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A Journey Through Vogelsang: Once USSR's Massive East German Nuclear Military Base, And Now A Ghost Town
And now for something completely different. Instead of scary tales of horrifying Math 101 (soon to be banned in one of the many upcoming Eurosummits), which confirms that no matter how it is spun, the global reality is ugly and getting worse (and ever more diluted in paper format), courtesy of Spiegel we present a photographic journey through Vogelsang: formerly one of the biggest Soviet military garrisons housing nuclear weapons and numerous nuclear launch pads, home of the 25th tank division protecting the USSR's most prized external asset, located in the forest near Berlin and housing over 15,000 people. It is now a surreal ghost town, and as haunted as any of the "cities" one can find deep in China.
From Spiegel:
Vogelsang is not exactly a boomtown. Located just northwest of Berlin, it has a mere 100 residents and a tiny train station. It is extremely quiet.
But in the forest nearby, there is a different Vogelsang. It its day, it was completely autonomous from the nearby village, had its own residential buildings, cinemas, warehouses and even a school. Some 15,000 people once lived there, and it was seldom quiet. The second Vogelsang was the home of Soviet troops, the warehouses were crammed full of tanks, howitzers and all-terrain vehicles. The cinemas were for the soldiers' families.
Vogelsang, one of the largest Soviet garrisons outside of the Soviet Union, was the base of the 25th tank division. For almost 40 year, soldiers belonging to the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany lived here -- until they finally withdrew in 1994.
Sine then, Vogelsang has been left to the elements, a ghost town in the middle of the Brandenburg forest. And yet, two decades after the last light was switched off, there is still plenty of life at the site. Deer and raccoon roam among the trees as do feral sheep and goats.
The barracks too still hint at the life they once contained. While most look the same from the outside, plenty of differences can be seen on the inside. The type of heating within, for example, indicates whether they housed officers or mere foot soldiers. The former tended to have decorative, tiled wood stoves instead of simple potbelly stoves. Window grates in the form of a shining sun likewise provided a bit of ornamentation.
The residential buildings, similar to the gigantic halls housing military equipment and vehicles, were painted in standard shades of gray, blue, green, yellow and sometimes even pink. The resulting mixture is a photographer's dream.
One part of the facility was sealed off from the rest, surrounded by high walls and barbed wire. It housed the prison, full of tiny cells, some of them with no window. The only furnishing was a wooden bench that stretched from wall to wall, leaving little open space in the cell. It is difficult to believe that people were locked into the rooms, but messages scratched into the walls continue to bear testament to their former prisoners.
What will be the ghost towns of 2034?

Vogelsang, the forgotten city near Berlin, is little more than ruins today. But from 1952 to 1994, it was one of the biggest Soviet military bases in the world. Here, a decaying sports hall.

The Soviets used to hold atomic weapons at Vogelsang -- ready to strike at a moments notice. This crumbling fresco of Russian astronauts serves as a reminder of the former might of the USSR.

A derelict kitchen. The site is full of reminders of the life it was once filled with.

The buildings did not only house soliders but their families too. Pictured here is an abandoned classroom in the school that was built on the site.

Construction at the site began in 1951. This image shows the entrance to the on-site medical care facility.

Quitely rusting away: Pictured here are the old coal ovens that used to heat the buildings.

A wall in one of the dining rooms is still adorned with a traditional Russian scene once intended to remind soldiers of home.

The obligatory frieze of Lenin likewise adorns one of the walls on the site.

Another view into the boiler room. Some 15,000 soldiers and civilians lived on the site.

An abandoned pool where the former inhabitants used to soak.
A memento of days past: Here a jacket still hangs on a nail in the boiler room.

An empty mess hall, completely emptied of tables and life.

Vogelsang also had plenty of facilities to provide for residents' entertainment. This room used to be a theater, even if nothing is left to indicated its former use.

This staircase leading to the theater would once have serviced uniformed officers and their companions on their way to watch a show.
The Soviets took a lot of material home, but some things, such as the sinks pictured here, remained.

