# Beelitz Heilstattebn - The SW women's sector bath house... IMAGE INTENSIVE.



## TeeJF (Feb 1, 2012)

This is the THIRD report from our second trip to Beelitz-Heilstätten near Berlin back in November. I apologise for taking so long to get it up on site but it's been a bit of a frantic time lately. 

This report covers ONLY the south western sector bath house. 


*REPORT 7 - The south western sector bath house...​*

*The Badehaus (central bath house complex) located at the south eastern end of the Beelitz-Heilstätten site in the Männer-sanatorium sector, catered for the male patients in the adjacent Male Pavilion. Directly across the road from this quadrant of the Beelitz complex is an area assigned to female patients and it is as yet relatively undisturbed, most explorers heading instead for the north western sector immediately after visiting the lovely buildings in the diagonally opposite corner of the site. None of these buildings had been secured when we visited in November 2011 and so it was possible to walk straight in through the front door without having to find a torturous route through asbestos laden cellars or by climbing through broken windows etc.





It is the top right building in the above photograph.​
Just as in the adjacent male sector there were no baths within the adjacent female pavilion on the lower west side, instead a completely self contained bath house was built a short walk away across an open court yard. We wandered in and had a very relaxed hour or so exploring the building from top to bottom. Generally most of the female buildings on the site mimic their male counterparts quite closely so we were very surprised to find that this building did not have a sunken plunge pool in the main bath hall as might be expected.
*

*The photos...*

*Here is a selection of the photos we took commencing with the exterior but moving through the building, "tour style" in the same order which we explored it.*









*The exterior of the bath house building as we approached from the female pavilion opposite.*









*And we're in!*









*The bath hall proper...*










*Graf is everywhere you go in and around Berlin, mainly mindless tagging. But some is occasionally worth a look.*










*An abandoned bedstead - more sunlounger than hospital bed.*










*The front wall and it's south facing sun catcher windows!*










*The bath house tiled roof.*








*An interactive panorama shot within the bath house. Click the picture to open a fully interactive version in a new window.*










*Moving on.*










*Was this some sort of water therapy treatment room?*










*And perhaps this one too? Note the water header tank high on the wall in the corner.*










*Beauty in Decay...*










*Moving on again, top of the shop!*










*Top floor corridor.*










*Water damage on the top floor.*










*The female pavilion across the way.*










*When originaly built ventilation of the bath house was achieved by convection and a vent out through the roof from the top of the bath hall ceiling. Later it was by vent fan.*










*The central column behind the steel roof joists is the vent column from the bath hall.*










*Looking down through the vent column to the bath house floor below.*










*The Mask!*










*Sublime Beelitz architecture.*










*Down to the cellars now and this ancient power distribution board.*










*A narrow gauge railway enters this building from outside, part of the Beelitz underground supply and services tunnel system. Now it is almost all bricked up.*










*...and it terminates at the base of a large dumb waiter.*





That's all folks... hope you liked the piccies!. 



Thanks for looking...    ​


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## night crawler (Feb 1, 2012)

What can I say apart from being speechless and green with envy every time you post someting from here. Brillant work as usual.


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## TeeJF (Feb 1, 2012)

Cheers bud, I think I've got two buildings left now that I haven't put up yet.


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## KingRat (Feb 1, 2012)

OMGG, how f'kd !? That's sad, all that graff (something I'll never appreciate). Still, some cracking images and a top report as per usual fella.


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## maximus (Feb 1, 2012)

Excellent report as always!!

Looks like it was a horrid place,like a prison


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## Sshhhh... (Feb 1, 2012)

Awww, why why,you make everyone on here extremely jeolous, how mean of you!!  We got to get there one day.what an adventure that would be, great report as usual guys


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## TeeJF (Feb 1, 2012)

Sshhhh... said:


> We got to get there one day.what an adventure that would be, great report as usual guys



Awww thanks J... you know, all you need to do is grab the same flight as us sometime and we'll point you at it all happily. We're into some new ones next time we go over, quite a bit further out, and it won't be far off. How you fixed for a few days over there? You know it makes sense! 



maximus said:


> Excellent report as always!! Looks like it was a horrid place,like a prison



Cheers buddy. It's actually quite nice despite what the pics portray. It must have been lovely when it was all landscaped.



KingRat said:


> That's sad, all that graff (something I'll never appreciate). Still, some cracking images and a top report as per usual fella.



Cheers matey. I find some of the graf quite good but it's a shame there's tagging too. Mind you these buildings have next to none compared with the surgery block - AND it's trashed.


