Das Olympisches, Germany

Das Olympisches is an abandoned Olympic village in Germany. It covers over half a square kilometre near to existing Wehrmacht (Nazi unified armed forces) military camps. The grounds were landscaped to produce and upper and lower part of the village, and there was a large man-made lake which featured a sauna and terrace café overlooking the water feature. Animals and waterfowl were borrowed from a local zoo and re-located to the lake and surrounding garden areas. The site originally had over 150 buildings, including all the usual Olympic sports facilities; swimming pool, sports hall, gymnasiums, 25m outdoor running track and many sports fields. Around 4000 athletes would have resided in the Olympic village during the games.

The village was built with military design and use in mind, and it was planned to return the buildings to the Wehrmacht after the games had come to a close. After the games, it became an infantry school and training ground. The reception buildings were converted into a large military hospital, and other buildings were re-purposed into a school and lecture halls.

Soviets took over after the Second World War, where it was then used it to house military personnel. The Red Army used the facilities of Das Olympisches for training troops during military service in Germany. The Soviets demolished many of the original buildings, replacing them with soulless but functional Brutalist concrete apartment blocks. The original German sculptures and reliefs were removed, and murals painted over or partly replaced by their own Communist propaganda. With some careful exploring, the occasional image of a German Officer with Swastika insignia can still be found. The last Russian soldiers left in the early 1990s when the Berlin wall fell, Germany became unified and the Soviet Union began to disintegrate.