About 45 minutes away from the centre of Berlin by regional train RE4, Elstal is an unassuming train station in the outskirts of Berlin. It’s East German “charm,” if you can call it that, radiates from a lonely phallic water tower and graffitied facilities. The nearby outlet village is the only reason why people who live elsewhere would want to visit this nondescript location.
However, I had a much more sinister agenda – to get into the abandoned 1936 Olympic Village that housed thousands of athletes for the games in Berlin that year, hosted at the Olympiastadion. Much like the stadium, Hitler wanted to impress the world with architecture so he built a brand new planned housing community.
I didn’t have an appointment, so I brought my bicycle with me on the train and cycled around the forest to look for a convenient point of entry. Then, I waited five years for the statute of limitations to pass before publishing about this experience.
Sure enough, I only had to circle the compound to find huge hole in the fence that I could just walk through. If I didn’t bring my bike, it would’ve take a lot longer to find the entrance. Mindful that there might be unsavoury characters occupying an abandoned Nazi building complex, I proceeded with caution and only entered buildings when I was absolutely sure it was safe.
The buildings are generally in very good shape, but there are a lot of hazards on the ground. Uncovered manholes and open structures covered by leaves can be a deadly hazard, so only go during the day under ideal weather conditions and keep your eyes open. Bring a buddy if possible.
The inside of the buildings are not in remarkably good shape. Decades of abandonment have given looters and vandals plenty of opportunity to renovate the interior space. But you can still get an idea of a scale and ambition of the project and the feeling of might and power that it must’ve projected to foreign athletes. High ceilings, coloured ceramic tiles, and wrapped corners are just a few of the details that still remain today.
Before you ask, no, the electricity and water don’t work. I tried.
This post is part of my Berlin Zone C series from 2016-17. At the time, I lived in Berlin and had a Google Sites set up to blog about locations around Berlin’s periphery. I saved all my assets before Google decommissioned Classic Sites in 2021 and re-uploaded them to this site over time. Photographs were taken with an iPhone 5s.
