Enter Little Moscow

Visiting the Abandoned Soviet Outpost Wünsdorf

A place claimed by time

These images originate from a visit of a lost place in Wünsdorf (Germany), at the end of May in 2017.

The trip’s purpose was to visit three abandoned places: The old Soviet military complex in Wünsdorf (which you will see here in a few seconds), the Beelitz Heilstätten and the former Lung Sanitarium for children at Grabowsee in Oranienburg.

The following pictures were made on the historically significant but now abandoned military outpost in Wünsdorf as it was first headquarters to the Nazis Wehrmacht and then later occupied by the Soviets. Around 75,000 Soviet men, women and children were living on the complex, hence the term “Little Moscow”.

Not only ideology, but time has taken its toll on the place.

Due to its vastness we spent more than 5 hours on the building complex — resulting in hundreds of photographs and many hours of material captured on video. We couldn’t enter every single one of the buildings, but what we saw was at the same time haunting and beautiful in its own right.

Sometimes we had to climb our way in, darkness and sometimes bats awaiting (indeed, the flapping bat, shooting out straight at us, was a shocker).

Enough of the words. Sources for further information and the detailed history of the place are to be found at the end of this article.