Heilstatten Grabowsee, Oranienberg, Germany. - Image intensive!
This is the second explore from our Christmas away in Berlin. We were unable to do anymore than two because we were both sick as dogs and had to spend a couple of days in bed watching the BBC's Christmas output. Is it just me or was the schedule singularly cr*p this year??? We enjoyed Ratatouille thouigh!
But I digress A big thank you once again to Red Dave for his help with this site visit before we went!
Some 25 kilometres or so to the north of Berlin as the crow flies, is the small town of Oranienberg. A little further still into the Brandenburg countryside, passing the infamous Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp on the way, is the beautiful lake of Grabowsee, surrounded on all sides by dense pine forest and bordered to the south west by the deep, wide Berlin - Stettin canal.
At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries the newly emerging nation of Germany was desperate for man power to drive its exponential industrial expansion however the world Tuberculosis epidemic of the time meant that the nation was struggling to maintain a sufficiently large workforce. As many as 1 in 3 deaths at that time were directly attributable to the disease which proliferated in the highly populated and insanitary accommodation of the poorer people in society; the very people so necessary for the industrial growth. In order to fight the disease state of the art treatment sanatoria were built all over the country and Berlin, being as large as it was, needed more than one.
Surgeon Gotthold Pannwitz from the Imperial Health Office began planning the construction of a Lungenheilstätten - literally a “lung sanatorium" - in 1895 with architect Arnold Beschoren taken on to design and oversee the work. In 1896 work began on a 35 hectare site and by completion there were a total of 34 buildings in the complex, the main ones linked by corridors to form a layout along three sides of a square. The wards were aligned to the south in order to make best use of the sun. An underground railway linked the buildings at the front of the site to those directly opposite in order to facilitate the rapid movement of stores etc. from area to area. The underground railway also had two separate branch lines running at right angles off the main tunnel. As with all German architecture of that period functionality was combined with beautifully aesthetic architecture.
Before the advent of antibiotics the treatment of TB was very experimental in nature, and if you would like to learn more about how the problem was tackled at that time then please visit our Beelitz Heilstätten page by clicking on this highlighted word link. Suffice it to say that despite advances in surgical intervention the main treatment was, and would remain for at least another 40 some years, prolonged bed rest in quiet, peaceful surroundings, with above all, lots and lots of fresh air. To that end the sanitaria of the time were always constructed in the countryside away from the city in order to avoid exposing the patients to air born industrial pollutants. Beelitz Heilstätten was built in a similarly isolated forest area for the same reasons, and whilst Lungenheilstätten Grabowsee is much smaller than its brother sanatorium on the other side of the city, it still has many similarities. The principle difference is the fact that Beelitz’s buildings tended to be completely separate from one another in a four quadrant layout, whilst Grabowsee’s are almost all joined together with communicating corridors to form in effect one large and sprawling building. Heating and ventilation was achieved at both sanitaria in a remote plant situated away from the ward blocks. Steam was raised in huge boilers then piped to each building where the heat from the steam was used via calorifiers to heat water for washing etc. and to warm filtered air for the heating of the buildings. Grabowsee has a unique arrangement where the water tower, built to maintain a sufficient head of pressure for domestic water supply, had a hollow core which is the chimney for the boiler room. The immense height of the Grabowsee tower ensured the boiler fumes were adequately dispersed.
Exercise was very important for patients once they were sufficiently over the worst of the disease, and as at Beelitz, a large exercise hall was built. This is situated in the main block which faces the access road running down to the hospital. In addition to being an exercise hall it doubled as a function hall with a large stage, and even a cinema projection booth. Forward of the exercise hall is a large kitchen complex and it is here that the primary access to the underground railway can be found. A large dumb waiter communicates with the railway loading bay directly below the kitchens; thus the food cooked in the kitchens could be moved across to the wards on the south of the site very quickly.
After the fall of Germany in World War II the Russians occupied much of Berlin and this hospital went the same way that Beelitz did becoming a military hospital. It was finally abandoned after the reunification of Germany in the mid 1990’s and has rotted away quietly amongst the forest ever since with no maintenance what so ever upon the site.
