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Lost Places
NSA Field Station Teufelsberg
A relic from the Cold War, visible from afar.
The former radar and listening station of the NSA.
It served as part of the worldwide espionage network Echelon.
With it the US American and British security services carry out surveillance far into the territory of the Warsaw Pact.
After the German reunification, the facility became useless due to the end of the Cold War.
Until 1999, the facility was used for civilian surveillance of air traffic.
Afterwards there were many ideas what can become of the facility, even the American director David Lynch supported one of the projects and wanted to establish a university there together with a foundation.
However, all these plans of the subsequent use fail.
In the meantime the facility is leased out and there are guided tours, events and Europe's largest Graffiti Gallery.
Shipwreck in Berlin City
A shipwreck in the middle of Berlin.
Legendary are the stories of illegal parties on the wreck in my memory, but even that was a long time ago.
But from the start:
At the beginning of the 90s, a businessman restored the cargo ship, built in Holland in 1959, to a luxurious passenger ship with sleeping cabins.
Everything was of the finest quality, a lot of mahogany wood and brass was used.
His idea was to offer river cruises and that went really well at first. Then the dilapidated infrastructure of the former GDR got in his way.
Locks didn't work properly - he had to refund the fare to the passengers - the banks stopped financing - bankruptcy.
In 1996, the Water and Shipping Authority of Berlin towed the ship into the 'Osthafen' because, in its opinion, it blocked a public mooring.
Because of the now missing electricity connections, a hose burst on a cold night and the ship ran full of water.
Since then the owner and the office argue about who is actually to blame and the ship waits patiently.
Birthplace of rocket technology
A birthplace of rocket technology hides in this forest south of Berlin.
Here, in the Kummersdorf army test site, Wernher von Braun developed liquid rocket engines on behalf of the Army Weapons Office until 1936 and the atomic bomb was researched less than two kilometers from here from 1939.
The area has been used for military purposes since 1874, much has happened here in secret and is still undocumented, therefore considerable dangers lurk in the sand and large parts of the forest are still restricted.
If you are thinking about exploring the area, I recommend that you do so as part of an expert guided tour.
This is offered by the "Förderverein Museum Kummersdorf e.V.". This is also a very suitable place to dive deeper into the extensive history of the area.
Victory Shooting Range - Schweinfurt - Germany
After the US Army had marched into Schweinfurt in April 1945, the soldiers immediately occupied the locations of the German Wehrmacht there and took them over.
In the 1990s, the United States Army Garrison Schweinfurt grew into one of the largest US locations in Europe.
Over the years a total of over 100,000 US soldiers served in Schweinfurt.
One of the facilities they used is this former
Wehrmacht shooting-range.
Here the US Americans completed their basic and advanced shooting training at the site.
There were training possibilities for handguns, armored vehicles and airborne troops.
Since the withdrawal of the American armed forces no plans for a further use of the area are known.
Hey,
I am glad you drop by!
I am Lars, constantly plagued by wanderlust and I do have a preference
for spontaneous individual trips, outdoor adventures and road trips.
...feel free to join me on my endless journey in the moments I like to share within...
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