Situated 186 miles southwest of Berlin, the abandoned combat vehicles line the compound of the Koch Battle Tank Dismantling Firm, which specialises in the recycling of obsolete military equipment. The company, which is managed by Peter Koch, employs around 35 specialists at its 125,000 square metre site.
Around five vehicles arrive daily in a dismantling process which takes up to three days. The site has witnessed up to 500 withdrawn battle tanks awaiting recycling at any one time, lined up in seemingly endless rows which almost appear to have been Photoshopped.
Marder 1 A3.
In addition to the large numbers of battle vehicles silently awaiting their fates, rows of engines already removed from recycled vehicles are also stored on site. Useful parts are salvaged for reuse on the country’s operational fighting fleet, while the remainder is sold as scrap.
(Image: Tobias Nordhausen)
The process began in earnest with the fall of the Berlin Wall, and some 16,000 tanks and armoured vehicles are understood to have been dismantled on the outskirts of Rockensussra by 2012.