# Beelitz heilstatten REPORT 4 (honest ) - Chirurgie. IMAGE INTENSIVE!!!



## TeeJF (Nov 3, 2011)

Here is our FOURTH report from our trip to Beelitz-Heilstätten near Berlin two weeks ago and it covers ONLY the "Chirurgie" (SURGERY) building. Watch this space for reports on the last building we explored shortly.

*REPORT 4 - "Chirurgie (SURGERY)...​*
*At the end of our first day's exploration we had wandered briefly up to the surgical block for a quick recce, but we had ended up so short of transit time that we then had to jog down to the railway station in order to catch the train back to Berlin; that or face a wait of at least an hour! Can you imagine then our annoyance when the b*gger was late, thus comprehensively dispelling the rather dubious legend of Deutsch Leistungsfähigkeit! 

And whilst TJ might still be hot to trot , and incredibly supple, I am at 54, clearly SO VERY NOT !!! It bl**dy nearly killed me! 

Verdammt!​
After contemplating the day's piccies downloaded to the hard drive of our laptop we turned in - and the 'morrow would bring yet more delights in the form of "Chirurgie", the famous Beelitz-Heilstätten surgery building.

"Chirurgie" as it is known locally, or to afford it it's literal English translation, "Surgery", is only a short walk to the north west from the Beelitz railway station, passing on the way the awesome bombed out women's pavilion with all it's brilliant photographic opportunities. You make a sharp turn left immediately in front of the other buildings in this sector and approach the complex end on as it were. The full extent of the building's footprint is far from obvious at first sight - indeed it is fair to say that you get absolutely no idea what so ever of the scope of the surgery complex until you begin to walk the perimeter. For starters this building is several stories high, and for seconds it is over 180 yards (166 metres) long. Situated on the entrance side of the building - what would logically be regarded as the front (south) - are the remains of a large landscaped garden and a small lake or pond. Needless to say the pond is dry, and the former gardens have been reclaimed by nature over the years of neglect during the Soviet occupation, becoming mature woodland. Overlooking the pond and former gardens, two large verandas front the first floor wards which run the full length of the east-west elevation, interrupted only by the entrance hall and staircase/lift tower situated dead centre. A common feature throughout Beelitz, these verandas allowed recovering patients to sit out in the therapeutic fresh air whilst enjoying the beautiful views. Gracing either end of the east-west axis are two further wings set at right angles, with large, circular, dome-roofed rooms built on the ends - purpose uncertain - but almost certainly bath houses.

The very highest point of the building is not an ornamental clock tower as is common elsewhere around Beelitz; it is not even part of the roof proper. There are two large, stepped, open terraces situated here, either side of the central lift/staircase block. Were these serene and peaceful terraces built for the staff to escape to in order to wind down from the inevitable stress of the life and death situations they witnessed on a daily basis? Or did they serve a somewhat different purpose? The top floor looks like it might have been staff rooms or offices rather than rooms for patients. But immediately to one side of the large central lift - a lift easily large enough to move a stretcher or gurney - we found a strange room with a curved inner wall, looking for all the world like a chapel. Our first thought was that this might be the place where unlucky patients who had not survived surgery might be brought in order for their families to sit with them in peace one last time. The fact that this room is located immediately adjacent to the lift, together with it's chapel-esque appearance, would seem to support our theory, especially as the quiet roof top terraces are reached by staircases immediately adjacent to this room. The final part of the puzzle is the fact that the top floor of the building would naturally be the quietest, and therefore most peaceful place. We did not search the cellars in any depth, due to the asbestos hazard, but I wouldn't mind betting that there is a morgue down there immediately adjacent to the same lift.

Perhaps this is a theory we should put to the test when we go back again soon.

