Tag: rail

German and Soviet Military Traces in Jüterbog

CarloRLeave a comment

The area around Jüterbog, about 1 hour and 15 minutes south of Berlin by car, has enjoyed a long military tradition, dating from the years of the Kaiser and WWI, through the Third Reich and all the more than four decades of the Cold War, until the departure of the Soviet Army in the early 1990s.

Almost for the entire duration of the 20th century, the area has been scattered with barracks, immense training grounds, shooting ranges, officer’s houses, army administration buildings, technical depots, airports and military academies.

The town of Jüterbog is actually much older than the 20th century, but the Soviets, who grew to a much greater population than the Germans in town after 1945, did not pay much attention to this nice medieval town. Following their withdrawal and the end of all military operations around, the town center received substantial money for restoration from the Government of reunified Germany, and the result is really remarkable – Jüterbog is today possibly one of the most lively and nice-looking centers in the region, with medieval towers, gates and churches, hotels, restaurants and bright-painted houses all around.

However, one hundred years of military activities in this province could not be wiped out at once, and despite nature is now invading the old army premises after operations ceased, to a careful eye the heritage of the German and Soviet Armies stationed there can be spotted quite easily, immediately out the lovely historical town.

Perhaps the most prominent witnesses of the past activities are the old flight academy, installed in the Third Reich years and later employed also by the Soviets, who got control of the area after they arrived in 1945, and kept it even after the foundation of the GDR and the corresponding Armed Forces (i.e. the Nationale Volksarmee, or NVA). The flight academy is today a listed building, despite in a state of partial disrepair. Another example is the big airbase of Jüterbog/Altes Lager, which went on operating as an NVA and Soviet airbase until the very end of the Cold War, and is now being used as a sport airfield, a kart circuit track, an event venue and a solar power plant.

Both these two items are covered in another chapter.

In the following report, more locations in and around Jüterbog are pinpointed, photographed during two visits, partly guided by the knowledgeable Dr. Reiner Helling, in the Summer seasons of 2021 and 2022.

Heading to Berlin or the former GDR? Looking for traces of the Cold War open for a visit?

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Sights

The material in this post covers ‘Shelter Albrecht’, a one-of-a-kind private collection of items from WWII and especially from Soviet times, more views of the former airfield of Altes Lager, with a Granit bunker still in very good conditions, an abandoned military hospital with evident traces of Soviet operations, a Soviet cemetery, and a few more items, silent and overlooked witnesses of a recently bygone era.

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Shelter Albrecht

The airbase of Jüterbog/Altes Lager was selected by the Soviets for further development with the arrival of jets in the late 1940s-early 1950s, and grew to be a prominent attack aircraft and helicopter base in the territory of the GDR. Now reduced in size to the point that some taxiways have been turned into public roads, some of the incredibly many aircraft shelters originally in place in the peripheral parts of the base – mostly AU-16 – have been wiped out. However, a set of two to the east of the runway have been spared this fate, and have been redeemed by a private business. One has been turned into a venue for events, whereas the other has been employed to showcase a great collection of WWII and Cold War memorabilia. Actually, the two hangars are located inside a somewhat larger perimeter, with an original technical building and room for even more exhibits.

A first impressive sight is the original Soviet scheme of the base. Similar signs were typically put close to the gate of any Soviet base (as seen for instance here in Ribnitz/Damgarten), and with their Russian writings today they witness the Soviet tenancy of the base.

Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection

On the apron, an original military version of the ubiquitous Trabant, in army green color, is on display together with a field kitchen and a gigantic roadwork machine. The latter is Russian made, with tank tracks, and powered by a 12-cylinder Diesel engine.

Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection

A Mil Mi-2 helicopter, which for some hard-to-imagine reason had ended up on the Adriatic coast of Italy in a private collection, where it sat almost derelict, has been brought back to the other side of the Iron Curtain, and restored in a camo coat and placed in a prominent position. Not far, a wing from an old Lavochin La-5 Soviet aircraft can be found.

Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection

Still on the open air exhibition are a decorated panel once gracing a Soviet hospital – possibly the one described later (here) – and another celebrating the Warsaw Pact. But the exhibits are really countless, and include propaganda posters, and canisters for ordnance.

Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection

To the side of the main exhibition hangar, in the area of an interred fuel tank once serving the base, is an incredible set of Soviet panels, originally from this or other Soviet bases around. These panels are partly decoration/celebration signs, with portraits of Soviet soldiers and emblems.

Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection

Other are technically-themed, with explanations concerning driving habits and rules, hand-to-hand combat, and more. Similar items, including fake targets for assault training, can be found for instance in Forst Zinna, an abandoned Soviet base not far from Jüterbog (covered here).

Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection

Also part of the collection is a rare mural, apparently retracing the push to the west of a Soviet division (?) during the Great Patriotic War.

Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection

Inside, the aircraft shelter is stuffed with interesting memorabilia. From WWII, exhibits include remains of downed aircraft, including damaged engines, propellers and canopies. Among them are remains of an Avro Lancaster, a Focke-Wulf 190, a Junkers Ju-87 and the canopy of a pretty rare training (two-seats) version of the Messerschmitt Bf-109.

Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection

Four large scale models cover as many interesting sights around. The first is the former flight academy of the Third Reich (mentioned above and covered here), north of the Altes Lager airbase premises. Also on display are books and furniture originally from the library of the academy.

Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection

A second model portrays the entire area between the academy (north) and the airfield (south), including the latter. This area, now largely shrouded in the trees and partially in private hands, used to host technical installations and even factories connected with warfare business – all linked by an extensive network of roads and railways.

Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection

Another model is that of two airship hangars from the years of German tenancy. These had to be really huge, but are today completely gone. Among the factories in place in the area, were those for supplying gas for the airships.

Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection

Finally, a fourth scale model represents the older airfield of Jüterbog/Damm. The latter is not far from Altes Lager, and is today in private hands for some cattle breeding business. It features very peculiar concrete hangars, an interesting specimen of Third Reich construction engineering. Some aerial pictures can be found here. That airfield was not selected for further development by the Soviets, due to the limited potential for runway lengthening, in turn due to the proximity with Jüterbog town.

Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection

Soviet-related items on display range from painted tables, originally gracing the walls of the base, to technical signs in Russian, to a full array of personal and military items, all belonging to the Soviet staff stationed in Jüterbog. These include an interesting overall map of the Soviet airfields on GDR territory, with basic technical data.

Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection

Among the highlights, an official printed portrait of Stalin, and one of Brezhnev in a military uniform, parachutes and parts from attack aircraft, many direction signs and instructional panels for low-ranking military staff. Also very interesting is a radar scope with the three air corridors to West-Berlin and the position of Altes Lager printed on it!

Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection

Of special interest for aircraft enthusiasts are many pictures from the days of operation of the airbase, with many exotic Soviet aircraft seen landing, departing or taxiing around.

Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection

Other panels tells about the presence of rocket forces in the area of Jüterbog – in particular the 27th R.Br. of the NVA. They operated the SCUD-B system.

Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection

Back outside, the exhibition is completed by an original monument from Altes Lager, often employed as a background for official ceremonies, and more personal memorabilia of the owner of the museum, formerly serving within a tank division of the NVA.

Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection

Reconstructed shops and schools are on display, with much original furniture and everyday items of Soviet make.

Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Shelter Albrecht – Jüterbog – Altes Lager – Soviet Cold War and WWII memorabilia collection
Getting there and Visiting

The place is really worth a visit for everybody interested in memorabilia items from Soviet times, or for those looking for tangible traces of the military past of Jüterbog. The location is easy to reach by car, with a convenient internal parking. The address is Niedergörsdorfer Allee 4, 14913 Niedergörsdorf, Germany.

An updated official website with opening times is apparently not available. However, Mr. Helmut Stark, the owner of the place, may be contacted beforehand (in German only) to inquire about opening times and plan a visit – try Googling his name and that of the site for updated contacts. The place is regularly open at least in the weekends in the warm season. A visit to this site will be likely with Mr. Stark following you and giving explanations in German. This will take about 45 minutes.

Granit Bunker and Hangars in Jüterbog/Altes Lager

Some views of the Altes Lager airbase are provided in this chapter, and some aerial views can be seen here. The huge, flat-top hangars date from the Third Reich era, and similarly the control tower with its annexes. Some of the hangars were reportedly dismounted by the Soviets and taken to the Soviet Union soon after the end of WWII.

Jüterbog Altes Lager Abandoned Soviet Base Bunker Granit Cold War Nuclear Warheads
Jüterbog Altes Lager Abandoned Soviet Base Bunker Granit Cold War Nuclear Warheads
Jüterbog Altes Lager Abandoned Soviet Base Bunker Granit Cold War Nuclear Warheads
Jüterbog Altes Lager Abandoned Soviet Base Bunker Granit Cold War Nuclear Warheads
Jüterbog Altes Lager Abandoned Soviet Base Bunker Granit Cold War Nuclear Warheads
Jüterbog Altes Lager Abandoned Soviet Base Bunker Granit Cold War Nuclear Warheads
Jüterbog Altes Lager Abandoned Soviet Base Bunker Granit Cold War Nuclear Warheads

Besides all the aircraft shelters scattered all around the runway, a relevant and pretty secluded Soviet addition north of the airfield is a Soviet Granit-type bunker. This type of bunker was among the lightest in Soviet inventory, and could serve multiple purposes, e.g. storing movable radar trucks, tanks, other machinery, or weapons. Actually, its presence on an airfield may suggest the purpose of storing special air-dropped weapons, maybe tactical nuclear, high-explosive or chemical ordnance.

Jüterbog Altes Lager Abandoned Soviet Base Bunker Granit Cold War Nuclear Warheads
Jüterbog Altes Lager Abandoned Soviet Base Bunker Granit Cold War Nuclear Warheads
Jüterbog Altes Lager Abandoned Soviet Base Bunker Granit Cold War Nuclear Warheads
Jüterbog Altes Lager Abandoned Soviet Base Bunker Granit Cold War Nuclear Warheads
Jüterbog Altes Lager Abandoned Soviet Base Bunker Granit Cold War Nuclear Warheads
Jüterbog Altes Lager Abandoned Soviet Base Bunker Granit Cold War Nuclear Warheads
Jüterbog Altes Lager Abandoned Soviet Base Bunker Granit Cold War Nuclear Warheads
Jüterbog Altes Lager Abandoned Soviet Base Bunker Granit Cold War Nuclear Warheads
Jüterbog Altes Lager Abandoned Soviet Base Bunker Granit Cold War Nuclear Warheads

Bunkers of Granit-type are possibly the most frequent special constructions in former Soviet bases (see for instance here or here), but the one in Jüterbog is interesting since it is very well conserved, and its massive metal doors are still perfectly in place, providing a nice impression of how this technical item should have looked like in the days of operation.

Getting there and Visiting

The airport of Altes Lager is today pretty busy, with several companies having taken over much of its original premises now open for business. Multiple access points are available, and chances of looking inside the original installations are many. Given the still exceptional state of conservation of the Granit bunker, in order to protect this rare historical artifact from the impressive hordes of catatonic idiot spoilers and writers out there, no indication is provided on its exact location.

Military Hospital

Among the buildings now shrouded by the overgrown vegetation in the area between Jüterbog/Altes Lager airfield and the town of Jüterbog is a sizable military hospital. Totally invisible from the road, the hospital is basically made of a single, building featuring three long interconnected rows.

It is made of the typical German dark-red brick, a design which is way too elegant for Soviet occupants. The arrangement of the facade and the nice railings suggest a construction date from the years of the Kaiser and the German Empire, maybe early 20th century.

Jüterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager – Abandoned Military Hospital – Soviet Relic
Jüterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager – Abandoned Military Hospital – Soviet Relic
Jüterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager – Abandoned Military Hospital – Soviet Relic
Jüterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager – Abandoned Military Hospital – Soviet Relic
Jüterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager – Abandoned Military Hospital – Soviet Relic
Jüterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager – Abandoned Military Hospital – Soviet Relic
Jüterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager – Abandoned Military Hospital – Soviet Relic
Jüterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager – Abandoned Military Hospital – Soviet Relic

However, the years of Soviet use are witnessed by a big mural, portraying Lenin with some Soviet soldiers in the background, with a black and yellow striped ribbon and a red star, emblems of the Red Army.

Jüterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager – Abandoned Military Hospital – Soviet Relic
Jüterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager – Abandoned Military Hospital – Soviet Relic
Jüterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager – Abandoned Military Hospital – Soviet Relic

To the more careful eye, a few graffiti in Russian can be found here and there, with a date as usual.

Jüterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager – Abandoned Military Hospital – Soviet Relic
Jüterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager – Abandoned Military Hospital – Soviet Relic
Jüterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager – Abandoned Military Hospital – Soviet Relic
Jüterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager – Abandoned Military Hospital – Soviet Relic
Jüterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager – Abandoned Military Hospital – Soviet Relic

The aura is very silent and mysterious, and as such, this location is a mecca for urban explorers. Actually, the only noise came from a fast spinning ventilation fan in a window frame! This was pushed by an air stream however, not likely by a motor…

Jüterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager – Abandoned Military Hospital – Soviet Relic

Some more buildings complete this complex, and original GDR-style lamps can still be seen around – the tall trees now surrounding the building were likely not in place when the hospital was closed, presumably in the early 1990s.

Jüterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager – Abandoned Military Hospital – Soviet Relic
Jüterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager – Abandoned Military Hospital – Soviet Relic
Jüterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager – Abandoned Military Hospital – Soviet Relic
Getting there and Moving around

Not difficult to find in the trees between Jüterbog and the airfield of Altes Lager, there is no clear interdiction sign to access this complex from behind, yet vibration sensors planted in the ground can be spotted around, and some security cars can be seen sometimes parked on the main road. A walk around the hospital is not especially dangerous nor difficult, and may take about 25 minutes taking all the pictures. The building is architecturally nice and possibly listed. Yet it is in partial disrepair and largely sealed, and getting in is obviously not advisable.

Soviet Cemetery

The only relic of the years of Soviet occupation which is immediately visible to the general public in Jüterbog is the Soviet military cemetery. This is located to the back of the Liebfrauenkirche, in the historical center of Jüterbog.

Actually, a monumental part, with railings embellished with hammer and sickle emblems and a monument with writings in German and Russian to the back, is detached from the church yard.

Jüterbog Soviet Cemetery Friedhof
Jüterbog Soviet Cemetery Friedhof
Jüterbog Soviet Cemetery Friedhof
Jüterbog Soviet Cemetery Friedhof
Jüterbog Soviet Cemetery Friedhof
Jüterbog Soviet Cemetery Friedhof

However, possibly in later times, the limited space available in the lot originally planned for the monument meant some graves were dug right in the church graveyard, side by side – but not mixed – with German graves.

Jüterbog Soviet Cemetery Friedhof
Jüterbog Soviet Cemetery Friedhof
Jüterbog Soviet Cemetery Friedhof
Jüterbog Soviet Cemetery Friedhof
Jüterbog Soviet Cemetery Friedhof
Jüterbog Soviet Cemetery Friedhof
Jüterbog Soviet Cemetery Friedhof
Jüterbog Soviet Cemetery Friedhof
Getting there and Visiting

The exact address is Am Dammtor, 14913 Jüterbog, Germany. The place is well-kept, being part of the historical city center of Jüterbog. Parking opportunities all around on the street. A visit may take 10 minutes.

Railway Yard, School and Command Building

The town of Jüterbog acted as a ‘local capital’ for the many Soviet troops and their families scattered in the corresponding district. The hospital (see above) was not the only large installation in place. A district school was also installed, which served not only the very town of Jüterbog – with a Russian-speaking population of more than 70.000, greater than the German nationals – but also the residing Soviet population of smaller technical installations in the area. A notable example is the impressive nuclear depot in Stolzenhain (see here), where a dedicated staff and their families occupied four residential blocks now gone. Their children reportedly attended school in Jüterbog.

The school is today largely abandoned, and a quick tour around reveals typical Soviet decorations in the large sporting hall.

Jüterbog Soviet School Abandoned Cold War Relic
Jüterbog Soviet School Abandoned Cold War Relic
Jüterbog Soviet School Abandoned Cold War Relic
Jüterbog Soviet School Abandoned Cold War Relic

The school building is geographically close to the railway station. The latter had a passenger terminal dedicated to the Soviet population, which was completely segregated from the German one.

Furthermore, the railway in Jüterbog had also a primary logistic function, connected with the military activities going on in the area. Besides transporting tanks, vehicles and other material, also nuclear warheads arrived by rail from Belarus or Ukraine (both in the USSR at the time), for storage in the Stolzenhain Monolith-type bunkers (see here). A special railway track with a dead end in the trees featured a special interchange platform, allowing to move the sensitive warheads in their controlled canisters to trucks, and by road to Stolzenhain – usually at night. Since warheads were also sent back for maintenance or overhaul, the transport operated also in the opposite direction.

Jüterbog Railway Track Station
Jüterbog Railway Track Station

Very close to the railway station and the school is also a large grassy area, surrounded by a nice, old-style metal fence. This area is that of an older training ground, dating to the years of the Kaiser. A command building, now in disrepair, betrays the same origin, featuring decorations in a typical old-German style.

Jüterbog Command Building Abandoned Relic
Jüterbog Command Building Abandoned Relic
Jüterbog Command Building Abandoned Relic
Getting there and Moving around

The school can be found in Jüterbog here. Cross the street from the school, the old training grounds and command building are immediately spotted. Walking north past the command building, you get access to a pedestrian bridge over the railway tracks, with a nice view of the station. An exploration of the railway tracks has to be considered extremely dangerous, since the railway line there is today a high-speed one, with bullet-fast trains appearing in just seconds. A walk around this spot in Jüterbog may take 15 minutes. Parking opportunities ahead of the command building.

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The Border Forts of Czechoslovakia Against Nazi Germany

CarloRLeave a comment

The Maginot line – a line of forts running along the French border with Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Belgium – is a widely known example of military engineering from the inter-war period (see this chapter). The adopted construction technique, based on reinforced concrete pillboxes with walls several feet thick, half interred to decrease visibility from above, field cannons and anti-tank defensive guns, witnesses the great consideration given to tanks and aircraft as attack weapons.

Due to the fast movements typical to the new strategy of the German army since the beginning of WWII, the Maginot line is mainly remembered for having not been involved in any major action, and having being largely bypassed. As a matter of fact, the German opted for a bypass also because the line was in place, so it was not as ineffective as it is often thought.

What is possibly even less known is that similar defensive lines were built in earnest in other European countries, before and even during WWII, after the Maginot line had failed to stop the invading German army. The enormous Salpa line, built by Finland against the Soviet Union, was probably the last and most effective to be completed (see this chapter). The Stalin line, prepared by the Soviets against Germany in Belarus, is another example. Another country who invested much in this type of deterrent was Czechoslovakia.

To understand the drivers of the design of the huge line of forts envisaged by the Czechoslovakian government of the mid-1930s, one should take a look at a map of Europe from the time. After the defeat of WWI Germany had managed to keep significant parts of todays Poland. The border between Germany and Poland ran close to Gdansk – aka Danzig in German -, and the province of Lower Silesia with the town of Wroclav – Breslau in German – were undisputed German territory. This means that todays border between the Czech Republic and Poland used to be actually a border between Czechoslovakia and Germany in the years before WWII.

With the turmoil preceding the infamous Munich Agreement and Nazi Germany claiming the right to control ‘Sudetenland’ – a large part of the peripheral territories of todays Czech Republic – in 1937 the Czechoslovakian government quickly started the construction of a huge system of forts to protect the border.

The concept was pretty similar to that of the Maginot line, with extensive underground tunnels to shelter soldiers and ammos, facing to the surface with reinforced concrete bunkers with different purposes, including observation, artillery shelling with field cannons, mutual protection with short range anti-tank cannons, machine guns and grenade-throwing tubes. There were also bunkers for accessing the tunnel system with resupply. About 10’000 light fortifications were actually built, more than 200 heavy fortified positions and a handful of heavy artillery positions.

