German Road Trip. Adolph Hitler Lager, aka Forst Zinna. Military complex. September 2020

Nearing the end of a fantastic 10 days in Berlin, my travels took me 60 miles south to a relatively small town of Jüterbog. An area that has a long military tradition pre dating the 1914-18 conflict. This is the first of three I enjoyed immensely.

The large military base at Forst Zinna was constructed in the mid 30’s at the dawn of the Third Reich. Named after and In honour of the führer, Adolf Hitler. Aka Forst Zinna.

The Camp hosted barracks and training rooms, used by an artillery and transportation school. There were also many service buildings, like canteens, sport and administration facilities.

The base was operated by the Wehrmacht until the end of WWII, when the region was conquered by the Red Army.

At the end the end of the conflict the Soviets took over the site and used it to house displaced persons primarily refugees from Eastern Europe and for the former inmates of the Nazi German concentration camps.

Later used by the ‘Deutsche Verwaltungsakademie’ who used as ‘The German Academy of Public Administration’ with the intention of training the DDR political elite.

In 1950 the site passed over again to the Soviet Army. In the military area, there were administrative buildings, farm buildings, and leisure complex

At the end of 2007 the demolition of Forst Zinna started. Only a small part of the complex is listed and safe from demolition.

Parked up right outside the gates and in I went, nice of them to leave a nice big gap by the gate

The remaining buildings were few and far between in this camp
But I realise I did find the outdoor swimming pool shown on the postcard, which is cool.

Just a few industrial/manufacturing type buildings, gave up some nice soviet signs

I found one building two floors and an attic. One of the lower rooms contained fantastic Soviet memories, books and propaganda. As I am currently having a love affair with all things Soviet, my heart skipped a beat at these in all honesty. Not quite a semi, but near as damn it.

“Two worlds; Two systems”

“On guard: Socialist Homeland”

It was when I reached a small “room: partioned off in the attic, that I got the semi!

Suddenly transported into the life of a young Russian conscript; potentially thousands of miles from home, family and friends, living a bleak and hard existence. On guard for his homeland.

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