A room that used to serve as an office, now empty, surrounded by forest outside.
The glass may be broken on this window at Vogelsang but the metal bars remain.
An empty wheelbarrow lies abandoned on the grounds. Vogelsang was the base of the 25th tank division.
There is nothing left to indicate what this room may have been used for during the Soviet era.
The inhabitants were afforded different levels of comfort depending on their status. While officers warmed themselves at tiled ovens, lower-ranking soliders had to make due with improvised, potbelly stoves such as this one.

Nature is slowly reclaiming the site.
A former prison cell. The only thing that remains is the graffiti the unlucky prisoners scrawled on the walls.

A chair at the end of the hall by the prison cells.

A tree grows inside the building as the forest reclaims what it once owned.

Here a shot of an abandoned bath in the afternoon sunlight.
Most of the furnishings have vanished from Vogelsang. Some, however, like this stool, remain.

A window quietly leans against a decaying wall.

A pail lies rusting in the doorway, where it was abandoned decades ago.
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beautiful! err.. sad! er.. terrible.. err.. visionary!
Ordensburg Vogelsang is much more picturesque.
Moscow let go of East Germany and the Soviet Union in the hope of gaining the world:
http://thespiritoftruth.blogspot.com/2009/11/fall-of-berlin-wall-rise-of...
In two thousand years' time, archeologists will dig up the remians and decide this must have been one of the fortified capitols of Germania during the 'zombie years' (2008 - 2060 A.D.)
But but Jack Sheet said this of Der Spiegel, "ZH should be wary of acting as their mouthpiece."
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/how-germans-feel-about-more-european-bailouts#comment-2596369
beautiful! err.. sad! er.. terrible.. err.. visionary!
It's Marxism.
imo it is a more common phenomenon of man and his pride: http://holyjoe.org/poetry/shelley.htm
Reminds me of the abandoned mining cities in New Mexico after the various commodity crashes in the past. At least the ones in NM produced something useful and never housed weapons of terror.
reminds me of 2 sites on State road 905 north of Key Largo and just south of the very exclusive Ocean Reef Club.
Love the pics but what point comradski ZH contributor?
Zombie of Hopium and the Euro mit die EUSSR.
I remember after the wall fell that the Russians did not want to go back because they had it so good in East Germany. A bit like wanting to stay in a shithole like Chicago versus having to return to Detroit.
Great photos. I love how nature reclaims this place, Chernobyl and Detroit. God help Fukashima.
Priceless. Well done.
A foreboding of America's future as a people of the government, by the government, for the government.
Gee. Look. Nothing left to govern.
Forward!!!
Yup......what our hospitals are soon going to look like. Forward.....straight off the cliff.
How is this sad? Thank God it's in ruins. Look forward to the day Bagram looks like this.
Yes, the Taliban must look at these photos and smile.
First the Soviets, then the West...
The Soviets and the West caused their own downfall with the Taliban when they refused to leave out of pride. Pointless, economy destroying conflicts.
I fear we will read equal stories and watch equal pictures of American cities in 10-20 years from now.
Why wait?
Photos: The Ruins of Detroit:
http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2011/02/07/captured-the-ruins-of-de...
Hiroshima vs Detroit -- 64 years later:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2349112/posts
Ray'cisssm. Don't forget, they can run and jump.
As horrible as the modern version, EUSSR. Just replace Lenin with Herman Van Rumpty Hump or the mao-extremist Barroso.
aka "Gollum" and "Dickhead"
My precious!
A glimpse into the USSA. Not too far off the way things are going.
Looks like Detroit with less people
I was going to say it reminded me of pics from Detroit:
http://de-vice-2.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/detro...
http://www.marchandmeffre.com/detroit/09.jpg
http://www.marchandmeffre.com/detroit/32.jpg
I really like the irony of this one:
"And you shall say God did it"
http://cache.io9.com/assets/images/8/2011/11/f2374ac9bcf11f5f4a22ef3d2b8...
Detroit should aspire to look that good.
Indeed.
Ruins, but no trash or graffiti.
We've got new motor cities popping up in the south.
There is a correlation in there somewhere.
Nice pics. If that were in the USA, there'd be residents by now. Guess the German economy really IS doing pretty well.
This proves housing has bottomed! Get Jim Cramer and Steve Liesman on the horn!
Wow, what a great story and fascinating images, stories like this really are the topping on the cake of already excellent journalism that makes 0-H my #1 daily read, even though I don't really comment so much anymore.
