The Beelitz Heilstätten, located just outside of Berlin, has become a popular spot for both amateur and professional photographers. The site was used by Roman Polanski in the film “The Pianist” and Tom Cruise walked its corridors in “Valkyrie”. The sanatorium, built in 1889, has a long and somewhat creepy history. While being used as a sickbay in World War I and II, it was also used by the Soviet army as their largest military hospital outside the former USSR; today a part of the area is restored as a rehabilitation clinic, but most part of the buildings remain abandoned. Cracked paint is peeling off walls and doors from the Art Nouveau halls where slowly decaying operating tables and old hospital beds lie side by side. A mysterious place for a time travel. (Text & photos: Laura Storfner)
Beelitz Heilstätten, Straße nach Fichtenwalde, 14547 Beelitz; map
By train: RegionalExpress RE 7 get off at “Beelitzer Heilstätten”
By car: A9 exit “Beelitz-Heilstätten”
