Forst Zinna – A Soviet Ghost Base in Germany

December 28, 2019February 19, 2021 CarloR1 Comment

The area of Jüterbog, about one hour driving south of downtown Berlin, boasts a long military tradition since well before the Cold War. Yet the most astonishing density of military installations in this region was reached in the years of the Third Reich, and later in the decades of Soviet occupation, lasting until the early 1990s.

Many chapters of this website are devoted to the subject of Soviet occupation in the communist German Democratic Republic (GDR), with portraits of many military bases over its former territory (see for instance this chapter, and links therein). These either belonged to the NVA, the armed forces of the GDR, or the Red Army of the Soviet Union, which retained a significant military presence in the GDR all along the Cold War, despite this country being formally independent.

This chapter deals with one of such military bases, Forst Zinna. This base stands out in the East German panoram, due to the intriguing history of the place on one side, but also thanks to the plenty of interesting sights you may find there (as of mid-2019) – whereas many other similar abandoned installations have been wiped out by local governments, sometimes to be converted into something else.

The large military base at Forst Zinna was founded at the dawn of the Third Reich in the mid-1930s, and named after the führer, Adolf Hitler. The core was constituted by a set of solid multi-storey buildings, aligned along at least four parallel rows about a third of a mile in length, built in a typical old-German style. These hosted barracks and training rooms, used by an artillery and transportation school. There were also many service buildings, like canteens, sport and administration facilities. The base was operated by the Wehrmacht until the end of WWII, when the region was conquered by the Red Army. Thanks to its design, featuring large halls and common spaces, it was selected immediately after WWII to host an academy for future German functionaries of the yet-to-be-founded GDR (or DDR, the German acronym for the GDR).

The place was decorated and refurbished reflecting the style of the new communist owners and the cultural paradigms enforced by Stalin. Just before the latter’s death, in February 1953 the academy was transferred, and Forst Zinna was handed over to the Soviet army. They further enlarged the base, adding storage areas, small farms for food production, technical buildings, plus over the years some new housing.

The end of the story is similar to many military areas in the GDR. The Soviets finally left, the bases were too many for reunified Germany in a post-Cold War scenario, so most of them were either demolished, converted or forgotten. Forst Zinna has been largely demolished, but some of the buildings, built before the end of WWII, are reportedly registered as landmarks. The whole area is sitting in the wild vegetation and is not really looked after, but much is still there and makes for a mysterious memento of past vicissitudes Germany managed to survive. To the war historian and urbex fanatic as well, Forst Zinna has really much in store.

Photographs in this post were collected during two long visits in July and August 2019.

Sights

The base occupies a roughly square area, with a side about .8 miles long. For making the description easier, its premises can be divided into four ideal sectors.

The barracks area to the southwest, where you also find an easy access to the base, is populated with the oldest buildings, erected well before WWII. These comprise living quarters, school-like buildings, canteens, administration buildings, at least one gym, a theater, an open-air movie theater, a prison, and more. There are also a couple of clearly distinguishable Soviet-built apartment buildings, much more recent and taller than their neighbors.

To the north of the base you can find a sizable area which likely hosted a huge deposit for vehicles, as well as other technical facilities. Here demolition works have stricken hard, and today only a few buildings are still in place. Yet these include what appears as a centralized power/hot water supply plant, as well as large services for the troops, which make for interesting pictures.

In the third sector to the northeast, a large U-shaped technical building hosts a unique room with Soviet memorabilia. In this area you can find also a swimming pool, a football field with nice Soviet murals, and much dumped military material. Also here demolition works must have been carried out at an early post-Soviet stage, as vegetation has already grown over the debris.

Finally, to the west of the perimeter but next to it, you can find a ghost monument from soviet times.

You can find aerial pictures of the Forst Zinna base in this chapter.

Southwestern Area – Most of the Barracks and Older Buildings

Accessing the base via the southwestern corner, you immediately meet the the first original buildings from the pre-WWII period. They are painted in a nice dark yellow.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

From the pics you can appreciate the length of the blocks in this part of the base. Among other spectral items, former notice-boards for activities in the base, like the movie theater, or for the latest news.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

The perimeter is marked by a concrete wall running very close to one of the rows of buildings. The walls appear decorated with didactic explanations of something technical.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

Entering the buildings, you may find tons of derelict memorabilia items, including hand-written registers, book covers, etc., all in Russian. Something in no shortage in the base is surely restrooms! There are really many.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

The actual function of the buildings needs to be guessed, but some must have been used as schools – or even kindergartens – at least in Soviet times, when modern housing was added to the base also for the families of the troops. This theory maybe supported by the type of decoration you sometimes find in these buildings.

Walking in some of the taller yellow buildings, likely hosting also some living areas in the years of operation, you soon perceive the style is clearly pre-Soviet – too elaborated for USSR standard, and typically German. The age of the buildings can be judged also by the heating system, based on tiled stoves fed with coal. Traces of coal can still be seen in the corridors, where the stoves were loaded!

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

The stairs are particularly nice in style. You are not encouraged to climb upstairs, especially in those buildings were the roof is leaking. Under the roof you can appreciate the wooden structure supporting the external tiles.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

Some rooms of these buildings used to host other services, like for instance a – likely – tailor, or uniform shop, as you can see from the furniture and from the explanatory sign.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

Close to the southwestern corner of the base you can find two twin apartment buildings in a typical shabby Soviet style, possibly dating to the 1970s.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

The size of the apartments is incredibly small! They are apparently small one-room unities, with an extra-small kitchenette and a microscopical bathroom. On the plus side, all have a balcony on the facade.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

Leftovers of the original furniture are abundant here – as you may see, everything is extremely poor quality. In some of the bathrooms you may find some stickers decorating the wall, and even traces of toilet paper holders!

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

The ‘Soviet ghost’ aura here is extremely intense, as everyday items can be found everywhere, like the troops had just left. In the backyard of these buildings you can find remains of a playground, broken bicycles, and even traces of hanging wires!

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

Just ahead of these buildings, you can see a mystery one-storey tunnel structure made of a set of progressively smaller sections – making it look like a weird ‘telescopic building’. It is clearly from a relatively late age, maybe one of the last additions to the complex.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

One of the blocks adjoining the taller buildings to the south is a small (likely) elementary school, with a nice indoor gym, as well as a fenced outdoor playground. Soviet playground designers made extensive use of old tires. Here they are even painted in bright colors!

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

North of the school, you meet an array of smaller buildings along the perimeter of the base, but their function remains to guess.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

The long rows of yellow barracks are interspersed with areas or buildings dedicated to special functions. For instance, at some point you can find a rather large open-air training area, with many types of ladders, balance axes, leapfrogs and more training rigs still in place, albeit completely surrounded by wild vegetation.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

Another item is apparently a school building, with a typical academy-style front facade, and classrooms inside. By this building there is also a kind of small firefighting post (not sure), which includes a cylinder bell with a nice sound – really weird, complementing the unreal silence of this place!

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

There are at least two large canteen buildings. In the first you find very big kitchen rooms, with large ventilation hoods and stoves still in place.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

There are also storage rooms, some with wooden trays, maybe for bread, or maybe for putting trays after lunch.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

In the second canteen, even larger, you can find also remains of a Soviet decorated wall, with traces of writings and small paintings.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

Other special buildings, close to one of the canteens, include a nice greenhouse.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

There is also a relatively large open-air movie theater, with a covered stage and uncovered seats for the public. The benches are gone, but their legs remain. The machine room to the back is in a really bad shape.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

To one side of the open-air movie theater you can find one of the strangest items in the base. It is an area severed from the others by a serious barbed-wire fence – still difficult to go through! In this kind of ‘private garden’ you can find two explanatory signs in Cyrillic, and what appear to be gym gear for fight training. There is also as a small monument – or a grave? – composed of a glass obelisk planted on a delimited area on the ground.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

Even weirder, the adjoining building features very small windows… an exploration of this building allows to clarify its purpose – it used to be a prison, the small windows being on the sidewalls of the cells! There are four cells at least, with peepholes in the doors. Everything very similar in style to the Soviet prison in Karosta, Latvia, except you can’t experience the thrill of sleeping in ‘safely’ – see this post!

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

Not far from the fenced courtyard you can find a naive wall painting portraying two tanks transported on railway trolleys. One of the troopers has been stricken by an electric shock, as apparently his rifle touched the high-voltage cables over the railway – oh no!

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

There are also sport-themed murals on a fence. A building nearby looks like a garage for a small vans or for cars, maybe a mechanics shop or similar. There is also a storage room with nice wooden paneling.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

The garden + prison ensemble may be interpreted as a military-police-run part of the base, likely an unwelcoming sector of the installation in its heyday! Not far you can find also an academy building with large halls, including a former gym. The vocation of the place is witnessed by a sport-themed mural.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

Another special building close by the mystery quarters probably used to be a club, with a kitschy decorated room, and another gym area, with another interesting sport-themed mural. Some of the less explicitly Soviet murals may date to the years immediately after WWII, when Forst Zinna was a training academy for future key-figures of the ‘political life’ (?) of the GDR.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

Another interesting building can be found to the northern end of this sector of the base. Some decorative details look more modern than the age of the base. It looks like there was a kind of glass-covered patio, or a large greenhouse.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

A highlight of the northern part of this sector is the large theater building. Unfortunately, the roof of the theater room has recently collapsed completely, destroying everything below it. Yet the foyer was spared, with one of the most famous Soviet murals in the GDR. Considering the style, it must date from a relatively recent Soviet age, even though the military gear in the portrait is not really recent.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

Still in place is the coat hangers area, with some inscription in Russian on the wall nearby. The building – well, what remains of it – is likely from pre-WWII times.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

To the northwestern end of the barracks sector, cross the main former access road to the base, you can find traces of Soviet monuments, with stylized troopers, a huge concrete Red Banner flag and information signs, everything in a rather bad shape, and attacked by the wild vegetation.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

Nearby you can find an administration building, nice in style, but again in a very bad shape, and with a partly-collapsed roof. Yet this building hosts something of great interest for pickier explorers and Cold War historians. A couple of rooms likely hosted a logistic or travel service, and here you can find at least three well-preserved maps of the USSR!

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

The first is a smaller-scale topographic map, and is the worst conserved. The corresponding office was really shabby, with the lowest quality furniture. What appears interesting here is a set of electric power metering rigs or switches, with hand-written labeling in German – maybe from the years of Wehrmacht tenancy?

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

The second map is a very big political map of the USSR, with all the Soviet Socialist Republics. You may spend an hour looking at all the particulars! The map is from 1971. You can find places like Voroshilovgrad, Leningrad, Chernobyl, Riga, Poliarnyi, Semipalatinsk, Gorkij, Leninakan, all within the boundaries of the Soviet Union – names strongly bound to real world or fiction plots from the Cold War! Some of these locations have even changed their names!

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

The third map is an even more unique portrait of the railway lines of the USSR, presented in great detail – the map, from 1981, occupies an entire wall. Here you can also find interesting names and places, like Tashkent, Gori – Stalin’s birthplace in Georgia, see this chapter – or Borjomi, where one of the most famous water springs of the Czarist Empire is still active, producing mineral water you can find everywhere in the former USSR still today.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

To end with this part, between the administration building and the theater, you can find a really mysterious underground bunker-like structure. This faces to the ground in an area fenced with barbed wire and protected by a firing turret with loopholes. Maybe a deposit for rifles or smaller weapons?

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

Northern Area – Warehouses and Technical Buildings

This area was likely devoted to the storage of heavy vehicles – trucks, tanks, movable cannons, who knows? As you can see from Google pictures on the web, until at least 2009 there used to be many garage buildings here. As said, this is the area most hit by demolition works, and what you find today is a large flat area, with some buildings surviving close to the perimeter, marked by the original concrete outer wall of the base.

Luckily for explorers, a few surviving buildings make for interesting sights. An item you can easily spot is a tall brick chimney. At the base of this you can find a – likely – power station for the base. The burners are gone, but you can see extensive piping, and boilers for hot water.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

The piping from the boilers – made in the GDR in 1973 – are labeled in Russian, and there are also several posters and signs in Cyrillic. Not far from the main rooms, there is a small booth for a technician constantly supervising the plant.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

Close by the power station building, large service buildings are shrouded in the wild vegetation. One of them was completely dedicated to bathrooms. The most visible remains are the changing rooms, with some hangers with small mirrors still in place, and the showers, still partly intact!

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

North of these buildings, you meet a long concrete pool with slides for vehicles at the two far ends. It used to carry out some industrial function – amphibious vehicle testing?

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

Other surviving buildings in this area include a very tall one, possibly a maintenance hangar, as well as some of the – originally many – garages.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

Close by the inner fence dividing this sector from the barracks part of the base, you can find a smaller garage with some books scattered around. There is also a fire emergency station with writings in Russian.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

Northeastern Area – Sporting Facilities and Mystery U-Shaped Building

In this area, technically not separated from the southwestern one with the barracks, you can find some non-residential buildings of great interest.

Possibly the construction with the largest area in the whole base, a big U-shaped building with what appear to be large workshops or garages can be found close to the northeastern corner of the base, just inside the perimeter concrete wall.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

Inside the halls of this building, you can find many interesting Soviet remains – posts, writings, murals,… The function of these many rooms has really to be guessed. Some feature doors so small that entering with a vehicle would be impossible. Others still preserve the smell of Diesel oil.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

An unexpected surprise in this mystery building is a kind of commemoration-information area. The geometry of the rooms is very strange, with a small unlighted corridor leading you in. An incredible Soviet mural with hammer and sickle can be found in this corridor.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

In the two adjoining rooms you can find traces of many interesting panels, arranged in a kind of ‘Soviet temple’ architecture. There are photographs of soldiers during training activities, aircraft, tanks, portraits of some high-ranking staff, and much more.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

There are also artistically valuable Soviet-themed comics characters! Some big photographs portray the base of Forst Zinna in the days of operation. Unfortunately, big parts of the pics are missing, but you can recognize the typical German architecture of the buildings. The appearance of the base used to be different, without all the trees you find today!

