Exploring the Rotten Side of Germany
You might say I'm a collector. I collect rare objects. Facts, stories...I travel the roads of Germany seeking its heart.
Featured Photo
“The comfort of having a friend may be taken away, but not that of having had one.”
(Seneca)
On April 20, 2019, one of my best friends was taken from us without warning.
I first met Jens back in 2013 on a spontaneous visit to "his" abandoned sanatorium - a lonely place on top of a mountain where he had chosen to live with his pack of sleigh dogs. He offered us coffee, showed us the place and told stories. The little time we had just flew by. This first meeting was special. We had immediately connected on a really cool level, and my wife and I only reluctantly left that evening. We returned a few months later, and then again...and again. Over the years, a real friendship developed. Jens and "his" mountain became the place for us to be grounded, to meet new people, learn new things - and have barbecue ;)
We felt at home there, and Jens was the reason for that.
I still can't believe that he is gone and that I won't see him anymore walking quickly over his premises, feeding his dogs, riding the sleigh or building something new.
What remains are the great memories of adventure, of long talks by the campfire at night, the hunts for trespassers trying to jump the fence and of surprising visits to cool places that nobody else knew of.
And what will remain are the friendships that developed with the people we met on the mountain. That is Jens' legacy - he brought people together. People of different ages, religions, political views. People that came because of the dogs, people that came because of the sanatorium - in the end everyone came for Jens and for all the things that made this place so unique.
Thank you, Jens, for your friendship.
Thank you for everything you gave us!
We'll meet again by the great campfire in the sky!!!
Galleries
Soviet Command Bunker R.
This abandoned Soviet bunker in the Northeastern part of Germany was the command post of the 125th Soviet fighter-bomber division. It was built around 1965 and was expanded in the late 1980s. Due to the German reunification and the withdrawal of the Soviet troops early in the 1990s, the extension was never finished, so that only a shell exists today.
The bunker has an overall effective surface area of almost 500 square meters and was equipped with an independent power system and a filter ventilation system.
Surrounding the bunker....(more)
Soviet Fighter Command R.
This bunker was the control center for the 125th Soviet fighter-bomber division that was stationed on a former Luftwaffe airfield in the Northeastern part of Germany.
The bunker was commissioned by the Soviet forces and built by a regional construction company in the late 1950s. It has a length of about 40 meters and a width of nearly 15 meters with an effective floor space of about 360 square meters.
There are two access points as well an emergency exit and a maintenance.....(more)
Video
Lost Places | Goin' Bunkers - "The Defensive Command"
Blog
Tour Report: The City in the Woods
Published 2019-09-14
For the second day of our urbex tour through the Northeastern part of Germany back in November of 2017, my wife and I had planned something big. Well, for us it was. We were going to explore one of the largest Soviet garrisons in Eastern Germany. During the Cold War, more than 15.000 Soviet soldiers and civilian personnel were stationed here, so the place is actually way too large to be explored on one day in late November. But we wanted to at least check it out; it had been on our list too long! We got picked up early by our friend Torsten from North Urbex. The ride took a little more than two hours....(more)
Urbex News
Urbex-Related News [English/German]
Atlas Obscura - Latest Places
Hayground Windmill in East Hampton, New York (Sat, 14 Sep 2019)
Built at the turn of the 19th century, the Hayground Windmill was named after its original location in Haye Ground, a village in Bridgehampton on Long Island. The
windmill processed the largest net weight of wheat, corn, and oats in the region, operating on a seasonal basis until it was decommissioned in 1919. In its final year, the Hayground Windmill was
the last functional windmill on all of Long Island.
After temporarily serving as a tearoom, the Hayground Windmill became the home and studio of Agnes Pelton, a modernist painter whose surreal landscapes have been
likened to the work of her better-known contemporary, Georgia O’Keeffe. Pelton moved from Greenwich Village in New York City into the Hayground Windmill in 1921, and she would live and work
within its walls for the next decade.
Capitalizing on the solitude of her unusual abode, Pelton was thoroughly influenced by her surroundings; and yet her time living in the Hayground Windmill was
perhaps the most socially driven period of her career. It was characterized by an outpour of portraiture—depictions of her friends and neighbors, and summer visitors to the Hamptons. One of her
most prominent patrons was Samuel Parrish, the founder of Bridgehampton’s esteemed Parrish Art Museum.
A period of intense introspection in 1926 prompted a shift in Pelton’s oeuvre from portraiture to abstract landscapes. She eventually moved out west to California
in 1932, where she took inspiration from the deeply emotive desert-scape. The work she created between 1917 and 1961 will be the subject of a major retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American
Art in Manhattan from March through June 2020.
Pelton was long gone from the Hayground Windmill when in 1950, it was purchased by one Robert Dowling and moved via ox cart to his private East Hampton estate. It
was placed on the National Historic Register in 1978, and as of the mid-'80s, it was one of only 11 historic wind-powered windmills left on Long Island.
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