Today I show you some interesting photos with an abandoned structure again. I found this building in 2015 in the outskirts of our city. Ironically I found that area by accident. I hiked through the nature reserve Schellbruch and at some point I wanted to go home. I knew the way back makes you turn left and right several times, a little bit like a labyrinth and I thought there must be a faster way. So, I looked at the river and it goes straight to the city, like the crows fly. That should be faster, huh?
I saw a small path, pretty overgrown and took that route along the river. I felt a bit like Indiana Jones, because what looked like an overgrown path was actually a small and dense German jungle (lol), as I noticed a mile later. I pushed my path through the thicket, sometimes even backwards, to minimize the risk of getting hurt by thorns and stinging nettles. When I had the thicket behind me, I found myself standing on an old industrial site. I noticed the abandoned structure and was pretty happy because of course I had my camera with me.
And I totally like abandoned stuff! I shot several photos, because they fit very well into my abandoned photography category on my blog. After that I wanted to go home, but there was still one hurdle. The property was surrounded by big fences with barbs, even near the river there were small barricades and obstacles row in row.
That’s where I realized I might need to go all the way back through the thicket. But checking all fences I found a part with a small pit in the ground, maybe a dog dug a hole days ago. Let’s do it like in the military I thought but my camera bag was a problem. So, I moved the bag and my jacked through the hole first, and then I crawled through it as well. And then I hiked the remaining miles home and my clothes were sandy and people probably wondered why, but the whole experience was pretty funny, how could they know! And absolutely worth it!
Diary of Dennis 
Good stuff! I bet you were tired when you got home!
Definitely. After taking the photos of the abandoned factory, it was a 12 miles hike back home 😀 I remember I put my shoes off and fell asleep within minutes.
Well, it wasn’t much of a shortcut but you did have an adventure. Do you know what used to be made there, they are pretty substantial buildings. It must have been an important place in its day.
Right, definitely not a shortcut, but a nice adventure 🙂
It was a steelwork engineering company. During WW2 it was a manufacturing facility for infantry small arms and shoulder arms. They also produced ammunition and fine mechanical parts for military equipment. So, according to my research it was an arms factory that produced commissioned by the Heereswaffenamt. They produced the Karabiner 98k, the Gewehr 41, Gewehr 43, scopes and other small equipment. They also produces small parts for submarines and other things. In 1944 the factory got heavily damaged by a bomber raid, 81 B-24s of the American Eighth Air Force conducted a raid over Lübeck that day.
After the war, the british military government allowed the production of railroad equipment or parts, and medical equipment. But then it got closed in 1946 and all gear and furnishings was seized and production tools got dismantled. In 1951 the production started again, from then on it was a production facility for freight cars and they were involved in the production of the Herrenbrücke (a famous bridge in Lübeck that no longer exist today since we have a tunnel at that location now). That’s the last information I could find, so I guess after the construction of the bridge, the facility didn’t produce anything anymore.
By the way. It was a bit difficult to research this which is why I probably gave up to look for informations in 2015, but I got an idea and found a hint today in a Facebook group about lost places in our state because someone else uploaded a photo of that place as well. And some older people mentioned the company name in the comments, and on that way I could finally find something on Wikipedia. I didn’t know that the history would go that far back. My article would have had a different focus if I would have known all these details that I found through Wikipedia after I found the hint. I should put that on my todo-list for an in-depth article in the future, maybe I should go there taking some more photos when it gets warmer again. Probably looks boring now since the leaves start to fall. When I found the place, I assumed it had something to do with steelworks, but I didn’t expect that it once was an arms factory.
Good that you asked me! That made me look again for information’s, and this time I found something. 🙂
That’s very interesting Dennis, the place has quite a history. It certainly has been sitting there abandoned for a long time. Perhaps the area is too remote to appeal to developers who always want to turn old industrial sites into residential apartments these days. Finding people who remember the place being open is a good way to research and if nobody remembers it after the fifties it seems likely that it did close down around then.
I wouldn’t say remote, but definitely on the wrong side of the city nowaydays, which means you’re still right 🙂 There are still a couple of companies doing business in this industrial area, I worked for one of them as warehouseman many years ago… that area lost importance over time. The companies that are still there probably didn’t see a reason to move, because costs or what not, but it’s not a growing area anymore. The location was probably perfect back then, due to the river and access to the baltic sea, but these days everything is pushed over the Autobahn to Hamburg of course where the big harbours and international market is. The Autobahn is pretty much on the other side of the city. I am just assuming things here, but on the other hand it makes sense, because the other side of the city has a quickly growing industrial area with close proximity to different Autobahn driveways. So, I guess globalization did twist cities quite a bit 🙂 Pretty interesting stuff.
I just realized if you have to get through the whole city with traffic jam to get onto the highways… the term remote probably fits. Yes. 🙂
From a city planning point of view yes.