Hitler’s Hospital

25 hauntingly beautiful images of an abandoned sanatorium in Germany.

Rusty railings, vine-covered buildings, collapsing roofs, and empty corridors with walls covered in graffiti and slowly peeling paint are what remains of the gigantic Beelitz-Heilstätten sanatorium. Beelitz was built in the late 19th century to help rehabilitate the growing number of tuberculosis patients in the expanding city of Berlin. During the Great War, Beelitz-Heilstätten was turned into a military hospital and was where a young Adolf Hitler was treated for a thigh injury from a grenade blast during the Battle of the Somme in 1916.

Hitler was not the only dictator to recuperate at Beelitz-Heilstätten. In 1990 GDR leader Erich Honecker received treatment for liver cancer and after he was deposed following the fall of East Germany, he used Beelitz-Heilstätten as his starting point in his flight to Russia to escape prosecution. Beelitz-Heilstätten remains serene and eminently peaceful…in spite of its past.

Cool fact: The complex was used as a movie set for Roman Polanski’s Oscar winner ‘The Pianist’ and the 2008 film ‘Valkyrie’ starring Tom Cruise.

I am often inspired by quotes & verses to create my image titles and have included them where applicable with each photograph. All images were photographed on October 19th,2013.