Stories
Tegel Airport
Tegel Airport (TXL), was formerly Germany’s fourth busiest airport with more than 24 million passengers in 2019. Abandoned Nov. 8, 2020.
Stasi spy station
The Stasi spy station Quelle 1 in Rhinow tapped fiber cable going from West Berlin 250km across the DDR to enemy state West Germany. Sneaky.
Garbáty Zigarettenfabrik
Garbáty's Zigarettenfabrik was brought to its knees by Nazi persecution. East Germany appropriated the cigarette factory till that ended too.
Schöneberg Gasometer
The Schöneberg Gasometer looms 78 meters over the Röte Insel neighborhood, daring intrepid explorers to hike seven levels of steep spindly steps to the top.
Mouse Bunker
The "mouse bunker" animal-testing facility squats beside the Teltow Canal like a monstrous brutalist toad-tank, long blue turrets pointing every direction.
Schloss Dammsmühle
Schloß Dammsmühle was a playground for more unsavory types than you could shake a stick at, from Nazis to Stasi officers. Now there are plans to revive it.
Strandbad Tegel
The abandoned status of Strandbad Tegel looks secure. Campaigners are trying so hard to reopen it that you can be sure it won't be opening anytime soon.
Flugplatz Johannisthal
One of the world’s first motor airfields when it opened in 1909. People used to flock to Flugplatz Johannisthal to see marvelous metal machines with wings actually fly.
Güterbahnhof Pankow
Former railroad yard in Pankow with two train turntables that used to handle up to 1,800 freight cars a day. Now it handles none. But that's progress.
West Berlin's Lenin
Lenin can't have imagined he’d be spending his 150th birthday alone in a parking lot in West Berlin. But that’s where he is, outside Zapf Umzüge removals.
Pankow Schwimmhalle
Don’t jump in at the deep end of Pankow Schwimmhalle or you’ll land on your face with a mouthful of broken glass. No water since it was abandoned in 2002.
Submarine bunker Lager Koralle
Lager Koralle was the forest bunker that controlled Germany’s feared U-boat fleet during World War II, central command for its marauding submarines.
Zombie hospital
There’s a zombie hospital in Weißensee. It used to be for kids but they were all eaten, their brains gorged upon by the zombies that took their place.
Cité Foch shopping center
Cité Foch’s closing down sale must have been something else. Everything must go! In the end, even the shopping center, cinema and leisure center had to go.
Antique filling station
Berlin is forever itching to be scratched. Scratch beneath the surface and you'll find hidden gems, like this antique gas station from a bygone era.
Freibad Lichtenberg and BVG-Stadion
Freibad Lichtenberg once hosted Olympic athletes before the 1936 games. Despite its historical importance, it was demolished without a care.
Flugzeughallen
Brash airplanes used to roar in and out of Fliegerstation Berlin-Friedrichsfelde's Flugzeughallen in days after the land had been used for testing airships.