Places
Buzludzha!
A strange UFO perches on a mountaintop in deepest darkest Bulgaria. Buzludzha, the country’s former communist party HQ, has to be seen to be believed.
Teufelsberg Tale
Lew McDaniel of West Virginia worked as a linguist at Teufelsberg, Field Station Berlin, from 1968-71. He tells Abandoned Berlin of life at the spy station.
Niederlehme TSL 44
Niederlehme’s Treib- und Schmierstofflager 44, aka TSL 44, was a former oil and fuel storage facility used by Nazi Germany, then East Germany’s armed forces.
Vogelsang
Vogelsang still clings to its nuclear secrets. One sneaky deployment of bad weapons was so damned secret it was even kept from the Soviet soldiers involved.
Kino Hubertus’ ruined villas in Waidmannslust
Two houses and a cinema clung to life in Waidmanslust, fighting loneliness with earthly possessions before they too went their inevitable way.
Rheinsberg nuclear plant
Inside the belly of the beast. Refuse from East Germany’s first nuclear plant will continue to cast a threat long after the DDR itself was shut down.
Iraqi embassy
They must have just left the Iraqi Embassy to the DDR with no notice. “We’re leaving. Pack your bags and get out!” The party at Saddam’s house was over.
Tempelhof
West Berlin’s lifeline during the Soviet Blockade, Tempelhof Airport has since become the city’s biggest park. Berliners will fight to keep it that way.
Flugplatz Schönwalde
Germany’s Luftwaffe used Flugplatz Schönwalde for the war. The Soviets took over afterward and left their traces after abandoning the airfield in 1992.
Delphi silent film theater
The 1920s Delphi silent film theater was reborn as the Moka Efti club in the Babylon Berlin television series, then it was silent once more.
Bierpinsel
Perhaps the weirdest of Berlin’s buildings, abandoned or not, is the hideously attractive Bierpinsel in Steglitz. It sticks out like a walrus in a tutu.
Teufelsberg
The abandoned NSA Field Station from the frontline of the Cold War, used to spy on Soviet-controlled East Germany on the other side of the Berlin Wall.
Spreepark!
The rollercoaster story of East Germany’s only full-time fun park, later called Spreepark, abandoned and left to rot with its dinosaurs in 2001.
Flugplatz Brand
Flugplatz Brand was strategically important for the Soviet Air Force. Thankfully its battalions of flying fighters remained on ice for the duration of the Cold War.
Kladow Casino
The Kladow casino enjoyed its heyday in the 1950s. Now it’s just a shell languishing near the shore of the Havel. But some people are gambling on it opening again one day.