‘Kaserne Krampnitz’
It’s right on the tourist trail for any explorer visiting Berlin. Visited with Priority 7 and Covert Urbex. It has a rich history, which you can get off Google, but basically It was built in 1937 as barracks for the riding army and driving school. The architect was Robert Kish. The military grounds were finally abandoned at the end the war in 1945.
The very next day (literally) the Russian troops moved in, lovely, hopefully we’ll see some soviet remnants today too then. They left completely in 1994 leaving the area as a derelict ghost “village” Although it’s more like a city! I don’t know how many people would have been stationed here at it’s peak, but it’s the closest thing I’ve felt to Pripyat without being there.
Famously the place has been used for movie and television production. Scenes in movies as ‘Enemy at the Gates’ and ‘Inglorious Bastards’ are shot here. Now this is where you’ll have to forgive me slightly if there’s any inaccuracies in the locations - I’ve never seen either of those (I’m not a film person) but you probably have, so I’ll try and point out some landmarks along the way which you may recognise.
The first buildings one comes across are the casino, and officers mess: Then the next thing one notices is the brand new Securitas swipe points and padlocks. Something tells me we’re going to have to be quick on our toes today.
Hallway leading to the Casino:
Large Hallway. The opening scene of chapter 4 of Inglorious is shot here…apparently:
The officers dining room, used in both Inglorious, and Enemy at the gates:
The spectacular surround for the main light above the casino:
Stairs:
Allegedly - The soviets destroyed all of the German symbols and swastikas, so one debate going on about Krampnitz is whether this large ceiling mosaic is real or not. The mosaic shows an eagle on a German cross with swastika. Some says its put up for the movie ‘Enemy at the Gates’ but I‘m told that it definitely doesn’t appear in it.
You prob cant see on the above 800px photo that in one of the corners some mosaic pieces has fallen out, so is definitely mosaic’ed. It looks quite real and seems too much work to put up something like that for a passing / non –scene in the movie. I’ve heard some people claim it is real, painted over by the soviets, and restored for movie making. I don’t know.
Some Original Soviet paintings are still in tact:
Officers mess from the front (as seen in Enemy at the gates)
Right enough opulence, lets see how the troops lived:
Communal sinks
Communal squat plates:
The main gym:
Kitchens:
Canteen:
Newspapers from 1989, I wonder if anything happened in Germany in 1989…
Vehicle workshop:
Inside Gym, yes the floor is slightly fooked:
In case you were wondering how I got the lovely head on / looking down shot of the gym… I climbed up the rusty basketball backboard frame:
We made our way to the massive parade ground. Here’s a funky little pedestal for giving speeches / watching your troops march about:
Just as we were walking across the parade ground, securitys car pulled into the ground. When you spot security at the same time as they spot your brain goes into ‘Fight or flight’ mode – or more accurately in urbex ‘run or hide’ mode.
I always perform a little calculation before deciding this. I take my speed in kilometers per hour, and add it to my knowledge of the site / exit point. Then I do the same for the security guard, (obviously I have to calculate his speed based on his circumference, and footware) and assume he has a better knowledge of the site than me.
Once I have both figure I subtract his from mine. If it is a negative figure, I hedge my bets and hope that I can hide. If it’s a positive figure, I suddenly stop doing maths and start running.
This was one such occasion. Security was in a car, and I was in the middle of the parade ground, the most open, exposed area of the site. “Shit! Car! Car!” I hissed at my fellow explorers, before putting in a performance Eusane would have been proud of. We hit the ground running and laid low for 20 mins in one of the plant rooms, which incidentally was also used in Enemy at the gate.
On the film trail, we set about looking for more buildings from the films. There is also a lot of paraphinalia from film companies still left around the place.
Production business cards:
Right this building was used a lot in Enemy of the gate.
Notice the fake ‘fire damaged’ front doors:
We were lucky enough to still see some bits of set still hanging around:
The room isn’t fire damaged at all. The ceiling on the floor clearly hasn’t fallen from this ceiling, the slope of the roof comes down right in a window etc. Fantastic that it’s all still here like this after 15 years.
Corridor porn:
There is graffiti around the site, which does detract from the buildings in my opinion (I only really think it adds something to properly trashed buildings). That said, the standard of graffiti across Europe as a whole is way better than the UK:
We had done most of the main buildings so decided to wander the rest of the site. This is where it begins to feel chernobyly:
There were loads of cottages in the woods (just like Chernobyl town) Then one emerges out of the wood to rows upon rows of towering accommodation blocks (really like Pripyat) If you look between the buildings you will see there are just endless rows of these blocks.
Anyway, that’s enough photos from me. Apologies it’s a bit photo heavy, it’s an absolutely massive site.
Thanks for looking, videos coming soon.