The geopolitical situation in Europe got worse quickly in 1938, with the annexation of Austria in spring and finally the Munich Agreement, which caused the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. As a result of this internationally approved de facto German invasion, the works on the defense line were halted by the Wehrmacht. A relevant part of the hard construction had been completed, but most of the bunkers were still unarmed or lacked some software – air filters, ammo supplies, everyday items for the troops, etc. – and were not serviceable.

Most of the ironworks, including especially all heavy-metal turrets, were salvaged by the Germans. Some of the cannons found their way to the Atlantic Wall. The most massive concrete bunkers were used to test new weapons. As a result, the majority of the most sizable structures are still today in a partly damaged shape.

Some of the bunkers came to life again in the 1970s, when re-founded Czechoslovakia, that time a satellite country of the USSR living under a repressive and hard communist dictatorship, started a low-paced conversion of some of the structures into nuclear shelters for top ranks of the military and political hierarchies.

Notwithstanding these incidents, todays Czech Republic is duly proud of the significant work which was carried out in the difficult late Thirties. Very much was done for the little time available, and the quality of the design and construction is remarkable. While most of the sites are open only rarely, there are some where you can step inside and enjoy an interesting visit. This chapter covers with photographs and text five larger fortified complexes along this anti-German defensive line, from a two-days visit taken in August 2018.

Map

The following map shows the highlights of each of the five sites listed in this chapter. Please zoom in for greater detail. For the Bouda fort I could not spot and pinpoint on the map all the pillboxes you can easily visit from the outside – this are covered by vegetation.

Navigate this post – click on links to scroll

Sights

Stachelberg

The Stachelberg site is located about three miles north of the small city of Trutnov. The fort should have consisted of a main entrance and peripheral shooting positions, some of them linked by underground tunnels, to defend the area of the Giant Mountains. Construction works were terminated much before completion, so the surface bunkers forming the ensemble are actually not connected. Yet the major installation, a bulky infantry positions with provision for anti-tank artillery, provides access to an extensive system of half-prepared tunnels, which gives you a clear picture of the size and capacity of the complex.

The site is open to the public, and the ticket office can be found right inside this huge major bunker. From the outside, the volume of this pillbox is particularly stunning. Also interesting are the anti-tank obstacles, which used to be placed along the border line and between the forts, to trap invading columns in a position where anti-tank guns could be most effective.

Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic

This multi-level bunker is also place for a little museum on the fortifications, mainly based on explicative panels and scaled models of weapons and of the entire bunker complex. It covers the history of the fortifications, and explains most technical features of their construction. There are no weapons or other software – they were either not installed before the construction works were stopped, or salvaged by the Germans.

The tunnels can be visited on a guided tour only, starting from inside the main bunker with a descent of several tens of feet along a flight of stairs, originally made at the time of construction. The tunnels unfold on the sides of a major, perfectly straight initial track. Some of the lateral halls, intended to store ammos as well as for sleeping the troops, are very large and close to completion, whereas others are just sketched.

Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic

The tunnels were dug in the rock with the help of explosives. The next step in the construction works would have been a layer of concrete from the pavement up to the ceiling of the tunnels. This is present today only close to the entry point, at the bottom of the access stairs.

Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic

There are at least other five smaller pillboxes which have been preserved to some extent in the Stachelberg complex. They are accessible with different timetables, and do not provide access to the underground – by design, some of them should have.

Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic

One of the pillboxes has been colored in a very bright camouflage. I could not find out whether this used to be the standard, but it looks pretty unusual and not really mimetic… There are also refurbished connecting trenches between the smaller bunkers.

Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic
Stachelberg Fort Czech Republic

The concrete base of a never built bunker can be found not far from the parking area.

Getting there and moving around

Getting close to the complex is really easy, the area is very scenic and a popular destination skiing, and for nature trail hiking in summer. There is a parking on road N.300 from where the museum-fort can be reached with an almost flat, 0.3 miles track.

The complex can be toured on the outside without restrictions. The main bunker has opening times, and the underground part can be toured only with a guide. The guide speaks Czech, but you are provided a leaflet with explanations in English, upon request. The tour takes about 30 minutes, and is offered on a regular basis, with several entries per day. They warn you about the inside temperature, but I found it pretty easy to bear with normal summer clothes. Website here, but you will need some Google translation to find the info you need.

Voda, Brezinka and Lom

These three forts are actually parts of the same system, built on the eastern end of the town of Nachod-Beloves, the major center in a local valley ending in Poland. Three items in the complex are typically accessible to the public.

The one closest to the town, on the bottom of the valley, is the Voda bunker. This is very convenient to reach, and is basically composed of a preserved typical infantry pillbox with provision for machine guns. The bunker has been painted in a credible camouflage. On one end it is possible to note the damage inflicted by the Germans, when they took out the metal observation turret. This kind of treatment – and damage – can be observed on a great many bunkers of the line.

Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic

Inside, the bunker has been turned into a local museum on the armed forces. There were border guards operating in the area, involved in skirmishes before and after the end of the war. The weapons originally intended for the fort are not in place, but there is an interesting collection of weapons, uniforms, motorcycles and other gear from the army corps operating around there over the years.

Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic

The Brezinka fort is possibly one of the most famous of the entire defensive line. The reason for that is that it was recently restored to look like it should have looked, if only it was completed back in the late Thirties. In the restoration process, weapons and system parts from other locations in todays Czech Republic were brought to the Brezinka site.

Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic

The visit of the interiors is really exceptional, even compared to the forts of the other defensive lines in Europe. The fort really looks like it could be put in operation today!

The first part of the visit of this two-levels artillery bunker will take you downstairs, where you can find the sleeping quarters for the troops with a food storage.

Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic

Close by, there are two rooms for the electrical generator and for the ventilation system. Here you can see the electrical compressor, with backup manual handles, and the huge air filters. These are multi-stage filters, where each stage was designed to stop different poisonous components in the air. The system is working, so you are given a demonstration of the compressor – interesting to get an impression of the incredible noise this system produced!

Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic

On the same floor there is also a telegraph system, which was used to communicate with other bunkers in the complex in case of failure of the telephone link. This system was capable of transmitting Morse signals to the other pillboxes next to it, projecting the signal into the ground and using it as a medium – there were no cables! This allowed it to work even if a direct electrical link was lost.

Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic

The upper floor is even more surprising, cause basically all weapons have been restored to their original positions. The Brezinka bunker featured two main firing chambers. The one pointing uphill features two heavy 7.92 mm machine guns Zbrojovka Brno Mark 1937, a very widespread and reliable weapon, with an operational range of 1’000-2’000 ft at 500-300 rounds per minute. These were used to target infantry movements along the border line, pinpointed by anti-tank obstacles. Fire direction was from the observation turret or via an optical aim system. The latter was extremely precise, but more expensive than the machine gun!

Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic

In presence of an impenetrable smoke curtain or at night, an open-loop aiming system could be used. This consisted of a board with a precise sketch of the view of the outside from the firing point, mounted on top of the machine gun. A calibrated needle pointer was used to align the machine gun with respect to the target, by simply pointing the needle on the intended target on the board!

The third machine gun is a light ZB vz. 26, a very popular light 7.92 mm machine gun. This was used for close defense of the fort access. There are also grenade throwing tubes for the same purpose.

The other firing chamber points downhill, and is supplied with a machine gun as in the first chamber, plus the assembly of an anti-tank cannon and another machine gun. The cannon is a 4.7 cm Skoda KPUV vz. 38, with an up to 1-mile range at 35 rounds per minute. It could pierce a 50 mm armor from 0.7 miles apart, and was a very effective weapon. This very cannon was already in place before the German invasion, and was taken by the Wehrmacht to the Atlantic Wall in Norway. It has been returned to its original location in recent times.

Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic

There are other two metal-reinforced embrasures in the bunker for other two ZB vz. 26s. On the same floor you can find a kitchenette and toilets for the troops, ammo storages, and two observation turrets. The latter feature a working movable floor, to allow tailoring to the height of the observer. The turrets were fitted with a periscope, and were used to direct fire. They weighed 21 tonnes each, and could withstand direct close fire from anti-tank guns!

Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic

Finally, the room of the commander and the telephone room – with an original machine from the Thirties – conclude the tour.

Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic

The Lom object, five minutes uphill with respect to the Brezinka fort, is another infantry bunker. It has not been refurbished to the level of Brezinka, but nonetheless it is used to showcase construction pieces, weapons and memorabilia from WWII years. The armored turret was taken away by the Germans.

Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic

Between the Brezinka and Lom bunkers you can find a section of anti-tank obstacles. The concrete base used to support them can be spotted in several places here and other sites of the defensive line.

Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic
Voda Brezinka Lom Fort Czech Republic

Getting there and moving around

These bunkers, and especially Brezinka, are surely among the most interesting of the kind to visit, considering also their counterparts in France, Finland and Belarus.

The Voda site is easily accessible by car. The Brezinka and Lom bunkers cannot be reached by car. You can park on a street close to the trail-head and take the trail. Unfortunately, the road going uphill, albeit not uneven, is extremely steep and about 1 mile long. You should definitely take this into consideration when planning your excursion, even if you are physically well-trained. Very few beverages are available at the Lom site, which is five minutes farther uphill from Brezinka. Nothing is sold at Brezinka.

It is a pity they didn’t prepare a better access road, cause the site is surely worth a visit, and may appeal to the specialist and to the general public – especially children! – as well.

Only cash is accepted in all these sites. The Brezinka site is accessible only with guided tours. Tours were offered every 20 minutes in late August when I visited. You are given a detailed leaflet in English or German, in case you can’t speak Czech. The guided tour of Brezinka takes about 50 minutes.

The Lom site can be toured in 10 minutes, whereas the Voda bunker is worth a 20-30 minutes self-guided visit. Explanations are partly also in English and other languages in the Voda bunker.

Information on these three forts can be found from this website.

Hanicka

The Hanicka site features an extensive underground tunnel system, actually connecting the main entrance to some major peripheral forts. The ensemble includes one of the few most imposing firing units in the entire defensive line.

But what makes this site even more unique is the fact that, after having fallen into oblivion since the end of WWII, in the 1970s it was selected to be developed into a nuclear-proof governmental bunker – codenamed ‘Kahan’. The ensuing modifications altered greatly the appearance of the entrance bunker, and most of the systems you can see today in the underground part are actually dating from the 1980s.

The works on the conversion were carried out at a slow pace, and were actually not completed before the end of communism in Czechoslovakia, the collapse of the Czechoslovakian federation and the birth of the Czech Republic in the early 1990s. The bunker was soon opened to the public as a unique specimen of military building engineering from both WWII and the Cold War.

The tunnels can be be visited only with a guided tour. The original entrance to the tunnel, modified in the 1980s, is the starting point of the visit. The entrance to the bunker looked totally different before it was developed into a nuclear shelter. The modifications at the level of the entrance included the construction of a soft service building, with room for storages of trucks, armored vehicles and other material.

Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic

In the first hall giving access to the tunnels you can find weapons, communication systems, scale models of the site, maps and much more from both the ‘two lives’ of the bunker, in the 1930s and 1980s.

Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic

Access it through a thick, typical soviet nuclear-blast-proof gate. Inside, you see the nuclear-proof system allowed to seal a section of the entry tunnel close to the gate. The bunker was designed to allow long-term survival and operations for 300 people also in case of total insulation from the world outside.

Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic

A modern energy production system was put in place and can be seen together with water and gasoline tanks. The structure of the bunkers was not altered significantly, but the various systems date clearly from more recently than the Thirties.

Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic

There are also extensive sleeping quarters and a medical facility to the far end of the main tunnel, which was built in the side of a hill.

Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic

You finally come out in a former infantry bunker, reached climbing upstairs to the top of the hill. Here the embrasures and reinforcing panels of the firing chambers are still in place.

Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic

The next part of the visit will take you to some other smaller bunkers, visible only from the outside.

Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic

The visit ends in front on the major RS-79a bunker, a top of the line artillery bunker. This was provided with three embrasures for field guns. The size of this installation is really striking. You cannot visit inside this bunker.

Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic

It was somewhat damaged by weapons testing by the Germans, and never refurbished. You can see a nuclear-proof door substituting one of the original embrasures.

Back to the parking, it is possible to see from the outside an infantry bunker and examples of anti-tank barriers. This bunker is a rare example of a totally undamaged fort of the line – even the metal turrets are original and have been left in place by the Germans.

Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic
Hanicka Fort Czech Republic

Getting there and moving around

The Hanicka complex can be explored outside with no restrictions, but the inside can be toured only with a Czech-speaking guide. They provide you a leaflet in English. The visit lasts about 60 minutes. Info on their website.

The entrance is via the original entrance bunker, modified in the 1980s. Reaching this point from the parking on road N.319 is a bit demanding, cause you need to walk on an unpaved road going uphill with a relevant grade for about 0.7 miles, then you have about another 0.7 miles walking on an easy, flat road. Differently from Brezinka (see above), they have a facility selling food, beverages and souvenirs close to the entrance. It’s a pity they just did not prepare a good road and a parking nearby the entrance.

Anyway, this site has much to offer and the visit is highly recommended, both inside and outside, for children and adults as well.

Bouda

The two nearby forts of Bouda and Hurka share a basically similar construction, and represent possibly the best examples of almost-complete forts in the defensive line. They are articulated around a straight tunnel, mined in the side of a mountain. The section of the tunnel next to the main entrance bunker features a narrow gauge railway, used to transport ammos and various supplies to the storage units inside. Deeper in, there is provision for sleeping quarters for the troops. To the far end of the tunnel you can get access to a group of fortified installations and artillery bunkers.

The Bouda installation can be visited thoroughly. The site is very big but more remote to reach than Hurka. Besides the access bunker, where the ticket office can be found, you can see a specimen of a metal turret. None of the original turrets has been left in this site, all have been salvaged by the Germans.

Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic

Soon after the beginning of the tour, you will see the terminal of the narrow gauge railway. The double track goes through a short incline. At the base of the incline the main tunnel starts.

Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic

Not far from the entrance you meet slots for sealing doors and related actuation systems. These were installed by the Germans and used to test their reliability and the effectiveness of their weapons on them. They had some cannons installed further in along the tunnel, and shooting on the armored doors they had installed.

Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic

The railway turns single-track, until you reach a major storage for weapons with a loading platform. One of the storage chambers has been reused to display a collection of weapons used in the forts and the corresponding armored embrasures.

Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic

Further on you visit a group of chambers originally intended to be fitted as sleeping quarters. The dividing walls and metal frames have been demolished at some point – or may be they were never installed – but some of them can be seen, original or reconstructed. In this area there is also a memorial to Czechoslovakian troops.

Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic

Further in the tunnel you reach another set of chambers, one of them with pieces of armored constructions and other heavy material from around the site. Then you get access to the stairs leading to a heavy artillery bunker.

Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic

What you see here is the cylindrical concrete box where the actuation mechanism and reinforced cupola should have been installed. The size of the construction suggest the total intended size of the field cannon assembly, really big! This should have been very similar to some of the installations in the Maginot line (see this post). There is also a firing chamber for lighter weapons where nothing remains except some metal coating.

The guide will lead you back to the bottom and inside the main tunnel, and ascending along another stairwell you can reach an observation bunker with provision for light weapons. This bunker is in a better shape, and significant traces of the original soft construction are clearly visible.

Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic

Damage is due also to weapons testing carried out by the Germans, clearly visible from the outside.

Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic

Upon reaching the surface, you will be directed along a walk through the exteriors of the bunkers in the fortress, including the incomplete heavy artillery bunker, with the large concrete pit from visible above.

Finally, you access one of the bunkers, which appears pierced and heavily damaged from the outside. On the inside the firing chamber is fairly well conserved, with the original embrasures for machine guns still in place. The wall is pierced presumably by a shell or mine.

Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic
Bouda Fort Czech Republic

This very bunker was used also for testing high-yield explosives, and as a result of a huge explosion it shifted sideward of a few feet, without collapsing and with no alterations to its general shape – really sturdy! You can clearly appreciate the shift by going down in the stairwell!

You will then return to the main entrance with the ticket office where the visit will finish.

Getting there and moving around

The bunker parking can be found very easily driving north of the road N. 11 between Cervena Voda and Cerkovice. The area is popular for nature trail hiking, and the fort is also a popular attraction. Following the road signs, you will be driven to an observation tower on top of a mountain.

From there, the entrance to the bunker can be reached only by taking a trail which descends along the northwestern side of the mountain. The distance to cover by foot is a good 1.5 miles, so this should be taken into consideration when planning your trip. You have to go uphill on your way back to the parking, so the trail is more demanding when you are leaving. There are signs on every crossing, so you should not get lost. By the way, the walk is really nice, going in the trees with some bird-eye views on this beautiful countryside!

Once at the entrance of the bunker you can find refreshments and souvenirs. The bunker can be visited only with a guide. They are offering three options for the visit, each of them adding something to the other, yielding a difference in time. I took the most complete tour, and it took about 180 minutes.

You are provided jackets for staying inside – even though the temperature is not extremely low, especially if you are wearing technical trekking clothes, which are recommended for the preliminary trail to the entrance. The jackets are dirty, so it’s better to bring one of your own, as they almost force you to have something to cover in!

The tour is offered in Czech, with explanations in English provided on all panels and on a leaflet you can borrow inside. There is a fee for taking pictures, but both this and the entry ticket are rather cheap. Further info on their official website.

Hurka

The Hurka fortress is an installation pretty similar to the Bouda site, at least considering the inside part. After some years of closure following WWII, the Hurka site was converted into an ammunition depot in the 1960s. The modifications inside include some demolition work on the soft walls and frames, so the structure is mainly composed of large vaults.

The tunnels can be visited only with a guide. The visit starts from the original gate of the underground facility, where all supplies could be placed on a narrow-gauge convoy. An external loading platform can be spotted, together with specimens of anti-tank devices and of the reinforced observation turrets.

Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic

Inside, an incline leads to the initial part of a long straight tunnel. The exhibitions provide an impressions of an ammo storage, and there are also weapons and armored embrasures from the fort.

Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic

An interesting exhibition prepared in one of the halls is about the activities of the agents of the Czechoslovakian government in exile during WWII. This included launching paratroopers over the territory of the former Republic, tasked with establishing contact with dissident anti-Nazi movements, and carrying out high-risk, top-priority missions. A pretty famous mission they were tasked with was the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, a top-ranking SS, since 1941 responsible for the administration of the annexed territory of todays Czech Republic. A bloodthirsty, feared and hated figure, he died in hospital soon after having being shot in June 1942 in an operation codenamed ‘Anthropoid’. All the spies involved in the operation were later killed, and terrible retaliation actions were taken by the Nazis on the local population. An international movie was produced on this subject in 2016.

Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic

You don’t get access to the firing positions from inside, but you can visit them from the outside on your own and with no restrictions.

A pretty rare feature is a ‘top of the line’ artillery bunker, with three shooting embrasures on one side. This bunker is today standing severely damaged from German fire, inflicted during weapon testing. The bunker was actually de-interred by the Nazis to expose its walls, and perforation cannons were tested on it. Among them, the so-called Röchling shells, with a high perforation potential, adopted operationally but used very rarely in action by the Germans.

Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic

The other artillery positions are scattered on a grassy area on the side of a hill dominating a local valley. You can see the damages inflicted by fire testing, and the empty boxes of the metal turrets salvaged by the Germans.

Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic
Hurka Fort Czech Republic

Getting there and moving around

The tour of the underground starts from the original access bunker, which can be reached just north of Kraliky on road N.312. Convenient parking outside. The underground can be accessed only with a guide. The ticked office offers also food and beverages. More info on their official website.

