# Kaserne Krampnitz - IMAGE HEAVY...



## TeeJF (Nov 9, 2011)

After spending two days exploring the totally amazing Beelitz Heilstatten we decided to go take a look at the former Wermacht Cavalry School down near Potsdam. Can I thank Red Dave at this point because it was with his help that we were able to find the place. Cheers matey! I'd also highly recommend anyone who is looking at our offering now to be sure to go look at his superb report too.

[ame="http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/showthread.php?t=19679"]http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/showthread.php?t=19679[/ame] 

I have struggled to find out very much about this site and I apologise if I have got any of my facts wrong, but for what it's worth here goes!



*Kaserne Krampnitz was the Wermacht's cavalry school and it was built in the 1930s during the time when Germany was under the rule of the dictator Adolph Hitler and his Nazi party. After the fall of Berlin in 1945 the occupying Russian forces used the site as an army barracks until they pulled out in the nineties after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

It was only a short train ride to Potsdam itself from our base in Berlin, then we jumped on a bus for twenty minutes or so. The bus stop we got off at was literally right outside the walls of the site. After walking through the undergrowth for twenty or so meters we came to a dwarf wall at the back of the so called "Kasino", which was actually the Officers' Mess. 

Clearly security is not overly high on the agenda at Kaserne Krampnitz - we did see a white van, presumably security, bimbling about the site, and at one point a large lorry drove down from the north to the gate at the south end where it stopped and off loaded some building materials. We almost walked into some workers who were hidden from view by trees, but we heard them just in time to double back without being seen. But beyond that we were completely undisturbed for the duration of our exploration and we found access to all of the buildings relatively easy.

The site has been used by the film industry as a location during the making of both "Enemy At The Gates" and Quentin Tarrantino's "Inglourious Basterds". There is a room with an outstanding "adler" mosaic ceiling but we were unable to find this beautiful, if slightly sinister Swastika carrying eagle. Better luck next time we hope as it really is a "must see". There is some question as to the adler's authenticity as all symbols of the Nazi party were banned in Germany after the war, and the mystery only deepens if you also consider the fact that the Russian occupiers were highly unlikely to have left a symbol of their much despised former enemy completely untouched, beautiful or otherwise. In the Kasino there were two classic Nazi era swastika carrying eagles, carved into the stone walls by a huge fireplace, but they have been chipped away leaving only a ghostly outline to show what they once were. The theory then is that the adler ceiling mosaic was constructed for one of the films. This adds up if you consider that the numerous barrack blocks are classically Soviet in appearance compared to the theatre and the Kasino which are clearly Germanic. But it appears that the adler is located within a Soviet building.

We had a beautiful, hot day for our October visit with most unseasonably sunny weather. Unfortunately though the light provoked numerous flares and "orbs" to appear on many of our pictures - perhaps Derek Pakhora, the (im)famous Pakistani medium, and full time fraud, was on site that day along with his host of ghostly friends, creating all those orbs for us 

Please excuse the occasional picture with orbs present, or those where I have tried to "repair" a particularly offensive orb in Paintshop. Hopefully the editing won't detract too much from your enjoyment of the photographs.

Once inside the Kasino we just stood still for an age, totally amazed by our surroundings. Although it would appear the building has been empty for almost twenty years it is still in a really good condition, and the quality and style of decoration is something to behold. All the walls are panelled out in wood and the ceilings are very ornate. But the ceiling in one room is simply jaw dropping - you will see what we mean in the photos shortly! The first floor of this building felt very springy and soft under foot though - I suspect woodworm or dry rot - so we didn't do much upstairs, proceeding instead to the roof space before leaving. A further factor for moving on early was our concern over the amount of noise we were making - the ground floor is covered in wooden tiles which look at first glance exactly like marble. How odd then that when you tread on them they creak deafeningly with every footstep! The Japanese used to construct special floors which could not be walked on without making a noise - a sort of burglar alarm Shogun style - and in the Kasino, the warping of the floor tiles, presumably by damp, has produced a similar alarm, one which we were most anxious not to set off!!! 

