It’s the end of an era for urban explorers, Sovietophiles and Red Army veterans: work to convert the former Soviet military base of Krampnitz into an eco-friendly suburb of affluent Potsdam will start in March, local newspaper ‘PNN’ announced. Construction workers are already on the site to clear the ground for the builders and the bulldozers.
“Gaststätte Philip, 1987” reads the caption under a black and white image of two guys and two girls in their mid-twenties looking relaxed as they sit on the terrace of restaurant ‘Philip’. The image is posted on the Russian social media network OK.ru by a man called ‘Gennadii Mochalov’, a 55-year old from Petrozavodsk. A couple of people have left comments on the image, like Sergey Puzikov, saying: “Pleasant memories! Such a great place”, or Nikolai Vasilevski: “Wonderful place. Great memory of that time. Let’s go to Philip!”.
Off-duty beers at ‘Gaststätte Philip’, next to lake Krampnitz.
The acronym ‘GSVG’ stands for ‘Gruppa Sovietskikh Voisk v Germanii’. Russian for ‘Soviet Group of Armed forces in Germany’, the group Gennadii, Sergey and Nikolai served during their military service. They were members of the largest army group outside the Soviet Union, posted in East Germany to safeguard the communist regime. Those working for the GSVG had luck: while others had to risk life and limb in Afghanistan, or were posted in remote places like Siberia or Kamchatka, servicemen in East Germany enjoyed a fairly comfortable life, serving in the wealthiest country of the Eastern Bloc.
Red Army personnel marching under the watchful eye of Marx, Engels and Lenin. Krampnitz, 1960s. Image by Yuri Rudakov.
Only a few years after the picture was taken, the Berlin Wall fell. East and West Germany soon reunited, and with that the Cold War was over. With East Germany no longer communist, the Russian troops had no reason left to stay. At the same time, Germans regarded Russians with hostility as guardians of an undemocratic and corrupt regime. Thus, the German government in Bonn that wanted them out, offered Moscow 14 billion Deutschmark to have its 380,000 servicemen, 150,000 wives and children, 5,000 tanks and 677,000 tonnes of ammunition out of the country by the summer of 1994. A big job, but the Russians managed to fulfil it. On the 1st of September 1994, 49 years after the Soviets arrived in East Germany, the last Russian serviceman left Germany.
Getting the Russian soldiers out was easy, if costly. Finding new owners for the abandoned bases however, was a much more difficult task for the authorities. By the year 2000, only a handful of the 213 often enormous compounds, were in private ownership. Environmental neglect (the Soviets simply dumped their oil, waste and unwanted ammunition in the surrounding nature), remote location and poor building quality made them unwanted objects.
Dinnertime: ‘Enjoy your meal” in Russian.
The big exception being Krampnitz, with its solid 1930s architecture, lakeside views, surrounded by sprawling forests, at only a stone’s throw from affluent Potsdam. Nevertheless, it took until 2007 until a privatisation agency called “Brandenburgischen Bodengesellschaft (BBG)” managed to find a buyer for the complex: a project development agency called “TG Potsdam”. TG Potsdam bought the compound for 4.1 million euros, less than half of the 9.7 million euros the state authorities valued the 277-acre property at. Something seemed not right and in 2010, German newspaper Stern revealed a nifty corruption scheme. The paper discovered that Frank Marczinek, the director of privatisation agency BBG, made a private arrangement with the owner of TG Potsdam; high society lawyer Ingolf Böx. He offered to sell him the base below market value, on the condition that TG Potsdam would build houses on the site. This would increase the value of the neighbouring pieces of land, which Marczinek happened to own.
As Marczinkek, Böx and others involved in the scheme were placed under formal investigation; the growing city of Potsdam wanted the old Red Army base back to develop it independently and house up to 4,000 people in it. The city took legal action against TG Potsdam, which in its eyes had illegally obtained the base. The investment firm denied any wrongdoing and took counteraction to keep Krampnitz. During the seven years of legal proceedings that followed, the military base was entirely neglected. TG Potsdam refused to invest any money in the buildings and the other parties were legally nog allowed to.
Just not today: Russian opening hours of a shop long gone.
The neglect made Krampnitz a mecca for urban explorers. From vast murals with propaganda slogans in Russian to the odd forgotten Red Army uniform or vintage cigarette packet, it could all be found at the base where time seemed to have stood still. Just like newspapers with exotic Soviet titles like ‘Krasnaya Armiya’, ‘Pravda’ or ‘Izvestiya’, spread out on desks as if they had been left there just days before, vodka bottles and canned foods with best by dates in the early 1990s, televisions with ‘Made in CCCP’ on their backs, instruction manuals for vintage East German cars and even an entire liquor store with stacked crates of empty beer bottles as if about to be picked up. Open air archeology at an hour’s drive from Berlin.
An old troop inspection platform. The exercising grounds can do with some weeding…
In the spring of 2017, the city of Potsdam city council announced that one of Germany’s largest property companies Deutsche Wohnen, would take over Krampnitz by buying out TG Potsdam, ending the 7-year legal battle. Deutsche Wohnen in turn declared its intention to invest 350- to 400 million euros to renovate the old garrison buildings and add new ones starting from 2018. With that statement, the fate of the former Soviet base has finally been sealed after 26 years of uncertainty. In only a few years, families will again be living in the what once was an eerie Cold War relic, almost three decades after Gennadii, Sergey and Nikolai left with theirs. Enthusiasts have until early March to look at what the Soviets left behind. Alternatively, scroll on for some of my observations made over the past two years.
The heroes of the revolution: now bladdering off the wall.
Sportive friends in two languages.
One very friendly viking, drawn on the wall of an empty daycare.
Plaster mural “To our Soviet Motherland”
Plaster mural with Soviet Air Force, Red Army and naval flags
Everyday life impressions:
“From my life”, the cover of the autobiography of Erich Honecker.
Unfortunately the chocolate was gone.
Why the long face? It’s only been 28 years!
“Don’t forget the potatoes!” It can at times seem as if the last Russian left last week.
What’s left of the huge ‘Univermag’ where Krampnitz Russians would come to shop.
When cigarettes came without health warnings.
Even Gaststätte Philip looks like it’s still open for business (it’s not).
An enormous car instruction manual with a GDR-era TV set next to it.
All of it Soviet made, Krushchev would be proud.
A lot of entry-level cars, better keep it realistic.
Red Army base sold: Do Svidaniya Krampnitz It's the end of an era for urban explorers, Sovietophiles and Red Army veterans: work to convert the former Soviet military base of Krampnitz into an eco-friendly suburb of affluent Potsdam will start in March, local newspaper 'PNN' announced.
