I realize that this title makes me sound like I’m in some revamped Merchant Ivory film. I assure you I am not. I sincerely apologize for not posting in such a long time. Post (or next stage?) pandemic life has left me feeling busy and unable to write. But as God is my witness I SHALL return to posting. Beginning with this one.

As many of you know my best friend is an ultra talented opera singer now resides in Berlin. As such my partner (ah yes, another happy reason that I have been away for so long) and I finally decided to jump on the Summer 22 European band wagon and high tail it out of our dreary country. As a side note: when Roe v Wade was overturned while we were there it certainly gave us pause as to what hell scape we were returning to.

We had a wonderful trip made even more wonderful by spending time with Patrick. Also made more wonderful by the fact that Germany was promoting tourism by offering a 9 euro monthly ticket for all transportation. This let us do some fun day trips. One of my favorite being our trip to Beelitz-Heilstätten. An abandoned lung disease hospital with a rich history.

Beelitz-Heilstätten hospital was a state of the art hospital for it’s time. Build in 1898 as a sanatorium for tuberculosis patients. Those who had fallen on ill health in the overpopulated city of Berlin were welcomed into the forests of Potsdam to take in the good air.

The buildings were constructed in such a way to make use of “air baths” in which patients would go out onto their balconies and take in the good air. The first wave of construction let 600 people stay in the compound. 300 of each sex. The facilities were divided down the middle, half for men and half for women. In the expansion 1908 that was doubled and many other facilities were added, making the facility its own little town.

But as you may remember from history class, a crap ton of stuff happened between 1915 and 1945, namely some pretty gruesome wars. The First World War brought wounded soldiers to Beelitz’s doors to be treated, one of those soldiers being young Adolf Hitler when he was insured at the battle of the Somme.

The hospital returned to its normal operations in 1920 and was expended further with a state of the art surgical ward. When World War II began it once again became a place for soldiers to convalesce. And it’s proximity to the woods and to Berlin made it one of the ways the Soviets eventually were able to gain a foothold into the city. The ruins of the buildings still show the scars from those battles. The soviets held on to control over the hospital after the war and remained in control of it until 1994. The largest soviet hospital outside of the USSR it housed the last East Berlin chairmen when he was diagnosed with cancer after the fall of the wall.

After that the hospital fell on heavy disrepair and remains so to this day. Only in the last few years has it been somewhere people could tour. While we did not have an opportunity to go in (all the tours were in German) we did get the chance to make use of the skywalk, a high walk several floors high in which you got a chance to see the stunning views and to peek into the derelict buildings.

See you next month and thanks for reading!