Ep 24 - Zombie Hospital... exploring an abandoned former Soviet Children's Hospital in east Berlin

An empty, eerie, sprawling complex sits amidst attractive new apartment buildings in Berlin’s Weissensee neighbourhood. Though a puzzled passerby probably wouldn’t guess it, this crumbling graffiti gallery was once a pediatric medical facility, abruptly banished decades ago to a bizarre limbo that continues to this day.

Inaugurated in 1911, the Weissensee Children’s Hospital (Kinderkrankenhaus-Weißensee) incorporated an almost 3 hectare park with an onsite dairy that produced milk for the young patients. The hospital survived two World Wars and the Cold War, and was even expanded while under Soviet control in 1987 when the East German government added a new wing, but was ultimately closed in 1997.

In 2005 the property was sold to a Russian investor and medical cooperative that proposed converting it into a new clinic. Russian doctors had purportedly discovered a method of curing cancer and AIDS with radio waves. Their results proved difficult to verify, as the patients they cured had all died shortly thereafter.

After years of lawsuits, local courts ordered the fraudulent Russian owner to return the property to the municipal property management authority. The future of this former landmark children’s hospital site is as yet unclear, but it is safe to say that what we capture in this video will soon no longer exist.

Frequented by homeless people, as well as graffiti artists who have used the site to create the impressive street art that we document here, this complex now hides many hazards, evidently including some traps.

Capturing the eerie essence of this now quite creepy place, this exploration was carried out on the afternoon of April 30. This is called Walpurgis Night, Hexennacht ('Witches' Night'), or Saint Walpurga's Eve, in Berlin. According to old pagan traditions, "May Eve" marked the beginning of spring. Later, the canonization of Saint Walpurga and the movement of her relics to Eichstätt, occurred on 1 May 870. Saint Walpurga was hailed by the Christians of Germany for battling "pest, rabies, and whooping cough, as well as against witchcraft". Her tomb, to this day, allegedly produces holy oil, which is said to heal sickness.

Two scenes in Goethe's Faust are called "Walpurgisnacht," and "Classical Walpurgisnacht", respectively. The last chapter of book five in Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain is also called "Walpurgisnacht." In Edward Albee's 1962 play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Act Two is entitled "Walpurgisnacht."

Christians believed that evil spirits would meet for the Witches' Sabbath on the night of April 30. This old tradition is still honoured today in Berlin. Locals gather around bonfires, make loud noises, sing and dance, to ward off evil spirits on Walpurgis Night.

This urban exploration proved to be quite interesting, and here are some key moments:

2:57 – Graffiti Art
5:23 – Graffiti Art
14:48 – Up the old stairs
15:56 – Graffiti Art
16:14 – Graffiti Art
22:52 – Watch your step!
25:35 – Glass spike trap?
29:48 – Graffiti Art
31:43 – Graffiti Art
34:16 – Graffiti Art
36:27 – Into the under dark
44:52 – Graffiti Art
49:45 – Spike trap?
55:16 – This guy did not make it out alive
58:38 – Masterclass Graffiti Art gallery
1:02:11 – Another dark tunnel
1:03:51 – Aerial drone footage of the complex


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