Nine days of nonstop urban exploration are behind us.
In February we went on our biggest urbex trip yet.
We drove 2.700 km to explore 16 abandoned places in four countries.
We entered military prohibited zones, …
…went underground, …
…and got in trouble with the law.
Several times.
In the next weeks and months we will share our experiences with you.
On YouTube, Facebook and Instagram you can follow us…
…on our most epic urbex adventure yet.
We made the first stop as part of our road trip in Middle Germany.
Here’s an object which is famous and popular in the urbex community.
It’s called “House of Wheelchairs”.
Or...
“Henriettes Erbe”.
Of course we weren’t able to avoid doing an exploration here by ourselves.
…although this place has seen better days.
An old mansion which was used as a retirement home later…
It’s obvious why this object is highly coveted among adventurers and photographers.
We would have liked to spend more time here too but there was only one hour left until sunset.
That’s some kind of a special tub.
Yes, it’s a tub.
And over here you can get out of it.
It isn’t possible any more but you can see the hinge.
I see!
And before you got out the water was pumped down?
Nope, it will leave the tub as a waterfall when you get out of it.
That would suck.
Film the inside.
You can sit inside of this tub.
Yes, right on this cigarette end.
And you can pee too! Over here is the drain.
Well, great. That’s enough.
What’s over here?
There are downy feathers everywhere.
How could that happen?
Someone probably ripped a bed open.
Take a look!
Dude, film my feet.
It’s ridiculously silent.
We’re like ninjas.
No!
And what’s over here?
What do you think is inside of it, Marco? What could it be?
Dunno. Tell me. - Looks like oatmeal gruel.
It’s a pretty cool breakfast bowl. You can take your hands right here and…
Bon appétit!
Enjoy your meal.
Well, of course you have to clean it first.
“Only store pharmaceuticals in here”
And what’s inside of it? – Beer.
Beer…
Important rule: You should never open a fridge in an abandoned place.
Mostly they’re full of mould. – For real?
Yes!
But this one looks just fine.
Could be worse.
Over here is a fish tank.
You can still see some plants.
Urbex rule #18:
Not everything that looks like blood has to be blood.
Sometimes it’s just… - “…beetroot juice”.
In 1801 the construction of this two-floor classicistic mansion had started.
The building was finished four years later.
A big park was part of the mansion too as you can see in this lithography from the 19th century.
When the last member of the property owner family died the mansion changed hands and was owned by a baron from now on.
It seems like the building wasn’t pompous enough yet in his eyes.
The baron extended the mansion and built a side wing.
At the end of World War Two the family was dispossessed property.
From this time on the place was used as residential care home for the elderly.
A remnant of this time is the lift that was built as a continuation to the building.
Shit, dude! Sweet.
We can go up and up.
It’s obvious that…
…a lot of the objects in this place are staged.
Yes, of course.
Many photographers visited this mansion.
What’s this for a paper?
“Freiheit” (Freedom)
This article is about gender equality. It’s still an important topic today.
It’s from 1979.
Apparently there were cats here too.
In the attic there are numerous objects waiting to be put in place for a scene by zealous photographers.
It happened in this way or in a similar way already for many times.
While comparing different pictures of this mansion you can see that the positions of wheelchairs and beds are changing a lot.
…even between several floors.
Because of a vast number of visits vandalism is increasing.
Here are pictures of Berlin. Obviously.
Here is the Gewandhaus in Leipzig.
Dunno. – Some countryside.
Do you recognize this town?
I don’t.
A fancy castle.
Yes…
This guy had a cozy room.
An order sheet! How cool.
And what did they order?
… sliced bread, toast, buns, milk rolls, white bread, currant bread, ...
And yeast!
Take a look at the weight. How much gram?
Not that much. Oh well, he ordered twelve kilogram of sliced bread.
… and 45 gram of milk rolls.
For seven cents!
How old is that?
“13 diabetics”
“Two staffers”
“Date: 19th June 1989”
It’s unknown when the mansion became abandoned.
Word is that the facility was closed by the authorities after a patient in a wheelchair fell down the stairs and died.
While we're at it…
Another curious legend has grown up around this place.
Around 1960 a treasure was found during works on water pipes in the basement.
A part of the wall collapsed and uncovered a room.
In this room were the baron’s silver plates.
An enclosed newspaper suggested that the family of the baron stashed their belongings when they were dispossessed in January 1945.
When the state security service heard about this incident they assumed the salvage work.
The treasure was supposed to be delivered to a nearby museum.
However, no delivery has arrived this place.
After one and a half hours of exploration we left this place under cover of darkness.
We started to our next destination in the Harzer.
We head for an abandoned school of physiotherapy.
…but more on that in the next episode.