The firing positions can be toured on your own. They can be accessed driving about 0.3 miles north along the same N.312 road to the top of the hill, and turning left on an unpaved road. You will soon see a bar with a prohibition sign for cars. You can park nearby on the grass and proceed by foot, you will meet the fortification with an almost flat walk of 0.15 miles. There are signs with multi-language explanations close to each of the bunkers. The place is really nice, and the walk is highly recommended.

WWI Battlefields – Somme, Arras and Ypres

CarloRLeave a comment

Historians defined World War I as the first ‘worldwide conflict’. There is probably no better place to appreciate the multi-ethnic provenance of the two opposing formations than in the region between Amiens, France and Ypres, Belgium.

Along this sector of the front, which did not move much between 1914 and 1918, Germany alone fought against the allied forces of France and their mainly African colonies, Belgium and the British Empire, which included Britain, Canada, Newfoundland, India, Bermuda, Rhodesia, New Zealand and Australia. Even the Army of South Africa found its way to the battlefield of the Somme in 1916, and the United States contributed to the last battle of Ypres and to the final rush against the German positions in 1918.

The contributions of all these Nations are remarkably represented by memorials and war cemeteries, which since then point the map of this area remembering the history of those fateful years and the fierce battles which took place – most notably the Battle of the Somme, the three Battles of the Artois with the Battle of the Vimy Ridge, and the five Battles of Ypres.

The fury of the Somme offensive, which took place between July and November 1916 and procured 1.1 million casualties – including more than 300’000 killed – on both sides, meant the region is particularly dense in memorials, which in some instances include little sections of the once extensive labyrinth of trenches. Due to the quality of the soil, these trenches have largely disappeared here, differently from the case of the region of the St. Mihiel salient, south of Verdun (see this post). Besides the overwhelmingly high cost in lives of the few miles of terrain gained by the Entente, this battle is famous also for the first ever use of tanks.

The battles of the Artois for the control of the area north of Arras were fought between 1915 and 1917, and here was recorded one of the top average deaths-per-day rates of the war, in the order of 4’000 on the side of the Entente.

The town of Ypres found itself on the line of the front from the first offensive of the Germans, when they tried – and failed – to reach for the coast of the North Sea in 1914. The region south of there saw continuous action until the final ‘100 days’ campaign of 1918, which actually broke the German lines and convinced the Kaiser to withdraw his troops, putting and end to the war. Ypres is mostly famous for the first ever use of lethal gas to drive enemy soldiers out of the trenches. More than 400’000 soldiers were killed on that sector of the line of the front, during at least five massive operations scattered over four years of war.

This chapter presents some notable war sites in this extensive region, which is easily accessible between Paris and Brussels, and today well prepared for tourism and very nice to visit – a pleasant countryside with many small and picturesque villages. Photographs were taken in 2016, during the first centennial of the Offensive of the Somme.

Map

Instead of looking how to reach for each site listed below in its dedicated section, you can find here a comprehensive map where you can see their respective locations at a glance. None of these sites is difficult to reach, provided you have a car – the most time-effective way to move around in that region. You can find a parking nearby each point of interest.

Navigate this post – click on links to scroll

Sights in the Somme

The battlefield of the Somme Offensive stretches roughly over a triangle between Amiens, Bapaume and Peronne. The offensive took place between July and November 1916, and was conceived to decrease the pressure of the Germans in the area of Verdun further southeast, where the French were facing the mighty blows of the German war machine. This offensive was operated by the British and French on two split parts of the sector.

This battle is among the most famous in WWI due to several reasons. One is the atrocious death toll on both sides in face of the very little motion of the front line, which was pushed some miles towards the east. It was also the first battle where the Kitchener’s Army saw serious combat – this name is attributed to the corps of the British Army formed as a result of the recruiting effort of the ministry of war of the time, Lord Kitchener, soon after the first phases of WWI. These mainly very young, non-professional soldiers participated in the thousands in this bloody offensive.

After the offensive, the front line remained stable roughly until 1918, with hostilities lasting in the area until the end of the war.

There are many commemorative monuments, cemeteries and museums on the area of the battlefield. A nice institutional website made for tourists and listing many sights is here. Further information on the British website here. I suggest devoting at least a full day moving around the area with a car without the need to rush. Most sites are open 24 hours, while museums and documentation sites clearly have opening times. The following are just some major sites which are surely worth visiting in this region.

Museum ‘Somme 1916’, Albert

This is the ideal starting point for the exploration of the battlefield of the Somme. The small town of Albert is just where the line of the front ran at the beginning of the battle of 1916. This proximity meant the village was on the line of fire of the artillery of both Germany and the Entente. As a result the village was largely destroyed during the war. The museum has been built in a tunnel under the local church, rebuilt in the 1920s. The tunnel was dug as an air shelter in the 1930s, in preparation for another war soon to strike in the region…

The exhibition has three highlights. The first is a vivid reconstruction of several portions of the trenches on the sides of the two opponents. Some special features including optical equipment and weapons of the respective formations are displayed. Shelters, medical rooms and firing positions are all part of the tour. Germany and the British Empire are especially represented, for together with the French on a lesser scale, they were the most involved in this bloody battle.

Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Somme Albert WWI
Somme Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI

A map of the battle and some ‘war bulletins’ telling the number of shells shot and the number of casualties help understanding the huge cost of every inch of terrain gained by the Entente during the four months of the offensive.

Secondarily, many items left behind from the days of operations have been collected and are showcased. These include many weapons and shells, plus material dug out from the ground, like helmets, knives, pots, buckles, tags and even still branded canned food!

Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI

A collection of different fuses illustrates the many possible functions of the shells.

Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI
Museum Somme 1916 Albert WWI

The third interesting feature of this place is of course a very realistic reinstatement – with lights and sounds – of the ‘environment’ of a trench during war operations. This is impossible to capture in pictures, but it is designed very well and makes for a very evocative introduction to a visit of the area.

The museum has its own website here.

Lochnagar Mine Crater, Boisselle

The first and most spectacular phase of the Somme Offensive was probably its very beginning. During the months preceding the attack – starting early in the morning of July 1st, 1916 – the British prepared a series of underground tunnels, coming close to the German positions, and stored a number of colossal mines there. The attack began at 7.00 am, with a shelling over the German positions so intense that it was heard in London. About 30 minutes in this firestorm, 19 mines placed beneath the German lines were detonated within a couple of minutes.

Somme Battlefield WWI
Somme Battlefield WWI
Somme Battlefield WWI
Somme Battlefield WWI
Lochnagar Mine Crater Somme WWI
Lochnagar Mine Crater Somme WWI
Lochnagar Mine Crater Somme WWI
Lochnagar Mine Crater Somme WWI
Lochnagar Mine Crater Somme WWI
Lochnagar Mine Crater Somme WWI

The first of these mines was responsible for the Lochnagar crater, about 450 ft across and 220 ft deep, and obtained firing some 27 tonnes of explosive! At the time it was the most intense and loudest ordnance ever fired. Today you can still appreciate the size of the crater as you walk all around it.

Pozières

A group of interesting memorials is located around the village of Pozières, which was geographically in the center of intense action. A small memorial of New Zealand can be found nearby the former place of observation bunker called ‘Gibraltar’. Only part of the foundations of this observation post can be seen today.

Gibraltar Pozieres Observation Post Somme WWI
Gibraltar Pozieres Observation Post Somme WWI
Somme Battlefield WWI
Somme Battlefield WWI
Gibraltar Pozieres Observation Post Somme WWI
Gibraltar Pozieres Observation Post Somme WWI
Somme Battlefield WWI
Somme Battlefield WWI
British Memorial Somme WWI
British Memorial Somme WWI
Somme Battlefield WWI
Somme Battlefield WWI

Another sight is the local Australian memorial, and the unusual memorial of the British Tank Corps, with miniature models of the tanks used in the battle.

Australian Memorial Pozieres Somme WWI
Australian Memorial Pozieres Somme WWI
Australian Memorial Pozieres Somme WWI
Australian Memorial Pozieres Somme WWI
Tank Corps Memorial Pozieres Somme WWI
Tank Corps Memorial Pozieres Somme WWI
Tank Corps Memorial Pozieres Somme WWI
Tank Corps Memorial Pozieres Somme WWI
Tank Corps Memorial Pozieres Somme WWI
Tank Corps Memorial Pozieres Somme WWI
Australian Memorial Pozieres Somme WWI
Australian Memorial Pozieres Somme WWI

Only about 30 tanks could take part to the offensive. Used in action nearby here for the first time in history, while possibly not decisive in this particular battle, tanks undeniably confirmed their potential in breaking through the enemy lines, without fearing the barbed wire obstacles and machine gun fire. Tanks were soon to be developed further, and participated in the last offensives of the war in the hundreds.

London Cemetery and Extension, Longueval

This cemetery is mainly dedicated to the British soldiers of the ‘London’ Division, mainly responsible for the conquer of the High Wood, a fiercely contended group of trees placed on top of a low hill, taken and lost several times in the battle of 1916. It is one of the largest among the many war cemeteries in the region.

London Cemetery and Extension Longueval Somme WWI
London Cemetery and Extension Longueval Somme WWI
London Cemetery and Extension Longueval Somme WWI
London Cemetery and Extension Longueval Somme WWI
London Cemetery and Extension Longueval Somme WWI
London Cemetery and Extension Longueval Somme WWI
London Cemetery and Extension Longueval Somme WWI
London Cemetery and Extension Longueval Somme WWI
London Cemetery and Extension Longueval Somme WWI
London Cemetery and Extension Longueval Somme WWI
London Cemetery and Extension Longueval Somme WWI
London Cemetery and Extension Longueval Somme WWI
London Cemetery and Extension Longueval Somme WWI
London Cemetery and Extension Longueval Somme WWI
London Cemetery and Extension Longueval Somme WWI
London Cemetery and Extension Longueval Somme WWI
London Cemetery and Extension Longueval Somme WWI
London Cemetery and Extension Longueval Somme WWI

It is composed of a smaller part built soon after the Somme Offensive, and of an extension added around the original nucleus, for more graves which came later during the war. Looking at the graves it is possible to notice that many of the soldiers buried there are unidentified – ‘A Soldier Known Unto God’ is the inscription you find often times.

London Cemetery and Extension Longueval Somme WWI
London Cemetery and Extension Longueval Somme WWI
London Cemetery and Extension Longueval Somme WWI
London Cemetery and Extension Longueval Somme WWI
London Cemetery and Extension Longueval Somme WWI
London Cemetery and Extension Longueval Somme WWI
London Cemetery and Extension Longueval Somme WWI
London Cemetery and Extension Longueval Somme WWI
London Cemetery and Extension Longueval Somme WWI
London Cemetery and Extension Longueval Somme WWI

The cemetery was enlarged again years later after WWII, as more British soldiers were lost in the war against Hitler’s Germany in the area.

Delville Wood South African National Memorial, Longueval

This memorial has been erected in the 1920s on a land assigned in perpetuity to South Africa by the French government of the time. The memorial is the main WWI monument to the Army of South Africa in Europe, commemorating their service and the death of more than 10’000 throughout the war.

Delville Wood South African National Memorial Somme WWI
Delville Wood South African National Memorial Somme WWI
Delville Wood South African National Memorial Somme WWI
Delville Wood South African National Memorial Somme WWI
Delville Wood South African National Memorial Somme WWI
Delville Wood South African National Memorial Somme WWI
Delville Wood South African National Memorial Somme WWI
Delville Wood South African National Memorial Somme WWI
Delville Wood South African National Memorial Somme WWI
Delville Wood South African National Memorial Somme WWI
Delville Wood South African National Memorial Somme WWI
Delville Wood South African National Memorial Somme WWI
Delville Wood South African National Memorial Somme WWI
Delville Wood South African National Memorial Somme WWI

A British cemetery can be found cross the road, facing the South African monument, where a further memorial to the troops of New Zealand can be reached nearby following the local indications.

Thiepval Memorial, Thiepval

The grandest memorial in the battlefield of the Somme, Thiepval was completed in the early 1930s and inaugurated by the Prince of Wales and the president of France to commemorate the soldiers of the British Empire who died in the area and whose burial site is unknown. More than 72’000 names are graven on the sides of the memorial.

Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval Memorial Somme WWI

The memorial serves as a joint French-British monument, and a number of soldiers of both nationalities are buried nearby.

Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI

Close to the memorial there is an interesting documentation site, with a very vivid and modern pictorial reconstruction of the trenches.

Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI
Thiepval British Commonwealth Memorial Somme WWI

The location on top of a hill on the very battlefield of the Somme Offensive makes this place really evocative, notwithstanding the many tourists.

Auchonvillers

Not far from Thiepval it is possible to find the village of Auchonvillers, where on private land – actually in the garden of a local teahouse – there is a small part of a preserved covered trench.

Auchonvillers Trenches Somme WWI
Auchonvillers Trenches Somme WWI
Auchonvillers Trenches Somme WWI
Auchonvillers Trenches Somme WWI
Auchonvillers Trenches Somme WWI
Auchonvillers Trenches Somme WWI
Auchonvillers Trenches Somme WWI
Auchonvillers Trenches Somme WWI
Auchonvillers Trenches Somme WWI
Auchonvillers Trenches Somme WWI
aAuchonvillers Trenches Somme WWI
Auchonvillers Trenches Somme WWI

In the vicinity of the village it is easy to spot the Ulster Tower. This was built in the 1920s to commemorate the contribution of the ‘Ulster’ Division of Northern Ireland, and is an almost exact copy of a tower in Bangor, Ulster.

Ulster Tower Somme WWI
Ulster Tower Somme WWI
Ulster Tower Somme WWI
Ulster Tower Somme WWI
Somme Memorial WWI
Somme Memorial WWI
Cruachan Scottish Memorial Somme WWI
Cruachan Scottish Memorial Somme WWI
Cruachan Scottish Memorial Somme WWI
Cruachan Scottish Memorial Somme WWI

Not far between Thiepval and Beaumont-Hamel, one of the countless smaller monuments is a Celtic Cross bearing the inscription ‘Cruachan’, the war cry of the Campbell clan. It commemorates a number of Scottish Divisions fighting in the battle.

The Newfoundland Memorial Park, Beaumont-Hamel

This is one of the largest preserved trenches of the Somme area, and one of the only two Canadian historic landmarks out of mainland Canada. The park has original trenches on display, some of them preserved, some today barely visible. The site commemorates the action of the Newfoundland Regiment, which had one of the highest casualties tolls of the war, being reduced to less than 20% in the first day of combat during the Battle of the Somme – almost 700 casualties.

Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI

A 1:1 size statue of a caribou, the mascot of that territory which at the time was not part of Canada, is prominently standing on top of a hill in the park. Scattered around are other monuments, two small cemeteries and the ‘Danger Tree’, a copy of a dead tree originally standing there and helping the German artillery adjusting the sight and better directing their fire, thus causing more casualties in the nearby spot.

Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI
Newfoundland Trenches and Memorial Beaumont-Hamel Canada Somme WWI

Red Baron’s Crash Site, Vaux sur Somme

The site of the crash of Manfred von Richtofen, aka ‘The Red Baron’, is in a field nearby Vaux sur Somme.

Red Baron Manfred von Richtofen Crash Site Somme WWI
Red Baron Manfred von Richtofen Crash Site Somme WWI
Red Baron Manfred von Richtofen Crash Site Somme WWI
Red Baron Manfred von Richtofen Crash Site Somme WWI
Red Baron Manfred von Richtofen Crash Site Somme WWI
Red Baron Manfred von Richtofen Crash Site Somme WWI

There is only a small placard on the road, remembering the fatal crash due to Australian machine gunfire. This happened in April 1918 though, much after the end of the Somme Offensive in summer-fall 1916.

Australian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux

This is the main commemoration site of the Australian troops in WWI in Europe. It was erected here due to the proximity with the sector of the front assigned to Australia during and after the offensive of 1916. A successful battle was fought there in 1918, in the final months of the war.

Australian National Memorial Villers Bretonneux Somme WWI
Australian National Memorial Villers Bretonneux Somme WWI
Australian National Memorial Villers Bretonneux Somme WWI
Australian National Memorial Villers Bretonneux Somme WWI
Australian National Memorial Villers Bretonneux Somme WWI
Australian National Memorial Villers Bretonneux Somme WWI
Australian National Memorial Villers Bretonneux Somme WWI
Australian National Memorial Villers Bretonneux Somme WWI
Australian National Memorial Villers Bretonneux Somme WWI
Australian National Memorial Villers Bretonneux Somme WWI
Australian National Memorial Villers Bretonneux Somme WWI
Australian National Memorial Villers Bretonneux Somme WWI
Australian National Memorial Villers Bretonneux Somme WWI
Australian National Memorial Villers Bretonneux Somme WWI
Australian National Memorial Villers Bretonneux Somme WWI
Australian National Memorial Villers Bretonneux Somme WWI
Australian National Memorial Villers Bretonneux Somme WWI
Australian National Memorial Villers Bretonneux Somme WWI
Australian National Memorial Villers Bretonneux Somme WWI
Australian National Memorial Villers Bretonneux Somme WWI

It was the last major commemorative monument to be completed in the area, being unveiled in the late 1930s at the presence of King George VI. Also men from the air force are commemorated and buried there. The names of thousands of soldiers without a grave are listed on the sides of the monument.

Australian National Memorial Villers Bretonneux Somme WWI
Australian National Memorial Villers Bretonneux Somme WWI
Australian National Memorial Villers Bretonneux Somme WWI
Australian National Memorial Villers Bretonneux Somme WWI
Australian National Memorial Villers Bretonneux Somme WWI
Australian National Memorial Villers Bretonneux Somme WWI
Australian National Memorial Villers Bretonneux Somme WWI
Australian National Memorial Villers Bretonneux Somme WWI
Australian National Memorial Villers Bretonneux Somme WWI
Australian National Memorial Villers Bretonneux Somme WWI
Australian National Memorial Villers Bretonneux Somme WWI
Australian National Memorial Villers Bretonneux Somme WWI
Australian National Memorial Villers Bretonneux Somme WWI
Australian National Memorial Villers Bretonneux Somme WWI

While the architecture was somewhat contested at the time, the location is gorgeous, overlooking the southern area of the battlefield of the Somme. The monument was hit during WWII, and traces of the bullets can be seen on the side slabs of the monument.

Australian Corps Memorial, Le Hamel

This monument commemorates the effort of the forces of the Entente in the battle taking place here in summer 1918, when the war was still fiercely raging in the area notwithstanding the approaching end. The monument has been erected close to a small section of trenches, of which traces can be seen nearby. Flags of some of the participants to the struggle on the side of the Entente are present.

Australian Corps Memorial Le Hamel Somme WWI
Australian Corps Memorial Le Hamel Somme WWI
Australian Corps Memorial Le Hamel Somme WWI
Australian Corps Memorial Le Hamel Somme WWI
Australian Corps Memorial Le Hamel Somme WWI
Australian Corps Memorial Le Hamel Somme WWI
Australian Corps Memorial Le Hamel Somme WWI
Australian Corps Memorial Le Hamel Somme WWI
Australian Corps Memorial Le Hamel Somme WWI
Australian Corps Memorial Le Hamel Somme WWI
Australian Corps Memorial Le Hamel Somme WWI
Australian Corps Memorial Le Hamel Somme WWI
Australian Corps Memorial Le Hamel Somme WWI
Australian Corps Memorial Le Hamel Somme WWI
Australian Corps Memorial Le Hamel Somme WWI
Australian Corps Memorial Le Hamel Somme WWI
Australian Corps Memorial Le Hamel Somme WWI
Australian Corps Memorial Le Hamel Somme WWI

When I visited there were some poppies in a field nearby the monument. Poppy flowers, rather common in the region, were the only flowers on the devastated no man’s land between the adversary trenches. These flowers came to represent the sacrifice especially of the British soldiers, and the poppy was adopted as an official symbol of war veterans in the 1920s.