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

The next room was possibly centered on the explanation of some Soviet industrial activity. The room is dominated by a scaled model of the USSR, with some locations – including Chernobyl nuclear power-plant, find it between Kiev and Minsk! – pinpointed on the map.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

The walls of the quarters where these strange rooms can be found are covered in old newspapers. There are also historical pictures of the Soviet monument in Khatyn and other locations in Belarus (see here).

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

Close by the U-shaped building, moving north you can find a strange storage, with cases for – apparently – rifles.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

To the northern end, there is an open-air swimming pool. It lies at the center of a sporting area, close to the outer concrete wall of the base. The pool makes for very good photo opportunities. It is hard to tell whether this was built for the Wehrmacht or later for the Soviets. It is large, and two springboards are more or less still in place.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

The service building nearby appears to date from old times. Yet the pool was much used by the Soviets, as shown by the number of panels written in Russian, including regulations, one with a ‘START’ sign, another to show the temperature of water!

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

There are also typically Soviet decorations, like an Olympics symbol made of metal gearwheels.

Close to the pool, you can find a ghost football field. You can see a goal and a referee ladder, both imprisoned by the newly grown trees!

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

Next to the football field, the wall of the base is decorated with some nice sport-themed Soviet murals.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

Leaving the base behind when walking further northeast, you come across former trenches, and a dump of light material, including many Soviet boots, gas masks, spades, bottles, and so on. They are likely what remains of flattened buildings in this area.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

Soviet Monument

Back to the perimeter road where the main gate to the base is, to the opposite side of the main access road you can find an interesting monumental ensemble hidden in the trees. This was probably composed of a small square, today barely recognizable due to the overgrown vegetation, bordered to the far end by a set of concrete slabs adorned with typical soviet themes and by a tall concrete spine.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

The latter part is still there, almost untouched. The spine used to be colored, as testified by the scant remnants of red paint over the surface. Also a painted emblem can be found to the back of the cube suspended halfway along the spine.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

The slabs feature a head of Lenin, seen from the side, together with the ship Aurora. Others feature a dam, the monument to the Russian motherland in Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad), and the monument to the soviet cosmonauts in Moscow, among other items.

Forst Zinna Abandoned Soviet & Nazi Military Base East Germany (near Jüterbog) DDR Berlin Mural Urbex

Getting there & Moving around

Reaching the premises of Forst Zinna is not difficult. The site is five minutes northeast of Jüterbog, about 1 hour driving south of Berlin, and is recognized by normal GPS navs. Jüterbog has also a railway station, so you may come by train+MTB.

The official status of the site is uncertain. There are a few prohibition signs ahead of the official gate, but much less than in other similar locations in Germany, and some of the buildings are reportedly listed, albeit not really looked after. The real threat for a visit is in the condition of the base. Most buildings are in a really bad shape, and entering is at your own risk. As said, some of the most visited parts have finally collapsed – luckily, nobody was in at the wrong time, but be sure you know what you are doing and take all precautions.

Forst Zinna is rather popular among German explorers, plus the area is a natural preserve now, so you will likely meet somebody during the exploration of the site, especially during the week-end. If you go on working days instead, you are likely to be alone all of the time, which may add to the atmosphere.

The size of the base is very large. These photographs were taken over three visits, for a total of about 10 hours, and at least on third of the buildings have been totally overlooked or not explored thoroughly.

Former Soviet and East German Military Bases in the GDR – Pictures from Above

December 23, 2019July 29, 2022 CarloRLeave a comment

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At the end of WWII, the territory of conquered Germany was split in four sectors by the then-Allies – the US, Great Britain, France and the USSR. A substantial part to the north-east of the country fell in Stalin’s hands. A few years later, following a re-organization of all territories occupied by the Red Army during WWII, the Soviet part of Germany was turned into a communist-led state known as German Democratic Republic (‘GDR’, or ‘DDR’ in German language).

Especially from a military standpoint, similar to Poland, and later Hungary and Czechoslovakia, this produced a kind of cohabitation. As a matter of fact, besides clearly backing the communist dictatorship in occupied countries, the Soviets did not quit at all from newly acquired western territories. On the contrary, thanks to the position on a potential war front had the Cold War turned hot, the westernmost Soviet-controlled countries – with the GDR on top – were stuffed with Soviet military bases, and hundreds of thousands troops. These shared the map with the national military, which in the GDR were known as NVA (an acronym standing for the German equivalent of ‘National People’s Army’).

The national and Soviet forces often took control of separated military facilities, and while operating in a coordinated fashion, they were substantially different entities. As said, this was typical to many Soviet-controlled countries. Yet especially on the relatively small East German territory, of high strategic value thanks to the shared border with the West, the total number of tank bases, training academies, air bases, missile bases, nuclear depots, shooting ranges, etc., reached an unrivaled world’s peak, when compared to the population or the size of the country.

Following the crisis leading to the end of the GDR in 1989, and the collapse of the USSR roughly two years later, all these military assets turned surplus. The German reunification, and the disappearance of a significant military opponent in the close vicinity of the border, triggered a rationalization of military resources in Germany. Most of the NVA bases were closed. The Soviet-controlled installations were evacuated more slowly – it took until 1994 to bring back to their Russian homeland the thousands of troops and tonnes of material stationed in Germany. Once returned to Germany, also most of these bases were deactivated and closed.

Since then, the fate of these former military facilities in Germany has been in the hands of local governments or national initiatives. As a matter of fact, following a few decades spent as ghost bases – a real paradise for urbex explorers! – most air bases have been converted into solar power plants. Some of them have retained an airport status, either with a very reduced runway, or in some cases being turned into full-scale commercial airports. There are exceptions too, as some are still at least partly abandoned, and while invaded by vegetation, they are still totally recognizable especially from above. Other bases, like tank bases or nuclear depots, while mostly earmarked for demolition, have been comparatively better ‘preserved’ – at least, they have been attacked by the state more slowly, so there is still much to see there.

You can find on this website several reports about quite a few of these military bases in the former GDR – especially airbases – from a ‘ground perspective’. Sometimes, it is difficult to appreciate the size, shape, as well as their concentration over the former GDR territory. In order to better show these aspects, now here you have a portrait of many of these bases from the air!

The photographs in the present post are from a single, two-hours flight on a Cessna 172 single-prop aircraft. The flight took place in July 2019. As you can see from the locations pinpointed on the map below, on our route we met not less than 15 former (or still active) military items. And this is just a short trip mostly in southern Brandenburg – i.e. the region immediately south of Berlin.

This report is a complement to other chapters on this site, yet it is especially interesting on its own, as a comprehensive bundle of aerial pics on this subject is not easy to find!

Sights

Points of interest are listed following the flight plan, which was flown roughly as on the map, in a counter-clockwise direction, starting from Reinsdorf Airfield.

Soviet Nuclear Bunker Stolzenhain

This one-of-a-kind facility – there were actually two such depots, but one is today demolished and inaccessible – used to be a major storage for nuclear weapons for the Soviet Western Group of Forces, which included all Soviet troops stationed in the GDR.

The bunker is today closed, but it apparently lies on private land, hence sparing it from being turned into something else (or simply flattened) by the local government. You can see a dedicated report in this chapter.

Vegetation has grown wild in the area, but from above you can clearly spot the rectangular perimeter of the external concrete wall. From north to south, an internal road crossed the rectangle in the middle.

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Bunker Depot Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

The bunkers are half-interred, hence from above you can barely spot the entrances. These are aligned along a service road arranged in a hexagonal shape.

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Bunker Depot Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

To the south of the bunker area, you can spot a former group of barracks and an access road heading west. Construction and demolition works are taking place in this area.

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Bunker Depot Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

Control and Reporting Center Schönewalde

This is an active military installation, and actually quite an advanced one. It is tasked with monitoring the air operations over a large part of the airspace over Germany.

The origin of this half-interred technical installation can be traced to the 1970s, when the site was activated under responsibility of the NVA. Following the end of communist rule and after German reunification, unlike many others this site was not demolished, but instead it was developed further, and pressed into the defense chain of NATO since the mid-1990s.

Control and Reporting CRC Point Schönewalde NATO German Air Force Bundeswehr – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

You can see many half-interred warehouses, garages for trucks, a smaller radar antenna to the west of the complex, close to a helipad.

Control and Reporting CRC Point Schönewalde NATO German Air Force Bundeswehr – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

There is also a larger antenna to the northeastern corner of the CRC.

Control and Reporting CRC Point Schönewalde NATO German Air Force Bundeswehr – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

Holzdorf Air Base

This large airport used to be an airbase of the NVA. It is one of the few airports from the Cold War in the GDR which were turned into a full-scale modern airport. Today it is a base of the Bundeswehr, i.e. the German military.

As we approached from north, you can spot first typical large communist buildings, forming a citadel which is likely still today hosting troops and their families. There is also reportedly a flight academy for helicopters in this complex, north of the airport.

Holzdorf Air Base former NVA East Germany (DDR) Base – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

The airport features large hangars for military helicopters to the northwest of the runway.

Holzdorf Air Base former NVA East Germany (DDR) Base – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

A rather old-styled control tower can be seen to the south of the runway.

Holzdorf Air Base former NVA East Germany (DDR) Base – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

Falkenberg Air Base

We reached the southernmost point on our flight with the former Soviet base in Falkenberg. This old base dating to the 1930s went on to be developed into a Soviet base home to fighter aircraft, MiG-23 and later MiG-29. Close to the airfield, there used to be a SAM missile battery (to the west of the runway).

Approaching from the north-west, you can notice a small ghost town and a large technical area, with what appear to be big unreinforced maintenance hangars, today used for something else by local companies.

Falkenberg Abandoned Soviet Base East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

The airport is today dedicated to light aviation activities. The runway has been shortened, and sadly large portions of the original airfield have been covered with solar cells.

Most interestingly, in the trees to the northwest of the runway, you can spot four unfinished aircraft shelters – possibly of the type AU-16, which could host both the MiG-23 and MiG-29. They look like short concrete tunnels. They should have been covered with land, but works were interrupted in 1990.

Falkenberg Abandoned Soviet Base East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

More aircraft shelters – completed – can be found to the east of the field, today used for storage, as it is often the case.

Falkenberg Abandoned Soviet Base East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

Finsterwalde Air Base

This installation was operative since WWII, when the large hangars and control tower still in place to the south of the apron were built. The base went on serving as a Soviet base, hosting fighters and fighter-bombers of many kinds along its illustrious history. A visit to this site, with its nuclear depot, can be found in this chapter.

Approaching from the southwest, we flew over the nuclear storage bunker, made for nuclear warheads to supply aircraft operating from here. The columns once holding the crane to lift the warheads can be clearly spotted.

Finsterwalde Abandoned Soviet Base East Germany (DDR) Nuclear Bunker – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

There is also a group of Soviet-style houses for the families of the troops. Apparently somebody is still living there!

Finsterwalde Abandoned Soviet Base East Germany (DDR) Nuclear Bunker – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

The base was enlarged with reinforced shelters to the north and southwest of the runway. The large hangars to the south are still in use with local companies, some of course connected with flight operations – this airport is still active for general aviation operations.

Finsterwalde Abandoned Soviet Base East Germany (DDR) Nuclear Bunker – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

Enroute to the next waypoint, we flew over a natural preserve, which offered some quite spectacular sights.

Naturpark Lausitz – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

Alteno-Luckwalde Air Base

This airfield north of Finsterwalde was a reserve airport of the East German NVA. While never developed to the extent of primary airfields, it was among the few reserve air bases to receive an asphalt runway.

Today, the view is rather desolating – the airfield has been totally covered with solar cells.

Alteno Fliegerhorst Luckau Abandoned NVA East Germany (DDR) Air Force Base – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

Brand-Briesen Air Base

This WWII base was selected for quick and substantial improvement since the early Cold War years, and went on to be one of the most developed Soviet air bases in the former GDR. In the beginning it hosted Ilyushin Il-28 bombers, but in the jet age it was home to a number of different squadrons and aircraft types. You can find the results of the exploration of a part of this base in this chapter.

Approaching from the south, you first spot an immense hangar, conceived at the turning of the century for commercial airships, and later turned into a water park – Tropical Island.

Brand Abandoned Soviet Air Base Nuclear Bunker East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

But more interestingly, to the south of the airfield – unusually far from it, actually – you can find a depot for nuclear weapons, to supply the aircraft operating from the base. Similar to Finsterwalde, the pillars once holding the crane for lifting the warheads can be clearly seen.

Brand Abandoned Soviet Air Base Nuclear Bunker East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

Still to the south of the airfield, the local citadel for the troops is today an interesting ghost town.

Brand Abandoned Soviet Air Base Nuclear Bunker East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

As you may notice, the airfield is today closed, and has been largely converted into a recreation park. Incredibly, they decided to build an array of small houses on the former premises of the airport, and in close proximity to the monster airship hangar.

Brand Abandoned Soviet Air Base Nuclear Bunker East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

Yet some relics from the past function of the air base are to be found scattered around. These include aircraft shelters, and more rare engine testing facilities – V-shaped concrete walls emerging from the grass nearby some of the shelters.

Brand Abandoned Soviet Air Base Nuclear Bunker East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

Kleinköris Air Base

This airbase was activated in the late 1960s as a reserve airfield for the East German NVA. It was used for exercises, and as a home base for helicopters of the Volkspolizei, i.e. the police of the GDR. After deactivation, it was used as a military storage for a while, and finally closed.

