A variety of impressive production halls
is the trademark of today’s abandoned site.
This former tank factory in the middle of Vienna
was left to rot around two years ago.
In line with this, some spots look really clean
and natural decay is hardly to be found here yet.
However, the place has been through a lot and is origin
to some curious stories.
Join today’s exploration and get a unique look behind the curtain
of the Austrian armaments industry.
And be there with us when we make an unexpected discovery.
It’s still day one of our urbex road trip in Austria.
A few hours ago, we explored a remarkable old-age residence for visually handicapped people.
And now we’re already squashing through the fence of this massive factory property.
We were on the road together with the lads from Hidden Treasures.
They showed us the sick abandoned places in their area.
First stop was this former tank factory
which is located right next to an active power plant.
You don’t need much imagination to picture how in these tremendous halls
armored fighting vehicles were built.
During our visit, we crossed through several of these huge rooms.
The Austrian arms manufacturer which operated here
is a daughter of the US defense company General Dynamics.
Next to classic tracked vehicles they also produced light-wheeled tanks.
However, war equipment from here wasn’t allowed to be delivered into troubled regions.
Originally, there were around 450 people working on the site.
After the loss of some major contracts in the last few years
it came to multiple strings of layoffs.
Subsequently, instead of building tanks the factory was only used
for repairs and other maintenance services.
Besides that prototypes were developed here, too.
After all, the massive job cuts finally lead to the close-down of the factory.
According to General Dynamics this was the consequence
of the tough conditions at the European and international defense market.
The new manufacturing base is in Portugal now.
But the press had its own assumptions.
They guessed that the site wasn’t transferred because of the low costs abroad
but that the real reason was another one.
The Portuguese military ordered over 250 light wheeled tanks before,
while there wasn’t any procurement order in sight of the Austrian Armed Forces.
The sheer size of the halls and the area was impressive indeed,
but due to the fact that everything was emptied out there was not that much interesting stuff to find.
But suddenly we were surprised.
In the middle of an office building there was one floor with working electricity.
However, the rooms were empty.
Nevertheless it seems like someone is using this part of the area from time to time.
"Sick..."
"Well, so we can charge our batteries here."
"And even sleep here."
Some years ago the tank factory in Vienna
was starting point to an odd case of industrial espionage and bribery.
Against all odds the Slovenian government ordered tanks from Finland
instead of buying vehicles from Austria.
The background: Over a long time a former manager of the Austrian factory
built a conspirative network among the employees.
So from time to time envelopes with sensitive company documents
ended up in his driveway at home.
With the help of middlemen these information and a considerable sum of money
reached the Slovenian Prime Minister at that time.
The string pullers behind the plan were Finnish arms dealer
which wanted to get rid of their vehicles with the help of bribery.
As a result all the participants were sentenced to multi-year prison sentences.
In the long, branched underground passages of the compound
we made some strange discoveries.
At first we saw a red light in the distance.
We wanted to find out what it was.
A small box with the label “probe”.
There were several of them, distributed all over the tunnel system.
But we have no clue what that might have been.
"rat bait"
Shortly after that the second discovery.
A booming.
"entrance to the ice cave"
Apparently there was an active generator right here.
"police sealed"
Behind a door which was supposed to be police sealed
we made the third discovery.
Several objects had been thrown around and were spread on the ground.
The reason:
Nearly a year ago there was an illegal rave party in this basement.
It is said that around 500 people were present that day.
After the police got report of that
around 60 policemen tried to end the noisy hustle and bustle.
But the situation escalated.
The entrance was blocked from the inside.
So the panicked crowd was locked in the partly unlighted underground.
When the police finally got into the basement via the side entrance
the officers were attacked with bottles, stones and even with acid.
Further leftovers we found in a hall on the surface
indicate that there was even another party
which probably took place only shortly before we were here.
This was the second episode of our new show.
The crew of Hidden Treasures showed us even more crazy abandoned places in Austria.
So we hope you’re back next time.
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