Access to the site was relatively easy despite the use of steel temporary airfield runway sections arranged on their edges to form a wall. Once within the complex we were able to wander freely as there did not appear to be any form of security – indeed we were not alone in our exploration, meeting two girls filming some sort of project/production on a Handicam, and two other small groups of explorers! We shot round the place fairly quickly and as a result we must have missed some areas, however the level of dereliction at Lungenheilstätten Grabowsee means that the interior is very much of a much ness, so our visit was probably of a suitable duration and intensity. That said we would not hesitate to return!
Just inside the perimeter we wandered past the first of the buildings turned over to the urban art project...
We are sure we saw the work of this artist in the Brauerii Barenquell too!
Stencilling just doesn't do it for me but this is pretty impressive!
We were NOT alone! First view of the magnificent water tower. Sadly access has been well and truly barred now.
Have a look at Red dave's report from earlier last year if you want the views from the top.
Yes, it really was THAT easy! This is the entrance to one of the interconnecting corridors.
Peely paint and loads of doors!
A very picturesque staircase but it was oddly difficult to gain access to it!
Our further progress had already been blocked by an interior gate but this one was open.
The first of many gratuitous dollops of stair porn!
Quite a drop and no ballustrades!
Just like Beelitz!
I don't know about you but I think this is rather classy!
Ornate triangular lights in the upper story windows...
Today children we will look through... the triangular window!
Grabowsee is less about coloured bricks creating the colour scheme, more about paint washes.
And as such it tends to be a little bit gaudy compred to Beelitz.
Off we go down again!
What's that following Tonto? It's a rat in a gas mask!!!
...and around back! This is the back of the recreation hall.
It's almost certainly a film prop but doesn't it look great!
I couldn't resist it!
The kitchens are immediately behind the recreation hall.
The cellar and railway access. A large dumb waiter brings food down to the railway loading bay from the kitchen above.
A truck still sits on the rails part way in to the tunnel.
There is an odd little room just off the tunnel with two steel cabinets in it. One still has what looks like specimen jars on the shelves.
Here comes Tonto up the tunnel!
Back in the south wing now after travelling through the tunnel. More stair porn!
This building was a classic TB ward block with lots of natural light from the south facing aspect.
Grabowsee Lake in the distance from the first floor of the ward block.
There's light at the end of the tunn... erm, corridor!
Another really low bed just like the ones we saw at Beelitz.
A B & Q ski self assembly bed...
Soviet style backing paper! This is one for Lilli
We've seen this guy's work before at Beelitz.
We have worked our way back round to the north end of the site again now.
Embellishment on the door jam.
Another film prop? ( not Tonto, the couch )
The centre of the site was a large garden area, now sadly very overgrown.
Not quite roof topping but pretty close!
One of the better roofs at Grabowsee!
Another ward block corridor.
It would have been nice to get up there. For the photo nuts amongst you I pulled the blue sky back into the picture with Adobe Litetable as it was practically lost on the original pic.
Whilst it was admittedly a bit dark I loved this colour scheme.
Inside one of the buildings turned over to the urban art project.
Some of the art is quite creepy.
The natural light streaming in through the south facing window made this room positively dance with colour. Sadly the camera just doesn't do it justice.
Not sure what to say about this one!
Isn't she just gawjussssss!
Again the camera fails to do it justice - this room makes your head swim!
Beauty in decay?
A hairy lighthouse? A swimming leg of ham and a gay sailor smoking wurst? Hmmm...
...and a 3D fish!
The mozzies in the forest around Grabowsee are huge...
Here pretty kitty kitty...
...and finally. I almost missed this one it was so small. But isn't it super!
|Beelitz Heilstatten REPORT 7 - the SW Women's Pavilion. IMAGE INTENSIVE!!!||TeeJF||Hospitals & Asylums||9||27th Nov 11 09:51|
|Beelitz Heilstatten - REPORT 5 - the Male Pavilion. IMAGE INTENSIVE...||TeeJF||Hospitals & Asylums||20||14th Nov 11 07:38|
|Beelitz heilstatten REPORT 4 (honest ) - Chirurgie. IMAGE INTENSIVE!!!||TeeJF||Hospitals & Asylums||12||7th Nov 11 08:00|
|Beelitz-Heilstatten Hospital - Germany||saul_son||Overseas Sites||6||4th Mar 09 08:15|