It’s right on the tourist trail for any explorer visiting Berlin. Visited with Priority 7 and Covert Urbex. It has a rich history, which you can get off Google, but basically It was built in 1937 as barracks for the riding army and driving school. The architect was Robert Kish. The military grounds were finally abandoned at the end the war in 1945.
The very next day (literally) the Russian troops moved in, lovely, hopefully we’ll see some soviet remnants today too then. They left completely in 1994 leaving the area as a derelict ghost “village” Although it’s more like a city! I don’t know how many people would have been stationed here at it’s peak, but it’s the closest thing I’ve felt to Pripyat without being there.
Famously the place has been used for movie and television production. Scenes in movies as ‘Enemy at the Gates’ and ‘Inglorious Bastards’ are shot here. Now this is where you’ll have to forgive me slightly if there’s any inaccuracies in the locations - I’ve never seen either of those (I’m not a film person) but you probably have, so I’ll try and point out some landmarks along the way which you may recognise.
The first buildings one comes across are the casino, and officers mess: Then the next thing one notices is the brand new Securitas swipe points and padlocks. Something tells me we’re going to have to be quick on our toes today.
Hallway leading to the Casino:
Large Hallway. The opening scene of chapter 4 of Inglorious is shot here…apparently:
The officers dining room, used in both Inglorious, and Enemy at the gates:
The spectacular surround for the main light above the casino:
Stairs:
Allegedly - The soviets destroyed all of the German symbols and swastikas, so one debate going on about Krampnitz is whether this large ceiling mosaic is real or not. The mosaic shows an eagle on a German cross with swastika. Some says its put up for the movie ‘Enemy at the Gates’ but I‘m told that it definitely doesn’t appear in it.
You prob cant see on the above 800px photo that in one of the corners some mosaic pieces has fallen out, so is definitely mosaic’ed. It looks quite real and seems too much work to put up something like that for a passing / non –scene in the movie. I’ve heard some people claim it is real, painted over by the soviets, and restored for movie making. I don’t know.
Some Original Soviet paintings are still in tact:
Officers mess from the front (as seen in Enemy at the gates)
Right enough opulence, lets see how the troops lived:
Communal sinks
Communal squat plates:
The main gym:
Kitchens:
Canteen:
Newspapers from 1989, I wonder if anything happened in Germany in 1989…
Vehicle workshop:
Inside Gym, yes the floor is slightly fooked:
In case you were wondering how I got the lovely head on / looking down shot of the gym… I climbed up the rusty basketball backboard frame:
We made our way to the massive parade ground. Here’s a funky little pedestal for giving speeches / watching your troops march about:
Just as we were walking across the parade ground, securitys car pulled into the ground. When you spot security at the same time as they spot your brain goes into ‘Fight or flight’ mode – or more accurately in urbex ‘run or hide’ mode.
I always perform a little calculation before deciding this. I take my speed in kilometers per hour, and add it to my knowledge of the site / exit point. Then I do the same for the security guard, (obviously I have to calculate his speed based on his circumference, and footware) and assume he has a better knowledge of the site than me.
Once I have both figure I subtract his from mine. If it is a negative figure, I hedge my bets and hope that I can hide. If it’s a positive figure, I suddenly stop doing maths and start running.
This was one such occasion. Security was in a car, and I was in the middle of the parade ground, the most open, exposed area of the site. “Shit! Car! Car!” I hissed at my fellow explorers, before putting in a performance Eusane would have been proud of. We hit the ground running and laid low for 20 mins in one of the plant rooms, which incidentally was also used in Enemy at the gate.
On the film trail, we set about looking for more buildings from the films. There is also a lot of paraphinalia from film companies still left around the place.
Production business cards:
Right this building was used a lot in Enemy of the gate.
Notice the fake ‘fire damaged’ front doors:
We were lucky enough to still see some bits of set still hanging around:
The room isn’t fire damaged at all. The ceiling on the floor clearly hasn’t fallen from this ceiling, the slope of the roof comes down right in a window etc. Fantastic that it’s all still here like this after 15 years.
Corridor porn:
There is graffiti around the site, which does detract from the buildings in my opinion (I only really think it adds something to properly trashed buildings). That said, the standard of graffiti across Europe as a whole is way better than the UK:
We had done most of the main buildings so decided to wander the rest of the site. This is where it begins to feel chernobyly:
There were loads of cottages in the woods (just like Chernobyl town) Then one emerges out of the wood to rows upon rows of towering accommodation blocks (really like Pripyat) If you look between the buildings you will see there are just endless rows of these blocks.
Anyway, that’s enough photos from me. Apologies it’s a bit photo heavy, it’s an absolutely massive site.
Thanks for looking, videos coming soon.
but will admit his eyesight saved us from bother for sure here are the few I took:
