Having been disturbed shortly after gaining entry to the Male Pavilion adjacent to the Badehaus, we skedaddled sharpish and made our way north west across the site. The heavily bomb damaged Women's Pavilion in the Frauern Lungenheil-stätten sector was our next port of call on the first day of our October 2011 Beelitz-Heilstätten visit.

In the Great War the German Army had used Beelitz as a hospital to treat wounded soldiers and they did the same again in the Second World War. In 1944 the RAF mounted a bombing raid over the area and one of the women's pavilions down towards the bottom of the north west quadrant of the site was severely damaged. It is not clear why this happened because the bombing of hospitals was strictly forbidden by the conventions of war prevailing at that time, however the most likely reason is that the site was mistaken for a military barracks complex or possibly an industrial installation. Bombing by night from a high altitude was the norm for the RAF at that time so with the inadequacies of a system which was little better than bombing blind it is not hard to see how the mistake might have happened. sadly too it does not look like the raid was a one off because immediately behind the building on the south side from where we approached we found a small complex of underground air raid shelters a few yards from the walls - BELOW RIGHT.

The site at Beelitz is vast - so vast that the post war Soviet occupying forces had more than enough buildings to service their needs. As a result many of the buildings on the site were never used again after the war and stood empty, preserving a time capsule quality which is a huge factor in the appeal of this site. There was little sense then in them spending vast sums re-building the bomb damaged women's pavilion so it has stood empty ever since, slowly being swallowed up by the forest - indeed even the upper floors and the remains of the roof tops have grown quite substantial trees over the years and it is a distinctly strange feeling wandering around a woodland several stories up, especially when you wander rather too close to the edge!

The cellars of the building are easily accessed and when we approached from the back of the building through the woods it seemed obvious to go in that way then look for a route up once inside. As it turned out we needn't have bothered  for had we wandered a little further around to the north of the building instead there were several open doors and windows which afforded a much easier entry, whilst avoiding the hazardous asbestos which seemed to be lying around just about everywhere you looked down in the cellars. The other problem was that over the years the occupants of the few houses local to the sanatorium have used the cellar tunnels here as a dumping ground for all manner of household rubbish - there were TVs, lawn mowers, old fridges... in fact just about everything you might expect to find in the skips at your local council tip back home! We got extremely p*ssed off fighting our way through the huge mounds of junk and old bin bags and we were just about to call it a day for this building when we spotted a tunnel leading off roughly due east, so we wandered along it as far as we could go. The tunnel had old steel hooks mounted every few feet in the brick built, barrel vaulted ceiling, in order to carry services, and with this observation the penny dropped as to the purpose of the tunnel and it's likely destination. Heating and electricity were all generated centrally at Beelitz over the other side of the north - south road in the Power Complex, so this was in all likelihood the supply tunnel. After a long walk we found a shaft at the side of the tunnel which led off to the surface however it's internal steel staircase had collapsed so it was not possible to climb up and take a look at where we were in relation to the pavilion or to the power complex.

We turned round and wandered back. A short scrabble up a tunnel to the surface brought us out within 25 feet of an open doorway and then we were in the pavilion proper. Although the bomb damage, subsequent abandonment, and countless years of being left open to the elements, has all extracted it's inevitable toll, this building is still in a remarkably solid state and is therefore a serious tribute to German construction engineers. It also offers some amazing opportunities for photography due to the great light and pools of deep, ebony shade. One of my favourite images from urb-ex in general, and Beelitz in particular, is the cover photograph on a book - LEFT - I would highly recommend - "Beauty In Decay" - (ISBN-10: 0955912148). It was taken in this building and we were very keen to identify the stairwell which is the back drop for the photographer's model who walks up the stairs dressed in a black knee length coat and a Soviet era gas mask. It took us a while to find the spot but in the process we came across several other staircases presenting equally great "stair porn" photographic opportunities. We progressively worked our way up through the building until we eventually came out on the roof. High up amongst the twisted steel beams and tree trunks of the "air forest" we found a huge water tank, still in superb condition, together with a bathroom, one end of which had been laid open by a bomb... talk about a loo with a view! In very few places has the roof itself been penetrated by the tree roots despite being built of brick rather than reinforced concrete so it's quite amazing that trees as large as some of those we saw there can actually withstand the wind. But it appears they do and in some of our photographs below I defy you not to be amazed at the tenacity of mother nature!

