Abandoned Places
Wünsdorf- Waldstadt
...inside the abandoned Soviet camp of Wünsdorf
Headquarters to the Nazis and then the Soviets, the East German military camp of Wünsdorf was once home to 75,000 Soviet men, women and children. Now ‘Little Moscow’ has been abandoned – An attempt to keep the memories alive.
Saturday I had the chance to visit the abandoned Soviet military area in Wünsdorf- Waldstadt, also known as the Forbidden City. It was a truly unique experience, discovering the empty houses and area for 7 hours. Jürgen Naumann, who worked there as the only German during the stay of the Red Army and is nowadays also the only person that is trying to take care of the huge area, was able to give me a great insight with his first hand experience. We met under the huge Lenin statue. After 30 seconds talking, one had the feeling that the 75,000 Soviet men, women and children never left the place. I felt the time turned back to the year 1981. A few hours later, now discovering the place independently, I closed my eyes for a minute and stayed alone in the huge theatre that long ago was a place of pleasure and fun. Ghostlike atmosphere. I tried to imagine how the place must have been like, full of life and people. Suddenly a woman stepped in, obviously for the first, since a long time. She seemed to be somehow familiar with the place and started talking in Russian that she was once a famous actor on the stage. She later walked out tears rolling over her face. I looked up not sure if what she said was real or if the mystic atmosphere within the building just played a trick with me. Arghhh…. if the eerie walls could just speak a little bit louder to me….. It's becoming darker outside. Jürgen comes in, reminds me that the train is going back to Berlin. I ask him if he is joining. "No, I am staying here, Berlin is no place for me."
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“They still haven’t come back, the Soviets. There used to be thousands of them, so many that Wünsdorf-Waldstadt was known as Little Moscow, with trains to the real Moscow going every day.
To the natives it was die Verbotene Stadt, the Forbidden City. The East Germans weren’t allowed within an ass’s roar of it, and they just had to like it or lump it.”