After visiting the Kasino we wandered around looking unsuccessfully for the adler building - we now have a far better idea where it is and we think it was only the fact that it was in a Russian style building that we were fooled in the first place! 

These Russian blocks really are the most cheerless concrete monstrosities imaginable and once you've seen one you have pretty much seen them all. The only exception to barrack block boredom was finding the dining halls and kitchen complex, but beyond that it was very much a constant case of same old, same old. 

Up at the north east corner of the site we wandered across a large parade square, past the horrendous graffiti tagged saluting post, and in to the theatre. This building stands out like a sore thumb because of it's Germanic architecture. The theatre hall itself has a small stage and would probably have seated 3 or 4 hundred people. It clearly doubled as a cinema because at the back of the hall there is a balcony reached from the first floor, and in the back of the balcony wall there are projection slits. On the other side of the wall there is a raised platform in a hall way upon which the projectors were sited to shoot through the holes at a screen which was dropped over the front of the stage from the proscenium arch. Sadly the projectors and the screen are long since gone but hopefully you will agree that it still made for some interesting photographs...*

The photos...



*The "Kasino" - actually the Officers' Mess...*









*This bold Germanic architecture is very different from pretty much everywhere else on this explore...*








*Inside the Kasino now. Wood panelling everywhere...*








*What about this ceiling!!! Red Dave has a much better photo on his report though because he has a decent wide angle lens...*








*Awesome!*








*The associated chandelier is on the floor now...*








*...as is this stained glass window pane. Not sure why though...*








*Creepy creepy, creaky creaky  ...*








*An adler with a swastika was chiselled out of the stone work here though you can still see it's outline if you get up close...*








*Moving on through more magnificent wood panelling...*








*Soviet era murals festoon the walls in this room...*








*Here's another...*








*The roof space is vast...*








*This is one of the completely charmless Soviet barrack blocks...*








*Pretty austere, even by military standards!*








*This looks like a cell so I'm wondering if this was the Provost Marshall's domain?*








*Lets go for a kr*pski and a chat komrad! ...*








*Oooo... a decoration! You don't see many of them round here do you!*








*I couldn't have said it better myself!*








*это кухня...*








*The way in to the theatre, an original German period building...*








*I wonder what shows were staged here?*








*Sorry this is a bit soft and grainy but there wasn't much light in here and we we weren't using a tripod...*








*The theatre was quite ornate in it's time...*








*The projection booth...*








*...and the projection slots in the back wall of the theatre...*








*The best seats in the house! The view of the stage from the balcony....*








Hope you enjoyed the piccies. 

Don't forget to look at Red Dave's original report too 'cos he found the adler! 



Thanks for looking. ​


----------



## Priority 7 (Nov 9, 2011)

Lovely work as always not sure I like you anymore though


----------



## TeeJF (Nov 9, 2011)

Priority 7 said:


> not sure I like you anymore though



Why????  *pouts*

Gonna set Tonto on you now!


----------



## UrbanX (Nov 11, 2011)

Astounded, speechless once again. I'm gonna have to steal youe Europe Road map and a car...
That whole place is beautiful, and really enjoyed it after your BH reports. Fantastic write up and pics, thanks for sharing. Love that panelling. 
As a side note - I reckon I've been on between 200-300 explores in the UK, I hope to do thousands more, but frankly I never expect to see anything like this here. OK there's a couple of small tags here and there, but nothing like what would happen to this in the UK...


----------



## RedDave (Nov 11, 2011)

I'm inclined to think that the adler is authentic Nazi artwork. I think it's likely it was painted over by the Russians, and then the paint removed, possibly for one of the two films. Also, the roof of the building it's in resembles that of the Kasino.

Nice photos you took.


----------



## Pincheck (Nov 11, 2011)

This was another one i had planned to visit very nice mate


----------



## krela (Nov 11, 2011)

Awesome as always.


