One feature of Cold War Gothic is the persistence of abandoned military sites. For example, this ex-Soviet base near Berlin. It had the most inappropriate name, too:
Vogelsang [birdsong], one of the largest Soviet garrisons outside of the Soviet Union, was the base of the 25th tank division... [I]t was completely autonomous from the nearby village, had its own residential buildings, cinemas, warehouses and even a school. Some 15,000 people once lived there, and it was seldom quiet. The second Vogelsang was the home of Soviet troops, the warehouses were crammed full of tanks, howitzers and all-terrain vehicles. The cinemas were for the soldiers' families.
Hidden in a forest, plus a mysterious double: Gothic upon Gothic.
One part of the facility was sealed off from the rest, surrounded by high walls and barbed wire. It housed the prison, full of tiny cells, some of them with no window. The only furnishing was a wooden bench that stretched from wall to wall, leaving little open space in the cell. It is difficult to believe that people were locked into the rooms, but messages scratched into the walls continue to bear testament to their former prisoners.
Memories of power and oppression.
From the Spiegel caption:
The glass may be broken on this window at Vogelsang but the metal bars remain.
And this utopian glimpse of the Soviet space program, apparently added to the base school:
(thanks to Alison Furlong)
Comments