The theatres themselves are situated centrally at the back (north) of the building, on the first floor level, within a glass roofed, subsidiary block. The block is three sided, multi-floored, and surrounds an open air courtyard. The fourth wall of the courtyard is the back of the main building and it appears at first glance that the area is accessible only from within the building but looking at our photographs we can see an archway which may lead into this courtyard. Silly as it might sound, until we examined the Google Maps aerial shot we didn't even realise the courtyard existed! There are three theatres, all located next door to each other, with inter linking "serving hatches" opening through the walls between them. We thought this to be a rather odd arrangement and we wondered if it has any parallel in the layout of modern hospitals. I could not help imagining a surgeon opening the hatch to borrow a surgical instrument from next door mid-operation! Other rooms within the "Chirugie" complex were clinics used for diagnosis and none surgical treatments such as radiology etc. There are also several suites of recovery rooms adjacent to the theatres, Intensive Care et all - in fact everything one would expect to find in a hospital today. This building then should not be regarded simply as a surgical theatre complex, but in fact as a fully self contained hospital in it's own right - only the areas found on site in a modern hospital such as none surgical wards etc. and support infrastructure such as kitchens etc. are missing from "Chirugie" - and that is because they are located elsewhere around the Beelitz site.

The interior of the building is in a very bad state now. Practically every piece of glass has been smashed and much of the internal fabric has been very badly knocked about. Sadly we could not find the one remaining operating table lamp array made famous by it's presence on so many internet photographs - it was nowhere to be seen despite it having been apparent as recently as last year. Only the support arm remains, attached still to the support runners and the overhead supply rail on the ceiling in one of the theatres. Roof tiles are slipping everywhere so almost all the floors top to bottom are severely water damaged. Add into the equation now rampant "chavvery" on a scale normally associated with English urb-ex destinations; and that despite the fact that access to the building is very difficult due to the extensive external boarding. Vandalism to this degree was not something we experienced very much anywhere else around the Beelitz site. Everywhere you look there are lashings of graffiti tagging and loads of very amateur spray paint art, so it is not at all difficult to imagine the woeful state this place is in. With so few intact windows even the slightest wind causes doors to bang endlessly - when you first see a door open or close a few yards further along the corridor in which you are standing you jump out of your skin, and as a consequence your nerves twang like tightly tuned cat gut the entire time you are on site!

And asbestos lies around just about everywhere. Thankfully though it is not blown about, apart from down in the cellars which are still quite dry, for there is simply so much water soaking the floors that it has become instead a fine, grey mud. Your clothes get covered from even the slightest contact with walls etc. so it is most advisable to take elementary contamination precautions. "Chirugie" is not a nice place at all - the entire building has an oppressive atmosphere with no readily apparent reason to explain the vague sense of uneasiness one feels whilst wandering around. That said, with the abundant natural light in many areas, photographically it is a dream in all it's magnificent decay...
*

*The photos...*

*Here is a selection of the photos we took but there are also several interactive panoramas amongst the "normal pics. You can pan and tilt them in another window.*



*The first sight of the surgical block is very misleading as it makes the building look small. It is ANYTHING BUT!*









*Height as well as foot print is very much the order of the day...*








*The rear of the building and the three glass roofed theatres looking for all the world like a bunch of green houses on a mansion...*









*CLICK THE PICCIE BELOW TO OPEN THE FIRST PANORAMA...​*





*All the glass over the theatres is broken...*








*Verandas run the length of the sunny side of the building on the first floor where there are a lot of wards...*








*The main entrance on the south side...*








*An abandoned kidney dish lies in the undergrowth...*








*And we're in!*








*There's hardly a pane of glass anywhere in this building despite it being very securely boarded up...*








*The eastern end bath house ...*








*CLICK THE PICCIE BELOW TO OPEN THE SECOND PANORAMA...​*





*Chirurgie is rightly famous for it's corridors and it certainly has lots! Here on the ground floor all the rooms tend to be single sized which points to them being recovery rooms post surgery. 
The first floor has a predominance of wards instead so there are less doors there...*








*Another "done to death" shot but we still had to do it!*








*The entrance to the theatre wing ...*








*Sadly the famous theatre operating lights are gone and this is all that's left...*








