This image was taken at the eeriest place I have ever been to. A place called Prora. We stumbled across it by accident too, which is quite difficult, as these steps belong to a building that is 4.5 kilometres long. Yes, four point five! And worst… it is only 150 meters from the beach.

It is a concrete legacy of the crazy man that ruled Germany a life-time ago. The complex was planned as a seaside resort for 20 000 workers but was never finished. As it belonged to  the Eastern part of Germany, the Soviets established a military base in there after 1945. They dismantled some of the buildings, relocating all of the re-usable material, leaving bare brick skeletons behind when they moved out. In the late 1950’s the Eastern Germans took over and put some finishing touches on the building. It was then used as a National People’s Army camp until the Wall came down in 1989. During this time it was a restricted military zone, therefore a no go area. The checkered history continued after reunification. The German Army (Bundeswehr) utilised it for a while and it was used as a Refugee camp for people from the Balkans. In 2011 a Youth Hostel opened up.

When I was there (2007), only one of the blocks was used. It housed a museum outlining the history of the building and the history of the National People’s Army (Eastern German Army). The rest was 4.4 kilometers of gutted buildings in various states of decay.

The whole thing is like a snake. All rooms have a sea view, so the building is very narrow.  The picture below shows the seaward side.

On the side away from the sea runs a corridor and every 100 meters or so there is a staircase extension, where the washrooms are located as well. These extensions are depicted in the image below. So you walk for miles alongside this building always seeing the same thing.

This place has all the recent German history packed into it. This makes it so eerie for me.