Photo Gallery Ghost Town in the Forest Near Berlin
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.