----------



## TeeJF (Nov 11, 2011)

RedDave said:


> I'm inclined to think that the adler is authentic Nazi artwork. I think it's likely it was painted over by the Russians, and then the paint removed, possibly for one of the two films. Also, the roof of the building it's in resembles that of the Kasino.
> 
> Nice photos you took.



Thanks for that RD... as regards woking out if the building was Russian or German I can only go off the exterior as we didn't knowingly find the right building! From the info we've discussed subsequently we had actually gone right around that building but didn't realise the significance. I saw some other photos after I'd written up our report which showed far more of the ceiling and it is indeed a lot more ornate than the Russian blocks we went into so I'm inclined now to follow your line of thinking. Another clue I failed to pick up on was how ornate the hallway is on your photo.

How odd it is that the Russians should leave it untouched other than say a slap of paint. Did you notice how they had chiselled the two adler stone carvings out in the Kasino? There was also a section of the roof in the theatre which looked like it might have originally held a decoration but that was absent - infact when we hadn't found the adler ceiling we concluded that the theatre had been the building with it in all along and that it had then been removed AFTER your explore. How wrong could we be!!! 

Anyways, thanks so much for all your help on this and for your kind comments.


----------



## TeeJF (Nov 11, 2011)

UrbanX said:


> Astounded, speechless once again. I'm gonna have to steal youe Europe Road map
> 
> there's a couple of small tags here and there, but nothing like what would happen to this in the UK...



Cheers buddy, we appreciate your encouragement very much. But to be honest we have had so much help early on from other people on this forum that our road map is not so much the product of our own research as the product of lots of PMs to very altrustic and enthusiastic fellow explorers. So if you want our version of the road map then just PM and you can happily see our "pins"... well... mine anyway... if you want to see Tonto's pins you'll have to ask her yourself! 

As regards your comments about Krampnitz, I totally agree. Everywhere we have been so far in the UK with the exceptions only of the Malvernbury care home and St. Joseph's Seminary at Upholland, has been either tagged beyond belief or trashed MOST comprehensively. I wonder if it's down to the lack of respect and moral values in the majority of the youth of today. Even Malvernbury is getting tagged now... we explored a week or so ago and there was very little apart from one dose of mindless sh*te on the stairs that I don't think had been present when Mookster did his report a week or so before but we were astounded to see a huge and rather pointlessly profane daub on a wall which must have been done within a couple of hours of our vist because someone else posting in the forum after a vist four hours after us had caught it on one of their shots. Frankly this kind of behaviour makes me heave and nowhere is it more repulsive than at the likes of Aston Hall Mental Hospital and at Barrow Gurney Asylum where we saw it yesterday. I think the youth of today must have so much pent up aggresion if they have to create this much havoc. To be honest Chirurgie at Beelitz was pretty bad and I don't actually know why it is only in that building of all the ones at Beelitz. The Germans seem to do a bit of tagging and not that much else. There's tagging at Krampnitz and some questionable "art", but compared to over here, there's practically zero! I am also seriously sickened when I see graffiti art such as that at the Yorkshire Waterworks where amazingly talented spray paint artist's work has susequantly been tagged by selfish, TALENTLESS PR*CKS who are jealous that someone other than themselves is able to create something worthy of praise.

Woopsie.... rant over!!!

So anyways.... thanks very much again, we're so pleased that you enjoyed the report. 

PS... fancy Verdun next spring?


----------



## smiler (Nov 11, 2011)

Priority 7 said:


> Lovely work as always not sure I like you anymore though





I couldn’t agree more, they are seriously getting on my bits.
It’s a shame that they are such nice friendly folk whose reports and pics are not only interesting but enjoyable. Never mind I’ll just carry on being envious, 

Great Report and Pics once again you two ******** ******** ****** Thanks


----------



## Walrus75 (Nov 11, 2011)

I reckon the chandelier was a Rodney and Del Boy moment 

Another great explore and pics, nice one.


----------

