Germany: Where it all began, from the Ruhr to the castles of the east

In Germany abandoned places lie in west and east alike: industrial buildings in the Ruhr, the barracks of the withdrawn Soviet army in Brandenburg, sanatoria, courts, castles and manor houses. Many of those I photographed have since been demolished or converted. And here, in the Ruhr, is where it all began for me.

Where it all began

Long before I set out on the path of professional photography I spent a great deal of time in abandoned places, above all in the industrial heritage of the Ruhr. Sadly, many of these places disappeared before I was able to record them properly, and sometimes a certain wistfulness remains at not being able to turn back time.

I particularly mourn some sites that I visited and explored at length as a teenager and young adult but did not yet photograph professionally. With friends I went to the Henrichshütte ironworks in Hattingen or to the old cardboard factory in Velbert-Langenberg, where I lived at the time. Only memories remain. How I would have liked to commit these places to the sensor for good with the skills I have today.

The Ruhr comprises 53 towns and cities and about 5.1 million people on some 4,400 square kilometres. At the Henrichshütte the last blast furnace was blown out in 1987; today it is an industrial museum.

The sewage works in Krefeld

With other places I was still in time, above all with the historic Art Nouveau sewage works in Krefeld, the city that is now my home. It is a magnificent example of an art of building no longer found in such utilitarian structures today. In 2017 I filmed here with the WDR programme Westart for my book NEULAND.

The plant in Uerdingen was built between 1908 and 1910 to plans by the Krefeld architect Georg Bruggaier and was in operation until 1962. For a long time it stayed locked. In 2018 four friends bought the works; it has been under restoration since 2019 and can be visited on selected dates and guided tours.

Why I was drawn across the borders

I was always drawn more strongly beyond the country’s borders, although I kept travelling at home as well. Much has changed over the years, and the rapidly grown scene often kept me from photographing within my own four walls. The attention, and the increased lack of respect in dealing with such unique places, were too much for me.

What has become of the places?

Many places I photographed in Germany are no longer there today or have been put to a new use, mostly much altered.

At Wünsdorf near Zossen the high command of the Soviet forces in Germany had its seat from the 1950s. On 8 September 1994 the last Russian military transport left the station.

The regional and district court of Düsseldorf moved out of the old town in March 2010. Since 2017 the building has housed a hotel, flats, restaurants and offices as the Andreas Quartier. The Lahmann Sanatorium in Dresden, opened on 1 January 1888 and a hospital of the Soviet army until 1992, was sold in 2011 and converted into flats.

Other buildings could not be saved. The venerable Harzburger Hof, opened in 1874 and once the finest and most sumptuous hotel in the Harz, I photographed intact as early as 2010; even the remote controls were still lying in the rooms. After several fires and further decay it had to go, and demolition began in 2017.

The same fate befell the beautiful and once popular ballroom near Döbeln, a hidden treasure on the first floor. The long decay made its fabric ever more brittle. When I visited, the stage had already collapsed, and the plants bore witness to the victory of nature. In 2021 the hall, by then in danger of collapse, was demolished.

Castles in the east

Saxony and Brandenburg in particular are a real stamping ground for beautiful castles. After reunification some were sold for very little money in the hope of rescue, and sadly by no means all were saved. In Brandenburg, experts counted more than 500 castles and manor houses in 2002 and considered every second one to be under threat.

Schloss Vitzenburg in Saxony-Anhalt was a psychiatric clinic from 1969 to 1996. My pictures date from 2012, thanks to the quirky but warm-hearted caretaker who opened the almost unknown castle for me. The yellow and orange decoration of the rooms gave way shortly afterwards to a prominent guest: from 2013 part of the castle was remodelled as “Schloss Falkenstein” for the Bibi & Tina films, now with red walls.

Germany is one of the twelve countries in my book VERGESSENE PRACHT, published by Frederking & Thaler in 2023.

The pictures

Photographs from Germany from the series OVER AND DONE, BOUNDLESS, RISE AND FALL, END OF THE JOURNEY and others.