Jüterbog
Ozymandias' shattered visage
Scattered haphazardly all around, like bones in a bombed-out graveyard, Jüterbog’s ruins reluctantly await their fate.
The sleepy village used to be center stage, caught up in the giddy thrill of preparing for war and the spoils it brings.
But the spoils are never the expected ones. Now its buildings are still and silent, devoid of life, holding nothing but scars, regret and hollow emptiness.
Memory barely lingers, blown by the thoughtless wind through broken windows and unseen gaps, carried far away by veterans in Moscow and across the former Soviet Union. Faint residues remain in German nursing homes where dwindling numbers share the buildings’ fate.
The last Soviet soldier left in 1994, but Jüterbog’s history begins long before, before Germany even existed, when the Prussian army bought some 250 acres for shooting and maneuver practice around 1860.
The shootings began straight away on a range 650 x 850 meters and the construction of the first buildings commenced a few years later, presumably during a break in the shooting.
The army’s plot thickened, as it were, and grew larger with the acquisition of land from neighboring villages. Maybe the stray bullets flying around the place helped convince them to sell.
Another 40 acres was added in 1870. These were heady times with the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War that same year. They weren’t practicing for nothing.
Of course the war ended with the Prussian-led German states’ victory over France. Prussian chancellor Otto von Bismarck used the war to draw the remaining German states – Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg and Hesse-Darmstadt – to his North German Confederation, paving the way for German unification. He was a cute hoor, as they’d say in Kerry.
The German Empire was proclaimed on Jan. 18, 1871 at the Palace of Versailles.
During the war around 9,000 French prisoners were interned in Jüterbog and put to work there, extending the site. Many died and were buried there. The first shooting range was called Altes Lager (Old Camp) after it was decided in 1889 to construct another so the field artillery could be separated from the foot artillery. Maybe they smelled bad.
Whatever the reason, the military treasury snapped up more land to the south of the existing site and construction on the Neues Lager began the following year.
The Dicke Bertha (Big Bertha) monster 42-cm howitzer was tested here before the First World War, shot at targets in Jüterbog from more than 10 kilometers away. The neighbors must have been driven nuts!
Apparently Kummersdorf-Schießplatz chief Erich Steinert was none too happy when a one-ton missile didn’t land 500 meters south of him as planned, but 500 meters north. If it had been only half as awry “the projectile would have hit us,” he reckoned, not unreasonably.
Meanwhile the military training area kept growing to around 5,000 hectares. A new barracks was built for the infantry – despite their bad feet – before the war, and kept growing during it. A hospital was added to the infantry’s new Fuchsberg-Kaserne toward the war’s end, perhaps not a coincidence.After the war, of course, there were no more military shenanigans. Well, not at first. It started discreetly, with a drop in soldier numbers… until 1930 when things picked up again.
A military airfield (Flugplatz Altes Lager) developed in Jüterbog in 1933, the year from which all of Germany’s subsequent misdemeanors can be blamed on those evil Nazis who descended from space, most likely landing on that very same airfield.
Another military camp, the unfortunately named Adolf-Hitler-Lager (I’m sure it seemed a great idea at the time) was built in the Zinna Forest around seven kilometers to the north of Jüterbog.It was also known as Lager III or Waldlager (forest camp). SS members were the first to sample its holistic delights.
By 1934, Jüterbog’s military areas comprised the biggest troop-training center in Germany. And the expansion continued.Inhabitants of neighboring villages had to leave as the total military site was extended to more than 11,000 hectares (27,000 acres).The Adolf-Hitler-Lager had its own train station by 1937 as it kept growing. More! More! More! There was no end to the development.
At least in those days they weren’t solely building for investors. They even started building an internal rail line before that was stopped in its tracks by the war.
Of course that war didn’t go too well either. The Fuchsberg-Kaserne and Adolf-Hitler-Lager were hit in bombing raids on April 18, 1945. Twelve days later, the latter lost its namesake.
The Red Army took over everything after that. The Soviets turned Jüterbog into one of their most important military bases in the DDR, with an estimated 40,000 soldiers dwarfing the local population of 15,000.
