Tour Report: Soviet Army Memorial D.

After the end of the Second World War, the eastern part of Germany was occupied by Soviet troops. The GDR emerged from this area in 1949. The Soviet troops occupied around 10% of the territory of the GDR. As part of the hero worship that resulted from the victory of the Red Army in the "Great Patriotic War", monuments and memorials were erected in many Soviet locations in the GDR - mostly by the soldiers of the garrisons themselves.

After the withdrawal of Soviet troops following the fall of the Berlin Wall, many of these monuments were forgotten, some were demolished and many were damaged by vandalism.

If the opportunity arises on our excursions, we try to visit and document these relics not only of the Soviet occupation, but also monuments to the liberation of Germany from the Nazis and - from our point of view - memorials against the war.

During our November 2019 vacation, one of these memorials crossed our path on the way from a location back to the hotel, and of course we couldn't pass up the opportunity to stop and take a few photos.

We were really lucky. On the one hand, because the two parts of the memorial were not yet completely covered in graffiti - which is now (2024) the case - and on the other hand, because the weather was really fantastic for photos, as the sun was about to set and the clouds were painting beautiful pictures in the sky.

To find out more about this monument and the pictures it shows - and to check out more photos - click the button below!

Tour Report: Ammunition Factory and Soviet Depot F.

As we do every year, we set off on a week-long tour in November 2019 to explore a few abandoned places in eastern Germany.

The first part of our trip took us to a wooded region near a lake. There are the remains of an air munitions facility from the Second World War, which was used by the Soviets as a trophy, fuel and ammunition depot during the Cold War.

The fact that there was a public bathing area at the lake with a public parking lot played into our hands, as it wasn't far to walk and our car didn't attract any attention.

From the parking lot, it was only a few hundred meters to the main gate of the facility, which was of course locked. We could certainly have climbed over despite the barbed wire, but decided to go further into the forest and look for a hole in the fence, which we found after about 15 minutes. From there, we first had to fight our way through quite a lot of undergrowth before we reached the normal paths.

This facility is pretty big - it extends over more than one square kilometer, so we had to walk around a little more than usual.

The complex, which is secured by fences, consists of a large number of buildings and bunkers. The buildings include an administration building, the staff area with vehicle halls and workshops, a canteen and social building, a group of ammunition workhouses, the case washing facility, several packing houses and the tarpaulin hall, as well as an engine shed and the remains of the railroad line used to transport the ammunition.

We started our exploration near the main gate with the administration buildings. From there, we went past the parking garages and followed the paths to the ammunition workhouses and the packing houses. Towards the end of our tour, we found some of the ammunition bunkers that hadn't been demolished by the Soviets. In the forest, lots of remains can be found, such as the coal bunker for the railroad and the power station.

Many of the buildings and bunkers have been turned into bat habitats and are not accessible, but the place was still very interesting to explore.

Towards the end of our excursion it started to rain, so we decided not to continue our tour of the site for the time being - after all, it's good to have a few more unknown corners to revisit.

To find out about the history of this place and to check out all the photos, click the button below.

Tour Report: Farmhouse "Land of Green"

We got a tip for this abandoned farmhouse somewhere in Denmark. We were told that in all likelihood there would be no way in, but that the view from the outside alone was worth the trip.

As we still had some time after our visit to the old school, we used it to make a short detour to this place.

It only took us about 20 minutes before we were standing in front of what could have been a house. The house really was almost completely overgrown with ivy and other vines; we had never seen anything like it before. It was only the fact that it was November and many of the trees had already lost their leaves that made the house recognizable as such.

As we had been told, there was indeed no entrance - unfortunately, because we could see a lot of very old furnishings through the windows. It would have been a dream to explore this place from the inside too.

But who knows - maybe the opportunity will arise in the future!

In any case, this house was a worthy end to our tour and we drove home with a smile on our faces.

To check out all the photos and to discover more galleries, click the button below.