Kleinköris Löpten Abandoned NVA Air Base East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

The appearance, perfectly evident from the air, is rather unusual – it features a long grassy runway, with concrete taxiways at the ends. To the reports from the time, this is the original configuration of the airbase. Luckily, it is basically still intact.

Kleinköris Löpten Abandoned NVA Air Base East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

Wünsdorf

The name of this small town will be forever linked to the two military high commands which were headquartered on its premises – Hitler’s OKW first, and the command of the Soviet Western Group of Forces for the full span of the Cold War. You can find a dedicated chapter here.

From above, you can get a nice view of the extension and shape of this military town, as well as good portraits of some of the highlights in it. Approaching from the southeast, you first meet the most famous building in Wünsdorf, the officers’ house. This majestic building dates from the early 20th century. It knew an extensive renovation during the Cold War years, as an officers’ club for the Soviet Red Army.

Wünsdorf Soviet Nazi Military Headquarters Abandoned East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

This huge building features a statue of Lenin on one side. In the wings to the back, you can find a swimming pool and a theater. The round building with a mural is a late Soviet addition, and once hosted a circular panorama painting.

Wünsdorf Soviet Nazi Military Headquarters Abandoned East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

The high command occupied the buildings north of the officers’ club, today converted into something else.

Another highlight of Wünsdorf are the many bunkers. These include the Maybach bunkers from Hitler’s era, once hosting the OKW. These were designed for deception as living houses, but could withstand aerial bombardment. They were blown by the Soviet, with only partial success. The Zeppelin bunkers, like cusped concrete towers, were designed to resist bombardment, by deviating air-dropped bombs falling from above along the sidewalls and down to the ground nearby.

Wünsdorf Soviet Nazi Military Headquarters Abandoned East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

Soviet bunkers were located very close to the array of Maybach bunkers. They are largely interred, and from above you can see some concrete tunnels in the trees.

The railway line and station is an historical track from the time. The Wünsdorf-Moscow line operated in both ways on a daily basis. The service was suspended only in 1994, at the very end of the withdrawal of the last occupation troops to Russia – for many, the symbolic end of Soviet occupation.

Wünsdorf Soviet Nazi Military Headquarters Abandoned East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

The buildings for those stationed in Wünsdorf and their families were really many. Today this town, having lost its original core business, is largely uninhabited.

Wünsdorf Soviet Nazi Military Headquarters Abandoned East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

Sperenberg Air Base

Not far from Wünsdorf, you can find the former Soviet air base of Sperenberg. This immense transport base used to be a major logistic base for the Soviets, which operated from here with their monster cargo planes. More on this base can be found in this chapter.

Approaching from the east, you first meet the buildings for the troops, to the east of the airport and close to the village.

Sperenberg Soviet Airlift Air Force Base Transport Abandoned East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

An aerial view allows to clearly capture the shape of the base, with two large parallel taxiways with a huge array of parking bays for transport aircraft, and a long runway – still basically intact! – to the south.

Sperenberg Soviet Airlift Air Force Base Transport Abandoned East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

A large hangar with an inscription in Russian can be found to the east, whereas a small terminal building can be spotted ahead of a large apron to the west.

Sperenberg Soviet Airlift Air Force Base Transport Abandoned East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

Today the airport is closed, but rumors have surfaced more than once concerning its evaluation as a third airport for Berlin. This may justify its missed conversion into another desolating field of solar cells.

Kummersdorf Military Laboratory

A bit of an outsider here, Kummersdorf holds a very relevant place in the history of war technique thanks to pre-Soviet activity. In the late 1920s the Germans established here an experimental laboratory especially dedicated to novel weapons. It can be said that western rocketry was born here, since the group of Walther Dornberger, later joined by Wernher von Braun, started operations on liquid-propelled rockets in this lab.

Activities later moved to somewhere else, and finally landed in Peenemünde – see this dedicated chapter.

The laboratory in Kummersdorf was used also during WWII to test captured material, especially enemy tanks. Following the end of WWII, the Soviets took over the facility, but turned it into a more standard military base.

Kummersdorf Soviet Base Abandoned East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

The red barracks in typical German style can be clearly seen from above. Most of the post-WWII depots are falling apart, but the area is really huge.

Forst Zinna Military Base

This base is located to the northeast of Jüterbog-Altes Lager, a huge Imperial, Nazi and later Soviet military complex, including two shooting ranges, a few airfields, an academy and many barracks.

Forst Zinna base was operative in the years of the Third Reich, named after Adolf Hitler himself. It went on to become a large base for the artillery groups training in the nearby shooting ranges. A dedicated chapter can be found here.

Forst Zinna Soviet Base Abandoned East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

From above, it is clear that demolition works are slowly wiping out the base. Yet there is much housing left to visit. Typical German buildings share the area with shabby Soviet ‘socialist housing’. A bridge passing over a major road and railway track going to Berlin links the base to the shooting range north of it.

Altes Lager Shooting Range and Barracks

The shooting range north of Forst Zinna is pointed with concrete control towers. The area is very extensive, and quite more convenient to explore from above!

Juterbog/Altes Lager Soviet Base Abandoned East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

Closer to Altes Lager, many barracks can be seen aligned along a major road. From the style, these appear to be from an older time than the Soviet occupation years.

Jüterbog-Altes Lager Training Academy

This pretty unique piece of architecture dates from the years of the Führer, and used to be an academy for air force technicians. It was later turned into a military academy for Soviet staff, and a KGB office was reportedly active here too. A report can be found in this chapter.

From above you can better capture the plant of the complex. The half-circle to the north hosted a big theater in the basement.

Juterbog/Altes Lager Soviet Base Abandoned East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

Most strikingly, in the western part of the complex you can see sporting facilities which have been completely refurbished, and are actually in use. These include a football field and some tennis courts. There is also a pool, but this has not been refurbished.

Jüterbog-Niedergörsdorf Air Base

This large air base was jointly operated by the NVA and Soviet air force. You can find a report in this chapter.

Approaching from the northwest you can see aircraft shelters, whereas to the northeast you find an array of large maintenance hangars. These have been turned into something else, including a test driving facility, which chopped part of the original apron.

Juterbog/Niedergörsdorf Soviet NVA Air Force Base Abandoned East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

To the south of the runway, the base used to feature a large number of parking bays for helicopters. The runway has not been physically cut, albeit a central section of the original concrete has been taken away. Air operations today are apparently limited to ultralights and trikes.

Juterbog/Niedergörsdorf Soviet NVA Air Force Base Abandoned East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

A menacing army of solar cells is attacking the perimeter of the base from the east! An unmissable sight next to this base (to the east) is a former aircraft shelter turned into a private collection of Soviet memorabilia – Shelter Albrecht (covered in this post).

Juterbog/Niedergörsdorf Soviet NVA Air Force Base Abandoned East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

Enroute to the next waypoint, you can clearly spot from the air a military hospital complex (see this chapter) – rather famous among urbex fanatics… – and other service buildings.

Juterbog/Altes Lager Soviet Base Abandoned East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

Jüterbog-Damm Air Base

This base dates to the years of the German Empire. It was forcibly demilitarized after WWI, but strongly developed in the years of the Third Reich, with the construction of large concrete hangars and service facilities, and a grassy airstrip good for fighter planes of the era.

Following conquer by Soviet forces, the airbase was partly dismantled, but at some point a SAM battery appeared on this site.

Today you can appreciate the size and special shape of the concrete hangars, a true engineering masterpiece from pre-WWII years.

Juterbog-Damm WWI-WWII Luftwaffe Air Force Base Abandoned East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

Landing in Reinsdorf

Finally, you can see here a vid of the perfect approach and landing into the touristic airfield of Reinsdorf, about two hours after take-off!

Practical Notes

This flight was carried out from Reinsdorf Airfield (ICAO: EDOD), located about 10 miles southeast of Jüterbog, the most sizable town in the neighborhood. The airfield is roughly 1 hour driving south of downtown Berlin, very easy to reach with a car.

The flight would have not been possible without the help of a fantastic couple, Mrs. Kolditz and her husband, who own a nice French-built Cessna 172 from the mid-1960s, D-EBLD, portrayed here.

Cessna 172 D-EBLD Flugplatz Reinsdorf East Germany – Scenic Flight

There are some features making this very aircraft ideal for aerial pictures. Besides the high-wing configuration, this exemplar features a side window which can be completely opened, allowing for an unobstructed view of the scenery below.

The man is a former NVA pilot, something that must have played a part in him accepting to set up this very unusual flight plan! His great ability as a pilot helped much in having the aircraft in the right position to take the desired aerial pictures.

Thanks to the availability of the Kolditz family, setting up the flight was an easy task, even operating from abroad and through much Google-translation!

Another key-element in this adventure was Federico, a friend of mine sharing my passion for flying, who lives in Berlin, and played an essential part in co-financing the flight and translating between me and the pilot, as – perhaps incredibly, considering the content of this website… – I don’t speak German.

If you are interested in sightseeing flights south of Berlin, I suggest inquiring with the folks at Reinsdorf, a very active airfield with many facilities for touristic and pleasure flights. Website here.

Soviet and East German Relics North of Berlin

September 29, 2019June 28, 2023 CarloRLeave a comment

For the full span of the Cold War, the communist German Democratic Republic has been a highly militarized region.

Due to its position right on the European border between NATO countries and the USSR-led eastern bloc, this relatively small state was kept in high consideration by the Soviet military staff in Moscow. In the re-organization of Soviet forces following the end of the Great Patriotic War (i.e. WWII), of the four Soviet groups of forces stationed in all satellite countries outside the Soviet border, one was specifically named ‘Group of Soviet Forces in Germany’. This group was headquartered in Wünsdorf, the former location of the German OKW south of Berlin (see this post), and had under its command a force of some hundred thousands troops, divided in two tank armies, an entire air army, three mixed armies and a supplementary artillery division. Supplies were in no shortage either, with some tens of fully operational airbases/tank polygons, academies and housing for all the troops and respective families.

Despite the very significant Soviet presence, the GDR invested a huge capital of its own in the development of a full-scale military strength. The East-German National People’s Army (NVA) received top-tier technology from the USSR, and did of course manufacture military supply of all sorts. Sustaining this army, together with the enormous para-military organization of the internal Ministry of Security – the ill-famed STASI – and other governmental organizations, military expenses undoubtedly contributed to the economical crisis hitting the GDR in the 1980s, setting the scene for its final demise.

The region north of Berlin was particularly rich in military and governmental installations, some of them highly classified, their history shrouded into mystery. You can find some information in dedicated posts on this website (see this post, also here and here).

In this chapter, some more items of interest are featured. Four of them are abandoned tokens from Soviet occupation. A nice belle-epoque villa on the shore of the Röblingsee in Fürstenberg, where the headquarters of the 2nd Guard Tank Army was headquartered since Stalin’s era to the withdrawal of Soviet forces in the 1990s, is the first of them. The second is a unique, forgotten Soviet monument, to be found less than two miles south of Fürstenberg. Two more are memorials and cemeteries, for Soviet troops who perished in the last stage of the Great Patriotic War (WWII) around Berlin.

Other three points of interest are instead GDR-related. The first is the former academy for future leaders of the communist party, established in Wandlitz in the years of Stalin, and initially led by Erich Honecker, later to become the omnipotent leader of the GDR for two decades. In the same area north of Berlin – and precisely in Waldsiedlung, today a nice clinical campus in the countryside – are the former private houses of the members of the central committee of the communist party of the DDR – personalities like Walter Ulbricht, Erich Honecker, Erich Mielke and Egon Krenz lived here with their families. Finally, you will find a glimpse from the so-called ‘Honecker bunker’ in Prenden. This big and highly classified installation was prepared in case of war, to protect the leadership of the GDR and ensure safe communication with Moscow.

Photographs were taken in summer 2019 and 2021.

Navigate this post – click on links to scroll

Soviet 2nd Guard Tank Army headquarters, Fürstenberg/Havel
Soviet monument, Fürstenberg/Havel
Soviet Memorial and Cemetery, Rathenow
Soviet Memorial and Cemetery, Blumberg
Free German Youth Academy, Wandlitz
Private Homes of the Members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the GDR, Waldsiedlung
Honecker bunker, Prenden

Sights

Soviet 2nd Guard Tank Army Headquarters, Fürstenberg/Havel

Among the Soviet forces permanently stationed in the GDR in case of war, there used to be two entire tank armies, the 1st and 2nd. The former was headquartered in Dresden, whereas the 2nd – named ‘Red Banner’ – in Fürstenberg/Havel.

The headquarter in Fürstenberg is basically an old villa, possibly dating to the late 19th century or a slightly more recent time. The villa is somewhat unusual in the panorama of todays Fürstenberg. This is a nice and lively touristic town, where many Berliners come to find a retreat in nature, less than 1 hour driving from home. Thanks to tourism-related activities, the area has got rid of the Soviet/East German grayness, and is now a typical village in the German countryside, graced with a creek and a small lake, where canoes and small boats are always roaming around.

In stark contrast with this, the villa is today completely abandoned, with overgrown vegetation almost hiding it from the main road. Access to the premises is easier from the back, where you first meet a typical Soviet prefabricated wall, and service buildings with evidence of a communist design – the usual yellow paint and railings on the windows with the stylized ‘radiant dawn of communist revolution’.

2nd Guard Tank Army Red Banner Abandoned Soviet Headquarter Furstenberg Havel Berlin Lenin Statue

Getting closer to the house, you meet an access door, possibly going to a bunkerized area underneath. The house is in a really bad shape, with rotting walls, plants growing on the balconies and roof. The inside has been made completely inaccessible. A typical East German light is still hanging from the back wall.