*The west end bath house has been transformed into some sort of Gothic shrine!*








*CLICK THE PICCIE BELOW TO OPEN THE THIRD PANORAMA...​*






*The domed ceiling and the walls of the bath house are beautifully tiled ...*








*Behind the front doors ...*








*The central staircase winds it's way up through the building around the lift shaft...*








*The lift is stuck now at the top of the building ...*








*One of the few half way decent graffiti offerings in Chirurgie...*








*We gained entry to the services area above and behind the theatres where the theatre environment was controlled...*








*Very little of the glass roof remains...*








*Some kind of guage from the theatre environment processing plant...*








*Evidence of Soviet thriftyness... lining paper Russian style!*








*More gratuitous Beelitz corridor porn!*








*Out on the verandas of the first floor wards...*








*The remains of the gardens and the pond with what look like graves in the forground...*








*Odd perspective I know but I thought it has a certain something!*








*Looking down the lift shaft...*








*And here's the lift car on the top floor immediately by the room we thought was a chapel of rest...*








*The room in question...*








*And the way up to the roof top terraces from the "chapel" and past the lift...*








*The eastern terrace ...*








*CLICK THE PICCIE BELOW TO OPEN THE LAST PANORAMA. This one is a full rooftop 360...​*





*The poor state of the roofs, worse here than anywhere else at Beelitz ...*








*This weirdy window shows no evidence of ever having had any glass!*








*Today on Play School we will be looking through the triangular window!*








*With the explore almost over it was time to head down towards the cellars again...*








*One last dose of corridor porno!*









Hope you liked the piccies! If you want to see some more then the full set is on our website, linked below. 

Report 5, "The Male Pavilion" will follow soon.

Thanks for looking...    ​


----------



## night crawler (Nov 4, 2011)

That was a wicked report and well up to your usual standards. Any more my mouse finge has a groove in it from the wheel.


----------



## krela (Nov 4, 2011)

More awesomeness.


----------



## Madaxe (Nov 4, 2011)

That was outstanding.
Excellent report, location and pictures. 
Love the panos and that shot of the bench on the eastern terrace is a stunner!
Great work.


----------



## Tizzme (Nov 5, 2011)

Outstanding ! love the porn


----------



## Silent Hill (Nov 5, 2011)

Cock on mate. These reports are a bit special


----------



## TeeJF (Nov 6, 2011)

Thank you all for your kind comments. We were so knocked out with the place we go back again next Sunday. Can't wait!


----------



## mr_bones (Nov 6, 2011)

Very good indeed!


----------



## King Al (Nov 6, 2011)

Great looking place TeeJF, another superb report!


----------



## Pincheck (Nov 6, 2011)

superb mate


----------



## Priority 7 (Nov 6, 2011)

Love it TJ just looking up flights now


----------



## Munchh (Nov 6, 2011)

This really is a massive piece of work guys and I've thoroughly enjoyed all 4. The scale of this place is hard to take in. I spent a good hour this afternoon on GE and it looks fantastic. Big pat on the back for what you've brought us close up and personal to. Thanks, and thanks again.


----------



## TeeJF (Nov 7, 2011)

Priority 7 said:


> Love it TJ just looking up flights now



From London the easiest way is via Ryan out of Stanstead. Out of Heathrow or City it's way too costly. The Ryan flight is rather early but on the plus side it gives you in effect an extra day. From up't north it's Sleazy out of Liverpool.

If you want any info PM us and we'll be happy to tell you what we know. 

Do be quick for Beelitz as I have a funny feeling something is going to change soon... areas of the forest are being dropped... just compare the Google Earth pics time line and the difference is massive. Add to which the buildings have only been boarded in the past twelve months, before that they were wide open. Finally there were signs of work going on in Badehaus, a concrete mixer there, rubbish swept up etc. Methinx the writing may be on the wall which is why we are going back on Sunday.

A huge thank you to everyone for your encouraging and positive comments, we do appreciate it very much.


----------