Life was hard for the lowly soldiers – little to eat, strenuous drills, abuse from their superiors – but good for the superiors – loads to eat, no drills, plenty of inferiors to abuse. The officers lived mostly with their families and were paid 1,000 times more then their underlings.
“The officers couldn’t spend their money,” Jüterbog historian Henrik Schulze told the Märkische Allgemeine in 2013. “I knew one once who simply wanted to drink it extravagantly in the Berlin Fernsehturm. He didn’t manage it.”
The Soviets continued using Flugplatz Altes Lager as a Flugplatz, with the 833rd fighter aviation regiment based here from 1953 to 1992. There were helicopters buzzing in and out to get on local residents’ nerves, and Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 supersonic jet fighter planes were a common sight before they were replaced with MiG-23s in 1979.
One can only assume the new planes were better, faster, lighter, perhaps with touch bars of colorful lights to distract bored pilots when they’re bombing Syrian civilians. Yeah, they’ve other priorities now. None of the Russians hung around too long after Mauerfall and the end of that Cold War. The area’s military days were over.
“I never thought I would ever see the Soviets’ withdrawal from the GDR in my lifetime,” Schulze said of their departure in 1994.
Some of the buildings have found use once again as residential homes or sports clubs or whatever, others are being destroyed to make way for the forest, while others continue to wallow in the despair of abandonment – puppies living in a perpetual post-Christmas.
There’s almost too much to explore. I found an upside-down well, stretching up to the heavens like a chimney. It might have been a chimney but in my mind it was a well. I climbed in at the bottom, looked up at the pinpoint of light outlining my only escape, pondered my predicaments and those of mankind, decided we’re all doomed, and climbed out the other escape.
Nothing stays the same. It’s the one thing that’s constant.
LOCATION AND ACCESS (HOW TO FIND GUIDE)
What: Jüterbog and its military camps, namely Altes Lager, Flugplatz Altes Lager, Neues Lager and Adolf-Hitler-Lager, aka Forst Zinna. The area played host to soldiers’ charades, men playing with guns, for around 130 years before the last ones left in 1994.
Where: Jüterbog and around it. There are abandoned buildings scattered all around the town itself. You can’t help but notice them. Otherwise you have Flugplatz Altes Lager over to the west and Altes Lager a little bit further north. Neues Lager is more central but it’s mostly developed, and Forst Zinna is around seven kilometers north toward Luckenwalde.
How to get there: Hop on a regional train to Jüterbog, under an hour from Berlin, and bring your bike to save your legs from unnecessary walking. Point the bike in the direction you want to go and cycle. Here are Altes Lager, Flugplatz Altes Lager, Neues Lager and Forst Zinna on maps. Check the Abandoned Berlin map for all the places featured on the site, zoom toward Jüterbog and print off that section so you’ve something to look at if you get lost. Or bring a book. Reading will distract you from your predicament. Books allow you escape into someone else’s madness.
Getting in: Too many places to get into how to get into each one. Use your wits and be careful.
When to go: Daytime is best so you can find your way around and see things.
Difficulty rating: 7/10. Getting here and finding the places is the main difficulty. Anything that you can explore is easy enough to get into, though you will need to look out for security. See “dangers” below.
Who to bring: A like-minded intrepid explorer who doesn’t mind cycling with no end in sight and who has plenty of time on their hands.
What to bring: The usual stuff for a long excursion – beer, food, more beer and maybe more food. Don’t forget your camera, a good torch, a decent jacket now the weather’s getting chillier and some money for beers on the way back.
Dangers: There are the usual dangers associated with exploring abandoned buildings – holes in the ground, dodgy roofs waiting to collapse on your head, probably asbestos and other nasty things. Security guards are keeping an eye on Forst Zinna, presumably in case the Russians come back. There were four or five vans parked together when I passed by on my rusty old bike, their big-bellied masters all discussing something, most probably lunch. I went around the other side (which is quite dangerous, with high grass and hidden holes including one full of water that an animal had fallen into) but I didn’t meet security when I was in the camp. Be vigilant and very, very careful.
Many thanks as always to Mark Rodden for proofreading and reining in the philosophizing, to Pablo Arboleda for the pleasure of his company on the first visit, and to Marcela and Felipe of Fotostrasse for their assistance yesterday!
Filed 5/11/2016 | Updated 18/2/2022