Sights in the Artois

The French city Arras in the heart of the region of the Artois found itself on the front line as it got stabilized already in 1914. Three bloody offensives which caused the French huge losses were launched in the region in 1915. The front moved a few miles forth and back, without any decisive breakthrough on either side. In April 1917 a major battle was fought in the area, which led to the conquer of the Vimy Ridge. At that time, the British had taken over responsibility for that sector of the front. The area is especially famous for the underground tunnels, dug by both opponents to place mines and for sheltering and storage purposes, thanks to the soft chalky soil typical of the region.

Wellington Quarry, Arras

These tunnels were carved in central Arras mainly by men of the New Zealand Tunneling Company, who included enlisted natives from the Pacific islands. Works were started from an existing quarry. Some areas are really spacious, while parts of the extensive tunnel network are narrow and made only for trolleys. Original inscriptions can be seen on the walls, as well as everyday items collected by archaeologists.

Wellington Quarry Arras WWI
Wellington Quarry Arras WWI
Wellington Quarry Arras WWI
Wellington Quarry Arras WWI
Wellington Quarry Arras WWI
Wellington Quarry Arras WWI
Wellington Quarry Arras WWI
Wellington Quarry Arras WWI
Wellington Quarry Arras WWI
Wellington Quarry Arras WWI
Wellington Quarry Arras WWI
Wellington Quarry Arras WWI
Wellington Quarry Arras WWI
Wellington Quarry Arras WWI
Wellington Quarry Arras WWI
Wellington Quarry Arras WWI

The quarry is managed by a local society and can be visited on guided tours. Full information here.

Memorial and Commemorative Park, Vimy

This large area, now belonging to Canada, surrounds the Vimy Ridge, where the homonym battle was fought in 1917, leading to the conquer of this piece of territory by the Entente. Actually, the uncontested protagonists of this offensive were the Canadian Divisions. Many soldiers coming from different territories of Canada overwhelmed the German defenses in a well prepared and coordinated attack. Together with the Newfoundland memorial in the Somme (see above), these are the only two Canadian national landmarks outside of mainland Canada. There is a visitor center with Canadian Rangers, offering information and guided tours.

A first part of the site is composed of a preserved group of trenches, which are partly open-air and partly underground. The extensive network of tunnels in the area was prepared in advance, and provided a protected area for billeting troops as well as for storing materials, goods and medical facilities. Visiting the underground part is possible only on guided tours.

Canadian Memorial Vimy France WWI
Canadian Memorial Vimy France WWI
Canadian Memorial Vimy France WWI
Canadian Memorial Vimy France WWI
Canadian Memorial Vimy France WWI
Canadian Memorial Vimy France WWI
Canadian Memorial Vimy France WWI
Canadian Memorial Vimy France WWI
Canadian Memorial Vimy France WWI
Canadian Memorial Vimy France WWI
Canadian Memorial Vimy France WWI
Canadian Memorial Vimy France WWI
Canadian Memorial Vimy France WWI
Canadian Memorial Vimy France WWI

Surface trenches are have been refurbished, but the majority of the grounds are preserved in the sense that nobody is allowed to walk on them, also for the very high danger bound to unexploded ordnance – warning signs can be found almost everywhere. You can still see strange grooves in the ground, either grenade craters or trenches.

Canadian Memorial Vimy France WWI
Canadian Memorial Vimy France WWI
Canadian Memorial Vimy France WWI
Canadian Memorial Vimy France WWI
Canadian Memorial Vimy France WWI
Canadian Memorial Vimy France WWI
Canadian Memorial Vimy France WWI
Canadian Memorial Vimy France WWI
Canadian Memorial Vimy France WWI
Canadian Memorial Vimy France WWI
Canadian Memorial Vimy France WWI
Canadian Memorial Vimy France WWI
Canadian Memorial Vimy France WWI
Canadian Memorial Vimy France WWI
Canadian Memorial Vimy France WWI
Canadian Memorial Vimy France WWI
Canadian Memorial Vimy France WWI
Canadian Memorial Vimy France WWI
Canadian Memorial Vimy France WWI
Canadian Memorial Vimy France WWI
Canadian Memorial Vimy France WWI
Canadian Memorial Vimy France WWI
Canadian Memorial Vimy France WWI
Canadian Memorial Vimy France WWI

The most visible part of the site is the Vimy Memorial, built right on top the Vimy Ridge and inaugurated in the mid 1930s by King Edward VIII and the French president. It commemorates the service of the Canadian Divisions in Europe during WWI. Thousands of names of Canadian soldiers lost and whose burial is unknown are listed on the monument, which is a fine example of architecture from the time.

German War Cemetery, Saint-Laurent-Blangy, Arras

Despite the most visited are the war memorials and the annexed cemeteries of the Entente, all along the front are also a number of German war cemeteries. One is located close by a more apparent British cemetery northeast of Arras, along a road called Chemin de Bailleul.

Vimy France German Cemetery WWI
Vimy France German Cemetery WWI
Vimy France German Cemetery WWI
Vimy France German Cemetery WWI
Vimy France German Cemetery WWI
Vimy France German Cemetery WWI
Vimy France German Cemetery WWI
Vimy France German Cemetery WWI

The smaller number of cemeteries and an equal number of soldiers killed meant German war cemeteries are more crowded. In this small cemetery about 22’000 mostly unknown soldiers are buried. Some of the gravestones tell about the Jewish ethnicity of some of these German soldiers.

Sights around Ypres

Moving north from the Somme along the line of the front, passing Arras and crossing the border with Belgium, the very nice and relaxing countryside would not easily recall the deadly battles fought in the area during the full scope of WWI. The city of Ypres was involved in five great offensives between 1914 and 1918 – sometimes associated also to other ‘official names’ by historians – and similarly the salient to the east and south of the town, stretching over the Flanders region to the border with France, was fiercely contended for the duration of the war.

‘In Flanders Fields’ Museum, Ypres

An excellent starting point for the exploration of the WWI sites around Ypres is this modern museum, located in the central square of the beautiful medieval town of Ypres. Actually, the exhibition can be found in a medieval building once hosting a kind of stock exchange, among the oldest in the world.

The museum starts from setting the scene and telling about WWI. Further on, the focus is on the German offensive in Belgium in 1914, and the actions around the town of Ypres, where French, Belgian, British and later American forces were active against the Army of the Kaiser.

Ypres
Ypres
Ypres
Ypres
Ypres
Ypres
Ypres
Ypres
In Flanders Fields Museum Ypres
In Flanders Fields Museum Ypres
In Flanders Fields Museum Ypres
In Flanders Fields Museum Ypres
In Flanders Fields Museum Ypres
In Flanders Fields Museum Ypres

The museum is very modern, you are given a special bracelet giving access to multimedia explanations along the self guided tour. Visiting may take more than 1 hour if this is the first site of the kind you are visiting, may be less if you go with some preparation concerning WWI facts in the area. Full information here.

Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres

The Menin Gate was originally one of the gates of the town of Ypres, fortified by Vauban in the 17th century, along the road going to the village of Menen. Incidentally, this was the gate through which many of the soldiers billeted in Ypres and going to the trenches nearby were to walk through. The location was chosen to be transformed into a memorial for the troops of the British Empire. This was unveiled in the 1920s, and more than 54’000 names of soldiers of the British Empire lost in the battles around the Ypres salient without a grave are listed.

Ypres Menin Gate Memorial WWI
Ypres Menin Gate Memorial WWI
Ypres Menin Gate Memorial WWI
Ypres Menin Gate Memorial WWI
Ypres Menin Gate Memorial WWI
Ypres Menin Gate Memorial WWI
Ypres Menin Gate Memorial WWI
Ypres Menin Gate Memorial WWI
Ypres Menin Gate Memorial WWI
Ypres Menin Gate Memorial WWI

A short commemoration ceremony – the ‘Last Post’ ceremony – is celebrated every evening at 8 pm by the gate.

British War Cemeteries, Ypres

Similar to the battlefield of the Somme, many war cemeteries can be found in the region around Ypres. At least one of them can be found in the medieval town, with a scenic view of the moat running around the ancient fort. As typical, some graves belong to unidentified soldiers.

Yrpes Cemeteries WWI
Yrpes Cemeteries WWI
Yrpes Cemeteries WWI
Yrpes Cemeteries WWI
Yrpes Cemeteries WWI
Yrpes Cemeteries WWI
Yrpes Cemeteries WWI
Yrpes Cemeteries WWI

Memorial Museum ‘Passchendaele 1917’, Zonnebeke

The battle of Passchendaele was an offensive carried out by the forces of the British Empire with the support of the French between July and November 1917. Often identified as the Third Battle of Ypres, it turned out to be one of the bloodiest battles on this front, where a gain of around five miles in favor of the Entente was paid with about 520’000 casualties, equally shared between the two opponents.

In the town of Zonnebeke it is possible to find a very well designed museum and memorial of this battle. Besides showing the facts of the battle and the devastating effects in the area, the museum has on display a huge collection of original war equipment, including an incredible collection of different types of shells.

Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI

Another uncommon sight is typical WWI gear – gas masks. As a matter of fact, Ypres is associated to the first ever use of poisonous gas in military history. This is not accurate, since poisonous gases had been used in more instances since ages, and actually had been banned by international agreements in the early 20th century. Furthermore, the first irritant gases was used with limited effects by both the French and Germans earlier in 1914. Yet it was during the Second Battle of Ypres in April-May 1915 that the Germans attacked with a specifically designed and mass-scale produced chlorine gas, turning what had been an expedient into a new substantial part of their arsenal. Chlorine gas, with a distinctive brownish appearance, is very effective against the lungs and other mucosa membranes, and being heavier than air it forced men to leave the trenches where it had been poured.

Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI

Soon after the introduction of lethal gas by the Germans, the Entente started producing similar weapons. More and more gases were experimented with, but also the corresponding countermeasures. Gas masks became part of the regular equipment of soldiers since the first attacks. These were very effective too, but filters were made to measure with respect to specific gases, so they had to evolve as new gases were used. Furthermore, gas masks were heavy, they limited sight and motion, and made breathing much more difficult. Plus they did not offer protection against skin burning gases. So, while casualties due to gas attacks turned out to be high but not outrageous at least in face of what had been expected by their designers, the use of gas contributed in changing the face of the war, and made things harder especially for the morale of the troops, which started feeling much more vulnerable even when crouched in their trenches.

In the museum you can see a collection of original models of gas masks, and you are provided a description of the appearance, effects and even a reproduction of the smell of the most widespread gases used during WWI. There are also reconstructed dugouts and underground shelters where you can move in, to experience their small size.

Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI

The open-air part offers a reconstruction of a section of the original system of trenches, including some typical features like wooden or metal reinforcements. Many interesting technical details are provided during the visit.

Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI

There is also an American prefabricated house from the time, representing many similar items which were provided by the US following the end of WWI to help civilians after the devastation brought by the war in the area.

Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI
Memorial Museum Passchendaele Ypres WWI

This very nice and modern museum is very easily accessible, full information here.

Tyne Cot War Cemetery, Zonnebeke

This is one of the largest war cemeteries of the British Empire in the world, totaling more 11’900 graves from WWI. The majority of these men were lost during the Third Battle of Ypres in 1917. Before completion of its monumental part, the site was visited by King George V back in the early 1920s.

Tyne Cot Cemetery German Bunker Ypres WWI
Tyne Cot Cemetery German Bunker Ypres WWI
Tyne Cot Cemetery German Bunker Ypres WWI
Tyne Cot Cemetery German Bunker Ypres WWI
Tyne Cot Cemetery German Bunker Ypres WWI
Tyne Cot Cemetery German Bunker Ypres WWI
Tyne Cot Cemetery German Bunker Ypres WWI
Tyne Cot Cemetery German Bunker Ypres WWI
Tyne Cot Cemetery German Bunker Ypres WWI
Tyne Cot Cemetery German Bunker Ypres WWI
Tyne Cot Cemetery German Bunker Ypres WWI
Tyne Cot Cemetery German Bunker Ypres WWI
Tyne Cot Cemetery German Bunker Ypres WWI
Tyne Cot Cemetery German Bunker Ypres WWI
Tyne Cot Cemetery German Bunker Ypres WWI
Tyne Cot Cemetery German Bunker Ypres WWI

The walls of the cemetery include two blockhouses, originally parts of the German rear lines and conquered during the actions of 1917. The place is associated also to a small and modern visitor center. Website here.

German Trenches ‘Bayernwald’, Heuvelland

This open-air park is centered on a section of refurbished and preserved trenches of the German Army, originally occupied by the divisions of Bayern. Not far from this site it is possible to see the craters of two German mines.

German Trenches Bayernwald Heuvelland Ypres WWI
German Trenches Bayernwald Heuvelland Ypres WWI
German Trenches Bayernwald Heuvelland Ypres WWI
German Trenches Bayernwald Heuvelland Ypres WWI
German Trenches Bayernwald Heuvelland Ypres WWI
German Trenches Bayernwald Heuvelland Ypres WWI
German Trenches Bayernwald Heuvelland Ypres WWI
German Trenches Bayernwald Heuvelland Ypres WWI
German Trenches Bayernwald Heuvelland Ypres WWI
German Trenches Bayernwald Heuvelland Ypres WWI
German Trenches Bayernwald Heuvelland Ypres WWI
German Trenches Bayernwald Heuvelland Ypres WWI
German Trenches Bayernwald Heuvelland Ypres WWI
German Trenches Bayernwald Heuvelland Ypres WWI

The site is really interesting to visit. Entrance is at a small fee, but tickets are on sale by the local Tourist Office in the small village of Kemmel, about four miles from the actual site.

US Troops Memorial Ypres WWI
US Troops Memorial Ypres WWI

Along the road connecting the two, it is possible to spot a memorial for the troops of two American Divisions who fought in this area.

Christmas Truce Memorial, Comines-Warneton

This site is just one of the points where this unique event took place on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 1914. In the days before Christmas, the Germans had started putting candles on the rims of the trenches and singing carols, which were heard by the British, who on their turn started singing similar carols in their language. An unofficial de facto ceasefire became effective, during which soldiers from both sides started fraternizing, taking pictures of each other, exchanging trinkets and even playing football. Some corpses were removed from no man’s land by both opposing formations. There was no artillery fire in many sectors of the front, especially those around Ypres.

Christmas Truce Trenches Ypres WWI
Christmas Truce Trenches Ypres WWI
Christmas Truce Trenches Ypres WWI
Christmas Truce Trenches Ypres WWI
Christmas Truce Trenches Ypres WWI
Christmas Truce Trenches Ypres WWI
Christmas Truce Trenches Ypres WWI
Christmas Truce Trenches Ypres WWI
Christmas Truce Trenches Ypres WWI
Christmas Truce Trenches Ypres WWI

This happened only in 1914 though, when it was thought at least among the troops on both parts, that the war would not last long. Later in 1915 actions started getting bloodier and it was realized that the war would cost much more and would last much longer than expected, and even this little shred of humanity was lost in the firestorms.

What you see is just a preserved piece of opposed trenches, really close to each other in this sector, and a British war cemetery nearby.

Ploegsteert Memorial and ‘Plugstreet 14-18 Experience’, Ploegsteert

This nice commemorative monument of the British was built for the more than 11’000 soldiers lost in the nearby sector of the front between 1914 and 1918 whose burial site is unknown. A Last Post ceremony is held here once per week.

British Memorial Ploegsteert Comines Ypres WWI
British Memorial Ploegsteert Comines Ypres WWI
British Memorial Ploegsteert Comines Ypres WWI
British Memorial Ploegsteert Comines Ypres WWI
Irish Peace Tower Messines Ypres WWI
Irish Peace Tower Messines Ypres WWI

Besides the museum there is a small war cemetery and a modern documentation center, mainly centered on multimedia exhibits telling the facts of this sector of the front in WWI, and trying to describe the everyday experience of those fighting in the trenches. Full website here.

Not far north, moving towards the border Ypres, it is possible to spot the Irish Peace Tower of Messines, built close to the homonym ridge where a battle was fought. This tower commemorates the sacrifice of those from the Irish Island in WWI. It was unveiled in 1998 at the presence of the Queen Elizabeth II, the President of Ireland and the King of Belgium. The design recalls that of a round tower, some of which can be found in Ireland. The stones for construction were transported from the ‘Green Island’.

Extra feature: WWI Commemoration Monument, Detmold, Germany

Touring the nice city of Detmold, not far west from Hannover, I could spot a commemorative monument to the local division of the German Army, dedicated to the soldiers killed in action during WWI. Many campaigns named after the homonym sites in northern France and Belgium are listed on the sides of the monument.

Detmold German WWI Memorial
Detmold German WWI Memorial
Detmold German WWI Memorial
Detmold German WWI Memorial
Detmold German WWI Memorial
Detmold German WWI Memorial

Forts of the Maginot Line

CarloRLeave a comment

Soon after the end of WWI, the government and the top-ranking officials of the victorious French Army set plans for a defensive system along the eastern border, which would protect the nation from future invasions. The ambitious plan was initially based on a line of reinforced concrete forts placed along the border with Italy, Germany, Luxembourg. Construction started in the last 1920s, and the defense system was named after Henri Maginot, ministry of war at the time and a major advocate of the project, who died well before its completion in 1932.

Construction works continued till at least 1935 on the Italian and German sectors. Soon after, in 1936 due to the re-negotiations of the alliance with Belgium, the line was partly extended along the border between France and Belgium, but it never reached completion, thus failing to seal that sector of the border – which might have been possible only by reaching the coast of the Channel.

When the first thunders of war resounded in Europe in 1939, the forts of the Maginot line were reinforced further. The German Army planned an attack accounting for the presence of the line, and when the invasion of France was enacted in May 1940, a small diversionary army was sent against the French forts, while most of the Wehrmacht moved quickly through the forests of southeast Belgium – the Ardennes – finally entering France in the region of Sedan, next to the western extremity of the French defensive line. So the immense defensive system was outflanked in about three weeks, and an armistice between France and Germany followed soon in June 1940.

The Maginot line is composed of 108 major forts – ‘ouvrage’ in French – plus many more smaller installations. These bunkers had often different characteristics depending on the region, and were interred to an extent depending on the local characteristics of the terrain. Typical features of these forts are turrets with cannons and periscopes. Larger forts have usually two separate entrances for the troops and for supplying goods – shells, grenades, kerosene for the electric generators, food, medical supplies, etc.. These forts could house more than 1’000 troops each. Larger bunkers were often connected by a network of underground tunnels with smaller observation or firing positions, or reinforced barracks. There was also a dedicated telephone communication network all along the line.

Many forts of the line never sustained attacks, while some did. Some were even used in the closing months of the war by the US Army, as strongpoints during field battles against the retreating German Army.

Today, many forts of the line are preserved as national monuments. Some of them are open as top-ranking museums, some have been entrusted to local societies of enthusiasts which allow to visit them on a regular or limited basis. Some are usually shut and inaccessible except by arrangement.

This chapter is about a few forts of the Maginot Line in northeastern France visited in 2016. These highlights provide an insight on the typical construction of these defensive installations. Featured are many photographs taken during these visits.

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Sights

Ouvrage de la Ferté

This smaller fort is probably the one in the Maginot Line which saw the most intense action. Located in the beautiful countryside north of historical Sedan, on the border with Belgium, this fort is where the invading Wehrmacht inflicted a first major blow, entering French territory in Spring 1940. It was in the focus of a direct German attack between May 18th-19th, 1940, and no one of the French soldiers in the fort survived.

This installation, located on top of a hill, is composed of two main blocks, connected by an underground tunnel. The interior can be visited only on a guided tour, while the exteriors can be walked freely. The visit starts in the visitor center,  with a very nice animated movie telling the story of the fort, and of the momentous events of May 1940 it was involved in.

Then you are taken to the entrance of the bunker nearby. Getting closer, you are shown original defensive obstacles originally placed along the perimeter of many forts of the Maginot Line. There are six lines of rail beams stuck vertically in the ground, to stop tanks and vehicles, plus lines of barbed wire against attacking troops.

Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line

The entrance is through a bunker – Block 1 – emerging from the side of a hill. On top there are thick metal turrets for observation and rifle/machine gun firing. The entrance is through a smaller drawbridge, leaning over a dry moat. This is a distinctive feature of many similar forts of the line. An attacker close to the main door would find himself on the line of fire of anti-tank and lighter arms shooting through sealed loopholes in the wall of the bunker, and vulnerable to grenade attacks, which could be slipped through specially built inclined tubes. From the apron ahead of the bunker you can spot in the distance another concrete bunker part of the same group, about 1 mile away to the southeast. It cannot be visited.

Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line

Once inside you can see the shooting chamber opposite the wall close to the main door. Original light weapons are still in place – an anti-tank cannon and a machine gun. Close by there are the dormitories for the troops, the office of the commander and other service rooms, including bulky filters for the ventilation system.

Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line

During the fight, a grenade exploded inside the bunker, and this produced an extensive damage. Some non-structural walls collapsed, and what remains can be seen today. The ensuing fire was the final cause of the French disaster during the German attack, as the gas masks of the French troops were not designed against carbon monoxide resulting from a usual fire – most soldiers died from asphyxia.

Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line

The guide will drive you to the other block, walking along the connection tunnel. Block 2 features a revolving turret, which could be also retracted for sealing the bunker when necessary. When extracted, it exposed the barrels of various light weapons. This turret can be accessed if you are sufficiently agile. It was put out of combat by applying explosives which stuck the revolving mechanism – the turret has since then assumed a slightly banked attitude.

Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line

The guided tour ends after exiting through the door of Block 2. Moving around on top of the construction, you can see the clear signs of the German shelling on top of the turrets. Also the print left by a pack of explosive stick to the side of the revolving turret, but causing little damage, can be clearly spotted.

Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line

Between the two blocks, on the side of a local road crossing the site, a further concrete bunker with a small door – this time totally inaccessible – can be found. Opposite the road, there is a monument to the French soldiers who were killed in the attack.

Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de la Ferté – Maginot Line

Getting there and moving around

This site is really worth visiting also for those with a general interest for history, and it offers a very good insight on the specific features of the Maginot Line for technically minded people as well. The guide is very knowledgeable, and provides explanations in English also during visits in French. The place is managed as a modern museum, website here. The guided tour will last approximately 45 minutes. Allow more for touring the outside on your own and taking pictures. It can be reached along the road connecting Villy and La Ferté-sur-Chiers, less than 20 miles southeast of Sedan.

Ouvrage Simserhof

This is one of the big forts – ‘gros ouvrage’ – of the Maginot Line, located close to the German border. It was dug in the side of a hill, with two separate gates. The lower one at the foot of the hill was for supply, where the top one, close to the top of the hill, was for the troops. Both gates are reinforced concrete bunkers with loopholes for light artillery to defend the apron ahead of the entrance.

The place has a modern visitor center. The visit – only possible with a guide – is articulated in two parts. The first is a tour of the lower level, which used to be the storage for ammunitions as well as anything needed to supply the activities going on in the fort. This level has been converted into a dynamic exhibition, with sounds, a narrating voice, some visual effects. It is toured conveniently sitting on a cable car. The second part is a classic guided tour of the top-level, and it will start from the top entrance.

Grand Ouvrage de Simserhof - Maginot Line
Grand Ouvrage de Simserhof – Maginot Line
Grand Ouvrage de Simserhof - Maginot Line
Grand Ouvrage de Simserhof – Maginot Line
Grand Ouvrage de Simserhof - Maginot Line
Grand Ouvrage de Simserhof – Maginot Line
Grand Ouvrage de Simserhof - Maginot Line
Grand Ouvrage de Simserhof – Maginot Line
Grand Ouvrage de Simserhof - Maginot Line
Grand Ouvrage de Simserhof – Maginot Line
Grand Ouvrage de Simserhof - Maginot Line
Grand Ouvrage de Simserhof – Maginot Line
Grand Ouvrage de Simserhof - Maginot Line
Grand Ouvrage de Simserhof – Maginot Line
Grand Ouvrage de Simserhof - Maginot Line
Grand Ouvrage de Simserhof – Maginot Line
Grand Ouvrage de Simserhof - Maginot Line
Grand Ouvrage de Simserhof – Maginot Line
Grand Ouvrage de Simserhof - Maginot Line
Grand Ouvrage de Simserhof – Maginot Line
Grand Ouvrage de Simserhof - Maginot Line
Grand Ouvrage de Simserhof – Maginot Line
Grand Ouvrage de Simserhof - Maginot Line
Grand Ouvrage de Simserhof – Maginot Line

The inside of the fort is huge, and the tour is pretty extensive. You are shown the firing chambers besides the entrance, many tunnels, dormitories, living quarters for the troops, medical rooms, the rooms for the electrical generators, and many other service rooms. Remarkably though, you are not shown the artillery installations in the peripheral blocks.

Getting there and moving around

The museum is a prominent tourist attraction in the area. The visit to the lower level is more for children and people with a very general interest for 20th century history. The original setting was changed deeply to host a modern dynamic exhibition, which may not appeal to more technically minded subjects. The visit to the top part lasts about 1.5 hour, and is maybe too hard for kids. Many technical details are provided here and many items shown. Yet the fact that you cannot access any artillery position – at least when I visited – is a bit disappointing. Everything in French only when I visited. Info and timetables for visiting from their website. The closest sizable town is Saarbrücken, Germany, about 30 miles northwest of the site.

Ouvrage du Four à Chaux

This is an intermediate size fort, which hosted around 600 men in the days of operation. The visit – only possible with a guide – is very interesting, as the fort has many characteristics typical to larger installations of the Maginot Line – like Simserhof, see above – but it is more compact and easy to visit. Furthermore, during the visit you are shown all areas of major importance, covering the housing part, as well as the artillery control and firing part.

Much like larger forts, there are two entrances at two different levels on the side of a hill. You get inside through the top one, for troops. Access is by a drawbridge over a small artificial dry moat. From there, you are shown a series of long corridors and tunnels, along which you can find the dormitories and technical rooms.

Ouvrage de Four a Chaux - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux – Maginot Line

A special feature is an escape tunnel, built vertically and reaching the top of the hill from the core of the fort. The tunnel is actually made of two twin parts, where the first was designed to be filled up with debris coming from the top of the hill in case of an attack, leaving the other free. This way escape was possible even after the emergency exit had been specifically targeted you enemy fire, causing the debris to fall inside. Further features include the big filters of the ventilation system.

The firing control area can be reached following a corridor going gently uphill. Here you are shown the technical situation rooms from where war operations were coordinated. Several panels and cutouts provide an idea of the structure of the fort.

Ouvrage de Four a Chaux - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux – Maginot Line

Then you get access to the ammo storage. Here ammunitions for bigger calibers were put in canisters which were moved thanks to a rail hanging from the ceiling. Larger used shells were conveyed from the cannon to a storage area throwing them on a slide.

Ouvrage de Four a Chaux - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux – Maginot Line

One of the retractable turrets is still perfectly working. The guide will operate the mechanism, showing how the turret can be moved up and down, and also how it can rotate. A closed circuit camera shows the turret from outside, thus allowing to better appreciate the effect of the mechanisms you see standing inside. This part is very interesting, and provides a good idea of how the fort worked during a battle.

Ouvrage de Four a Chaux - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux – Maginot Line

The guide will finally drive you to the exit through the lower entrance originally for resupply, which is reached going down an inclined tunnel, used to load trolleys full of ammunitions moving them from the storage level to the operative quarters of the fort.

Ouvrage de Four a Chaux - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux – Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux - Maginot Line
Ouvrage de Four a Chaux – Maginot Line

Close by the exit you can find an American M41 tank used as a gate guardian!

Getting there and moving around

The visit of this fort takes about 2 hours and it is very interesting. The museum is possibly less famous than others in the Maginot Line, which makes it more enjoyable, as groups are smaller and the staff is more dedicated. On the other hand, opening times are more limited, you can find information on their website. The visit was in French, but the guide answered my questions in English, plus you are provided a detailed paper guide in English – and probably other languages as well – for the time of the tour. The fort is on the premises of the town of Lembach, about 20 miles north of Strasbourg in the northeastern corner of France, right on the border with Germany.

Casemate Esch

This smaller reinforced artillery position is only rarely open to the public. Yet even from the outside it makes for a pretty unique sight. Actually this installation found itself in the middle of a storm in January 1945, when the 14th Armored Division of the US Army was stopped by the German army in the area of Haguenau during operation ‘Nordwind’, conceived by the Wehrmacht to repeat the success of the offensive in the Ardennes of May 1940. Many found shelter in this fort as a fierce tank battle raged all around.

Casemate Esch, Hatten - Maginot Line
Casemate Esch, Hatten – Maginot Line
Casemate Esch, Hatten - Maginot Line
Casemate Esch, Hatten – Maginot Line
Casemate Esch, Hatten - Maginot Line
Casemate Esch, Hatten – Maginot Line
Casemate Esch, Hatten - Maginot Line
Casemate Esch, Hatten – Maginot Line

Heavy damage resulting from intense shelling can be clearly spotted on this relatively small reinforced concrete building. A M4 Sherman tank has been placed on top of the bunker as a memorial.

Getting there and moving around

The barracks can be visited only on Sunday during the warm season. A view of the outside may be interesting, especially if you have already an idea of what a Maginot fort looks like from the inside. The place can be spotted easily on the side of D-28 less than 1 miles southeast of the small village of Hatten, some 15 miles north of Strasbourg. Information through the website of the larger Schoenenburg fort. For the outside, a tour of 15 minutes should be enough.

Abri de Hatten

This site is actually an extremely interesting WWII and Cold War museum, centered on the reinforced barracks in the village of Hatten, part of the Maginot Line. Inside the barracks, which can be toured on your own, you can find some of the original rooms rebuilt with their original furniture, especially a dormitory, a kitchen, medical facilities, air filters and power generators.

WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line

Due to the big size of the bunker, some rooms have been used to host extremely interesting exhibitions. These are about the life in the area in the times of the German occupation. Pictures and rare original artifacts with Nazi insignia are part of the collection. A unique German map of the world from 1941 is displayed – showing with the Swastika as the national flag of Germany, and many borders in Europe looking very different from now!

WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line

A room is dedicated to the wreck of a Messerchmitt Me-262 Schwalbe, the worlds first operative jet engined fighter. This aircraft was downed nearby the fort in the closing days of WWII. The two jet engines make for an interesting sight, plus there are many components of the avionics system originally on board this very aircraft, really futuristic at the time.

WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line

Another room showcases detection and communication gear from the Cold War years, and from both sides of the Iron Curtain. This recalls the fact that, soon after WWII, France decided to keep the largely untouched Maginot Line as a defensive installation against the Soviets. Having grown obsolete after nuclear stockpiles had begun to be produced also in France, the line was finally decommissioned by the early 1960s.

WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line

The premises of the reinforced barracks are scattered with further interesting items, including cannons of several makes and bores, anti-tank, anti-aircraft and heavier field cannons, from France, Germany, the US and the Eastern Bloc.

WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line

There are a MiG-21 and a Mil helicopter from the communist German Democratic Republic (GDR), a French Dassault Mirage, several antennas, a Soviet surface to air missile, more trucks from the GDR. There is also what appears to be a partly authentic border control booth with national insignia from the former border between possibly West Germany – maybe somewhere in Berlin – and the GDR.

WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line

There is a small memorial building dedicated to a group of soldiers of the French Army which after the armistice with Germany in 1940 were integrated in the Wehrmacht, and later sent to fight on the side of the Germans against the Soviets on the European Eastern Front. Due to the very harsh conditions of that sector of the front, many would never come back.

There are also two further buildings in the museum. The first is about the Maginot Line, with a comprehensive – and very interesting – collection of models of its various types of forts and reinforced structures. The second is on WWII, with remains of a downed Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, German transport vehicles, and many artifacts and weapons.

WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line

Among the most peculiar items on display there is a parachute for pigeons. These birds were extensively used for communication between occupied France and Britain. British birds were parachuted in France. If they fell in the right hands, they could be loaded with a message and launched. Their instinct would then guide them back to their home base across the Channel. Some of these birds even received military decorations for their bravery in this vital service!

Finally, a small collection of heavy army vehicles are kept in operative conditions by a local society of enthusiasts. These include US half-tracked vehicles, trucks, an American M60 and a Soviet T-34 tank!

WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum - Abri de Hatten - Maginot Line
WWII and Cold War Museum – Abri de Hatten – Maginot Line

Getting there and moving around

This unique, one-of-a-kind collection can be visited on a self-guided basis. Depending on your interest, a visit may take from 45 minutes to more than 2 hours. A website with some visiting information is here. There location is on Rue de l’Abri, immediately to the west of the village of Hatten, 15 miles north of Strasbourg. Most explanations are in French and German, plus scant signs in English. Please note that they accept only cash.

Fort de Mutzig – Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II

While not a part of the Maginot Line, the history of this fort is interesting, for it was erected by the Germans at the end of the 19th century, when the regions of Alsace and Lorraine – now part of France – had been lost to the German Reich following the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. It was designed and built as the most technologically advanced fort of its time. The construction was based on concrete instead of masonry, which made it capable of withstanding heavy shelling from the most modern and powerful howitzers of its age. It was made of three sectors, erected on top of a hill not far from Strasbourg, and was part of a defensive line built around that city against the French. It was dedicated to Kaiser Wilhelm II.

This immense structure featured two batteries of four heavy 150 mm howitzers and fourteen 105 mm cannons in specifically designed turrets, plus lighter observation and firing turrets. About 1’000 men stationed in the fort, which saw limited action in WWI and was ceded to France in 1918. Correspondingly, it changed name to Fort de Mutzig. At the beginning of WWII, it was regained by the invading German Army, which occupied it but later sent the cannons to the Atlantic Wall. It was bombed by the Luftwaffe in the closing days of WWII, but it basically went through the turbulent first half of the 20th century without sustaining any major damage. It was later abandoned and re-opened as a museum, frequently updated as more sections are restored.

It is today one of the largest and best preserved examples of early concrete forts – actually a good example of WWI military architecture, as construction techniques remained very similar until after WWI.

Visiting is possible only in guided groups. The visit will take you to the northern sector, where you can see the firing chamber for defending the gate, and a series of rooms including the living quarters of the troops stationed there. There are a the dormitories, a medical room and even a bakery. Most writing from the time is in German, and most machines bear the name of a German brand! You can visit the original toilet – even there, no privacy was allowed, to prevent the troops from committing suicide by always keeping a watch on them.

Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig

Inside the many empty rooms, there are exhibitions of artifacts like models of the turrets, reinforced observation posts and weapons from the original supply of the fort.

Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig

Interestingly, the original electric generators have been carefully restored together with the power-plant control panel – very nice, really from an older age!

Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig

The tour of the exterior will take you to the top of the fort, where observation and firing turrets can be seen from the outside.

Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig

Finally, a battery of four 150 mm howitzers is approached and visited.

Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II - Fort de Mutzig
Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II – Fort de Mutzig

Getting there and moving around

The fort can be reached on top of a hill about 12 miles west of Strasbourg. The road going uphill starts between the villages of Mutzig and Dinsheim-sur-Bruche. The guided tour – the only way to visit – takes about 1.5 hours. The visit will be extremely interesting for the general public and more technically minded people as well. Website with information here.

Stalin’s Skyscrapers

CarloRLeave a comment

A distinctive feature of Moscow and some other European capital cities, Stalin’s skyscrapers were designed in the Forties and built from the early Fifties to the early Sixties. For this reason they stand as an symbol of the early Cold War period, when the Soviet Union and the Western Powers were starting to openly competing on almost everything, from the blast intensity of thermonuclear devices to the new frontier of flight – space.

Stalin died in 1953, so he couldn’t see in person the completion of the buildings bearing his name, but it is reported that he was involved personally in the master plan – approved before 1947 -, choice of architects and design of the towers in Moscow, which were to symbolize the might of the Soviet Union, a key player and a winning power of WWII, and to showcase a tangible realization of the Socialist social model. This was also to create a counterpart to the American skyscrapers, a prominent feature of many cities of the US since the mid Twenties.

Today all Stalin’s skyscrapers are still in place, and especially in the very fashionable and modern Moscow, they remain among the most evocative remains of the Communist era. Besides the gothic-renaissance style they are built in, with imposing volumes and tall pinnacles and spines, resulting in a “Gotham City” appearance in contrast with today’s mostly widespread minimal style, these buildings are covered with symbols and sculptures totally bound to the old ‘Communist code’ – tens of hammers, sickles, waving flags and stars, plus portraits of farmers, workers, socialist virtues and happy families – a true relic of a bygone era.

Visiting is generally limited to coming close and walking around, for these buildings are all still used today for various functions, including housing and governmental.

This little report is unfortunately not complete, as I will present only photographs I’ve taken myself of those buildings I had the chance to come close to in Moscow (but not all that you can see there), Warsaw and Riga. Yet I hope to give an impression of what these buildings look like, and… to be able to complete the report with the missing ones in the future!

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Moscow, Russia

Moscow State University (Lemonsovo University)

This building is the largest of Stalin’s skyscrapers, and the tallest educational building in the world – taking pictures of the facade is a real challenge even with a wide lens! The perception of the volume of the building is reduced – to some extent… – due to the isolated position on top of a hill dominating central Moscow from the west.

The campus of the University can be accessed freely (there are gates and fences, but I guess they are normally open at least in daylight), and I suggest going for a walk from the metro stop ‘Vorobyovy gory’ (line 1) to the top of the hill, where you will get a breathtaking panorama of downtown Moscow, as well as a perspective view of the university building. You may then walk closer to the building and eventually move around it, reaching the metro stop ‘Universitet’ (line 1) for your train back to Moscow. The area is huge, so consider more than 1 hour for a complete relaxed tour of the area, even if you are just taking pictures of the outside.

Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow

The decoration of the building is probably the most elaborate of all Stalin’s skyscrapers, and include huge communist coats of arms, metal banners with engravings, a Lenin memorial sculpture, a big clock, various allegorical sculptures, and a gigantic USSR emblem with a star on top of the 787 ft tall central spine.

Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow

The panoramic view you get from the easternmost part of the perspective allows you to spot from the distance all other Stalin’s skyscrapers in town, including Hotel Ukraine (today Radisson Royal), which is partly covered by the modern skyscrapers of ‘New Moscow’.

Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Located on the western end of the very popular Arbat boulevard next to the ‘Smolenskaya’ interchange station on metro lines 3, 4 and 5, this imposing building is still today occupied by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.

Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow

The decoration is sober, and the tiles covering the exterior are made from a dark brownish material, giving a solemn, serious and possibly grim appearance to the complex. Slabs with hammer and sickle engravings can be found on the western gate on Smolensky Blvd.

Kudrinskaya Square Building

This imposing apartment building, built for high-ranking members of the Soviet cultural panorama, can be reached from ‘Barricadnaya’ on metro line 7 or equivalently from ‘Krasnoprechenskaya’ on the circle line 5. It is very close to the American embassy, and not excessively far from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow

The neighborhood is composed mainly of smaller residential buildings, but nonetheless this skyscraper is proportionately designed, rather ‘mimetic’ and not excessively imposing. The typical pale tiles covering most of the façade and the lack of bombastic decoration add to the nice overall perception you may get of this skyscraper.

Kotelnicheskaya Enbankment Building

This is probably the most prominent and impressive of Stalin’s skyscrapers, due to the incredible location on the Moskva river. It can be admired from the distance from the southeastern corner of the Kremlin, and especially from the bridge immediately south of the Red Square and St. Basil. The very light color of the façade gives this large building an airy appearance. A huge spine with a star and a hammer and sickle emblem complete the profile.

Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow

It is still today an apartment building. Needless to say, from the building you will get an almost unobstructed view of the Kremlin. It can be reached with a walk from the Kremlin or a more quiet walk from the interchange station ‘Taganskaya’ on line 5, 7 and 8, ideal if you are also visiting Bunker-42.

Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow

Walking closer to the building will give you a mixed feeling of grandeur and poor quality at the same time, due to size of the skyscraper on one hand, and to the many small commercial activities on the ground floor, and a certain disorder around the main entrance on the other – due to an overcrowded small parking, and a small, unnecessary fenced park.

Leningradskaya Hotel & Red Gates Administrative Building

I only had the chance for a quick pass by these buildings. The Leningradskaya Hotel (today Hilton) is the most modestly sized of Stalin’s Skyscrapers in Moscow, and is located on the western side of the highly trafficked Komsomolskaya Square, with three railway stations offering connections to everywhere in Russia and to international destinations as well, and a terminal for the world-famous Transsiberian line. The corresponding metro station is ‘Komsomolskaya’ on line 1 and 5.

Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin's Skyscrapers Moscow
Stalin’s Skyscrapers Moscow

From the square you can see the tower of the Red Gates Administrative Building, which can be reached with a quick walk from there or with the metro line 1 (‘Krasnye Vorota’ stop). Together with Leningradskaya Hotel, these are probably the least imposing of all Stalin’s skyscrapers, even though some mastery was reportedly necessary in the construction process of this building, due to a complicated reaction of the soil to its weight.

Riga, Latvia

Latvian Academy of Sciences

The latest of Stalin’s skyscrapers to reach completion – opened in 1961 – this distinctive building can be spotted from quite afar in the skyline of Riga, the capital city of the Latvian Republic. In the era of the USSR, this was not a ‘satellite state’, instead it was annexed to be one of the Socialist Soviet Republics, together with its neighbors Estonia and Lithuania. The building can be spotted to the south of the historical district and can be reached with a short walk from there.

Stalin's Skyscraper Riga
Stalin’s Skyscraper Riga
Stalin's Skyscraper Riga
Stalin’s Skyscraper Riga
Stalin's Skyscraper Riga
Stalin’s Skyscraper Riga
Stalin's Skyscraper Riga
Stalin’s Skyscraper Riga

This building retains only the style of Moscow’s Stalinist skyscrapers. The construction method is here based on reinforced concrete, where all buildings in Moscow are based on steel frames and masonry. The covering tiles are rather dark, giving a grim appearance to this otherwise well proportioned tower. The building can be accessed and you can reach the top to enjoy the panorama to a small fee.

Warsaw, Poland

Palace of Culture and Science

This service building is on Marsalkowska, next to the metro station ‘Swietokrzyska’, about .6 miles from the totally central University of Warsaw on Krakowskie boulevard.

Stalin's Skyscraper Warsaw
Stalin’s Skyscraper Warsaw
Stalin's Skyscraper Warsaw
Stalin’s Skyscraper Warsaw
Stalin's Skyscraper Warsaw
Stalin’s Skyscraper Warsaw
Stalin's Skyscraper Warsaw
Stalin’s Skyscraper Warsaw

The building is somehow isolated from the surroundings, being in the center of a large square. It is very imposing and comparable in size to those in Moscow – it is still today one of the tallest buildings in Poland, and can be easily spotted from several places around Warsaw.

You can climb to the top for a fee.

Stalin's Skyscraper Warsaw
Stalin’s Skyscraper Warsaw
Stalin's Skyscraper Warsaw
Stalin’s Skyscraper Warsaw
Stalin's Skyscraper Warsaw
Stalin’s Skyscraper Warsaw
Stalin's Skyscraper Warsaw
Stalin’s Skyscraper Warsaw
Stalin's Skyscraper Warsaw
Stalin’s Skyscraper Warsaw
Stalin's Skyscraper Warsaw
Stalin’s Skyscraper Warsaw

 

STASI Prisons and Headquarters in Berlin and the GDR

CarloRLeave a comment

Heading to Berlin or the former GDR? Looking for traces of the Cold War open for a visit?

A Travel Guide to COLD WAR SITES in EAST GERMANY

Second Edition - 2024
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Among the most unequivocal signs of the oppressive communist dictatorship in the former German Democratic Republic – ‘GDR’ or ‘DDR’ in German – are probably the many buildings once operated by the STASI, the German cousin of the well-known Soviet KGB.

Being a state security service by its very name – STASI stands for ‘STAat SIcherheit’, or state security -, this organization was responsible for the capillary control over the behavior of the citizens of the GDR, to the aim of counteracting any threat to the communist rule. It was mainly composed of a para-military staff and of an extensive network of informers – so extensive that actually about 1 out of 180 in Eastern Germany worked for the STASI, while by comparison in the USSR 1 out of 595 worked for the KGB. The main goal of this agency was keeping the statu quo, hence any suspect behavior of East-German citizens, deemed subversive with respect to the communist rule, was reported, investigated and usually suppressed.

People found guilty of acts against the State – i.e. against the communist government – were often sentenced to years of imprisonment. This meant that prisons and camps flourished in the GDR, as people got arrested and at least kept for interrogation just for having received western newspapers or having colored their rooms with posters of American pop singers. How the STASI came to know of similar ‘violations’ was by means of informers, who triggered secret investigations carried out with ‘James Bond gear’, like cameras and microphones hidden in coat buttons and bags. Microphones and cameras were also usually installed in the walls, chandeliers and doors of the houses of suspected subjects.

This huge institution was among the most feared and hated – as well as expensive to run – in the GDR, and soon after the reopening of the border and the demolition of the wall in Berlin in 1989 many of its buildings were occupied by the population. To deny responsibility in the unfair trial, imprisonment and confinement of many citizens, the staff of the STASI began ‘burning’ its archives immediately, but they were so extensive that this rapidly turned out to be impossible. The STASI was disbanded among the first governmental agencies of the GDR in the early months of 1990, even before the two halves of Germany were merged. Finally the archives were made publicly available during the process of the German reunification. Many people came to know they had been carefully observed and spied in every movement during their everyday life.

Today, some of the most prominent buildings once operated by the STASI are open to the public and represent an interesting and worrying memento of this chapter of the history of Germany. The following photographs are from some such sites I visited over the years from 2013 to 2023.

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STASI Headquarters, Berlin-Lichtenberg

The headquarters of the STASI occupied an extensive citadel composed of many big, multi-storey buildings. Like the KGB, the tasks of the STASI weren’t limited to internal state security, but also to border protection – a very serious business in Eastern Germany, as you can see from another page of this site dedicated to the German inner border – and espionage activities abroad. The various directorates occupied their respective buildings in the citadel. The place is in a semi-peripheral district of former East Berlin named Lichtenberg.

Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters

The main building hosts a museum of central relevance on the topic, where you can find much data about the history and the impressive size of this agency, as well as spy gear – for instance mimetic microphones for listening to conversations in private houses. The stories of some of the victims of the communist surveillance machine are also reported. Envelope-opening devices and rags for preserving the odor of those arrested for watchdogs are displayed in showcases.

Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters

Probably the highlight of the museum is the apartment and office of Erich Mielke, the director of the STASI from 1957 – well before the wall was erected in Berlin – up to the dissolution of the GDR. Many original directional offices have been preserved and nowadays can be visited.

Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters

The place is very evocative and retains much of the disturbing ‘GDR atmosphere’, typical to this and other similar installations. The number of visitors is much lower than close to Checkpoint Charlie and the DDR museum near the Berliner Dom, which are mostly cheesy tourist attractions with comparatively little content. On the contrary, in this museum you can still easily perceive the commitment of the GDR goverment towards its own survival, and the proportion of the oppressive apparatus that was created to this aim – here you clearly understand the STASI was a serious business and changed the life of many people.

Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters
Berlin Lichtenberg Normannenstrasse Stasi Headquarters

After visiting the museum in the central building you may have a look around to the exterior of other buildings in the citadel, today mostly unused, abandoned or partially occupied by private businesses – I guess the place still retains for many people a very negative aura.

Getting there and moving around

Today the citadel can be reached very conveniently by car or with the U5 (between the stops Magdalenen Strasse and Frankfurter Allee). The museum is fairly modern and well presented, but as of 2015 when I visited the ticket could be paid only cash and some explanations were in German only. Inside the museum there is no air conditioning, and it can be very hot and uncomfortable in summer. Parking is not a problem in front of the main entrance or nearby. Website here.

STASI Prison and Restricted Area, Berlin-Hohenschönhausen

The second largest quarters of the STASI are located in yet another outer district of former East Berlin. Old photographs of the area clearly show that this part of the town was interdicted to visitors not connected with the business of the STASI – there used to be fences and gates all around, cutting some of the roads entering the district. Besides some directorates and administrative buildings, this citadel hosted a prison and a labor camp. The former was the main STASI prison in East Berlin, and those who were arrested on account of suspect activities against the State were usually carried here, where they had to withstand interrogations.

Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison

This place is really grim and appalling. It looks like the staff of the prison had just left. Everything from what you see to the smell of the cells, offices and interrogation rooms is totally evocative of the original GDR atmosphere.

Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison

The STASI became the owner of the place in 1951, after the Soviets, who had managed the occupied territory directly after the German capitulation in 1945, left control of many administrative functions following the creation of the GDR. Under the Soviet rule, in the years of Stalin between 1945 and 1951, a labor camp was set up here and the main building of the prison – a former canteen for Nazi staff – opened for business. More than 20’000 people passed through this installation between 1945 and 1951, many of them on their way to deportation to the USSR.

Under the control of the STASI, the camp was dedicated to non-political prisoners, where the prison, enlarged in more instances as the STASI citadel was growing up, was for the ‘enemies of the State’. More than 20’000 people were imprisoned here between 1951 and 1990.

The place can be visited only on guided tours, offered on a regular basis also in English. Following the tour you can see various imprisonment cells. The worst – and really inhumane – from the times of the Soviets are in the basement of the main building, with no windows and no ventilation, where many people were crushed together waiting for interrogation or deportation.

Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison

The majority of the cells date from the era of the GDR, and are more modern. As the main business of the prison was that of extorting confessions, the prisoners were progressively brought in a state of psychological prostration. Preventing any form of communication was part of the treatment, so most cells for newly arrested people were for one person only. To isolate those arrested even more, when moving from the cell to the interrogation rooms and back the wardens observed special red and green lights, telling when there was somebody else in the corridors. This way the inmate would not see anybody except for the warden and the officer who interrogated him during all his or her stay in the prison.

Padded cells with straitjackets like in asylums were used in the process of extorting confessions, when the inmates were treated with drugs causing hallucinations and loss of physical control. These can be seen in the basement of one of the buildings.

Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison

Also visible are some cells with open top for spending half a hour per day in open air.

An interesting item presented in the exhibition is a minivan that was used for taking people quietly to the prison. The appearance and markings are those of a normal cargo van for transporting goods, whereas the interior is structured with micro-cells for arrested people.

Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison

Interrogation rooms are aligned on a corridor, and are extremely essential, featuring a shabby furniture. Greasy traces on the wallpaper and the smell of old fake leather heated by the sun is make the original atmosphere come alive.

Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison

A further wing is where a clinic for inmates was located. The clinic was of good level, with much technical instrumentation to manage several regular or emergency situations. The office of the director of this wing is another example of pure East German design. Most notably, the once omnipotent Erich Mielke appears to have been interned here following his arrest after 1989.

Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison

A one-of-a-kind exhibit is a railway truck for inmates. Besides the rather uncomfortable compartment design, with small chairs in a very little space, this transport was made really inhumane through the lack of air conditioning, the windows with bars and even a white glass, which deliberately created disorientation. These trains were artificially put on the lowest priority, so as to make traveling a painstaking experience for inmates.

Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison
Berlin Hohenschönhausen Stasi Remand Prison

The memorial is not central, so only those really interested in the history of the GDR, and of East Berlin and the STASI usually come here. Nonetheless, it is managed like a good level international museum, with guided tours, facilities for groups and a serious bookshop. Before taking the tour you are offered a movie telling the history of the prison in brief and showing the testimonies of former inmates. All in all a very interesting – and instructive – experience, surely worth a detour from the more touristic districts.

After visiting the prison, you may have a look around to the other buildings in this citadel. You can find a map in a cheap but interesting booklet they sell in the bookshop (‘The prohibited district’, by Erler and Knabe).

Getting there and moving around

The correct address of the prison building is Genslerstraße 66, Berlin. You can reach it easily by car. The neighborhood is primarily residential and not central, so parking won’t be a problem. If you have not a car, you can arrive conveniently with the tram line M5 from the most central districts. The correct stop is Werneuchener Strasse, and from there it’s about 0.4 miles to the gate of the prison. Website here.

STASI Prison Lindenstrasse, Potsdam

Behind an elegant façade like many others you can find in central Potsdam there is a prison comparable in size to the ‘main’ prison in Berlin Hohenschönhausen described above, and mostly unknown to the general public crowding this small and beautiful historical town.

This building was used as a prison by the Kaiser, the Nazis, the Soviets and finally the GDR. It was renovated and modified in many stages during its long history, and during WWII under the Nazi rule, some sections of the courthouse in central Berlin were transferred here, when the original buildings of the Nazi courthouse got damaged as a result of Allied air raids.

Potsdam Lindenstrasse Stasi Prison Courthouse
Potsdam Lindenstrasse Stasi Prison Courthouse
Potsdam Lindenstrasse Stasi Prison Courthouse
Potsdam Lindenstrasse Stasi Prison Courthouse
Potsdam Lindenstrasse Stasi Prison Courthouse
Potsdam Lindenstrasse Stasi Prison Courthouse

Differently from Hohenschönhausen, the prison in Potsdam is not part of a ‘citadel’, even though the KGB headquarters in the GDR were not far – actually they can be found close to Schloss Cecilienhof, Potsdam, now partly converted to luxury apartments and villas.

Another difference with respect to Hohenschönhausen is the style of the building, which dates back to older times. This is reflected in the plan and in many details of the construction, which at least from the exterior is very elegant.

Potsdam Lindenstrasse Stasi Prison Courthouse
Potsdam Lindenstrasse Stasi Prison Courthouse
Potsdam Lindenstrasse Stasi Prison Courthouse
Potsdam Lindenstrasse Stasi Prison Courthouse
Potsdam Lindenstrasse Stasi Prison Courthouse
Potsdam Lindenstrasse Stasi Prison Courthouse
Potsdam Lindenstrasse Stasi Prison Courthouse
Potsdam Lindenstrasse Stasi Prison Courthouse
Potsdam Lindenstrasse Stasi Prison Courthouse
Potsdam Lindenstrasse Stasi Prison Courthouse

Inside you can find Soviet cells in the basement – also here the most inhumane – and other cells packed along narrow corridors on several floors. In the inner courtyard there is a central block of open top cells for ‘recreation’, and traces of the original cameras and surveillance systems.

Potsdam Lindenstrasse Stasi Prison Courthouse
Potsdam Lindenstrasse Stasi Prison Courthouse
Potsdam Lindenstrasse Stasi Prison Courthouse
Potsdam Lindenstrasse Stasi Prison Courthouse
Potsdam Lindenstrasse Stasi Prison Courthouse
Potsdam Lindenstrasse Stasi Prison Courthouse

Something you may appreciate is the fact that you can visit the place on your own. Paneling with data or telling the stories of former inmates are totally in German, but you are given a leaflet with explanations and a map of the place at the entrance. Also a few original interrogation rooms have been preserved and can be seen.

Potsdam Lindenstrasse Stasi Prison Courthouse
Potsdam Lindenstrasse Stasi Prison Courthouse
Potsdam Lindenstrasse Stasi Prison Courthouse
Potsdam Lindenstrasse Stasi Prison Courthouse
Potsdam Lindenstrasse Stasi Prison Courthouse
Potsdam Lindenstrasse Stasi Prison Courthouse
Potsdam Lindenstrasse Stasi Prison Courthouse
Potsdam Lindenstrasse Stasi Prison Courthouse
Potsdam Lindenstrasse Stasi Prison Courthouse
Potsdam Lindenstrasse Stasi Prison Courthouse
Potsdam Lindenstrasse Stasi Prison Courthouse
Potsdam Lindenstrasse Stasi Prison Courthouse

The entry price is very reduced, so visiting is of course a must for the committed tourist, and interesting also for the general public. The place is ‘mimetic’ and not much advertised, so you won’t find the usual flocks of visitors, unlike the royal estates in Potsdam… Much recommended.

Getting there and moving around

The precise address is Lindenstrasse 54, Potsdam. It is in central Potsdam, so you may park at your convenience for visiting the district and have a stop there if you like. Similarly, if you are coming with the public transport system just go to the central district and walk to the place. Website here.

STASI Pre-Trial Prison, Rostock

Similarly to the prison in Potsdam, the anonymity of the façade of this building in central Rostock, placed to the back of a section of the courthouse still working today, is really deceiving. A prison capable of hosting more than 100 inmates can be reached today via a small door leading mainly to the offices of the faculty of the local university. Once inside the building you will notice a worrying fence on the side of the stairs going to the first floor, where you can get access to the prison.

Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison

Besides the many cells, it is possible to find a very interesting exhibition on the history of the GDR and of the STASI, with much data and stories from the time. Also many artifacts can be found, like spy gear, rags for preserving the odor of inmates for watchdogs to make capture easier, state bonds used to pay informers, and more.

Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison

The main function of the prison was that of keeping those arrested for interrogation until they were sentenced. More than 4000 people spent some time in this prison, mainly for ideological crimes, in the years of the GDR.

Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison

The place can be visited for free with an audio guide also in English. Some parts, including the open-top cells outside and the rigor cells in the basement can be visited only in a guided tour – as far as I understood, these are offered in German only.

Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison
Rostock Stasi Remand Prison

On the top floor you can see an interesting exhibition on people who escaped or tried to flee the GDR by sea.

Getting there and moving around

Centrally located in Rostock – a lively city on the coast of the Baltic Sea – at a walking distance from Rosengarten. If you are moving by car, you can park on Hermannstrasse, and reach the door to the back of the courthouse block (opposite a small market). The door is heavy, so press it hard, it may be open even if it looks closed. Website here.

STASI Maximum Security Prison ‘Bautzen II’, Bautzen

Originally designed as a pre-trial and short-term court jail by the local government, the prison of Bautzen II was erected under the Kaiser to the back of the courthouse in the homonym town in the southeastern corner of Saxony, today very close to the border with both Poland and the Czech Republic. A larger penitentiary, named Bautzen I and originally conceived as a juvenile jail, was built around the same time in town.

With the advent of the Nazi dictatorship, both facilities began to be exploited for the prosecution of political dissidents, or to isolate elements of ‘inferior races’. Violence, intimidation and extorted confessions began to be the rule. Both branches of the prison of Bautzen fell under Stalin’s control at the end of WWII, and this corresponded to an exceptional increase in the number of inmates, which included a substantial share of former Nazi staff and opponents of the Soviet regime.

After the creation of the GDR, the facilities in Bautzen went on working as primary centers for the confinement of political prisoners, together making for possibly the largest detention center in the country. The smaller jail of Bautzen II, with slightly more than 200 single cells, was turned into a maximum security prison intended for the most dangerous ‘subversive elements’ of the whole state. While Bautzen I is still an active state prison of todays Federal Germany, Bautzen II has been opened to the public as a memorial.

The dreary access from outside is through three gates, and this adds to the perception of the place as really ‘no hope’.

Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison

Similarly to the prison in Potsdam (see above), Bautzen II can be toured on a self-guided basis, without a group. Most parts of the prison are opened, and several cells can be accessed.

Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison

Some of the cells retain the original furniture, even shabbier than the usual communist standard. The metal staircase in the middle of the prison building allows to better appreciate the size.

Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison

Besides rigor cells with additional bars and an incredibly small walkable area, some groups of cells are separated from others, with armored doors splitting the corridors in contiguous isolated sections. This was possibly a special feature of this maximum security prison. You can experience an unreal silence when sitting in a cell closing both the doors of the corridor and of the cell.

Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison

There are also some ‘common areas’ for inmates to work and stay, and an external courtyard divided in sectors, to allow inmates to spend some time open air, but without the chance to meet or see each other.

Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison
Bautzen II Maximum Security GDR Prison

Getting there and moving around

The prison of Bautzen II is open as a national monument, a website with full information about visiting is here. I noticed that there are descriptions in German only throughout the prison, so you would better go prepared at least on the history of the place – starting for instance from the website – to get the most from your visit. The location is Waigangstrasse 8a, which is behind the courthouse of Bautzen, 0.8 miles to the east of the historical town center, conveniently reachable walking from the railway station and also by car. The area around the courthouse is mainly residential and parking can be found easily. Bautzen I is still today an active regular detention facility and cannot be visited.

A vital center of the Sorbs, an etnic group of Saxony and Brandenburg recognized by the German Federal Government, the town of Bautzen is nice to visit and rich of historical content. It is about 45 miles east of Dresden, and bolsters a picturesque, perfectly refurbished town center with medieval to baroque architectural elements.

STASI Headquarters, Dresden

The STASI headquarters and prison in Dresden have been developed starting 1945, originally as a prison for the Soviet NKVD (later KGB), on the premises of a former factory not far from the river Elbe and the historical district of the town – which would lay destroyed for decades following air raids in WWII. Similar to the prison in Lindenstrasse, Potsdam (see above), the underground floor of the former factory building was turned into a prison, with provision for a number of very basic cells typical to Stalin’s era, aligned on a narrow corridor.

Until the facility was handed over to the newly-formed GDR in 1952, the Soviets interned here mostly German citizens accused of cooperation with the defunct Nazi regime, as well as subversive elements, unfriendly with the Soviet controlling forces. As usual within a dictatorship, indictment was largely arbitrary and sentences extremely harsh – following arrest, most people were deported to forced labor camps of the Gulag system in the USSR, some were brought to Moscow to be hanged, and many were sent to provisional camps established in the ‘Soviet occupation zone’, later to become the territory of the GDR.

In this part of the exhibition it is possible to step in most of the cells, very small and essential.

Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR

A room is dedicated to the Gulag system, whereas another is a memorial for those taken to the Dresden prison and who reportedly did not survive the ordeal of the Soviet detention system, or where sentenced to death on the base of political reasons.

Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR

Also visible are some service rooms, like the bathrooms and rooms for the guards.

Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR

Along the corridor an emergency cable could be pressed by the guards at any time when in distress, triggering an alarm. From this part of the prison it was possible to access a inner courtyard.

Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR

Concurrently with the handing-over to the STASI, the facility was expanded, with offices and a modern multi-storey prison building.

Access for those arrested was via an inconspicuous wooden gate. An apparently innocent cargo van was employed for arrests. It can be checked out and it reveals provision for several segregated micro-cells inside. Once disembarked from the van, some prisoners may have had to wait for the prison check-in process inside mini-cells. Temperature in this area used to be – and still is – terribly hot in the summer.

Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR

Once inside, prisoners had to undress and undergo an accurate inspection in the check-in room. They were photographed for records in a special room, where they sat on a chair which was moved by the camera operator to obtain portraits at specific angles. Then prisoners were assigned dresses and slippers for their stay.

Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR

This prison acted as a remand (i.e. pre-trial) prison, with 44 cells on 4 levels.

Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR

Cells were for one, two or three people. Single cells were not customary from the 1970s on, except for rigor cells.

Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR

An example of the latter can be seen, with a small chair bolted to the ground and no windows. A special cell was that for writing letters, something that was possible only at prescribed intervals (e.g. once per week) and in this special room – obviously, all communications were checked and censored by the STASI. This cell features a small table, a chair, and a lavatory.

Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR

An uncommonly ‘comfortable’ cell was employed for foreign prisoners, who included those who had tried to help GDR citizens in their escape attempt, and who for some reason had got caught by the STASI. These cells had a window allowing a view of the sky – not possible through the special windows of regular cells – and a larger iron bed, instead of a narrow wooden berth.

Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR

Separated boxes in a walled courtyard outside were employed for letting the prisoners spend some minutes per day in the open air.

Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR

Walking the prison building you may notice that most of it is still original, including the purely-GDR linoleum floor, and the alarm system. The heavy curtains make the building dark and oppressing. The temperature in the summer is also very hot. The building is very silent, much resembling the original asylum-like feeling.

Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR

A routine operation in a remand prison was interrogation of the prisoners. Prisoners were insistently interrogated by STASI staff before formalizing an indictment. For the purpose, they were taken to the top floor of the building, along a few flights of stairs, up to the the interrogation rooms. Interestingly, the door giving access to this ‘bureaucratic’ part of the facility still bear seals (now reopened), put in the days of the revolution following the demolition of the wall in Berlin in 1989. The offices of the STASI, with material and archives, were sealed for criminal investigation.

Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR

Today, in this area a few original relics from the STASI operations can be found, like photographic film, nominal folders, stamps, keys, etc.

Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR

One interrogation room is still visible, whereas many others have been converted and are today employed for thematic workshops by the organization running the memorial.

Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR

As of 2023, the memorial is undergoing restoration, with the reopening of a larger part of the offices planned soon. Momentarily, it is possible to see the original grand auditorium of the STASI, a full-scale theater, with a typical GDR decor and even an original audiovisual apparatus. It is hard to imagine what kind of people could attend some symposium in an elegant room like this, just 50 ft away from prisoners confined in cells, non-criminals confined mostly only because suspected of having some arbitrarily-defined ‘subversive ideas’.

Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR

The quarters of the old NKVD prison are linked to the more modern prison building by a long underground corridor.

Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR
Memorial Bautzner Strasse, Dresden – KGB/STASI prison and headquarters, Dresden, GDR

Getting there and moving around

The former STASI headquarter in Dresden is run as a memorial by a very active society, supported by various preservation bodies and associations. A professional website with much information, including a leaflet with a description of your visit in English, can be found here. A visit may easily take 1.5-2 hours for an interested subject. Many parts of the facility are accurately preserved and make for a very evocative memento. Furthermore, permanent and temporary exhibitions add to the experience and documentary value.

Visiting is possible on a self-guided basis, with explanatory booklets in many languages including English lent for the duration of your visit.

The memorial is located northeast of the historical district of Dresden, right on the northern bank of the river Elbe. The exact address is Bautzner Straße 112a, 01099 Dresden. However, access by car to the inside parking is possible only at these coordinates, (51.06688926262786, 13.782718227181237). Since access is from a major road where a U-turn is impossible, and the entrance to the parking is somewhat ahead of the official address, it is worth employing these coordinates for your nav, otherwise you might be missing the entrance to the parking, being forced to a pretty long tour of ‘one ways’ and ‘no turns’ before you get back to your intended destination.

Memorial ‘In der Runden Ecke’ – STASI Headquarters, Leipzig

Similar to its cousin in Berlin-Lichtenberg, the former headquarters of the STASI in Leipzig has been opened as a memorial. In this case, the building was not made on purpose, but converted from a pre-existing one. A decorated, elegant palace in the city center was chosen for the local brain of the repressive apparatus. The building features an angled facade, since the name ‘on the round corner’ – ‘in der Runden Ecke’ in German.

The entrance hall to the former headquarters has retained much of its original appearance.

Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR

The main part of the exhibition is immediately reached through the original reception office, which has been left willingly untouched since the pre-1989 era – including now dead CC-cameras, and two elaborated majolica murals with emblems of the STASI and some decorations.

Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR

The exhibition takes the ground floor of a wing of the building, i.e. only a small part of the original site. The office of a clerk has been mothballed preserving at most its original, shabby appearance, with a portrait of Honecker.

Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR

In an adjacent room, many rigs for covert mail and communication interception and inspection activities are displayed. These range from steam-pumping envelope openers, to fake postal stamps from Federal Germany, or even from abroad (to send false communications), and even fancier machines for reproducing signatures, looking inside parcels, etc. – every design betraying a really paranoid attention to details, and a true waste of exceptional engineering abilities.

Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR

A complete cell and photo studio – for mugshots – from the now demolished STASI prison in Leipzig has been spared for this exhibition, not much dissimilar from others on this web page (see above).

Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR

More artifacts on display include audio and image gathering stuff, ranging from micro cameras and recorders, to exceptionally compact, high-precision zoom lenses. Archived rags with the smell of repression victims in case of escape – for dogs – are another specimen from the STASI crazy inventory.

Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR

A room is devoted to the STASI huge paper archive, and to the silly, titanic effort to destroy the evidence of years of illegal spying activity as quick as possible, following the re-opening of the border. The solidified slime obtained from paper fragments is on display. Some very evocative pictures show the immense Leipzig archive and its conspicuous remains after the destruction attempt.

Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR

Two more rooms tell about the immediate post-WWII history in Leipzig, with pictures from 1945 with Nazi officials who committed suicide, as well as from the first stage of Allied occupation and Soviet administration – before the GDR was founded.

Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR

An interesting collection of artifacts concerning the Soviet-GDR friendship and alliance is really evocative of a luckily bygone era.

Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR

Finally, the corridor is full of interesting pictures, telling about the disinformation role of the STASI, border patrolling, and many other businesses this overpowered criminal organization was in charge of.

Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR

The building is today also seat for an agency managing the old STASI archive for historical purposes. Furthermore, the first floor and the elegant stairs leading to the top can be toured, with some display cases showing attractive Soviet-era artifacts.

Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR

The first floor in particular must have been an official meeting/reception area, or a director’s office. Part of the original furniture is still there, including a mural with the head of Dzerzhinsky, the founder of the Soviet Ceka back in Lenin’s time, and an inspirational figure for all fanatics of ‘state security’ in the communist world – an activity which was a synonym for violent prosecution of free will.

Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR
Memorial ‘in der Runden Ecke’ – Former STASI Headquarters, Leipzig, GDR

Getting there and moving around

The memorial is on the border of the pedestrian area in Leipzig city center. It is modestly publicized, but thanks to its accessibility, it might be easily included in a standard visit to historical Leipzig, and it is significantly populated by tourists. Entrance is free of charge, and its professional website is here. Despite the small size, for an interested subject visiting might take 2 hours or more. Free pictures are allowed, and an audio guide in English allows to get much from the visit even for people not speaking German.

STASI Bunker, Machern

The bunker in Machern is an underground facility built for the STASI in 1968-72 as an emergency headquarter, for keeping the chain of command and coordinate operations in case of a potential crisis. It represents a specimen of the level of commitment of the GDR government with respect to the preservation of control, and a witness of the huge budget made available to this particular ministry, inextricably linked to the government itself and pivotal in the survival of the oppressive GDR communist regime over its entire life span.

The crisis in Prague in 1968 possibly triggered the build up of a similar underground network by the STASI, which customarily operated in secrecy. The very existence of the bunker, located some 30 minutes driving from central Leipzig, was unknown to most. The inconspicuous visible part of the facility was deceived in one of the lots in a district of free-time homes for employees of a public company. It was discovered only following the 1989 revolution and the abolition of the STASI.

Compared to underground military installations, either of the NVA or the Red Army, the bunker is rather compact. However, it had provisions for about 100 staff in case of crisis, with a moderate ability to resist military-level attacks, including facing a nuclear war scenario.

The visit starts by accessing the grounds, where an unassuming little country villa of the GDR can be found, which acts as a check-in point, and as a ticket office.

STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR

Soon you may notice the presence of unusual gear on the premises. These include houses and training gear for dogs, cables for allowing leashed watchdogs along a pre-assigned watch pattern, a concrete sentry box, fire extinguishing gear, piles of fuel barrels, a deck for repairing vehicles, and a rather big grey hangar.

STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR

The latter hides the blast-proof double entrance to the underground bunker. Before stepping in however, it is possible to check out an impressive amount of spare parts aligned on shelves, with literally tons of interesting military-grade material – most of them clearly marked as Soviet manufacture. Many mystery boxes with writing in Russian can be seen. Rolls of barbed wire, metal nets, camo blankets, and other material for sealing and deception can be seen together with more technical material, including technical instrumentation.

STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR

A small collection of memorabilia from the STASI years is shown on site, as well as a permanent exhibition with technical schemes and organization details.

STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR

Access to the underground bunker is via a horizontal armored door and through a long flight of stairs. An airlock with two tight doors was installed for making the place blast-proof and seal it in case of nuclear attack.

STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR

Dosimeters and showers for decontamination can be found close to the entrances – there are two of them, both inside the same hangar.

STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR

The bunker was mainly intended as an intelligence center for crisis management. The flow information was guaranteed by a number of communication systems and facilities. Manned stations can still be seen in a number.

STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR

Beside communication facilities, the bunker features sleeping quarters for the STASI staff, a kitchen/canteen area, and a few offices and private quarters for the decision-makers – senior STASI officers. These offices offer a reasonable level of comfort, typical to the the bunkers from the era (see for instance Kossa and the Polish headquarters near Wolin, but a similar level of comfort could be encountered also on the western side of the Iron Curtain, like here in Britain).

STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR

The bunker is built mainly around a square corridor, with an array of long and narrow rooms, each dedicated to a specific function.

STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR
STASI Bunker Machern – Nuclear-proof intelligence headquarters near Leipzig, GDR

Soviet material can be found everywhere, including air filters and heaters.

Different from the previous sites bound to the grim and disturbing history of the STASI and of the communist-led repression in the GDR, this bunker offers an interesting perspective into the para-military domestic activity of this former backbone of the single-party government of that country.

Getting there and moving around

The STASI bunker-museum in Machern is a branch of the STASI memorial in Leipzig (see above).  An updated web page on this bunker can be found in the German version of the website of the Leipzig memorial (here), with updated information on the planned dates for a visit. The bunker is regularly open only on a few dates over the year, which are published in advance.

The visit allows to access the grounds, where explanatory panels are available in German, as well as the storage hangar and bunker. In the hangar, visitors are offered a short introductory video (in German). Afterwards, it is possible to visit the hangar and the bunker on a self-guided basis. Reservation is not required, but access is regulated on site by gathering visitors to form small groups, who are admitted to the bunker one by one to avoid overcrowding. Time in the bunker is more than enough to check-out the items on display, taking all the pictures. In all, a visit to this installation may take about 1 hour once on site.

Please note that they accept only cash for the ticket.

The location is in the countryside, about 10 miles northeast of Leipzig along the road B6. It is easy to reach only with a car or similar. There is a large parking there (51.376119908957726, 12.633996194227596), also serving the nature recreation area around. The entrance to the bunker can be reached from the parking with a .5 miles walk along a local road here (51.37857212168658, 12.644452664748663). No parking is possible on that road. Please note that the position corresponding to the bunker marked on Google Maps is largely inaccurate.

The bunker is located very close to the former Soviet base of Brandis/Waldpolenz (see here).

KGB Prison and Headquarters, Potsdam

This memorial is strictly speaking an outlier in this chapter, since it was never a STASI facility. Since their arrival in late April 1945, the Soviets installed a major intelligence and counter-intelligence center in Potsdam. An entire district was severed from the rest of this fashionable imperial town – which had fallen in the hands of the Soviets and later in the GDR. Its perimeter was fenced, the area provided with a guarded gate, and interdicted to everybody except authorized Soviet staff.

In it there were residential buildings, as well as central offices of the secret intelligence and security services of the Soviet Union in the heart of the GDR, and immediately on the border with West Berlin.

Today this exclusive residential area has been returned to its original function, except for a memorial, which has been prepared in the former prison originally built by the Soviets in a pre-existing, relatively little and unassuming building.

The Soviet secret services employed the prison from 1945 to the early 1950s as a remand prison for former Nazi collaborators, but also for German citizens considered dangerous or unreliable for the Soviet system. They were typically sentenced to years of forced labors and deported to the Gulag systems. When the STASI was created and took over the surveillance of GDR citizens, this prison was employed primarily for Soviet citizens considered as dissidents, including military staff. It is estimated that the Soviet population in the GDR totalled half million people in the late 1980s, therefore surveillance was not an easy task for the Soviets, requiring a dedicate apparatus with its own facilities.

The citadel and the prison in it went on operating until 1994, among the latest facilities to be relinquished by the then-Russian government.

The largely arbitrary indictment and sentencing of German citizens interned in this prison by the inhumane bureaucratic Soviet government of the years of Stalin indeed made many victims. Therefore, this place is primarily a memorial.

The shabbiness of the entire construction, typical to Soviet KGB prisons (see for instance here) is really striking. The visits starts on the first floor, where a number of cells can be seen. A rigor cell can be recognized by the lack of any light or ventilation. The ground was typically flooded with cold water, and the walls are covered in rough plaster, so that the prisoner could not sit on the ground nor lean against the wall.

KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße

On the top floor, former interrogation rooms today host a very interesting exhibition, with rich and detailed information in multiple languages including Russian and English. They cover the activity of Soviet secret services in the ‘Soviet occupation zone’, and later in the GDR and the Soviet enclaves in it. The brutal treatment reserved to many Germans, typically in the immediate post-WWII years under Stalin’s rule, is witnessed through striking documents, accounts and photographs. Among those sentenced to death were even schoolboys who did not want to learn Russian.

KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße

A focus is put on the structure of the law system of the communist dictatorship in the USSR, as well as on the mechanism of interrogations – including accounts of Soviet defectors.

KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße

Original memorabilia from the place include coats, special armbands for the staff authorized to enter the citadel, as well as original documents from the various ages of operation of the place.

KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße

In the basement are group cells intended for many people on their way to deportation. Graffiti from inmates can still be seen in the plaster.

KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße

A rigor cell which did not allow standing is also part of the exhibition.

A memorial to the victims of Soviet hardship has been installed on a side wall, whereas a modern visitor center completes the exhibition.

KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße

A thematic walk in the former Soviet citadel highlights through explanatory panels the original function of some of these buildings. Now returned to their original imperial splendor, they carry unsuspected grim memories of the communist era. Among the most notable features is the relic of a former small monument. Looking carefully, some of the houses still bear numbers on the facade according to the Soviet-style numbering of town blocks.

KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße
KGB Prison and Headquarter, Potsdam – Memorial Leistikowstraße

Getting there and moving around

The memorial is called Gedenk‑ und Begegnungsstätte Leistikowstraße Potsdam, and its professionally-run website is here. The address is Leistikowstraße 1 – 14469 Potsdam. Many parking opportunities on site. Reaching is easy also with public transport from Berlin. The prison is very close to the Cecilienhof palace.

The visit is on a self-guided basis, with much information available through the website, including options for smartphone-guided tour to the prison and to the former citadel. The permanent exhibition (in many languages) is rich and interesting, a detailed visit to the prison and exhibition may take up to 1 hour 15 minutes. A walk in the former Soviet citadel, today very enjoyable, may add 30-40 minutes for the more committed visitor.

Jüterbog/Niedergörsdorf – Abandoned Flight Academy in the GDR

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The area around the small town of Jüterbog – located 60 miles south of Berlin – has a long military tradition, with storages, barracks and training installations in place since the years of the Kaiser and Bismarck, about mid-19th century.

The region was selected for building one of the first flight academies in Germany before WWI, and flight activities with airships and other exotic flying material from the early age of aviation took place in those years.

Much was forcibly dismantled following the defeat of Germany in 1918, but the place regained primary attention with the advent of Hitler and the Nazi party to power. Among the various military installations built in the area, a modern flight academy was erected anew – baptized ‘Fliegertechnische Schule Niedergörsdorf’.

Initial technical training for both ground and flying staff of the Luftwaffe was imparted here until the break out of WWII and the conquest of Poland, when the academy moved to Warsaw.

The extensive group of buildings in Jüterbog retained a primary role in the advanced training of flight officers and engineers, aircraft and engine technicians. Technical personnel were trained to operate innovative weapon systems, in collaboration with research centers of the Luftwaffe.

With the end of the war the region fell under Soviet rule, and the military facilities – including the academy, which survived the war largely intact – were reassigned to various functions.

