Stories
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.
Banana Bunker
A former air-raid shelter built by forced laborers became the Banana Bunker during DDR days. Now it’s an exclusive art gallery – still monkey business.
La Pyramide
Among all of Abidjan’s skyscrapers, none tickles the heavens more than La Pyramide, Rinaldo Olivieri’s brutalist beauty.
Kraftwerk Vogelsang
Kraftwerk Vogelsang is a powerless power plant. People gave their lives building it and fighting over it. Now that they’re gone, nobody wants it at all.
Zambia Embassy
Berlin’s “lion on the loose” has holed up at the abandoned Zambian embassy. She’s seeking asylum from the CDU. AB got an exclusive interview.
Blackland Rock & Metal Bar
The appropriately named Blackland Rock & Metal Bar has joined Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and Lemmy in the otherworld after going up in flames.
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.
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.
Kino Hubertus' ruined villas
Two houses and a cinema clung to life in Waidmanslust, fighting loneliness with earthly possessions before they too went their inevitable way.
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.
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.