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## Sshhhh... (Feb 1, 2012)

Finances permitting we will take you up on that!!


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## Ninja Kitten (Feb 1, 2012)

i am soooooooooo envious!!!! grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!just brill!!


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## TeeJF (Feb 1, 2012)

Ninja Kitten said:


> i am soooooooooo envious!!!! grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!just brill!!



Cheers B... so get saving and get your psychedelic wellies out there with us soonest!


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## Ninja Kitten (Feb 1, 2012)

TeeJF said:


> Cheers B... so get saving and get your psychedelic wellies out there with us soonest!



love your reports! i have you know i have a new pair now too!! but put them on as im off out tomorrow and they just dont feel rite lol!! and i am saving...all the time...but it just goes!!


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## the|td4 (Feb 2, 2012)

Another great report guys, superb place ! I'd love to visit somewhere like that!



That pic of the "almost bricked up tunnel" any more of that or what was through the gap?


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## TeeJF (Feb 2, 2012)

the|td4 said:


> Another great report guys, superb place ! I'd love to visit somewhere like that!
> 
> That pic of the "almost bricked up tunnel" any more of that or what was through the gap?



Then do it quick! There's serious signs that they are beginning work at Beelitz now. The male pavilion (search out our other Beelitz reports in here with that as your keyword if you want to see the other 6 or 7 reports on individual Beelitz buildings, most of which are much nicer than this one) is definitely suspect as we ran into engineers or architects on one trip. The badehaus is the same and signs of interior work are everywhere. Access though is not too difficult right now and you can rock up sometimes and almost literally walk straight in but three weeks later and the same entrance is firmly blocked off again. Having said that the buildings in the SW quadrant were all wide open. 

OK... the tunnel... yes. All the buildings at Beelitz had a tunnel in the basement leading off to a central energy generation complex just above the SE quad buildings. Heat was generated in the form of pressurised steam which was piped to each building and turned into heat for domestic water via calorifiers, and into filtered warm air central heating. Likewise electricity was also generated and distributed from the same central building. There is some evidence to suggest that the tunnels may also have been used for movement of goods though that is open to interpretation as there was no narrow guage railway to be seen anywhere else other than in this building we have just reported. At Heilstatten Grabowsee however a similar tunnel and railway links the south and north ends of the site and there is even a carriage on the line - again a search will throw up that report too.

The central generation building is beautiful but it has been restored as a museum, albeit one we never saw open on our visits. 






Along the not inconsiderable length of some of the tunnels there are surface access points which look like little buildings. Inside there is a steel spiral staircase leading down to the tunnel level. Unfortunately the ones we entered had all had the tunnels bricked up.











Thank you for your kind comments.

M and TJ


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## eclectic_fence (Feb 4, 2012)

Wow, looks like such an amazing place, I, like everybody else am very jealous! Great pics!


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## TeeJF (Feb 5, 2012)

Thank you. Kind of you to say so. 

You know exploring in and around Berlin is very, very cheap. For example - 3 days exploring around Kent recently based on the cheapest but most reasonable hotel which we could find near Dartford for 2 nights - £90 for the hotel plus petrol for the trip, that's over 500 miles with local running so say 12 gallons at £6 = £72. So only 3 days exploring even before meals just 240 miles from home = £162 and the hotel was appalling. Had we done a extra night we would have been over the £200 at about £260. 

Berlin for four nights in a really nice 4 star hotel = £160. Flights = various prices but the last time we paid about £100 in total for both of us return. You've got to chuck in trains to the equation but the most expensive we paid for a day ticket was E7.80 return each. And there is airport car parking too - £40. All in all it's a very similar price but more time explroring with so much more to see without hassle and stopping in a great hotel in a great city.


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## ccolumbus (Feb 14, 2012)

Wow these images are AMAZING! Especially the one with the broken glass windows.

Personally, the fact that it was a hospital would've given me the willies and take me back to the going-on's in Bedlam. 

I heard that there is asbestos in those buildings. Were you wearing the masks for that reason, or just because it was damn dusty?


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## TeeJF (Feb 14, 2012)

ccolumbus said:


> I heard that there is asbestos in those buildings. Were you wearing the masks for that reason, or just because it was damn dusty?



Thank you for your kind comments. 

Yes indeed, there is a lot of asbestos in the buildings, especially the cellars so after our first trip we went back prepared and wore the masks. Bit of a ball ache really because they make my glasses steam up constantly!


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