Expedition Site 9, Expedition 11, June 20th-21st 2009,Germany

A massive site which required lots of planning in advance... yet we did it!!!!

 

Beelitz-Heilstätten, a district of the town, is home to a large hospital complex of about 60 buildings including a cogeneration plant erected from 1898 on according to plans of architect Heino Schmieden. Originally designed as a sanatorium by the Berlin workers' health insurance corporation, the complex from the beginning of World War I on was a military hospital of the Imperial German Army. During October and November 1916, Adolf Hitler recuperated at Beelitz-Heilstätten after being wounded in the leg at the Battle of the Somme. In 1945, Beelitz-Heilstätten was occupied by Soviet forces, and the complex remained a Soviet military hospital until 1995, well after the German reunification. In December 1990 Erich Honecker was admitted to Beelitz-Heilstätten after being forced to resign as the head of the East German government.

Following the Soviet withdrawal, attempts were made to privatize the complex, but they were not entirely successful. Some sections of the hospital remain in operation as a neurological rehabilitation center and as a center for research and care for victims of Parkinsons disease. The remainder of the complex, including the surgery, the psychiatric ward, and a rifle range, was abandoned in 2000. As of 2007, none of the abandoned hospital buildings or the surrounding area were secured, giving the area the feel of a ghost town. This has made Beelitz-Heilstätten a destination for curious visitors and a film set for movies like The Pianist from 2002 and Valkyrie with Tom Cruise in 2008.

Source: http://www.brunas.nl/

 

Long in advance we had a plan to go to Beelitz... Seeing that it is near Berlin, we needed a good planning in advance. Together with Harm (a friend that got me hooked on urbexing) we searched for a good priced hotel nearby. When we found one, we started rounding up some guys to tag along. 7 people me included went to Beelitz on a (very early) saturday morning.
I left at around 5.15 in the morning to pick up Jasper and Harm to go to our meeting point in Deventer to pick up the rest of the crew. Around 6 am we left for Berlin or rather close by. After 5 and a half hours later we arrived in Beelitz.

We didn't knew what to expect on site and big was our surprise that the site was that massive. You hear stories about it, but you figure that some would be exaggerated a bit for the sake of it. Well... we found out there that it wasn't exaggerated at all. The site is huge. It actually is a public park of sorts with the old buildings just sitting there and decaying. Lots of people come there to walk around and explore the buildings a bit. With or without camera. At one point I even had to wait about half an hour to take a shot as there were people walking in and out of the picture. 

We visited the most open part of Beelitz on saturday afternoon (we arrived on site around 11.30 am so we had plenty of time) and systematically (as far as you can get a system in an urbex shot) walked the grounds and buildings. As this side of Beelitz was pretty publicly,  there were stuff to be photographed, but the majority of the time we actually just walked around to find a good shot.

The next day however we went to the other side of Beelitz (the site is sort of divided in 2 by a railroad going trough it) where it is more closed up and less known. There we found some beautifull sites. We had to search really hard at times to find entrances of the building, but once we gotten in, it was a sight for sore eyes...

Sunday afternoon around 2 pm we left Beelitz, confident we had enough shots for a great series. In retrospect, we saw on other series that we didn't quite got everything covered. I think at one point in the future we will go back there to find those other shots, but for now, this will have to do...