Info is available in less detail about this part of the story, as typical with military bases in the territories occupied by the Soviets… Part of the buildings of the academy were used again for training staff of tank divisions, but also a KGB station was reportedly activated there. As with most Soviet installations, it was given back to reunified Germany by 1994.

The place is since then abandoned, but differently from other sites formerly managed by the Soviets, it has been inscribed in the registry of landmark buildings, being an interesting specimen of Nazi military architecture.

Following WWII, the nearby airbase of Jüterbog – about a mile south of the academy complex – was operated both by East German (GDR) and Soviet air combat groups, until the Russians left in 1992. Soon after, the airport was permanently closed and partly dismantled. Unlike other Soviet bases in the GDR, flying units there never upgraded to MiG-29, so the aircraft shelters you can see there are of the oldest types.

I would suggest visiting the site for two reasons, a) the uniqueness of the architectural composition, with much of what you see dating back from the Nazi era – you can clearly notice the typical Nazi ‘sheer grandeur’, differing from the often poor and shabby Soviet military architecture… b) the very famous mural of the Soviet Soldier, which apart from the result of a little attack by an ignorant writer, is still in an almost perfect shape.

The following photographs were taken in late August 2016.

Sights

Niedergörsdorf Flight Academy

It should be pointed out that this place is actually off-limits, and there are clear prohibition signs at least on the front gate. Furthermore, it is not an isolated installation, but surrounded by other buildings, close to a small but active railway station and not far from a supermarket. Accessing the site via the blocked main gate is clearly not possible.

Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy

Finding an easy way in is not difficult, but standing to the signs on the gate, the place is also actively guarded, so you should be quick and concentrated when moving around. In order to shorten your time in, I suggest turning your attention to the northernmost part of the site.

Walking along the northern perimeter inside the base some Cold War, not very artistically significant murals can be spotted on the external wall made of the usual Soviet concrete slabs.

Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy

From there you can easily reach the semicircular building of the grand hall, probably the most notable of the base, and the one where the famous mural of the Soviet Soldier is.

When moving around the corner from the back to the front façade of the building, you find yourself on the road leading to the blocked main gate. You may be spotted from outside the base, so be careful.

Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy

Once in the area in front of the semicircular building, you can see to the south a nice perspective of the other buildings of the academy, surrounding a large inner court.

Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy

The inside of the main semicircular building – which should not be accessed – is in a state of disrepair.

Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy

There are two main floors and a less interesting third attic floor.

Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy

The beautiful mural of the Soviet Soldier can be easily found close to the stairs.

Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy

Here are some other details of this nice and sober example of Soviet monumental art.

Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy

Many other parts of the lower floors are covered in painted decorations, but these were probably of lower quality with respect to the Soviet Soldier – which appears to be a real fresco – and are today falling from the walls.

Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy

Another highlight of the visit to this building is the grand theatre. You should consider going with a tripod and/or a powerful torchlight for getting better photos than these, for the room is totally dark. Very creepy, btw…!

Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy

On the former part of the sports arena to the west of the building complex it is possible to spot a new little gym. Possibly to your surprise you will find the place is still run by a sporting club – this is nice, also for getting a better idea of how the place looked like when it was an active training center. On the cons side, walking around undercover is not easy, and maybe you are violating a private property ‘no trespassing’ instruction – even though I didn’t notice any.

Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy

An interesting part of the sports arena is the abandoned pool, which I guess was already part of the Nazi construction plan too – check photographs of postcards of the time on the Internet.

To get an impression of the complex from above, you may have a look to aerial pictures taken during a dedicated flight, reported here.

Jüterbog Airbase

A quick visit to the airbase south of the academy can reveal some interesting sights, including aircraft shelters from the early Cold War era which have been converted to hay storages or garages for agricultural vehicles. Many former taxiways can be freely accessed by car, some of them have been turned into ‘official’ roads. Also the apron in front of the large maintainance hangars can be accessed with a car with no restriction.

Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy

A small aeroclub operates with trikes from a new narrow grass runway in the northwestern part of the field, so access to this part of the field is restricted. Interestingly, much of the external fence with barbed wire is still in place around this area.

Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy

Other activities on site include go-karting. To the east of the base, part of the shelters are occupied by a private collection – Shelter Albrecht – centered on WWII and Cold War relics (covered in this chapter).

Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy
Juterbog Niedergorsdorf Altes Lager Academy

For a comprehensive set of aerial pictures of the base, taken during a flight over the area, have a look to this post.

Compared to other Soviet bases in East Germany, Jüterbog doesn’t offer much to the curious urban explorer today. Yet due to the vicinity of the flight academy it’s surely worth a visit. Furthermore, the countryside around is nice – apart from the unpleasant sight of a real forest of wind turbines! – so you may choose to have a walk around just for pleasure.

The area of Jüterbog is actually full of other interesting sites related to military history, documented in this post.

Getting there and moving around

Reaching the former flight academy is an easy task. The main gate is on Kastanienallee, Niedergörsdorf, and it can be accessed with a 0.1 miles walk from the Altes Lager railway station, again in Niedergorsdorf, Brandenburg. There is a convenient small parking besides the railway station. In case you want to explore the site, I would suggest considering this as a trailhead.

The area of Niedergörsdorf and Jüterbog can be reached in about 1 h 15 min from downtown Berlin by car. This is my preferred way for moving around – I hate having tight schedules when exploring! – but reaching the ‘operational zone’ by train from Berlin would take probably a bit less.

For visiting the base at Jüterbog you will need a car. Driving on the former taxiways is part of the fun when touring the base!

There are aircraft shelters both on the northern and southern sides of the runway, which is oriented in an east-western direction. The most convenient to come close to are those on the northern side, but be careful not to interfere with the many private businesses around. Barb wire fence can be found on the northwestern corner of the base.

I would suggest having a quick look at the Google map of the area for deciding how to move around. I wouldn’t rate these two ‘attractions’ difficult to visit in terms of physical barriers or when it comes to keeping the right course.

Vogelsang – Soviet Nuclear Base in the GDR

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‘The lost city of Vogelsang’ – this is the complete name often attributed to this former Soviet installation built under Stalin’s rule in 1952, located about 35 miles north of Berlin in the former territory of the communist German Democratic Republic (GDR, or DDR in German). Actually, the base was among the first three of the kind in size, housing about 15.000 Soviet troops of tank and artillery divisions, service staff and their families – much more residents than the majority of ‘normal’ cities in the region.

In the case of Vogelsang, two facts add to the usual grim aura of a deserted Soviet base.

Firstly, it was never much publicized among the locals, being large enough to contain all services needed by the troops and their families – it was basically a ‘secret base’. The trees now invading all free areas between the skeletons of the remaining buildings were not there until the early Nineties, when Russian troops left the former territory of the GDR – during 1994. Yet even when it was active, the place was hidden from the eyes of those passing by, thanks to the very rich vegetation. Its very location, pretty far away from everything, surely helped in shrouding it into secrecy.

Secondarily, at least in one instance in recent history, in the years of Khrushchev, of the latest Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations, this place was used for the deployment of an arsenal of strategic missiles pointing to European targets, reportedly in core Europe and Britain. Much confusion exists about dates and many details are missing – the deployment was so secret that even the government of the GDR didn’t know about it, so the existence of the base and its role are a somewhat ‘inconvenient reminder’ of the recent past for Germany. Today this base is still really hard to spot.

Anyway, I visited the site several times between 2016 and 2020, and I took the following photographs. While from the sequence of my visits it is apparent that the installation is quickly decaying, thanks to the combined action of the government and of ignorant writers, both showing a bothering null respect for history, there is still something left to see. I give also some basic info for getting to this site on your own.

Getting there and moving around

The village of Vogelsang can be reached by car from downtown Berlin in about 1 h 30 min – the road distance is about 40 miles, but a substantial part of the itinerary follows local roads, resulting in a pretty long time needed. Be careful when pointing your nav, for there are several towns named ‘Vogelsang’ in Germany. This one is in Brandenburg, located north of Berlin, along the road 109. The closest major town is Zehdenick, a few miles to the south of Vogelsang on the same road 109.

As usual with military bases, there is a railway track reaching Vogelsang, and getting there by train is of course possible. During my stay I heard the whistle of various trains passing there – even though I noticed only a very small station and nobody around, so possibly there’s no ticketing service. I noticed the scheduled time for arriving by train from Berlin is identical to that needed moving with a car. If you don’t want to be forced to stick to timetables, I suggest going by car.

Once there, I parked my car on the grass close to the only crossroad in town – where the 109 is crossed by Burgwaller Strasse. I parked behind the info table – there is obviously no info on the base, just about ‘regular’ nature trails in the area. Nobody complained about me parking there, and I found my car intact about six hours later…

Burgwaller Strasse crosses the railway and heads straight into the ‘zone’. Please note that soon after crossing the railway a) the road is not paved any more, b) there are prohibition signs about vehicle traffic, so you can’t go further with a car.

For moving around you will need an electronic map and possibly a GPS, cause the site is huge, and the area is covered with trees and vegetation, and many former roads are not visible any more, so getting lost is pretty easy. Moreover, from Google maps you can’t spot much from above, because of the trees. This makes a GPS + map of the site very important for the particular case of this site, differently from other bases.

I used my iPhone and it worked perfectly. Just install the free Ulmon (aka CityMaps2Go) app (app website here) and download the offline Brandenburg map – this provides an incredible detail. Furthermore, there is a strong Internet signal over most of the base – strangely enough, the area is well covered.

Anyway, if you don’t want to depend on the Internet once there, you can pinpoint the places you are more interested in on the offline Ulmon map before going – I did also this as a backup, cause I didn’t know whether Internet would be working.

I suggest not to overlook this point. Thinking back, I would have hardly made it without a cell phone with a GPS + map. You have to walk in the trees quite a bit before reaching any buildings. The trees hide everything and you can easily get disoriented – wasting much time moving around. Everything is solved with a GPS and a good map.

Over five visits, I spent almost 20 hours touring the place. During my first visit (lasting about 6 hours), I just concentrated on the southernmost part of it, which is of course the richest in remains, electing not to reach the launch pads closer to the village of Beutel (see this chapter). On that first visit, I walked approximately 11 miles standing to my iPhone, so be ready to walk. Even though there are no great physical barriers for moving around, the place is really abandoned and vegetation is wild. Probably you will need to walk in nettles and brambles at some point, so choose your clothes and shoes carefully.

On the plus side, you will see much wildlife!

Many interesting sights are outdoor, some are indoor. As usual, all abandoned buildings, except perhaps the nuclear storage bunkers that are very sturdy, must be considered dangerous. You should observe through the windows or enter at your own risk.

Sights

Missile Launch Pad

This is the southernmost, isolated launch pad on the site. You can see a concrete platform at the level of the ground about 20 feet long, with metal holding points. It was used to anchor missile-carrying trucks before tilting the missile canister vertical and preparing for launch. It is highly probable that the missile system intended to be installed here was the R5 ‘Pobeda’, NATO codename SS-3 ‘Shyster’. The relatively small range of this missile is in support of a deployment in a region so close to the border with european NATO Countries (see this chapter also for a general map of the missile installations in this area).

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany

The road leading to the missile pad and from there to the main complex of the base today is barely visible. Traces of a barbed wire fence, delimiting the external perimeter of the base, can be found here, together with a network of trenches and dips once needed for the missile launch system (which included technical trailers with generators, control system panels, …).

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany

The territory of the base is scattered with tokens from their former owners, from mugs to batteries, to military material of all sorts.

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany

Southeastern Inner Access Post

Walking along the barbed wire fence from the missile launch pads to the core of the base, you will come across a long concrete wall. Soviet bases are often divided into sealed sectors. Access to the ‘service part’ of the base, with living quarters, schools, … was past this wall. The gate has disappeared, but you can find traces of it where the wall is interrupted and a concrete-paved road points into it. A cage for watchdogs can be found close to this checkpoint.

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base

In a first building for the guards, with window railings, look for Russian writings even on the ground.

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base

Buildings by the entrance post include a garage with writings in Cyrillic, with an apron for maneuvering trucks or cars. On the cranes inside the garage, you can find inscriptions by the Soviet troops occupying the base. Leaving this type of ‘autograph’ was typical for Soviet troops (see for instance the traces left in the theater of bases in Poland, here).

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base

Nearby the entrance, a clubhouse, visitor center, or something alike can be found, with a pleasant architecture – large windows and a bar.

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base

Entertainment Quarters

Two main buildings here, a movie theater and a clubhouse.

The theater is still in good shape. Some of the original lights and traces of the performance program board can be seen outside.

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base GermanyVogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany

The road leading to the front entrance is still visible, but the façade is not imposing any more, for trees are now hiding it.

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany

Signs and propaganda posters in Cyrillic alphabet and with photos can be spotted here and all around the base.

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany

The café, with an original banner in Cyrillic, can be spotted to the left of the theater, close by a small warehouse with a loading platform.

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base

Some kitchen furniture and gear can be still spotted around.

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany

Between the theater and café buildings, you can find an incredible Soviet sculpture. The most striking feature you can see in the pics is a portrait of Lenin!

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany

The Lenin panel was moved in 2017 to a Soviet-themed museum in Wünsdorf (see this dedicated chapter about this incredible place and its museum). The rest of the mural was there as of 2019, still reasonably resisting to the weather and spoilers.

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base

Mural monuments are among the most interesting features of Vogelsang. Not far from this base, you can find another example of these Soviet creations described in this chapter.

Children School

This is rather creepy – even the curtains are still in place on some windows…! On the ground floor you can access a small gym.

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base

Much of the heating system – made in Germany – is still in place.

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base

On the first floor some very interesting murals can be easily spotted, together with traces of a small theater and special classrooms for language teaching and other purposes.

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany

Soldiers Sports Ground

This has been turned into a corn field. Something of the original tribunes still stay, with original decoration made from parts of machinery I guess.

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany

Water/Heating Plant

A small water pumping/heating plant occupies a building nearby the gym (see next section). Traces of the original hardware can be found, with writing in Russian.

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany

Also a small living room, likely belonging to a technician looking after plant, is part of this small construction. Traces of the original curtains are still there! Unofficial writing in Cyrillic can be found on the concrete wall making for a small backyard to the plant.

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany

Soldiers Gym

Very creepy! Gym apparel, subscription forms, record boards and gym gear still around…

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany

To the back you can spot a former Turkish bath with no roof and trees in it.

Soldiers Barracks

There are pretty many buildings of the same kind aligned along a still visible concrete paved road between the school and the training center. Many of these buildings look like being close to collapsing. Some interesting halls and various items can be found in some of them.

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany

Soldiers Canteens & Training Center

There are various canteens and entertainment centers scattered over the territory of the base.

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany

Some nice murals in pure Russian naïve style can be found in some of the buildings. Some of the halls are very very large.

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany

Among the most notable features in Vogelsang, a peculiar tank simulator and a small but very deep pool, for training purposes, can still be found in a dedicated training building.

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany

Unfortunately the door appears to be blocked by a collapsed roof or something, but you can reach or at least see the features of interest through broken windows.

Base Headquarter

The headquarter of the soviet base in Vogelsang sit in a two-levels building with an imposing facade. Today you can see the remnants of a porter’s office, giving access to the main staircase.

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany

Climbing to the upper floor, you reach a hall with a wooden canopy. Two corridors leading to the offices of the military staff depart from there.

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany

From a 2020 visit, this building has taken a particularly rotting appearance, and maybe it is not going to last for long.

Mural of Soviet Triumphs & Soviet Soldier, plus Buildings Nearby

This is an incredible mural, about 60 feet long, with various symbolic scenes – army power, technology and agriculture, family and helpful society and housing for everybody.

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany

A collection of Soviet emblems follows. This mural contributes greatly to the uniqueness of Vogelsang in the panorama of Soviet bases!

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany

Turning your head 90 degrees to the right from this mural, you will see an artistically pleasant giant head of soldier, embossed on the side of a building. Differently from the mural nearby, this is of some artistic value. The head was still there during my next visits, even though writers have attacked the base of the wall where it is standing, and the plaster is starting to fail. Who knows how long this old guardian will stand, recalling the past splendor of Soviet Vogelsang with his sad expression?

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany

Close by, it is possible to find scant remains of other propaganda gears, like a three-steps stand for speaking, a bigger one in the shape of a Red Banner flag made in concrete and bricks, and an adjoining painted mural with planes, ships and soldiers. Unique!

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base

In this area you can find also some service buildings in a relatively good shape. Among other things, there is a (likely) central laundry, with (possibly) ironing machines still in place.

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base

Still in the area, some buildings appear to host small apartments. As usual in Soviet bases, Pravda and other news adorn the walls – they were used to hang wallpaper, but this has largely gone today, and old news have faced again. Just reading the publication dates and titles, or looking at the pics, can be really intriguing.

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base

Some of the buildings hosted nearby the mural hosted technical services, like boilers for centralized hot water supply, or similar. You may spend some time exploring this area, finding some curious rooms – and even a well preserved sauna!

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base

Underground Cellar with Mural

An interesting sight for braver – maybe crazier – explorers can be found in the underground cellar, in the basement of a canteen building, among the service buildings just described.

There a big plaster (?) mural can be found, painted in bright colors, with missiles, soldiers, the Kremlin in Moscow and a huge red banner with hammer and sickle! The state of conservation is exceptionally good.

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany

Also very interesting are the inscriptions left by troops stationed at Vogelsang, apparently coming from districts like Kishinev (now Chisinau, Moldova), Chelyabinsk (Russia), Krim (Crimea), Yakkabag (Uzbekistan), Donbass (Ukraine) – all around the USSR! The years reported range between 1989 and 1990. The mural might date from just little earlier, hence it may be relatively new, justifying its still good condition.

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany

It is not a long walk from the surface, you just need to descend a short flight of stairs. The only thing is that the cellar is flooded, so you will need to explore it moving around in a kind of pool of clean but cold water, reaching up to your crotch! A good torchlight is mandatory. Other adjoining rooms display further inscriptions in Cyrillic.

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany

Mirage Mural & Most Peripheral Buildings

A painted portrait of a Mirage 2000 was made on the back of a fence wall not far north from the mural of the Soviet triumphs, close to a watchtower. A data sheet in cyrillic alphabet is painted besides, and another aircraft is visible on another part of the wall.

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany

Pretty curious about the choice of the Mirage, among all ‘enemy aircraft’ of Western powers. May be this was just the beginning of a gallery of portraits? As of 2019, I could not find this any more, maybe it is now gone.

As a matter of fact, this corner of the base is now close to an area to the north end of the base, where demolition works have stricken hard, flattening huge lots once occupied by many more buildings.

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base

On the border of the surviving group of buildings, you can find some interesting items, including a garage, and another 3D monument, on the side of a secluded flat area now invaded by vegetation, which might have been a square or a small outdoor sporting facility.

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base

Northeastern Gate Area and Defense Bunker

On the northeastern corner of this major remaining part of the base, just north of the school and theater you can find traces of a kind of park, with a network of walkways sided with hedges. Today, the plants used for hedging are overgrown, but you can still clearly recognize the original patterns. Furthermore, there are street lamps still standing an showing the way!

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany

On the northern end of this once pleasant area, you can find a half-interred bunker. The entrances are bricked up, so you can’t get in. Considering the position, close to service buildings for everyone in the base, like canteens, gym, school, etc., this bunker might have been a defense bunker for the people of the base, in case of an attack.

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany

A lonely gate and fragments of the wall surrounding this sector of the base can be found not far from here, a rather evoking sight.

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany

Bunkers for Nuclear Warheads

These are located to the south-west of the base, pretty far from the living quarters and training centers, and closer to the limit fence of the and to the road and railway. A long concrete-paved road connects these two sections of the base.

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base

Two bunkers can still be seen. They are very large and covered with land and vegetation. They have security gates at both ends. On one end, there are cranes probably for moving the nuclear warheads between trucks and the bunker. On the other end there is a small service building, attached to the side of the bunker.

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany
Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Soviet Base Germany