Stories
Stasi watchtower and shooting range
The Stasi watchtower in Weißensee overlooks a derelict building that hides a dirty secret in its basement – this is where the Stasi had a shooting range for target practice.
Pflegeheim Saalow
Pflegeheim Saalow, a nursing and retirement home, was lauded by the East German authorities for its exemplary treatment of the most vulnerable people in the DDR. Exemplary was horrific.
Cabins in the woods
Pionierlager Klim Woroschilow had its heyday when East Germany still existed. The socialist state’s young and impressionable enjoyed summers of fun at the youth camp.
Zombie hospital
There’s a zombie hospital in Weißensee. It used to be for kids but they were all eaten, their brains gorged upon by the zombies that took their place.
Kraftwerk Vogelsang
Kraftwerk Vogelsang is a powerless power plant. People gave their lives building it and fighting over it. Now that they’re gone, nobody wants it at all.
Zambia Embassy
Berlin’s “lion on the loose” has holed up at the abandoned Zambian embassy. She’s seeking asylum from the CDU. AB got an exclusive interview.
Niederlehme TSL 44
Niederlehme's Treib- und Schmierstofflager 44, aka TSL 44, was a former oil and fuel storage facility used by Nazi Germany, then East Germany’s armed forces.
Rheinsberg nuclear plant
Inside the belly of the beast. Refuse from East Germany’s first nuclear plant will continue to cast a threat long after the DDR itself was shut down.
Iraqi embassy
They must have just left the Iraqi Embassy to the DDR with no notice. “We’re leaving. Pack your bags and get out!” The party at Saddam's house was over.
Flugplatz Schönwalde
Germany's Luftwaffe used Flugplatz Schönwalde for the war. The Soviets took over afterward and left their traces after abandoning the airfield in 1992.
Delphi silent film theater
The 1920s Delphi silent film theater was reborn as the Moka Efti club in the Babylon Berlin television series, then it was silent once more.
Spreepark!
The rollercoaster story of East Germany's only full-time fun park, later called Spreepark, abandoned and left to rot with its dinosaurs in 2001.
Flugplatz Brand
Flugplatz Brand was strategically important for the Soviet Air Force. Thankfully its battalions of flying fighters remained on ice for the duration of the Cold War.
Sporthotel Hohenschönhausen
The Sporthotel und Kongresszentrum des Sportforums Hohenschönhausen is in a sorry state, beyond salvation, thrashed and abused. Not even drugs can help.
Hohenschönhausen refugee homes
Hohenschönhausen's refugee homes, formerly living quarters for "guest workers" who helped build the DDR, don't welcome anyone anymore.
Haus der Statistik
Haus der Statistik looms over Berlin's Alexanderplatz with STOP WARS across its bow in big red letters. The DDR's former statistics HQ is right to be angry.