 

 

Click on the image above to open an interactive panorama

 

Approaching the bombed female pavilion from the south - the building is almost completely lost amongst the trees...	Working around the building towards the north aspect...	The building is absolutely huge, occupying a large area and built with several floors...
A huge section of the building has dropped from a bomb impact leaving corridors opening into mid air...	This perspective showing a wing at right angles to the body of the main building illustrates how big the building actually is!	As with all the buildings at Beelitz the windows are large to allow the maximum amount of natural light into rooms...
The steel naked skeleton of the roof, tiles blasted away, towers over the top of this part of the pavilion...	We haven't a clue what this is all about! We tried a translation program and the closest we got was the Italian word for "user" by adding an E on the end. Suffice it to say it's in "foreign speak" and it's made of concrete!	One of the cleaner corridors in the cellars, the rest were absolutely chocka with domestic rubbish!
The entrance to a large boiler room in the cellars. Odd because all power and heating were supposed to be piped in from a central generating building. Maybe it's for auxiliary back up.	One of the two large boilers in this room. There were numerous other boiler rooms in the same part of the cellars too. Despite the ravages of time these rooms would clean up very easily if needs be.	A machine - purpose unknown!
TJ amongst the boilers...	This access tunnel runs roughly due east so it is probably for pipes and cables from the central generating complex over the road north of the Pulmonary Medicine block...	The brickwork tunnel has a vaulted brick-built ceiling and is in superb condition. Steel hangers run the length of the ceiling and along the walls. But there is too much asbestos about for comfort.
This shaft goes up to the surface part way along the tunnel but we were unable to climb up it to see where we were due to the steel staircase having collapsed...	Once we had got into the building proper from the north side at ground floor level, we ascended to the first floor via a very solid staircase...	Although the corridors are completely bare of plaster the brickwork is still superb. The concrete floors are very solid too and we found no crunchy floors anywhere in this building at all...
More stair porn! This building is great for it!	Almost on the roof in the "air garden"!	The skeleton of a roof on part of the floor below...
It's very hard to see exactly what is organic and what is man made...	A loo with a view! I wonder if anyone was sat on the throne when the bomb exploded?	Just how the trees hold on when their roots have not penetrated the roof is beyond me!
This water tank is still completely solid despite presumably being open to the elements ever since the raid in 1944...	Although the aesthetic architecture is much harder to find on this building it is still there when bombs haven't totally destroyed it...	Roots come over the roof edge in places but there's little if any sign of penetration through the amazing German brick work...
A wake up call when you are wandering through the woods on the roof tops!	The top floor immediately below the "air garden" is dry and shows no ceiling damage from tree roots as might be expected...	Another small area of the original aesthetic architecture seen through a damaged wall....
There was possibly an overhanging veranda situated here as clearly we have exterior windows on the lower floors but corridors opening into space above and broken supporting beams...	Extremely durable red bricks make up a large part of this building...	Another picturesque corridor with awesome "light at the end of the tunnel"...
Criticism of the RAF's bomb aiming abilities?	"That" corridor properly lit...	"That" corridor artistically lit. Now where's my gas mask?
An old sun lounger long abandoned and rusting away...	...and another...	More stair porn!
Beauty In Decay...	A large exercise hall is located on the west wing but we were unable to find a way in other than at the first floor veranda level...	The main route away from the entrance of this pavilion passes through the gardens up to another female pavilion to the north...

The exercise room taken from the first floor balcony... Click on the image above to open an interactive panorama.

 

The bombed pavilion's main entrance staircase.... Click on the image above to open an interactive panorama.

 

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