2nd Guard Tank Army Red Banner Abandoned Soviet Headquarter Furstenberg Havel Berlin Lenin Statue

To the front, a temple-like decoration contours the main door. It is difficult to say whether this decoration was there since the beginning, since it appears rather different in style from the rest of the villa.

2nd Guard Tank Army Red Banner Abandoned Soviet Headquarter Furstenberg Havel Berlin Lenin Statue

A highlight of this site is the statue of Lenin still standing ahead of the front facade. The statue is in a relatively good shape. It looks like the man was portrayed during a discussion.

2nd Guard Tank Army Red Banner Abandoned Soviet Headquarter Furstenberg Havel Berlin Lenin Statue

The concrete sculpture was accurately made, as witnessed by the facial expression and details in the embroidery of the tie.

2nd Guard Tank Army Red Banner Abandoned Soviet Headquarter Furstenberg Havel Berlin Lenin Statue

On the front side, the villa used to be reachable with a large flight of steps climbing uphill, with Lenin on top. Today this perspective is gone, for vegetation has totally invaded the steps, and the front of the house is not visible from the street.

Getting there and moving around

The villa is located in central Fürstenberg on Steinförder Strasse (possibly) 44, on the southern side of the road. The house and its large garden estate are abandoned, but all other houses around are not. Getting closer without being spotted is easier from the backstreet. Technically speaking, the latter is accessible for residents only, so you may park somewhere else and come closer by foot. Visiting may take about 30 minutes with time for the pictures, for the house is not accessible inside.

It should be remarked that this site is probably not public, and at an unpredictable time it may be either restored or demolished – so checking it out may be not possible for long.

Soviet Monument, Fürstenberg/Havel

A rare example of Soviet commemoration monument can be found very close to Fürstenberg. Apart from the monumental sites in Berlin (see here), a number of smaller Soviet monuments are to be found around the GDR – impressive ghosts of a bygone era.

Among the best preserved are that in the former tank base of Zeithain (see this post), and this one in Fürstenberg.

The monument is composed of two parts, basically two concrete curtains facing each other on the sides of a small apron.

Soviet Memorial 2nd Guard Tank Army Red Banner Abandoned Furstenberg Havel Berlin Victory

The smaller panel to the south is the most intriguing. It is apparently a celebration of an economic plan of the Soviet Union. It is all about the growth in production in several areas of industry and farming, likely resulting from careful planning by the top of the Soviet government.

Soviet Memorial 2nd Guard Tank Army Red Banner Abandoned Furstenberg Havel Berlin

Soviet Memorial 2nd Guard Tank Army Red Banner Abandoned Furstenberg Havel Berlin Victory

Soviet Memorial 2nd Guard Tank Army Red Banner Abandoned Furstenberg Havel Berlin

Soviet Memorial 2nd Guard Tank Army Red Banner Abandoned Furstenberg Havel Berlin Victory

Between a citation from Lenin and a stylized image of the Kremlin, several panels cite one by one the increases in production of anything from oil to weapons, from milk to corn.

Soviet Memorial 2nd Guard Tank Army Red Banner Abandoned Furstenberg Havel Berlin Victory

To the back of the monument, the only remaining feature is a remarkable head of Lenin, with yet another citation. It is likely that other features have been removed by vandals, as empty frames can be seen aligned along this face of the monument.

Soviet Memorial 2nd Guard Tank Army Red Banner Abandoned Furstenberg Havel Berlin Victory

The larger panel to the north is a celebration of the march to Berlin during the Great Patriotic War, likely related to specific actions of the Guard Tank Armies. The central slab features an image of the Soviet monument in Treptower Park, Berlin – one the most famous commemorative monuments in the Soviet Union, as witnessed by numerous images to be found still today in many museums in the former USSR (see for instance here).

Soviet Memorial 2nd Guard Tank Army Red Banner Abandoned Furstenberg Havel Berlin Victory

Soviet Memorial 2nd Guard Tank Army Red Banner Abandoned Furstenberg Havel Berlin

Soviet Memorial 2nd Guard Tank Army Red Banner Abandoned Furstenberg Havel Berlin Victory

Close by, reproductions of decorations and captions of what happened on some days of 1944 and 1945 are reported.

Soviet Memorial 2nd Guard Tank Army Red Banner Abandoned Furstenberg Havel Berlin Victory

On the left panel you can see a reproduction of the march to Berlin, from the battlegrounds in the USSR, through central Europe and Germany. It is likely that some metal parts of the monument once used to connect the ‘points of interest’, but these have disappeared due to vandalism.

Soviet Memorial 2nd Guard Tank Army Red Banner Abandoned Furstenberg Havel Berlin Victory

On the right wing of the monument the names of Heroes of the Soviet Union possibly from the Guard Tank Armies are cited one by one. Close by, the image of the ‘Soviet Motherland Calling’, pretty usual in Soviet war iconography, can be found together with other typical emblems.

Soviet Memorial 2nd Guard Tank Army Red Banner Abandoned Furstenberg Havel Berlin Victory

Getting there and moving around

This monument is not maintained nor protected. It is open air, unfenced and freely accessible. It will be hopefully restored or moved to a museum, as the weather and vandals are taking their tolls. It can be reached along the road 96 about 1 mile south of Fürstenberg, immediately to the west of the road. A small unofficial parking area can be found ahead of it, making a quick visit really easy.

Soviet Memorial and Cemetery, Rathenow

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The Soviet memorial in Rathenow is one of a number of smaller military cemeteries for Soviet troops in the region around Berlin. Soviet soldiers perished in the area in the thousands in the final stage of WWII (1945), when the Red Army entered the northeastern part of todays Germany from Poland, pushing towards Berlin and fighting against the agonizing but still fierce German Wehrmacht.

Apart from the gigantic and formal monuments in Berlin (see this chapter), more modest shrines are scattered around the German capital city, all built roughly in the same period, between the end of the war in Europe and 1950, in the years of Stalin.

The Rathenow site is a small town cemetery, a proportionate, down-scaled version of its larger counterparts in Berlin – especially Schönholzer Heide (see here) – and can be found in the center of the sleepy town of Rathenow. A central obelisk with a commemoration plaque is topped by a golden five-pointed star, the symbol of the Red Army.

Soviet Red Army Memorial Rathenow

A number of soberly designed grave stones for as many Soviet troops are aligned in rows, creating an elegant perspective. Most of the graves bear complete names, as well as the birth and death years. Similar to the war cemeteries dating also from WWI (see for instance here and here), the very young age of most of the troops in the final struggle around Berlin is readily apparent.

Soviet Red Army Memorial Rathenow

Despite being fenced and of course not left in a state of disrepair, the green areas immediately outside of the perimeter of the monument in Rathenow are somewhat neglected, perhaps reflecting a fading interest for this monument.

Getting there and moving around

The Soviet monument in Rathenow can be reached at the crossing of Ferdinand Lassalle Str. with Friedrich Ebert Ring, in central Rathenow. The monument is very compact and can be toured in a few minutes.

Soviet Memorial and Cemetery, Blumberg

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The monument in Blumberg, in the northern outskirts of Berlin and really close to town, is smaller than the one in Rathenow (see above), but shares the general arrangement with it.

A central pillar with a commemoration slab is surmounted in this case by a statue of a Soviet soldier, holding a Red Banner flag.

Soviet Red Army Memorial Blumberg

Ahead and around the pillar, gravestones put flat on the ground are aligned in a perspective. However, the overgrown vegetation is basically hiding these lines of tombs, so that even from a small distance the central monument appears as an isolated item, put in the middle of a grassy area.

Soviet Red Army Memorial Blumberg

Actually, the major difference with other monuments of the kind lies in the rather remoteness of the one in Blumberg. It is a listed historical landmark, and therefore at least minimally cared for, but on the other hand, it is located relatively far from todays nearest settlement, hidden in the trees, and out of sight for anybody except people going there specifically for it. This makes it rather mysterious, a silent memento of old memories.

Getting there and moving around

The monument is conveniently located just out of the A10 highway (the external ring of Berlin), in the settlement of Ahrensfelde. You may reach Chausseedreieck and drive to its western dead end, where you can conveniently park. From there a grassy path points south into the trees, and in less than 150 yards you will find the monument. The size of the monument is small, hence no further walking is needed. A mosquito repellent is highly recommended in the warm season.

Free German Youth Academy & Joseph Goebbels Manor, Wandlitz

Deep in the countryside about 25 miles north of Berlin, about 3 miles from the small touristic village of Wandlitz, you can find a couple of highlights from the troublesome past of Germany, sitting side by side, close to the small Bogensee lake.

The first is the country estate of Joseph Goebbels, the famous minister for education and propaganda in the years of the Nazi dictatorship. This villa has been built in the war years, and often used by its owner, also for receiving guests. Goebbels obtained the estate as a birthday present from the Nazi Party.

Incredibly, the manor, built in a typical German country style, was not demolished after the war – so unlike other residences belonging to Hitler or his fellows, it is still there to see. It survived denazification, Soviet occupation and 40 years in the GDR as part of a school (see below).

The outside is the only part you can see. The appearance is sober, with simple lines and not much vertical elevation – it nicely integrates in the natural setting.

Joseph Goebbels Manor Nazi Leader Bogensee Wandlitz Hitler Present

Access to the courtyard is from a small road, now part of the inner network of the larger complex surrounding the manor.

This complex is actually the other peculiar item you can find in Wandlitz. This enormous academy was built in 1951, on behalf of the Free German Youth (FDJ), a youth-training organization founded and originally run by Erich Honecker, later to become the general secretary of the communist party of the GDR in the 1970s and 1980s.

The academy was designed by Hermann Henselmann the same architect who designed Karl-Marx-Allee in the Soviet sector of Berlin – one of the most iconic ‘Stalin’s-style’ perspectives in the world. The complex is composed of two large opposing buildings, on the short sides of an internal courtyard. These hosted common areas, lecture rooms and a theater.

German Communist School Academy Bogensee Wandlitz FDJ Jugendhochschule Jugendleiterschule DDR Honecker Henselmann

Along the longer sides of the courtyard are buildings with bedrooms and services for around 500 students.

German Communist School Academy Bogensee Wandlitz FDJ Jugendhochschule Jugendleiterschule DDR Honecker Henselmann

The academy was for the future staff of the communist party, and in later years of the Cold War it was attended also by international students from communism-leaning nations, or sometimes even from NATO countries.

German Communist School Academy Bogensee Wandlitz FDJ Jugendhochschule Jugendleiterschule DDR Honecker Henselmann

Following the collapse of the GDR, the building went on hosting educational institutions until the early 2000s, owned by the regional government. It was then mostly shut off, with some ancillary buildings still hosting institutions connected with the administration of the natural preserve around. It was put up for sale, for a while, but all potential customers failed to present satisfactory conversion plans. An expensive and inconvenient ghost from a forgotten era, as of 2019 its fate has not been sealed yet.

Today the place is not completely abandoned. Basic preservation works are being carried out, thus avoiding the roof to collapse or the walls to rotten. The names of the blocks are likely not from the GDR years. Similarly, a board with notices and maps dating from later than 1989 can still be seen, a witness of the post-GDR activity.

German Communist School Academy Bogensee Wandlitz FDJ Jugendhochschule Jugendleiterschule DDR Honecker Henselmann

Joseph Goebbels Manor Nazi Leader Bogensee Wandlitz Hitler Present

German Communist School Academy Bogensee Wandlitz FDJ Jugendhochschule Jugendleiterschule DDR Honecker Henselmann

The garden is not growing totally wild, and some architectural addition must have been tried in a recent past – like a small modern fountain ahead of the common building to the southwest of the complex. The buildings are still supplied with electrical power – there are lit lights above some doors – and it is discretely guarded to avoid vandalism.

Getting there and moving around

Accessing the area is possible following the L29 from Wandlitz. About 1 mile from the village, the road changes its name to Wandlitzer Strasse. There is a local road with limited access taking to the east. You may park there, and proceed along the road by foot for about .5 miles to reach the heart of the complex. This is surrounded by private houses. There is no fence, but there are proximity sensors which trigger an inspection. I was reached by a warden on a car soon after my arrival. He spotted me, but did not come close, likely noticing I was just taking pictures outside.

The site is rather mysterious and well worth a quick visit for interested subjects. Touring the site will not take more than 45 minutes, taking all the pictures.

Private Homes of the Members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the GDR, Waldsiedlung

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Similar to other top-ranking figures in the Soviet chain of command – like Stalin and others in his communist entourage, who did not spend much of their time in public or close to crowded places in central Moscow – the masters of the communist party in the GDR had their homes in the trees north of Berlin, relatively far from the city center and from the governmental buildings.

Actually, many of them lived together in a rather compact residential district, called Waldsiedlung. Access to the area was obviously controlled, but once inside the place was somewhat similar to a holiday settlement, with smaller single or two-family houses located along quiet alleys in a rural setting. The architecture is far from lavish – all houses are very similar to one another, and are designed in a plain typically East-German style from the post-WWII era.

Today, the settlement in Waldsiedlung has been converted into a campus for clinical studies. However, the original architecture of the place has been left mostly untouched, and explanatory panels telling quick information about the history of the residence have been planted ahead of most of the housing once occupied by old communist big brasses.

The office by the gate, and the metal gate itself, are totally original, as can be seen from historical pictures.

Waldsiedlung – GDR Communist Party private homes

Among the first buildings past the gate is a former congress center/clubhouse/gathering facility for the inhabitants of the residence.

Waldsiedlung – GDR Communist Party private homes

Moving on to the northern part of the settlement, the modest house of Erich Honecker and his wife Margot can be easily found. The two-storey construction has a patio on the backyard. A mystery wooden hut can be found next to the latter.

