the site on your own or get more background information through a guided tour.

As the “Plänterwald cultural park”, the Spreepark was the only leisure park in the GDR with around 1.7 million visitors a year. After the fall of the Wall, it was converted by a private entrepreneur based on the western model, who went bankrupt and from then on the stories of a wild rollercoaster ride resemble, including the shipping of some attractions to Peru and 167 kilograms of cocaine in the mast of the "flying carpet" ride on the return journey Germany. The insolvent park was left to its own devices from 2001 to 2014 and ran wild in the best possible way.

There are even guided tours in the park: spreepark.berlin/angebote-vor-ort/oeffigte-fuehrungen.

An unbelievable feeling of space and freedom in the middle of the city. Here you can do everything wonderfully, barbecue, play sports, stroll through the community gardens, watch people doing strange activities, make pawn collectors happy. And as is so often the case in Berlin, there is also a historical veil over this place and, whoosh, you're in the middle of a political discussion while drinking soda. What will happen to the Tempelhofer Feld? Who should benefit from it? The time will tell. Until then, enjoy, design and watch the sun go down.

opening hours
Change monthly, roughly from sunrise to sunset

guides
thf-berlin.de

To the north of the village of Vogelsang lies an abandoned town in the middle of the forest. After the Second World War until 1994, tens of thousands of soldiers lived here in one of the largest Soviet garrisons outside the Soviet Union. Many of the old buildings are still standing, including barracks, bars, a theater and a sports hall, but many are in danger of collapsing, and you can already see from the outside how nature is taking back the city. Entering the former military area is prohibited and dangerous.

getting there
10km by bike from Zehdenick train station

During the 1936 Olympic Games, the 3,600 male athletes with attendants and staff lived 18 km from the Olympic Stadium, including the American Jesse Owens. With four gold medals he was the most successful Olympian of the XI. Summer Olympics. The village was intended as a retreat and training ground, it was also offered an entertainment program. Feeding was divided into nations, women were forbidden to enter. From the Nazi side was planned from the beginning to use the village later as barracks, in this aspect, his name "village of peace" almost cynical.

Over the years, the village has been used for a variety of purposes, since 1992 it is empty.

getting there
eg 2km from Elstal station or from U2 Olympiastation just under 20km by bike

opening hours
dkb-stiftung.de/event/fuehrungen-durch-das-olympische-dorf-2

The House of Officers is part of the "Forbidden City," a military site that served as the location for government troops from 1910 to 1994, expanding steadily and gradually evolving into a complete city. However, legal access and sightseeing are only available to the officers' house, which on its own is already worth seeing.

Guided tours are available for 15 € by appointment from Mr. Naumann on 0178 5806 569

The Fotobase Wünsdorf organizes not quite cheap photo tours over the whole area.

Anyone who has ever set foot on the enchanted grounds of the Beelitzer Heilstätten knows about the magic of this facility. Buildings that resemble old castles and radiate an incomparable charm, a spacious old park with an unimagined diversity of species and a history that goes back more than 100 years into the past. Nature, history and architecture seem to merge into a total work of art in this magical place.

As the first treetop path, it not only opens up the world above the treetops, but also spans a huge ruin, on which an original forest has developed for over 60 years.

At a height of up to 23 meters on the path and 36 meters on the tower, the treetop path offers an unprecedented perspective on a magical place.

You can find more information and opening times here: baumundzeit.de.

The Waldhaus book has already gone through several chapters of history, many of them very dark. Originally built as a tuberculosis sanatorium, it was a stopover for "patients" on the way to the euthanasia centers of Bernburg and Brandenburg during the Nazi era. It was used as a military hospital. It became a clinic for orthopedics after the war and has been vacant since 1992.

There is a zombie hospital in Weissensee. Originally it was a children's hospital, then the zombies took over the grounds, took the doctors around the corner and ate the brains of the kids :)
Okay, not really.

The place is still exciting. However, it is also dangerous (and illegal) to go inside, all buildings are very old and decay gradually