In Perspective, Planet: Enter at your own risk.

I went there the first time in winter. It was cold.

And since nobody commented: who wrote "The door into summer"? Very nice book, especially for cat lovers.

It was very cold the first day I went there. We were in the middle of winter.

Jerome Marot said:

I want a pony.​

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Hey Jerome, aptly titled series. LOL.

Regards.

Thank you.

Leftovers, junk, dirt...

This is a healthy change from "ruin porn"

I suspect the life that remains, the contrast with the present, pictures from when there was a vital life there... all in some combination are a book that will preserve them. Are you or is someone doing it?

Two good examples: Danny Lyon's The destruction of lower New York, and the recent "Asylum: Inside the closed world of state mental hospitals," by Christopher Payne, MIT Press. Each document a lost world and try to make real the presence of the people now vanished. Lyon gives some sense of the role of the demolition crews (who threatened, not entirely as a joke, to drop a wall on him), and shows the angst that goes with this sort of work.

scott

scott kirkpatrick said:

I suspect the life that remains, the contrast with the present, pictures from when there was a vital life there... all in some combination are a book that will preserve them. Are you or is someone doing it?

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I don't think that anyone is writing a book, no.

scott kirkpatrick said:

Two good examples: Danny Lyon's The destruction of lower New York, and the recent "Asylum: Inside the closed world of state mental hospitals," by Christopher Payne, MIT Press. Each document a lost world and try to make real the presence of the people now vanished. Lyon gives some sense of the role of the demolition crews (who threatened, not entirely as a joke, to drop a wall on him), and shows the angst that goes with this sort of work.

scott

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Yes, I realize that the demolition crew is part of the story, and I should try to involve them if I want the project to be complete. Unfortunately, this won't be possible. The situation has evolved to more tension as of last month and there are guards patrolling the grounds. Those people are paid to say no and they will.


Which is a pity. Not only for the artists who used the place, but the houses themselves are a testimony of another era.

I have no idea what this message means.

The houses were relatively typical of after war "design". A detail here:

Jerome,

It's all rather sad! I'd have thought this area would be a great facility for artists to house a giant collective studio. what prevented this? Do you know?

Asher

Asher Kelman said:

Jerome,
It's all rather sad! I'd have thought this area would be a great facility for artists to house a giant collective studio. what prevented this? Do you know?

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Nothing prevented it. That is what happened for years before the place was emptied. I explained the story in the first posts.

Your question demands a more complete answer, Asher. Here it is.

Please keep in mind that this is Germany, and there are no squatter laws. When the army left the place and sold the land to the city, it was planned from the onset to demolish the houses. The artists were given a temporary permit to rent atelier space for a few years only. So the destruction was planned.

The creation wasn't.

There was more on the grounds that I was able to see, most notably a night-club for sado-masochists and a large music hall. And more ateliers. So the land was put to some good use in the intermediate time when the city planned what to do with it.

A few houses were listed and kept as a testimony of the architecture of the barracks. These are still used to lodge policemen today. The rest is being demolished as we speak.

What about the artists? A limited number were allowed to stay in two houses which are on the side of the main grounds. I will present them in the second series. The rest of them had to go.

Why? Because of money. The land is worth millions and art has no clear value. The same story is happening all over Germany. You may want to search for "Tacheles" in Berlin: same story and closing this month. I gave a warning at the onset: this is a sad story with no happy end.

After wandering through the abandoned houses with my camera, I finally came to a big room where the artists had left a message. What significance this place had for them. Here it is:


To be able to read the smaller prints, you can get the full resolution picture here.

This is the end of the first series. It gets worse in the second series.