Heeresbekleidungsamt
Haunted halls tailor-made for Nazi uniforms
Things that go bump in the night are only slightly less scary when they go bump in the day. Throw in Nazis, dark dripping basements, endless hallways, chill winds, the ghosts of Soviet soldiers and – most disconcerting of all – giant seagulls, and everything becomes immaterial when sheer terror takes hold.
Light was failing when I got to the Heeresbekleidungsamt, previously a uniform factory for the Nazis. They wanted to look good, the fuckers. They weren’t getting their clobber from H&M.
Shadows were looming and my fears were blooming. I didn’t know what to expect, who I might meet. Were they expecting me?! Probably. The wind was whipping up, indignant. Leaves blew past my face as I approached the door I hoped was open. I pushed it. It was. CREEEEEAAAAAK. Jesus, my heart was in my mouth. My heart was thumping. I wouldn’t have been able to scream even if I wanted to.
Darkness was closing in fast. I couldn’t see far. I had a torch but refrained from using it lest its telltale beam gave me away. I only switched it on when I couldn’t see a thing, flashed it at the wall in front of me. RAUCHEN VERBOTEN! Old German script. Evidently written by Nazis. They were health freaks, obsessed with their bodies – of course they’d frown upon smoking. They frowned on everything that wasn’t blue-eyed and racist.
I cursed their small-mindedness and continued up the steps, hoping I wouldn’t bump into any of them. This place was once infested with them; there were surely a few still hanging around. The floor was wet, dark. I hoped it wasn’t blood, inched forward. Broken glass crunched underfoot. A bang, a door, wind. Shit. Every sense on high alert, every alert on high sense. I stopped, waited, went on again.
I couldn’t see much, but found the stairway. It went up and it went down. I went down. Weird shit hung from the ceiling, weird shit lay on the floor. I poked around, poked weird shit. In the dark, noises, weird noises. Alert told sense, get the fuck out! Sense didn’t need to be told twice, though probably shouldn’t have needed alert’s involvement.
I ran up the stairs, tried ignore the howling, hurried through the hallway, the corridor, the other hallway – how was there another one?! – stopped, started, stopped again, started again. Fuck, I have to get out!
I got out, or you would not be reading these words… I even went back, or you would not be looking at these photographs, but that was just as hair-raising, despite the daylight, which only served to show the horrors I had merely imagined before.
But let’s start at the beginning, where things normally start. I’d actually been looking for this place, way back in 2012, when I instead found the Panzer Kaserne nearby. You trip over old abandoned military camps in this part of the world.
The Nazis began building the Heeresbekleidungsamt (literally Army Clothing Agency) on a 20-hectare site in Bernau around 1938, taking three years to construct eight arched two-story partly interconnected buildings with reinforced concrete and large windows. Altogether they boast around 65,000 square meters of floor space.
Some 1,300 workers were moved here from the previous Heeresbekleidungsamt on Lehrter Straße in Berlin (just up the road from today’s Hauptbahnhof) to start making uniforms and supplies for the German war effort. It was all a waste of time, obviously. They lost despite their shiny new attire.
The Red Army took over on April 20, 1945 and used the place as a storage/warehouse facility and to repair their uniforms. It became their launderette. They also used it up to 1947 to transport war loot back to the Soviet Union. Train tracks out the back facilitated their getaway carriages.The Soviets really cleaned up, and not just their uniforms.
East Germans were allowed onto the site to sell items and perform maintenance work from the end of the 1970s, but otherwise it was it was a purely Soviet affair.
They were the smartest-looking Soviets this side of the Atlantic – until the whole collapse of the Soviet Union left everything in tatters.
There hasn’t been a call for uniforms since they left on Aug. 31, 1994. The giant seagull took over some time after that, mocking the departing Russians with his cawing and non-discreet laughter.
It seems he was brought here by the German Maritime Search and Rescue Association (DGzRS), who operated a local office here sometime between 2000 and 2004 judging by all the papers they left lying around. Datenschutz my ass.
As it is, the seagull has the whole Heeresbekleidungsamt to himself. Other parties harbor plans of apartments but for now at least it’s only the seagull’s harbor.
LOCATION AND ACCESS (HOW TO FIND GUIDE)
What: Bernau’s Heeresbekleidungsamt, or “Army Clothing Agency,” where the Germans had military uniforms made for the German war effort. No running around in rags for these guys. Ordnung muss sein. Also used as a storage facility for military supplies. Taken over by the Red Army who used it for similar activities and for transporting loot back to the good ol’ USSR.
Where: Schönfelder Weg, 16321 Bernau bei Berlin. Not sure of the exact number. If you follow Wikipedia’s advice you’ll be climbing into somebody’s house across the road. See directions below.
How to get there: Get the S-Bahn or regional train to Bernau and it’s not too far to walk from there. Head north coming out of the station, take your first right under the tunnel, then left past the Bahnhofspassage Bernau shopping center and you should end up on a busy road from which you can see a roundabout. Go straight through the roundabout, take your first left and that will be Schönfelder Weg. The Heeresbekleidungsamt is behind the big wide gate after a bunch of trees on the left. Here’s the map.
Getting in: You can simply hop the gate if you’re unperturbed by the nosy neighbors across the way. Maybe they’re not nosy. As if! They’re neighbors, of course they’re nosy. They’re probably standing behind twitching curtains with fingers at the ready on their phones to ring the Polizei at the slightest sign of a misdemeanor. Of course they said nothing when the Russians were there… Anyway, back to getting in. If you’re concerned about the neighbors you can walk through the trees to the right of the gate (there’s a little path) and simply hop the wall a bit further on at a more discreet location. Then you’re in. Pick a building and explore.
When to go: Colors are lovely there this time of year. Daytime is best if you want to see them, nighttime is better if you want to be scared out of your wits.
Difficulty rating: 3/10 It’s just a matter of hopping the wall and going in. No biggie.
Who to bring: Ghostbusters! Oh, that’s who to ring, sorry. But you might consider bringing them if you pluck up the courage to go at night. You could also bring a few friends if you’d enough courage for a party. There are plenty of signs of people having had parties here before.
What to bring: Bring a few sandwiches to stave off the hunger, a few beers to stave off the thirst, and a stave to keep any lurking Nazis at bay. Bring your camera of course if you want to take photos, and a flashlight to light your way as you pass through dark corridors…
Dangers: The aforementioned nosy neighbors should not be underestimated. Keep the noise down and you should be OK. Watch out for possible security, though I didn’t encounter any. Otherwise keep an eye out for tortured ghosts, humorless ghouls, haunted spirits and grotesque goblins. Witches and vampires should be avoided too. Hallowe’en is just around the corner.
Filed 15/10/2014