Glimpse of a post human environment, kind of like the ancient Mayan cities with trees growing out of the temples.
This is what NY is gonna look like 50 years later.
A fixer upper!
On a side note: Hillary doesn't have the access to launch nukes does she?
Only the SLBMs. Bill is in charge of erections.
Ohhhh, that IS scary......... good scene from Crimson Tide.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeFfny1K8FQ
Talking about strangeness...
All of the MSM's focus on London's upcoming celebratory media frenzy of sports seem eerily overly focused upon threats, cautionary tales and the organizers' and participant's goober-mental entities efforts to ensure that naught comes to harm. Even going so far as to, in some reports, be worried about alien invasions. Meaning green people, not green cards.
Like, cut me a break.
Stoke up the fear based memes
Ensure that if nothing happens, Success in defense of peace and freedom.
If something happens, look ma, it coulda been a gazillion times worse.
And along side it, blast all the conspiracy theorists as being fuck nuts
Enjoin further credibility to the center of politics
Treat us so well as to justify raising taxes further (to keep your asshole free of evil reamings)
Fills all the necessary wants and desires of the unholy alliance between the press and goober-ment.
So how's this tie in here?
This is how it all ends.
Empty, useless, ill planned, unnecessary and downright wrong.
Flip it.
The new ZH compound we've all been dreaming about. Tyler(s) and Max can start broadcasting RT from the gym.
Dibbs on the makeshift potbelly stove!
abandoned because of the economic collapse of the USSR.
Should we hope/fear that Ramstein will look the same someday?
Don't worry. Ramstein will be bought by the Chinese People's Liberation Army and completely renovated.
Thank you for that... there is order in the world, after all.
Only Ramstein Hospital after Oromney care kicks in.
Actually, there isn't much of a hospital at Ramstein AB, per se. The main military hospital is located at Landstuhl, several kilometers distant.
The frieze of Lenin must have inspired all who served here.
All empires come and go, there are no exceptions.
Could be Detroit ?!
Clean it up and add about 20 coats of paint to the walls, and it looks exactly like the orphanage in Ukraine where my kids came from.
Revelation 11:18
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
18 And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to[a]reward Your bond-servants the prophets and the [b]saints and those who fear Your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth.”
.
Detroit? How about Chicago! With David "The Red" Axelrod and the Crony Communists that form Obama's inner circle.
"Let them eat rats!" should be Obama's new campaign slogan.
How is old "tiny dancer" Emanual doing, anyway?
"the hand that mocked them, the heart that fed"...but for the want of two vast and trunkless legs of stone
This is how that bulding's going to look where all those useless EU summits are held 28 years from now...3 more years of the same muddling through followed by the collapse of the EU and 25 years of decay.
That room reminds me of a squad bay at Parris Island. Racks could have been running along the port and starboard sides.
http://tinyurl.com/7wlsb4q
It could very well be a squad bay.
The pictures are good. I think with adequate money and labor the place can be renovated for something good.
I agree with the Detroit thoughts.
That was the first thing that came to mind as I was reading the caption.
BTW: Hollywood in my case.
if there's ANYTHING fascists/libertarians love, it is the sight of decay. they breed on it.
but hey, you don't have to go to Russia or Germany to witness the SAME DECAY..... all you Milton Friedmanite mutual self destroyers have to do is go to Detroit to witness your Rosenbaum'er ... oops.... Ayn Randian laissez faire nihilism.
and..... you can witness it in real time.
Give me a break; it's not the system as much as it is the people. For example, when Detroit was mostly white it was the "Paris of the Midwest", and now it's less than 10% and it's a complete hellhole. Don't hate the system; hate the people who run the system. Sure, the system matters but it is a necessary and not a sufficient condition for economic and societal health. The base in the pictures served a military purpose and was abandoned (hence, it looks abandoned); Detroit served and economic and social purpose and was abandoned mostly by whites. How's California doing lately? South Africa? ... Gee, I wonder what's the common thread in those cases? Can't handle the truth? Ad hominym attack on one, two three, go ...
Yea, it was the monetarists that caused the problems in Detroit.
Yea, that's the ticket.
BTW, you're a racist f**k.
Fascists/libertarians? You are really one stupid sonofabitch.