Waldsiedlung – Erich Honecker’s Home

The Honeckers were forced to leave this house in the turmoil following the collapse of the wall and the starting of the reunification process. Honecker fled to the Soviet Union in seek for protection, quickly departing from the Soviet base in Sperenberg (see here). He was trialed in absentia, in connection to the order issued to the GDR border guards to used deadly force against people trying to pass the ‘anti-fascist wall’, and the ensuing deaths. He remained in the USSR until also that dictatorship collapsed, and he was forced to escape to South America, where he died soon after.

To the far end of the same alley is the house of Walter Ulbricht and his wife Lotte. Somewhat larger than Honecker’s house, it is however not much more evolved in adornments or architectural fantasy.

Waldsiedlung – Walter Ulbricht’s Home

On another alley, parallel to the previous one, is also the house of Erich Mielke, the uncontested head of the ill-famed STASI, since its early years to the end.

Waldsiedlung – Erich Mielke’s Home

The man was captured and trialed for an old case of homicide, after the shut-off of the STASI monstrous machine. He died soon after.

Today even these smaller buildings have been converted for a new function in the clinical campus. Therefore, they cannot be toured inside. However, strolling in this inconspicuous, quiet village where a huge concentration of power used to be seated, provides a strange feeling.

Getting there and moving around

The Brandenburg Clinic, which has now taken over the Waldsiedlung residence for the members of the GDR government, is on the road N.273, between Bernau and Wandlitz. The clinic in Waldsiedlung is rather busy, and the parking ahead of it may be crowded. However, since the place is guarded and access regulated, that is the only credible parking option also for a historically-themed visit. You can access the area by foot undisturbed, and take photographs of the exteriors. There are explanatory panels ahead of many of the former residential homes.

Honecker Bunker, Prenden

Geographically very close to the academy in Wandlitz (see above) – less than 1 straight mile away – the bunker in Prenden is the central piece of a network of bunkers and military hardware, designed an built on behalf of the National Defense Council (NVR) of the GDR from 1973 onward, and named ‘komplex 5000’. The purpose was protection of the leadership of the GDR in case of a crisis or attack from the West.

The bunker is Prenden, technically listed as ’17/5001′, was a control center of incredible sophistication, designed to withstand nuclear blasts, and with direct communication with other sub-nodes of a larger communication network, thus granting safe communication and broadcasting ability, allowing to lead the country in case of a crisis. The bunker was intended to host the general secretary of the communist party, i.e. Erich Honecker, when the bunker was commissioned in 1983 – hence the unofficial name ‘Honecker bunker’.

The premises of Prenden are now largely in private hands, but some parts are apparently publicly accessible – the original fence has been completely torn down. The bunker itself is sealed, and can be accessed only on a few days per year with a guide.

The official entrance to the area is through the original GDR-made gate. This is closed however, for it is now the entrance to a small private industrial complex.

Honecker Bunker Objekt 17/5001 Prenden DDR Berlin

Traces of the original fence, as well as piping and vents for underground rooms, can be found around the hill on top of which the installation is standing.

Honecker Bunker Objekt 17/5001 Prenden DDR Berlin

Some service buildings in typical communist style can be still found, despite demolition works having taken place. Proximity sensors and signs delimit the private property area.

Honecker Bunker Objekt 17/5001 Prenden DDR Berlin

The three-storey building on the southwestern corner of the complex used to be the ‘front office’ of the bunker. Today, it is in a really bad shape.

Honecker Bunker Objekt 17/5001 Prenden DDR Berlin

Inside, traces of the original furniture and services can still be found, albeit much deteriorated.

Honecker Bunker Objekt 17/5001 Prenden DDR Berlin

Access to the bunker is on the underground floor. You may notice the prison-like railings ahead of the access stairs. A feature that might make you jump when you are exploring alone – if walking in a forgotten communist government building, deep in the silent German countryside, was not enough… – is the lit bulb hanging over the entrance to the bunker – really unexpected!

Honecker Bunker Objekt 17/5001 Prenden DDR Berlin

Besides the building, a shelter-garage for trucks and cars is still in a relatively good shape.

Honecker Bunker Objekt 17/5001 Prenden DDR Berlin

Getting there and moving around

The Prenden bunker is not publicized, but it can be neared easily with a car, about 1 mile south of the small village of Prenden, along Utzdorfer Strasse. The gate can be clearly spotted, but it will be likely closed, and there are obvious ‘no trespassing’ signs and labels of private companies. You may park outside and proceed along the side of the property to the back of it, where the abandoned building mentioned above can be found. Whether this is still on private land or not is not very clear. There are proximity sensors between the abandoned building and the rest of the complex, likely to trigger inspection if you get too close to the (surely) private part of the complex.

Venturing in the building is definitely not safe, and the bunker entrance is usually closed. Official visits to the bunker are possible on guided tours arranged irregularly about once per month (please browse the internet for more info on visiting, cause I could not find an official site of the place to link here).

Cold War Forts and Museums in Denmark

September 15, 2019May 9, 2020 CarloRLeave a comment

During the Cold War the condition of Denmark on the international stage was among the most complex. Coming from years of neutrality before WWII, conquered in a matter of days in spring 1940 by neighbor Germany, at that time in the throes of the Nazi fury, it found itself on the front line of the two opposing blocs soon after May 1945.

Having not been occupied by the Soviets during WWII, it could better choose about its future, and in 1949 the mother country of the Vikings joined NATO as a funding member – unlike neighbor Sweden and Finland – thus giving its availability to its Allies to help countering Soviet influence over the territory under its control.

History in brief

Often overlooked when looking at the world map for its relatively small area, at the beginning of the Cold War the geographical position of Denmark nonetheless was – and, to some extent, still is – strategically very relevant. It is right on the inlet of the Baltic Sea, with a proximity to the foreign coasts of Norway and Sweden such to allow easily blocking the marine traffic on the Kattegat strait, when needed, by means of mere cannon fire from the coast. During the Cold War, this meant a virtual control over a sea where the USSR and Eastern Bloc Countries had many industrially relevant and non-freezing ports, as well as navy bases. Furthermore, the islands of Denmark, where large cities like Odense and Copenhagen are, can be found as close as 1.5 hours by boat to the coast of the German Democratic Republic – once one of the most heavily militarized countries on earth, also thanks to a massive Soviet presence. The smaller island of Bornholm, further east, is even closer than that to the coast of Poland.

A curious fact in history demonstrated the proximity of Denmark to the communist sphere of influence, shaking the minds of top ranking Soviet military. On March 5th, 1953, on the very same day of Stalin’s death, the first defection of a jet fighter from the Eastern Bloc took place, when a Polish MiG-15 on a routine flight along the Baltic Coast suddenly left his mates and rushed to Bornholm, where it landed on a field, leaving the aircraft in almost pristine conditions.

The cautious reaction of the Danish government and military forces reflects the position of the country at the time – they had identified the USSR and their satellites as a clear and present threat, and consequently they had taken the side of the West. Yet Denmark knew it could not withstand a direct military hit by the Soviets for more than a few hours, therefore as a form of self-protection, any form of provocation, at least in the early 1950s, was carefully avoided. While the pilot of the MiG was allowed to escape to the UK and then the US, the aircraft was quietly ceded to the US military for technical inspection in the FRG, but then re-mounted and returned to Poland. Other examples of a policy of constant detente with the Soviet Union are represented by the refusal to have NATO bases on its territory, or despite the adoption of the Nike missile system for the airspace protection, the missed deployment of the corresponding tactical nuclear warheads.

Of course, in recognition of the strategic relevance of this pleasant country, plans for a Soviet invasion which would strike in northern Europe, with the objective of reaching to the ports of the North Sea in less than a week from Eastern Germany, included as a major target the quick occupation of the Jutland peninsula, and of the islands of Denmark as well. This had to be done by marching fast through the northern regions of the Federal Republic of Germany, and simultaneously landing troops on the Danish islands.

About this post

Albeit not enough populated to sustain an army capable of resisting the eastern opponents on the other side of the Iron Curtain, thanks to its position on the map, Denmark took over seriously a fundamental border monitoring and interdiction task in favor of all NATO forces. Two tangible witnesses of this are the military bases of Stevnsfort and Langelandsfort, both located on the southern coasts of the islands, overlooking key sea straits, and pointing south to the East German coast. Both have been shut down after the end of the Cold War, and now they can be visited as top-tier military museums.

Further souvenirs from the Cold War era can be found in the Defense and Garrison Museum in Aalborg, a wide-spectrum military museum with a focus on WWII and the Cold War, and in the Danish Museum of Flight, where exemplars from the heterogeneous wings of the Danish Air Force are displayed, together with unique specimens of Danish aircraft production from the inter-war and early Cold War period.

This post covers all these four sites, visited in summer 2019. Presentation doesn’t follow any special order.

Navigate this post – Click on links to scroll

Cold War Museum Stevnsfort
Cold War Museum Langelandsfort
Aalborg Defense and Garrison Museum
Danish Museum of Flight

Sights

Cold War Museum Stevnsfort

This museum on the eastern coast of the island of Zealand (the same of Copenhagen) is actually a former Cold War military fort, operative from the early 1950s to the year 2000. It was re-opened as a museum in 2008, carefully preserved in most part in the forms it had in the 1980s, the most technologically advanced years of the Cold War.

By the entrance to the museum area you can see three surface-to-air missile, namely an old Nike-Ajax, and a much more performing – and bigger – Nike-Hercules. Both were part of the US Nike airspace protection system, which was deployed in Denmark around Copenhagen. The missiles are from the Cold War years, but were not originally present on Stevnsfort.

Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center

Strictly speaking, Stevnsfort is not the part of the installation you access first. The area you meet when getting in from the parking used to be a missile base in charge of the Danish Air Force. It was built for the Hawk system, another US interdiction surface-to-air missile system, the heir of the Nike system. Actually, Nike Hercules batteries in Denmark were withdrawn from use – as elsewhere, see this post – in the 1980s. Their role was taken over by Hawk missile batteries, gradually entering service since the 1960s, and operated till 2005 in Denmark.

Differently from its predecessor, the radar-based Hawk system was entirely movable, making it more flexible and less vulnerable. As a result, there are basically no bunkers in this area, and all constructions here are ‘soft’. Target designation and tracking was demanded to three sub-systems, namely a radar-pulse antenna for target individuation, an interrogation friend-or-foe (IFF) and a target-tracking/homing antenna.

Two radar-pulse antennas are displayed. The aerial emerges from a tent, which covers the electronics and motor of the system. Both are mounted on a truck trailer, which is actually totally movable. The range of the radar scanner was about 75 miles.

Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center

The IFF antenna is a smaller barrel-shaped device coupled with systems on-board aircraft, needed to distinguish between an enemy aircraft and a friend or ally. The target-tracking/homing antenna, with its distinctive two radar dishes, shares the installation setup with radar-pulse antennas – it sits on top of a trailer, covered in a green tent.

Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center

Close by, trucks and special moving cranes to mount the missiles on their launch gantries are displayed. Also containers for the missiles are shown, together with an example of the Hawk missile itself. The launch order could arrive only from the central Air Force command, except in case of a communication breakdown, when each missile base could decide on its own – at the high risk of making a mistake!

Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center

Farther on, power trucks and other launch systems are displayed besides batteries of Hawk missiles. The launch gantry is smaller in size compared to that of Nike-Hercules, but each gantry launches three missiles instead of only one. The gantry is anchored to the ground, and when inactive it is shrouded in a peculiar rubber-coated eyelid-like bubble, which can be quickly lowered to let the missiles out.

Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center

On the far end of the missile area, you can see an old-fashioned coastal cannon, part of the original fort, used as an illumination cannon in support of larger cannons in the battery.

Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center

One of the naval gun batteries is the first item you meet when entering the actual Stevnsfort fort. The fort was built between 1952 and 1955 for use by the Navy, and is the oldest part of the installation. Together with the Langelandsfort gun battery and command post (see below), it was tasked with monitoring marine traffic along the straits giving access to the Kattegat and the North Sea from the inner Baltic. For the purpose, it was supplied with a huge underground bunker, its most distinctive feature, as well as batteries of naval guns.

The 150 mm guns have an intriguing history. They were made in Nazi Germany early during WWII, for the Kriegsmarine ship ‘Gneisenau’. This was damaged when still in the dockyard, and the guns were re-designated to be placed on the Danish island of Fano on the North Sea coast, as part of the fortifications of the Atlantic Wall. Following the end of WWII in May 1945, the guns were captured and finally found their way to Stevnsfort.

Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center

The two-guns batteries were capable of 4-6 shells per minute per barrel, and could reach to the coast of Sweden, thus effectively closing the Oresund strait between Denmark and Sweden if needed. While primarily an anti-ship battery, the swiveling turret could be used to cover the coast, in case of an amphibious attack.

Firing direction was by means of a primary radar station on site, which is still in use, complemented by five other stations along the coast. The shells were loaded with an elevator from the bunker underneath. The guns were temporarily deactivated – but not dismantled – in the 1980s, when Stevnsfort assumed the role of main control and communication post for the southern district of the Danish Navy. Joint exercises with the military forces of the FRG were carried out also here in the final years of the Cold War.

Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center

By the entrance to the underground bunker you can spot several air hatches emerging from the ground, and an example of sea mine. The latter was the primary weapon to interdict traffic on the strait, with gun battery fire being mainly directed against enemy mine-sweepers.

Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center

Past the entrance, you need to descend a long stair into the bunker. At the base of the stair is an airlock with facilities for decontamination. The Stevnsfort bunker was most notably the first structure in Denmark to be built to withstand a nuclear attack.

Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center

The bunker is not excessively big, with about twenty reinforced-concrete-padded rooms connected by tunnels carved in the rock.

One of the highlights of this installation is the communication bunker, operative since 1984 in an area formerly hosting a hospital, then shut down when the naval batteries were deactivated. This used to be a highly inaccessible facility during the Cold War. Thanks to a careful preservation, the room looks like it was still in use! Batteries of telex and other communication machines originally in place, monitors and modern imaging technology from the Eighties, together with examples of ciphered messages are all on display.

Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center

Next to the communication room, the operation room is even more impressive. Similar to the former, it was constantly manned, and totally inaccessible for non-authorized personnel. The radar monitors can be seen towering over the consoles! Military staff on duty identified and followed all marine traffic in the assigned district, both civilian and military, friends and potential enemies.

Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center

Catalogs of existing ships are on display. Several thousands ships were identified and observed from this facility in the days of operation. It is reported that patrol ships from the USSR approached the coast under surveillance about 30 times per year, tasked with familiarizing troops with local geography…

Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center

Another highlight of the visit is the ammo storage for the gun battery previously visited. In the storage, explosive cartridges are placed separately from the shells themselves. There were four types of shells, recognized through a color code – grey for armor-piercing, orange for explosive, green for illuminating and blue for inert.

Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center

The almost-100 pounds cartridges were loaded on an elevator, and lifted up to the battery. A ladder provided direct access from the bunker to the cannons, serving also as an emergency exit.

Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center

Other rooms you can visit are sleeping quarters for the 250 men which stationed inside the bunker, until the guns were deactivated in 1981. The fort was capable of sustaining prolonged isolation in case of crisis or war. During the Cuban missile crisis, the Stevnsfort bunker was put on maximum alert for a week, with all men living underground, all accesses sealed.

Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center

Getting there and moving around

The Cold War Museum Stevnsfort is an international-level museum, to be found 1 hour driving south of central Copenhagen. The official website with directions and opening times is here. Visiting inside the gun battery and the bunker is possible only on a guided tour, where you are given an audio guide in English (also German and possibly other languages) if you can’t follow the Danish-speaking human guide. The guided tour includes also a visit of the missile battery, but this part can be toured also on your own. The guided visit lasts about 1.5 hours, and may turn a little boring in some parts (as usual, the human guide speaks longer than your audio-guide), but it is needed to get access to the most unique parts of the museum. I suggest visiting relatively early in the day, allowing some spare time after the guided tour and before closure to tour the missile part on your own. Free parking ahead of the installation, nice military-themed shop.

Cold War Museum Langelandsfort

This museum has been opened on the premises of a former naval gun installation from the same years of Stevnsfort (see above). Located on the southern island of Langeland, at the inlet of the Belt channel giving access to the Kattegat from the Baltic, it was in a good position to monitor all marine traffic in its sector, as well as for blocking the channel. As a matter of fact, similarly to Stevnsfort, the main target of the naval guns here were minesweepers, for the channel was completely covered with Danish remotely-controlled sea mines, and action of enemy minesweepers would have been necessary before any attack by the bulk of navy forces.

The main naval force in Langelandsfort was constituted of four naval guns, mounted on swiveling turrets, and a fire control bunker which in non-crisis time was used to keep trace of all marine traffic in the sector. The fort was complemented with anti-aircraft defensive positions, a bunkerized power station, and ‘softer buildings’, including barracks. Except for the latter, everything has been restored and can be visited. One of the naval batteries has been restored completely to its original form including the mechanisms underneath, whereas at the base of the other three batteries you can find exhibitions about various aspects of the Cold War – they are all pretty well studied, rich and interesting.

The command bunker is the first construction you meet. The building is from the 1950s, and it shares many aspects with Stevnsfort, though this is much smaller. You can see sleeping quarters and a kitchen, which would be used especially in case the fort was sealed, i.e. in case of high alert or war.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

The control rooms are three. Two are for tracking marine traffic in the marine district of the Belt, and also for coordinating air operations from other military installations in Denmark. A radar antenna and an observation tower outside, likely complemented by similar gear in the area, provided a complete real-time picture of the civilian and military traffic in the sector. It is reported that ships going to Cuba with SS-4 nuclear missiles and related supplies were spotted in these rooms months before that material was photographed by the US, when the crisis broke out.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

The third control room is the fire control room for the whole fort, coordinating fire from all four gun batteries. Fire control was by means of a very interesting piece of machinery, a fully mechanical computer, taking in atmospheric data like temperature, humidity, wind direction and speed, and target data. No electricity was needed except for lighting the goggles of this analog computer! A similar item was present in Stevnsfort, but I could not see it during my guided visit.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

In an adjoining room you can see a perfectly restored communication facility, with ciphered messages hanging on the walls, as well as original transmission machines and early computers. There is also a personal study room for the commander of the post.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

Besides the control bunker you can find an anti-aircraft position, centered on a four-barreled anti-aircraft gun. Similar to all others, the small bunker underneath could be manned and sealed in case of war.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

The cannon battery closest to the control bunker has been restored completely, including the bunker underneath. The 150 mm guns, one per battery, were made in the final years of WWII by Skoda works in Plzen, in the then-Nazi occupied territory of Czechia. They were originally intended by the Wehrmacht for the Atlantic Wall in Denmark, but they never became operative there. Instead, they ended up to be installed by Denmark to counter a Soviet threat on the Baltic.

The mechanism for supplying cartridges to the cannon is similar to that in Stevnsfort, with an elevator lifting the explosive charge and the shell separately to the level of the gun. However, here the storage bunker is just beneath the cannon, and the lift does not carry the cartridge directly inside the turret, but to a hatch in the reinforced wall besides the cannon – something similar to some of the smaller cannon batteries of the Atlantic Wall built by the Germans.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

Inside the bunker you can see the ammo storage, as well as a sleeping compartment for the 15-men crew needed to operate the cannon.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

Some example shells have been preserved, with colors corresponding to different functions of the shell (see Stevnsfort above).

The cartridge elevator room is very small, and access is from both sides. Explosive and shell came from opposite directions, each from the corresponding storage room.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

The bunker under the next cannon battery has been dedicated to the analysis of the threat from the Danish perspective. Here you see copies of the Soviet plans to invade Denmark, as part of an operation to conquer central and northern Europe lightning-fast in case of an open war against the West. Among the most striking items, you can see detailed Soviet maps covering all regions of Denmark – with city names and all writing in Cyrillic!

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

There is also a nice collection of ordinary weapons and military supply from the Eastern Bloc, and especially from the neighboring German Democratic Republic. A very special feature is an example of the ‘Blücher decoration for valor’, a medal created by the GDR to be attributed to individuals for actions of exceptional courage in the defense of the GDR, and to be assigned only in case of war – thanks to the Cold War never turning ‘hot’ for the GDR, nobody could be awarded this decoration.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

The next battery is dedicated to espionage and spy gear, with many examples of James-Bond-like trinkets, actually used by both enemy and Danish spies. Machinery for ciphered communication, once considered hi-tech, is also on display, together with maps used by a Danish spy visiting the Polish coast, and satellite imagery of East German/Soviet airbases.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

The exhibition in the last battery is about the Cold War and society, and is full of old photographs of pro-Soviet protesters in Denmark, spies, famous characters of the Cold War, momentous events taking place in Denmark during the Cold War and so on. Most notably, there are also many artifacts from both Denmark, the Eastern Bloc and the USSR, including medals, posters, portraits and much more.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

Similar to the control bunker, the power station has been preserved in its original condition. Three diesel engines could provide power to all bunkers in case of war or failure of the grid for whatever reason. Immediately outside the entrance to the power station bunker there are apparently some suspended showers…

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

The large area of Langelandsfort has been selected also for the exhibition of a submarine, a mine-sweeper and two aircraft! The submarine ‘Springeren’ was used by Denmark in the 1990s and early 2000s, but it was built much earlier and operated by the Norwegian Navy. Sadly, after the retirement of ‘Springeren’, the Danish Navy shut off completely its underwater branch. The ship is a small conventionally powered attack submarine. The interior is apparently pretty modern with respect to older German or US WWII U-boats.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

The submarine features six torpedo tubes.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

The mine-sweeper has the appearance of a small conventional boat, but with room for a crew of several men. It is hosted in a hangar together with examples of sea mines – apparently US models.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

The two aircraft are a SAAB Draken of Denmark and a MiG-23 of Poland. They represent some of the most advanced aircraft of these opposing countries at the height of the Cold War. Both exemplars are well preserved inside hangars protecting them from the weather and sunlight.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

Another interesting sight is a reconstruction of a civil defense bunker, with much original material, including packs of ration cards already prepared for the population in case of war. In an adjoining room you can see a reconstruction of a bunkerized broadcasting studio – the national TV channels were tasked with providing updates to the population in case of an attack, hence a similar facility was prepared in the basement of the TV headquarters.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

Close to the ticket office, you are offered a very well-designed exhibition tracing the timeline of the Cold War, with some clever text and many pictures, some of which rather uncommon – really worth spending some time on, before or after visiting the museum.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

There is also room for temporary exhibitions, in a hangar which includes an original section of the Berlin Wall.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

The building of the ticket office is also interesting. From the back of it you can get access to a smaller exhibition about travels to the DDR (the native acronym for the GDR), with everyday items, old Interflug boarding passes, and some incredible postcards – apparently, modern Soviet-style housing and heads of Marx were the items that GDR postcard-designers liked most… Fragments of the Berlin Wall are also on display.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

Ahead of the entrance there is an old and pretty big hammer and sickle, originally from a Soviet ship. The commander threw it outboard when the Soviet Union officially ceased to exist. It was collected by a Danish sailor and ended up here. Nearby you can see a reconstruction of the Berlin Wall, and an original Trabant crossing it.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

Getting there and moving around

The Cold War Museum Langelandsfort is located close to the southern tip of the island of Langeland, which is connected with bridges to the major island of Fyn, where Odense can be found about 1-hour north of the museum by car. You can move around the museum on your own, there are several panels with explanations. Most panels have at least a quick translation in German and English. All presentations are very well designed and maintained. Visiting may take at least 2 hours for an interested subject, and even more especially if you are taking pictures. Free parking ahead of the entrance, and picnic area nearby. Official website here.

Aalborg Defense and Garrison Museum

This museum was opened in the year 2002, in the hangar of a seaplane base constituted by the occupying German forces in 1940. The base was potentiated in more instances during WWII, and a half-interred command bunker similar to those of the Atlantic Wall was added.

Aalborg has been a military post for centuries, therefore the museum is centered on several aspects of war and military life. Of course, the majority of the artifacts on display date from WWII and the Cold War period.

The hangar hosts a small collection of aircraft, which capture your sight when you get in. Most notably, there are a venerable F-84, an F-86, and somewhat older T-33 and Gloster Meteor.

Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark

Close by, you can find a more modern F-104. Jet engines of American make from some of these aircraft have been taken out of the airframes, and put on display separately.

Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark

Again in the center of the hangar you can see a Hawk missile system, including the missile battery and movable power and control trucks. Also anti-aircraft guns and searchlights from various ages are on display.

Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark

Items from WWII include a nice exhibition of locally-collected gear used by the Danish resistance movements. Supplied by the Allies from the air, they managed to build several types of bombs, mines, and so on, made to disturb and damage enemy transports, or to kill enemy staff in well programmed para-military actions.

Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark

Memorabilia include the engine of an US B-17 bomber, sadly downed over the Baltic during the crew’s final mission, the original Luftwaffe eagle once standing on the building of the local German air command, and a Nazi flag weaving on some public building in town in the years of the German occupation.

Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark

There are also many photographs from the area from the war years, and reproductions of German maps and local newspapers. The latter tell about relevant facts taking place during the war, as reported by the local media. There are also diplomas of merit issued by the US and Britain in favor of a local citizen, member of the resistance.

Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark

A part of the exhibition is about civil defense. Similar to the US, Britain and other countries during the Cold War, this service was activated to prepare the population to a nuclear war scenario, and to provide shelter and a chance of survival, by means of bunkers and deposits of supplies. Here you can see a reconstruction of such a shelter, and items which used to be stored in preparation for survival in the nuclear winter.

Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark

There is also a nice collection of light weapons from local firms, uniforms and communication rigs.

Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark

A few uniforms and technical gear from the current supplies of the Danish military are on display as well.

Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark

In a room to the side of the central hall, you can find uniforms dating from WWII, including German stuff. The story of a Dane coming to the US and fighting for the US Army is also told in a corner, also through some memorabilia.

Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark

On an elevated platform you can find an exhibition about the Cold War. This is mostly made by panels retracing the history of that confrontation over the decades. Among the most peculiar items on display, a copy of the invasion plan studied by the Soviet in case of a sudden war with the West. That plan included the rapid conquer of Denmark, due to its strategically relevant position. A copy of a Soviet-made map of Aalborg in Russian, needed in case of war, is another example of the unique artifacts on display.

Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark

This special Cold War exhibition is completed with a set of field and anti-aircraft weapons from various ages of the confrontation.

Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark

Other rooms around the main hall display modern uniforms, NATO-related material, military supply from various ages and even a throne used by the Queen of Denmark on an official visit.

Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark

In an adjoining smaller hangar you can find a rich collection of trucks and weapons with various – not only military – functions.

Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark

Outside, a highlight of the museum is the former air command bunker built by the Germans. This has been filled with memorabilia from the Nazi occupation period. An unusual and little-known story is told here, about the German refugees from Eastern Prussia, a region loosely coincident today with the part of Russia around the town of Kaliningrad (ex-Konigsberg). This area used to be part of Germany since before WWI, and it remained under the Weimar Republic, even though separated from German mainland. Neighboring Lithuania was annexed to the Third Reich before WWII – similar to Sudetenland – on account of the proximity to that region, with the excuse of a significant German group living in Lithuania. In 1939 the Germans re-gained control over northern Poland, and the two regions of Prussia were reunited in the Reich.

