60 miles south of Berlin to a relatively small town of Jüterbog. An area that has a long military tradition pre dating the 1914-18 conflict.
The large military base at Forst Zinna was constructed in the mid 30’s at the dawn of the Third Reich. Named after and In honour of the führer, Adolf Hitler. Aka Forst Zinna.
The Camp hosted barracks and training rooms, used by an artillery and transportation school. There were also many service buildings, like canteens, sport and administration facilities.
The base was operated by the Wehrmacht until the end of WW2, when the region was conquered by the Red Army.
At the end the end of the conflict the Soviets took over the site and used it to house displaced persons primarily refugees from Eastern Europe and for the former inmates of the Nazi German concentration camps.
Later used by the ‘Deutsche Verwaltungsakademie’ who used as ‘The German Academy of Public Administration’ with the intention of training the DDR political elite.
In 1950 the site passed over again to the Soviet Army. In the military area, there were administrative buildings, farm buildings, and leisure complex
At the end of 2007 the demolition of Forst Zinna started. Only a small part of the complex is listed and safe from demolition.
Parked up right outside the gates and in I went, nice of them to leave a nice big gap by the gate. I didn’t realise at the time that I captured the swimming area from the postcard.
The buildings that remain were few and far between in this camp
A few industrial/manufacturing support type buildings, gave up some nice soviet signs
I found one building two floors and an attic. One of the lower rooms contained fantastic Soviet memories, books and propaganda. As I am currently having a love affair with all things Soviet, my heart skipped a beat at these in all honesty. Not quite a semi, but near as damn it.
“Two worlds:Two systems”
It was when I reached a small “room: partioned off in the attic, that I got the semi!
Suddenly transported into the life of a young Russian conscript; potentially thousands of miles from home, family and friends, living a bleak and hard existence. On guard for his homeland.
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