On the plus side, I don't think we have to worry about you breeding on anything or anywhere, so at least there's that.
Along the same lines...
http://www.kiddofspeed.com
That's how most of China will look like after we launch our nuclear weapons in order to depopulate the country since they use more and more of our oil every day. Nuking China solves a lot of our problems. To list a few:
1) No need to pay back the trillions of dollars that we owe them. Do you want to pay 75% in taxes to give them back their money? How about your kids? Want them to work for the Chinese? I didn't think so.
2) Free up a lot of oil that they are currently consuming. It is rightfully ours. We spilled a lot of blood in the middle east to make sure that oil flows freely. Let's spill some more blood to make sure that the oil only flow to US.
3) They make all our iCrap in their factories. After we nuke them, we have to start making our own iCrap right here in the USA. After WWII there was a big economic boom because most of Europe was destroyed. American businesses had no competition. We will nuke all our Chinese competitors to dust.
Of course, we will also have to nuke India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Nigeria of course. The most populated countries on the planet. Sure, killing billions of people with nuclear weapons is wrong. But when you think about it, we're doing it for the greater good. For YOUR own good and that of your family.
Do you want to work for the Chinese? Do you want to be China's bitch? Do you want to pay $20 a gallon for gasoline? No? Them start preparing for the day when we will nuke china so that scenario does not happen.
George Orwell
Pay 'em off in fiat ! There's no need to nuke 'em ! Regain our Capitalism and we will run circles around them and they will be a productive member of our stable ! China invigorated it's Socialist model with Capitalism .... we need to do the same .... why do we deny ourselves our own invention .... the prosperity machine ? ANSWER: Socialist Saboteurs .... traitors amongst us ! Monedas 1929 Comedy Jihad Frothing At The Mouth With My Hatred Of The Left
Fuck nations, fuck governments, fuck banksters, fuck politicians, fuck military. People are free, albeit brainwashed, but nonetheless they own the planet collectively not one country trying to provide for its own people. Actually people don't own anything the earth owns you. Fucking humans and their hubris. Fucking socialsts and crony capitalists are all power hungry egomaniacs.
People aren't protesting and revolting worldwide because of some cross border economic politics; they are revolting because they have skin in the game of life too and they are being exploited while some rich kleptocrat dickhead pretends to know all the answers or tells them that some group over there is their enemy when they know the police state is crushing them regardless of foreign animosity.
People know the system is corrupt to the core. If there were a global revolution it would make the most sense. Hate not your brothers and sisters for they are in the same plight as you.
Doesn't the Bernake have a few trillion dollar bills laying around he can toss to them? The night before we change currencies? Keep the change?
2) Free up a lot of oil that they are currently consuming. It is rightfully ours. We spilled a lot of blood in the middle east to make sure that oil flows freely. Let's spill some more blood to make sure that the oil only flow to US.
______________________
And it is still US'oil.
The oil is used to allow US citizens in their standard of life.
The Chinese do not consume it for themselves.
As production is outsourced, so it the consumption required to enable the production processes.
Killing Chinese or some others will only lead to a bigger consumption in oil since for the same output, US citizens consume more oil.
The sad story of the extorter of the weak, farmer of the poor: the extorted and the farmed are the best people to be extorted and farmed, opposed to the extorter and the farmer.
"The Chinese do not consume it for themselves."
If this is how they drive I wouldn't let them consume it either
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdxAgO9tC3o
This one is not for the squeamish:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkZ4VW7HM4I
That looks like solid research.
Nuking America would save a lot more problems
http://www.indexmundi.com/map/?v=91000
bbl/day per 1000 people
China: 6.134
vs.
USA: 59.668
Think about that. US consumes amongst the most and has a smaller population compared to China.
iCrap made in China? You get what you demand to pay for. Blame the CEOs for driving prices lower to make higher pay for themselves and executives while allowing crap to come into the country and undercutting quality higher priced goods..