Following the victories of the Soviets in 1944 and the ensuing landslide-march towards Berlin, Eastern Prussia was lost to the enemy. Refugees escaped to mainland Germany, and the administration of the Reich sent these folks in several areas relatively far from the front – including a significant number to occupied Denmark, and especially in the hangars in Aalborg, where the museum is today. So the hangar acted as a hospitality center for the refugees. This was something strange though, for the refugees were not local nationals, but instead enemies. This led to a controversy soon after, when the war ended. In the event, most of the refugees returned to their land of origin, only to find it permanently occupied by the Soviets. Some handmade artifacts of these German refugees can be seen on display in the bunker.

Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark

Finally, a very good collection of tanks, field guns and movable howitzers from various countries including the Eastern Bloc and mainly from the various ages of the Cold War can be admired on the museum apron. For the most part, these are reportedly kept in working condition.

Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark

Getting there and moving around

The museum is located close to central Aalborg, on the waterfront. You can visit it totally on your own. Some of the exhibitions are described in more languages, but some parts are in Danish only. Nonetheless, the visit can be very rewarding for experts and for the kids as well, thanks to the chance to touch many of the artifacts on display. A two-hours time may be enough for having a look, more time is required for a more in-depth visit or if you want to take pictures.

Convenient parking just ahead of the entrance. Website with full information here.

Danish Museum of Flight

This fantastic collection of aircraft can be found next to Stauning Airport, on the west coast of Jutland, at the level of the Ringkobing firth. This is by far the largest aircraft collection in Denmark, and the reference air museum in this country.

The exhibition is well designed and rich, and it covers both the civil and military branches of aviation. Furthermore, a good half of the aircraft appear in fully airworthy conditions.

There are three thematic hangars. In the first you can find civilian aircraft from various ages, smaller sport aircraft and military trainers mainly from the inter-war period or the late 1940s. Some of them appear airworthy.

Most notably, there is the front part of the fuselage of a Douglas DC-7, formerly in service with the national carrier SAS, still on business today. The cockpit and the crew compartment are well preserved. The analog instrumentation adopted on this plane, which dates from 1957 and represents the last and most advanced of the Douglas propliners, is abundant and remarkably sophisticated.

Danmarks Flymuseum Denmark Museum of Flight Jutland Skjern Cold War Planes

Another unique aircraft on display is an Aerospatiale Corvette, an executive jet by the same French airframer who participated in the Concorde project. You can also board the plane.

Danmarks Flymuseum Denmark Museum of Flight Jutland Skjern Cold War Planes

Similarly rare today is the DeHavilland Dove, a British-made short range liner from the early Cold War period. Similar aircraft, cheap to operate, went on flying well into the 1970s in many countries. Here you see an exemplar in the colors of Cimber Air.

Danmarks Flymuseum Denmark Museum of Flight Jutland Skjern Cold War Planes

Among the trainers, you can find a DeHavilland Tiger Moth and a Chipmunk from the same manufacturer. Less common aircraft include a DeHavilland Hornet Moth, which apparently spent most of its flying time in Kuala Lumpur, and a nice Bucker Bestmann, a German trainer adopted and license-built also in Sweden.

Danmarks Flymuseum Denmark Museum of Flight Jutland Skjern Cold War Planes

Despite never adopted by the Danish military, a V-tailed Fouga Magister French trainer apparently found its way to here. It was reportedly flown in private hands by a Danish professor, before being donated to the museum.

Danmarks Flymuseum Denmark Museum of Flight Jutland Skjern Cold War Planes

In the first hangar are also examples of Danish aircraft production, including the reconstruction of an early prototype by a local pioneer. Propellers and dismounted engines and systems, likely used for training purposes in the past, are an interesting part of the exhibition too.

Danmarks Flymuseum Denmark Museum of Flight Jutland Skjern Cold War Planes

A huge collection of model engines, some air traffic control consoles and airport trucks complete the exhibition in the first hangar.

Danmarks Flymuseum Denmark Museum of Flight Jutland Skjern Cold War Planes

The second hangar is mainly devoted to aircraft manufactured in Denmark. Most notably, the Skandinavisk Aero Industri – abbreviated in SAI – specialized in trainers and small transport in the inter-war and WWII period, and knew a good national and local international success between 1937 and 1954, when it disappeared – and with it basically also the Danish aeronautical industry.

Danmarks Flymuseum Denmark Museum of Flight Jutland Skjern Cold War Planes

Some of the aircraft on display are unique exemplars, the last witnesses of this interesting story. Not all aircraft here are from this manufacturer though – an ubiquitous Piper Cub in its distinctive yellow colorway can be found as well, together with a Supermarine Spitfire. Also here, most aircraft appear to be in airworthy conditions.

Danmarks Flymuseum Denmark Museum of Flight Jutland Skjern Cold War Planes

In the last hangar, which despite being the largest one, is the most crumpled, you can find military aircraft retracing the history of the Danish Air Force supply. The aircraft here are all from the Cold War period, hence giving to this hangar a historical connotation. This part of the exhibition is also particularly nice, as you can walk close and beneath the aircraft, an ideal setting for getting pictures of smaller particular features.

The variety of present aircraft is very interesting, and reflects the close bounds of Denmark with the US and Britain. Aircraft from the early Cold War include Lockheed T-33, a North American F-86, and two different versions of the Republic F-84.

Danmarks Flymuseum Denmark Museum of Flight Jutland Skjern Cold War Planes

An exemplar of the latter is supplemented with JATO – Jet Assisted Take-Off – bottles under the fuselage. The mountings of the underwing rockets on the F-84 and of the belly rockets on the F-86 are really unique examples of Cold War technology!

Danmarks Flymuseum Denmark Museum of Flight Jutland Skjern Cold War Planes

A big Consolidated Catalina amphibious aircraft towers on all others in the hall, while a Douglas C-47 transport in excellent conditions is preserved in a corner, with an interesting ski system mounted on the landing gears.

Danmarks Flymuseum Denmark Museum of Flight Jutland Skjern Cold War Planes

British aircraft from the same early era include a Gloster Meteor and what appears to be a pretty rare Fairey Firefly. Another US design is a T-6 trainer, to be found under the wing of the Catalina.

Danmarks Flymuseum Denmark Museum of Flight Jutland Skjern Cold War Planes

More recent designs still from the Cold War include a Lockheed F-104, a British Hawker Hunter and a Swedish SAAB Draken.

Danmarks Flymuseum Denmark Museum of Flight Jutland Skjern Cold War Planes

Especially the configuration of the latter – both the general configuration and the arrangement of the landing gear and wing pylons – is really unique, reflecting a different yet interesting school of aircraft design.

Danmarks Flymuseum Denmark Museum of Flight Jutland Skjern Cold War Planes

Rather uncommon out of the US, a North American F-100 Super Sabre is also on display, with a foldable Pitot boom.

Danmarks Flymuseum Denmark Museum of Flight Jutland Skjern Cold War Planes

Finally there are a Hawk missile battery, a movable command center and service trucks.

Danmarks Flymuseum Denmark Museum of Flight Jutland Skjern Cold War Planes

Modern aircraft are represented here by an F-16. There are also two helicopters of US make, closing the collection.

Danmarks Flymuseum Denmark Museum of Flight Jutland Skjern Cold War Planes

Getting there and moving around

The museum is located between Stauning and Velling, two small villages on the inner coast of the Ringkobing firth, western Jutland. The facility is modern, with a large free parking and a picnic area. It is located on the border of a local airport, immersed in nature – a very pleasant location. The museum requires about 2 hours for an interested subject, 2.5 if you want to take pictures. Website with full information here.

Soviet Depots for Nuclear Warheads in the GDR

September 8, 2019June 28, 2023 CarloR6 Comments

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Despite their great destructive potential and strategic relevance, nuclear assets were deployed far from the ‘centers of power’ in Moscow and Washington by both the USSR and the US. As the front of the Cold War was especially ‘hot’ along the border between the Warsaw Pact and NATO Countries in central Europe, large arsenals of nuclear weapons were deployed to the area, on both sides of the Iron Curtain, and in several instances over time.

On the western side this was not hidden and led often times to protests in Countries like the UK, West Germany and Italy, so that the history of the presence of a nuclear arsenal in those Countries can be traced with some accuracy, albeit not easily. Conversely, much less is known about the deployment of Soviet nuclear arsenals over the territory of the former Eastern Bloc, making this segment of Cold War history especially mysterious.

History – in brief

In this Cold War scenario, the German Democratic Republic (GDR, or DDR in German) received special consideration by the Soviets. Thanks to its advanced position in Europe and the local, much trusted ‘hardcore’ communist regime, the USSR planned the deployment of early strategic missiles – SS-3 Shyster and SS-4 Sandal – starting already in the late Fifties, the years of Khrushchev. Traces of an actual deployment exist in Vogelsang and Furstenberg, about one hour driving north of Berlin (see this post about Vogelsang, and this about the mysterious deployment of missiles in the area).

Later on, in the early years of Brezhnev as leader of the USSR, it was decided that for a prompter and more flexible response in case of an attack, nuclear warfare especially for tactical use should be deployed outside of the USSR borders, to Countries in close proximity with the West. On the other hand, strategic warheads and missile systems could be withdrawn to within the USSR, as more technologically advanced intercontinental ballistic missiles had become available, making a hit of a foreign objective possible even from deep inside the Soviet borders.

Consequently, deployment of air launched nuclear warfare started in selected Soviet airbases, which were really not in any shortage in the GDR – considering both the national air force (NVA) and the Soviet aviation, the DDR used to be one of the world’s top countries in terms of airbases per square mile, or per resident. You can see several posts on former Soviet bases in the GDR on this website (look here, here and here).

For military corps not operating from airbases – especially missile brigades – the headquarters of the Red Army in Moscow deemed necessary the deployment to the GDR of nuclear warheads for tactical or theater missiles.

Two depots were built anew in dedicated installations specifically for hosting such warheads. One was in Stolzenhain, codenamed ‘Objekt 4000’ and sometimes referred to as Linda (the name of a village nearby), close to the highly-militarized area of Juterbog (see this post) and Kloster Zinna, about one hour driving south of Berlin. The other was again close to Furstenberg, and named Lychen-2, and codenamed ‘Objekt 4001’.

The nuclear bunkers in Stolzenhain and Lychen were payed for by the GDR – through a governmental agreement with the USSR – which always detained official property of the facilities, and were built by German workers, around the year 1967. Once ready, in 1968 the bunkers were handed over to Soviet staff, and the corresponding areas totally closed to non-Soviets. The bunkers, as other similar facilities in other Countries of the Warsaw Pact, communicated directly with Moscow, as similarly to the US, only the top of the command chain could authorize the use of nuclear forces.

The facilities were kept running until the end of the Cold War. Control was officially given back to the agonizing GDR in 1990, the Soviets having transferred all valuable material to the (agonizing) USSR.

Here the story splits for the two installations. While the Lychen bunker has been selected for interment, the installation largely being demolished around 2015, forgotten and reclaimed by nature, as of 2019 the Stolzenhain bunker is in a far better condition, apparently in private hands, and albeit plans for it are sadly similar to Lychen, it may be still in time to be turned into a unique, world-class museum.

About this post

This post covers both Lychen-2 and Stolzenhain bunkers. The former was explored in the summer of 2019. The latter was explored a first time in 2019, and in a second instance with the guidance of its owner Manfred van Heerde and the nuclear scientist and historian Reiner Helling in 2021. As the Stolzenhain installation is still in a relatively good shape, you can also get an understanding of what the inside of these bunkers looks like, their design and specific features. Pictures of this installation from above can be found in another chapter (see here).

Navigate this post – click on links to scroll

Objekt 4000 – Bunker Stolzenhain (aka Bunker Linda)
Objekt 4001 – Bunker Lychen-2

Sights

Objekt 4000 – Stolzenhain

The Stolzenhain bunker, aka ‘bunker Linda’, due to the name of a nearby village, is a perfect specimen of this type of construction (codenamed Monolith-type – see also this post for similar sites in nearby Poland, including one open as a museum). It is composed of two adjoining sub-parts – an area with larger barracks and ‘soft’ constructions, and a larger area were two twin bunkers for warheads are located, together with smaller service buildings and smaller service quarters for the troops. The two areas are arranged along a north-south direction, with the bunker area north of the barracks area.

Today, access to the barracks area is mostly interdicted – you may venture in by foot, but there is a gate which does not allow getting in by car, despite the relatively good condition of the road. The premises are in private hands, and some demolition/reconstruction/conversion works are being carried out here. There is also a service building, looking like a private residence, built in recent times.

Main Gate and Outer Buildings

The main access road features typical prefabricated concrete slabs, found in most Soviet/communist installations everywhere in eastern Europe. Halfway between the external gate and the barracks area, traces of an external wall can be found, with a couple of ‘welcome stones’.

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Warhead Bunker Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 East Germany

A closer look to the slabs reveal a rather poor quality material used for manufacture. Writings are excerpts of the Soviet constitution, presented as mottoes in Russian, with some communist symbols.

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Warhead Bunker Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 East Germany

The barracks and some softer constructions date from the Seventies – the frieze on the sidewalls of the buildings tells it quite clearly. The area is protected by a concrete wall, bearing a probably original greenish camouflage.

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Warhead Bunker Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 East Germany

In the years of operation, there used to be four large apartment blocks aligned in a row, just ahead of the entrance to the area of the barracks. These buildings were for the officials and their families. While still inside the external fence of the base, these apartments allowed more privacy and convenience, forming a de facto little Soviet village in the GDR, segregated from the surrounding German community. This housing has been completely demolished today. However, some trace of correlated ‘civilian’ facilities can be found to the south of the barracks area.

In particular, a swimming pool was built at a certain point in the history of the base, and it is still in a relatively good shape. Changing rooms for men and women are still there. A tall springboard and starting blocks still face the pool, which is apparently watertight, despite the greenish water not being really attractive!

