Germany Summer 2020 – The GDR Ballroom Tour

Highlights From This Trip

• 5 Days
• ~1500 Miles
• 22 Locations Explored
• ~250 photographs
• So…many….ballrooms!
• Life goal achieved (booped The Monster!)

With air travel between Germany and England restored, I ventured over to see my good friend and amazing travel companion. We had long talked about a “Big East Germany Tour”, hitting many of the old German Democratic Republic (GDR) ballrooms. I have always been fascinated by the number, and variety of these buildings. I visited my first Ballsaal during the Easter 2018 Tour.

We allowed a few extra days for this trip, due to the long driving distances we would need to cover. Thanks to the long summer days, we managed to visit 22 locations and clocking up 15000 miles in the process!

Das Stadbadt – Even more beautiful in reality

It is always good to have a permission visit scheduled on a tour. It acts as a safety net, a guarantee of at least one amazing location! The beautiful former spa and swimming pool of Das Stadbadt has been a location I have admired for as long as I can remember.

We spent several hours in here, exploring other areas which are less photographed. This location certainly had a lot to offer (including a nice selfie opportunity, before we left).

Eleven Ballrooms (Ballsaals)

Half of the locations we visited, were ballrooms. Eleven in total. These ranged from pristine relics, to dilapidated ruins. I can safely say that my desire to photograph German ballrooms has been satiated for quite a few years. I felt thoroughly burnt out on ballrooms by the end of the trip, as we enjoyed almost a 100% success rate. A glut of ballroom locations, is certainly a nice problem to have!

Fantastic machines

Some of my favourite things to photograph are rusty machines.

I have a lot of map pins, and sometimes my organisation before a trip can be lacking (sorry Bastian!). As we were driving about deep in Eastern Germany, something made me think of an old Soviet plane. My recollection told me it was nearby, or maybe a small detour. After a few minutes of frantic trawling through my map collection, this was confirmed and we decided to make the diversion.

One of my life goals has been to sit in a control room of a bucket wheel excavator. These are one of my favourite machines, partially due to my background in ancient coal geology and associated extinct ecosystems. I even own the Lego Teknik model, it sits on my office shelf. Despite having a complete terror of heights and climbing ladders, I fought my fear on this day. I made my way up ladders (normally a large issue for me) and metal grating floor (another regular blockade for myself!). Eventually, I got to the control room at the top of the conveyor and got the photo I wanted.

To my delight, we even drove passed a surprise MiG-21 part way through our trip. My favourite aircraft, as all my friends know (and are sick of hearing about).

All-in-all, this was an awesome trip. Filled with good banter and amazing locations. You can check out the rest of the behind-the-scenes photos below, I hope you enjoy them!