Powerful atmosphere, but no birdsongs. What lingers is the stench of paranoid military authoritarianism, hanging over the place like the radiation at Chernobyl.
Get out of here Stalker...
Chernobyl was nothing .... in their haste to build nukes in the late 1940's they dumped radioactive waste into old mines in the eastern Urals .... contaminated an area the size of Georgia .... didn't you see the 60 Minutes program exposing this .... with Leslie Stahl and Andy Rooney ? SARC/ON
There's a fair amount of depleted uranium in the Middle East.
...and there's a ticking time bomb on the Columbia River:
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=46.6475,-119.598611&spn=0.01,0.01&t=h&q=4...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanford_Site
There must be more in this publication than meets the eye. Message for Vladimir Vladimirovich?
As I read the article, I could not help but wonder if the US will go the way of the USSR.
Socialism is an equal opportunity shit fest ! The answer is yes .... if we let it !
Excellent Photos! Surprised none of the totalitarian minds of today saw it fitting to move their asses in...
http://silvervigilante.com
Soviet officers had nicer stoves than mere soldiers .... there's your "Classless Socialist Model" .... what crap ! Capitalists win for our better plumbing alone .... not to mention a thousand other things ! Now you see why they call them PEASANTS ! I'd love to see a North Korean base ? Monedas 1929 Comedy Jihad Kid In A Candy Store Of Socialist Incompetence
great pix.
nature is reclaiming the site. so in 1000 years it'll look like Angkor Wat...
Right now it looks like ANGER TWAT !
Leave Hillary out of this.
With a bit of free entrepreneurship, this could be turned into movie studios.
Or scanned for a game world.
The Soviet occupants are gone - when will leave the US and British occupants?
And when will they end the status of war and sign a peace-treaty?
When will leave ? They didn't just leave .... we kicked their asses out ! Mr. Gorbachev .... tear down that outhouse called Vogelsang !
Gorbatchev is a freemason. Today he is argueing for world tribunals. Google "bohemian grove", then maybe you will discover, that Reagan and Gorbatchev were on the same side working for the same target. They just noticed, that world government would come much faster, by giving up the communist experiment again and make it via capitalism. Capitalism has proven much more revolutionary and powerful to destroy cultures and nations than Communism. After this decision was made, the miraculous tranformation of the socialist and red parties took place in western europe, who had been against the EU, suddenly became pro-EU. Today they stand united and have only one enemy: the souvereignity of nations and all political leaders and parties, that do not bend to the NWO agenda.
Poor sheeple, if you still believe in the globalists divide an conquer games despite you have internet and all information a fingertip away.
Your tortured view of life through your cracked kaleidoscopic pink spectacles ! You would have been an asset during the halcyon days of the Soviet Union as a writer for Pravda .... seeing hope in every failed five year plan !
The West German Government simply bought East Germany back from a starving Soviet.
Not quite correct:
“In the Soviet Union, capitalism triumphed over communism. In this country, capitalism triumphed over democracy.”
-- Fran Lebowitz
More compulsory reading includes:
“Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate”
-- Bertrand Russell
“The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.”
-- Winston Churchill
BEAUTIFUL !!!!.....Just open your eyes
A poigniant reminder of what Obama's America will look like in a few years time.
Socialism es muerte, in living color :(
This town. Is commin like a ghost town http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WhhSBgd3KI
Ghost towns are all the rage now...check out China's dozens of "Ghost Cities":
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1339536/Ghost-towns-China-Satell...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPILhiTJv7E
Those are there for a purpose.
Farmers will soon be kissing their farms and rural villages goodbye. People are too difficult to control when they're scattered around the countryside. Americans, take note.
Ozymandius
Send someone over to strip out the copper and metals.I could use that old pail and that big bathtub looks like I could lay in that hot water so deep and even wear my snorkelling gear.
Slave labor in a socialist economy often results in bizarre, extravangant uses of valuable commodities like copper .... like 5 kilo pure copper door stops !
Looks like another leftist "utopia".
Like Detroit?
I hope the Japanese put the former bases on Okinawa to better use when the next superpower falls apart in shame and ignominy. Those Osprey are a lot safer as playgrounds than flying over kid's heads.
I prefer Little Bitch.