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Warhead Bunker Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 East Germany

The pool features an outer fence, with a service gate bearing a characteristic Soviet ‘diverging rays’ motif.

Another facility put specifically for comfort in this area is a sauna/bathing house, a widespread Russian tradition. The sauna building in Stolzenhain features several smaller adjoining rooms, with pools, sauna/Turkish bath areas, a central heater, as well as more general purpose sitting rooms with fireplaces. A video studio was also featured in this multi-functional building.

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Warhead Bunker Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 East Germany

An interesting specimen of Soviet naive art, some frescoes adorn the walls of some of the rooms, with subjects ranging from sea life to women performing ‘spa activities’.

Still outside of the innermost military part, yet inside the external fence of the base, a training ground is to be found to the east of the military area, not too far from the spa building. A walk in the trees along the inner perimeter of the wall of the base is needed to reach this part. A control building with an observation post on top features plenty of instructions for tasks to be performed in a training exercise – in Russian!

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Warhead Bunker Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 East Germany

Close by, a shooting range for light weapons (rifles, guns) can be found, again with precise indications on the distances to be taken from the target, marked by colored lines on the ground.

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Warhead Bunker Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 East Germany

Back to the gate to the military barracks area and stepping inside, among the few surviving buildings is a former gym. Despite used as a storage today, the larger hall is clearly a former volleyball/basketball court. A referee chair is still hanging from the sidewall, and sport-themed frescoes decorate the walls.

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Warhead Bunker Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 East Germany

Former hangars for trucks or technical vehicles can be found in the eastern part of the former barracks area, similar to traces of a fuel pump. As said, most of the former buildings here are now gone.

A special feature in the barracks area is a manhole with traces of a set of cables, pointing towards the highly secretive and guarded bunker area. Communication is of paramount importance for military practice. In the case of nuclear depots so far away from Moscow, a cable connection was implemented not to loose contact under any circumstances between the Soviet headquarters and this peripheral, yet so valuable facility. Pressurized cables were used, such that when an attempt to severe or intercept cable signals was carried out by the enemy cutting the cable, the external jacket was pierced, a loss of pressure was sensed, and an alarm was triggered immediately. Similarly, in the case of an accidental degeneration of the ground where the cable ran, the pressurized jacket was pierced triggering an alarm, allowing the technicians to repair the cable and restore contact.

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Warhead Bunker Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 East Germany

An old and forgotten Soviet standard service container, typically transported by truck, can be found close to the manhole totally invaded by vegetation. From here, a view to the perimeter concrete wall around the innermost part of the site can be easily seen, with clear traces of camo paint.

Bunker Area

The area of the bunkers is fortified with a concrete wall with barbed wire on top running along all its perimeter. The size of the bunker is immediately apparent from above – you can look at some aerial pictures from a dedicated flight over the area, see this report. There is a gate connecting it to the barracks area. The only other gate to the bunker area, located north on the other end of the complex, opposite to the first gate, is partially obstructed.

For its entire length, the external wall of the bunker area is almost perfectly preserved, and abundant traces of camouflage can be easily spotted all along.

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Warhead Bunker Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 East Germany

Inside the wall, you soon find a fence of barbed wire with concrete posts, again standard for Soviet military installations. Some sections of the barbed wire are very well preserved, albeit rusty. The overgrown vegetation looks like the only difference between now and the years when the bunker was in operation!

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Warhead Bunker Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 East Germany

Inside the barbed wire fence, you find traces of an exceptional system of trenches and turrets, which should have granted protection to the innermost part of the complex – the storage bunkers. There are turrets of many kinds, including one which looks like the dome of a tank, re-used for the purpose – a feature also of the Atlantic Wall and the Salpa Line (see here). Such a degree of protection is extraordinary also with respect to other military installations. Abundant traces of barbed wire-holders along the tranches can be easily spotted. The site was clearly considered as an objective of special value, to be seriously defended in case of an attack from the West.

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Warhead Bunker Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 East Germany

Close to the center of the large fenced area, you soon reach the bunkers (there are a western and an eastern bunker, described below), which despite being mostly underground, feature a small mound on top which allow spotting them from the distance.

Western Nuclear Storage Bunker

Access for the warheads is at the level of the ground. There are two large tight doors corresponding to the two ends of the main hall of the bunker. Below you can see a 3D sketch of the bunker, from a placard found close to Objekt 4001 (the Lychen bunker), describing the inner layout.

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Warhead Bunker Lychen-2 Objekt 4001 East Germany

By one of the entrances to the bunker is a small loading/unloading platform for two trucks. The apron connecting the platform to the bunker door used to be covered by prefabricated roof tiles – rich in asbestos – and covered with artificial vegetation, of which some traces remain.

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Warhead Bunker Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 East Germany

The area is overlooked by a firing turret, seating above the front of the bunker.

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Warhead Bunker Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 East Germany

The external tight door gives access to an airlock, a small square compartment closed to the opposite end by another identical door. This is explained in view of the need to protect the innermost part of the bunker from attacks by means of high-yield weapons. A similar architecture can be found in a Soviet nuclear depot in Szprotawa, Poland (see this post).

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Warhead Bunker Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 East Germany

From the airlock you get access to a suspended platform, from which you can appreciate the storage facilities of the bunker. There is a main hall, where the warheads were lowered by means of a motorized crane from the suspended platform down to the underground level. From there, they were moved to one of the four long storage chamber, all accessible on the same side of the main hall.

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Warhead Bunker Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 East Germany

Temperature and humidity of the main hall and storage rooms were perfectly controlled. Ventilation pipes and an impressive array of hangers for heat exchangers can be seen in the main hall.

Access to the underground floor from the suspended platform is only possible with a ladder, passing through a narrow hatch – as usual, it’s hard to understand why the Russians (or the Germans in this case) built passages so narrow and uncomfortable, considering they are not among the shortest human types on Earth… – see this post for another brilliant example…

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Warhead Bunker Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 East Germany

The storage rooms are very long, and traces of strongpoints for anchoring the warheads safely on ground can be seen surfacing on the floor. The doors between the main hall and the storage rooms, where present, don’t appear to be tight. Most writing is in Russian, but some labels are in German. This can be explained with the bunkers being realized by GDR personnel, upon requirements by the Soviets.

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Warhead Bunker Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 East Germany

The blue cabinets and piping in the pictures are part of the warhead monitoring plant. Each warhead – the actual number is part of the mystery, but there used to be several tens of them in each of the two bunkers on site! – was kept in a sealed shell, to keep sensitive nuclear material precisely in the required climatic condition. Constantly checking the condition of the warheads was part of the duty of the bunker personnel. For the task, each warhead was moved to the hall and connected to the piping, to take measurements of temperature, pressure, atmospheric composition and similar parameters. In case of an anomaly, the warhead was resent to a major technical facility in the USSR (in particular, in Belarus for the Stolzenhain warheads), for fixing.

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Warhead Bunker Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 East Germany

To the opposite end of the main hall from the entrance is another identical entrance, with a suspended platform and an airlock. In the case of this bunker, the most external tight door to the far end has been taken off its hinges and put on the floor, whereas that between the airlock and the main hall has been permanently shut.

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Warhead Bunker Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 East Germany

Back to the main hall, on the opposite side of the storage rooms on the underground floor, it is possible to access a service area, with several smaller rooms connected by a narrow corridor. The function of each room is not difficult to argue, and looking at some details it is possible to make some easy hypothesis.

Electric actuation for the ventilation system may be the function of a first room.

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Warhead Bunker Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 East Germany

What looks like a kind of hydraulic pumping/water filtering system is located next door, split over three adjoining rooms. The system has been pulled down to the ground, but it is not severely damaged.

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Warhead Bunker Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 East Germany

Next you can find a reservoir for water, placed in a room close by, painted in green and highly damaged.

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Warhead Bunker Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 East Germany

Going further along the corridor, you can find a toilet. Poor drainage – don’t forget this floor is entirely underground – meant that the troops spending their shift in the bunker did not use the toilet much, and climbed out of the bunker for their necessities.

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Warhead Bunker Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 East Germany

Further on, you can see a room which is probably a sleeping room for the troops stationed inside the bunker. A heat exchanger and traces of a sink on the wall may support this theory. Air ducts leading to the surface can be found in recesses close by.

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Warhead Bunker Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 East Germany

A room with traces of electric material and an electric panel outside may have been an electric power control facility, maybe even a cable communication facility.

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Warhead Bunker Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 East Germany

Further on, you get access to a power station, where clear traces of a diesel system for supplying electric energy to the bunker can be found. A big reservoir painted in yellow may have been the diesel fuel tank. A stator of an electrical generator can be seen on the floor. Parts of a diesel engine can be found, and what may have been tanks for lubrication oil can be seen on the walls. As it often happens with defense bunkers – even for larger defensive forts since before WWII – the installation was usually powered from the outside grid in peacetime, but it had to be capable of staying active in case of an attack and failure of the external grid. Hence backup generators can be found in most underground bunkers since the 20th century. Especially in the atomic age, when a nuclear attack on the installation was considered a potential scenario, a stress was put on this type of countermeasure.

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Warhead Bunker Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 East Germany

The diesel engine is earmarked with a Soviet label, witnessing its origin! Similarly, electric motors and components scattered on ground – part of the ventilation system – are ‘made in CCCP’.

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Warhead Bunker Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 East Germany

Traces of lubrication oil can be found on panels on the floor. Between the power station and the main corridor, a side door gives access to a ladder going up. This was likely the ‘normal’ pedestrian access to the bunker.

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Warhead Bunker Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 East Germany

A few more service rooms can be accessed from the main underground hall, through doors on its short sides, under the suspended balconies. There were mechanical workshops, but also facilities for dealing with contaminated or poisonous material, in particular that of nuclear warhead triggers. This is further witnessed by traces in the eastern bunker (see below), and by special valves installed on the ventilation system in those rooms.

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Warhead Bunker Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 East Germany

Getting out and climbing on top of the bunker, it is possible to spot several air hatches for the ventilation system (including that of the power station), as well as a metal cabin covering the ladder giving access to the service rooms in the bunker – the ‘normal’ pedestrian access cited above.

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Warhead Bunker Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 East Germany

A loading/unloading facility, larger than the one on the other side and with platforms of different sizes numbered from 1 to 4, can found also by the other gate of the bunker, which as noted is sealed.

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Warhead Bunker Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 East Germany

Also here, an asbestos-rich roof can be found in the truck docking area, but there is no superstructure covering the apron leading to the door of the bunker.

Eastern Nuclear Storage Bunker

A large concrete road forms an ‘8’ around the two nuclear storage bunkers. The bunkers are identical, but for protection the eastern bunker was built tilted by 90° with respect to the western one – this way, it was not possible with a single attacking wave to hit the entrance gates of both bunkers.

The gate on one end of the bunker has been partially interred. The large apron leading to the truck loading facility is not covered. Traces of a fire emergency system can be found. Many hatches can be seen on top of the bunker, not all well conserved. One of them carries the curious inscription ‘Baku’, the capital city of the former Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan, written in Russian – as elsewhere in Soviet military installations, maybe the troops stationed here marked the place with the name of their city of origin (see this post).

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Warhead Bunker Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 East Germany

The bunker is slightly better preserved than the western one. The motorized cranes can be see on top of the main hall – nominal capacity is 32 tonnes.

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Warhead Bunker Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 East Germany

The array of heat exchangers for temperature control on the side of the hall is clearly visible. A pressure gauge dates back to 1967. The storage rooms keep trace of a ventilation system, yet today humidity is damaging the inside of the bunker.

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Warhead Bunker Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 East Germany

Sights

Southwestern Area – Most of the Barracks and Older Buildings

Northern Area – Warehouses and Technical Buildings

Northeastern Area – Sporting Facilities and Mystery U-Shaped Building

Soviet Monument

Getting there & Moving around

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Soviet Ghosts in Germany

Sights

Soviet Nuclear Bunker Stolzenhain

Control and Reporting Center Schönewalde

Holzdorf Air Base

Falkenberg Air Base

Finsterwalde Air Base

Alteno-Luckwalde Air Base

Brand-Briesen Air Base

Kleinköris Air Base

Wünsdorf

Sperenberg Air Base

Kummersdorf Military Laboratory

Forst Zinna Military Base

Altes Lager Shooting Range and Barracks

Jüterbog-Altes Lager Training Academy

Jüterbog-Niedergörsdorf Air Base

Jüterbog-Damm Air Base

Landing in Reinsdorf

Practical Notes

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Sights

Soviet 2nd Guard Tank Army Headquarters, Fürstenberg/Havel

Getting there and moving around

Soviet Monument, Fürstenberg/Havel

Getting there and moving around

Soviet Memorial and Cemetery, Rathenow

A Travel Guide to COLD WAR SITES in EAST GERMANY

Second Edition - 2024

Getting there and moving around

Soviet Memorial and Cemetery, Blumberg

A Travel Guide to COLD WAR SITES in EAST GERMANY

Second Edition - 2024

Getting there and moving around

Free German Youth Academy & Joseph Goebbels Manor, Wandlitz

Getting there and moving around

Private Homes of the Members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the GDR, Waldsiedlung

A Travel Guide to COLD WAR SITES in EAST GERMANY

Second Edition - 2024

Getting there and moving around

Honecker Bunker, Prenden

Getting there and moving around

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Sights

Cold War Museum Stevnsfort

Getting there and moving around

Cold War Museum Langelandsfort

Getting there and moving around

Aalborg Defense and Garrison Museum

Getting there and moving around

Danish Museum of Flight

Getting there and moving around

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Soviet Ghosts in Germany

History – in brief

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Sights

Objekt 4000 – Stolzenhain

Main Gate and Outer Buildings

Bunker Area

Western Nuclear Storage Bunker

Eastern Nuclear Storage Bunker