Cabins in the woods

Pionierlager Klim Woroschilow

Silence steals a breath for the ghosts of yesteryear. There’s no laughter, no crying, no squeals of joy – Pionierlager Klim Woroschilow’s children have long since departed.

They’re not even children anymore. In their wake there’s only an eerie stillness around the abandoned cabins of the East German youth camp.

It was one of the former country’s biggest! All that’s left are the hollow shells of the accommodation quarters, the faded glory of neglected curtains framing windows whose dirt reflects the light in ways no clean windows can. Only the tranquil spirits are left to enjoy it now their tormentors are gone.

“I was here in 1976, it was a nicest time in my life,” former child Andrew Shaposhnikov wrote on Facebook.

Bea Rütz was there three times. “It was always lovely.”

Jan Burckart wrote that he always remembers the nice time he had at the camp, “especially because it was international and I got to know West Germans back then and stayed in touch for a few years after that... It must have been 1980...”

Kerstin Baumann arrived in the camp from Hamburg when she was around 10 years old, summertime, in 1974 or ’75, with her friend and a minder.

“We also got to meet a few girls who all stood in line for roll call. We didn't, but we sang along to the songs from the little red book that was given to us. Unfortunately, the pen pal correspondence with Astrid was very short. It was a time that made a big impression that I’ve never forgotten. Unfortunately, my little songbook got lost during many moves,” she wrote.

Rosi Schlosser wrote, “I was there too. Gabi Rueckert and Jojo played. There were even kids from West Germany and France.”

One of the French visitors, Jean-Luc Villin, says he was there in 1972 and “there were also children from Poland. We played rugby.”

Horst Meemann, one of the “Wessie” children, got to know a Diana from the DDR.

“It must have been between 1977 and 1980,” he wrote. Diana, if you’re reading, get in touch with Horst, he still has the hots for you!

Christian Harting describes sitting around a campfire listening to someone playing guitar as friendships were forged.

“An unforgettable time, was great, many lovely memories from this time, 1979,” Harting wrote, and Marion Frank agreed: “These were the nicest times in my life.”

It wasn’t all fun and games, however. East German youth camps continued a long Teutonic tradition of trying to mold kids to be future good servants to the state.

Long before the establishment of the German Democratic Republic in 1949, German youths were breaking free of the shackles imposed upon them by German adults - or so they thought - starting with the German Youth Movement that began in 1896.

It started with the Wandervogel who sought free spaces away from the hassle and bassle of Germany’s choking industrial cities as they flocked to nature and all the goodness it can provide. These juvenile wannabe hippies developed into other groups as time went on with churches, political parties, trade unions and regional associations all forming their own youth wings to ensure their children were brought up the way they wanted. So much for free spirits.

Of course, by the time the Hitler Youth was founded, they weren’t what you’d call hippies any more. By the time Hitler Youth was finished, there wasn’t much of anything left any more.

It took some time after the war for youth camps to recover. In what became East Germany, the locals had to wait and make do with what the Soviets left them after carting all the good stuff back to Moscow.

“Most schoolchildren in East Germany went to holiday camps,” Stefan Wolle of the DDR Museum says in one of his informative videos. “These camps offered fun, games and sports. So, it was for health and physical fitness. But it was also meant to form a strong collective bond, and on hikes and evenings around the campfire, people sat together and sang songs accompanied by guitars or accordions. That was part of it, too.”

Pionierlager Klim Woroschilow was opened on July 20, 1958 by Comrade Lotte Ulbricht – the darling wife and former personal assistant of East German leader Walter Ulbricht. He wasn’t so dedicated to the DDR that he couldn’t be distracted by a bit of skirt.

Walter was supposed to visit Pionierlager Klim Woroschilow in August 1961 but had to call it off on what became known as “Barbed Wire Sunday” with East Germany sealing the border between Berlin’s eastern and western borders. It was to be followed by a wall that divided the city for 28 years. 
“And we had the place looking great,” camp resident Simu Tao from Pasewalk wrote on Facebook.

Wolle says leisure activities were more important than the political aspect for the children in Ferienlager.

“Some of the children had the chance to travel to socialist countries abroad, and students from our socialist brother states were with us. But direct political education played a rather subordinate role. It was played up more in the brochures you find than it was in reality,” Wolle says.

The camp we’re concerned with was named after Klim Voroshilov (Woroschilow in German), a friend of Stalin who took part in the Russian Revolution of 1917 as a member of the Bolsheviks.

It was opened on the same site as the first pioneer camp of the Young Spartacus League of Germany had been 30 years before. That had been founded by Bruno Kühn, Lotte Ulbricht’s older brother. Kühn was a member of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and opposed the Nazis. He went to the Soviet Union during the war to fight as a partisan against the Germans. It was initially said he died in Belarus in 1941, though there’s another theory that he was arrested by the Gestapo in Amsterdam in 1943 and shot dead in Brussels the following year.

We’re getting off the point here. Like many good things in the DDR, Pionierlager Klim Woroschilow’s days ended when the country did. Suddenly Germans didn’t want to send their kids to East German youth camps anymore. It was abandoned like a hot snot.

Part of it is now used for a western-themed attraction park called El Dorado, but most is still abandoned, quietly enjoying its peaceful retirement now the noisy kids have moved out.

Location and access (How to find guide)

* What: Pionierlager Klim Woroschilow, an abandoned East German youth camp.

* Where: Am Röddelinsee 1, 17268 Templin.

* ‎How to get there: Surprise, surprise the trains are all messed up. So you need make your way to Oranienburg and then get TWO buses to drop you off at El Dorado. It used to be much easier to get around Germany but your best bet now might be just to hire a car and drive there yourself. Here it is on a map so you can figure out your own way there.

* Getting in: All you have to do is hop over or through the futile fence circling the place.

* When to go: Go now while it’s still there!

* Difficulty rating: 4/10. The biggest difficulty right now is getting here from Berlin.

* Who to bring: Bring the family if you want to combine it with a visit to El Dorado! If you want to combine this place with other abandoned highlights, then the Stasi Hotel and Soviet military camp of Vogelsang are both nearby.

* What to bring: Bring a camera, some refreshments, snacks, and mosquito/tick repellent. Better to eat than be eaten.

* Dangers: Watch out for staff from El Dorado. They might even own the camp. They use it as a dumping ground for some of the western paraphernalia they don’t need.

Many thanks to Ksenya for the tip!

Filed 22/8/2025 | Updated 7/9/2025