Adolf Hitler Lager – Forst Zinna
THE ABANDONED MILITARY SITE IN GERMANY
This former Military complex ‘Adolf Hitler Lager’ in Forst Zinna was built in 1934. The camp was part of the German re-armament program. The complex was build around a huge military training area.
Because the other camps in the neighborhood were named ‘Altes Lager‘ and ‘Neues Lager‘, this was first called ‘Lager III’. Other names were ‘Waldlager Jüterbog’ and its official name ‘Adolf Hitler Lager’.
The camp was first used by the SS, the Schutzstaffel. But later, from 1935 it was used as a trainings camp by the Artillerieschule Jüterbog. From 1940 it was a training site for tank drivers. At the end of the war, the RAD-Infanterie-Division were housed in Forst Zinna. Immediately after the end of the Second World War, the Soviets took over the site and used it as a displaced person’s camp. This DP-camp were primarily for refugees from Eastern Europe and for the former inmates of the Nazi German concentration camps.
After use by the ‘Deutsche Verwaltungsakademie’ who turned it into ‘The German Academy of Public Administration’ with the goal of training the DDR political elite, the site was taken over again by the Soviet army in 1950. In the military area, there were several administrative buildings, farm buildings, a cinema, and a zoo. At the end of 2007 the demolition of Forst Zinna started. Only a small part of the complex is listed and safe from demolition, most of the site has been demolished the last few years. Only a small part of the complex is listed and safe from demolition. Most of the camp is due to disappear in the next years. I photographed ‘Adolf Hitler Lager – Forst Zinna’ in 2012 and 2016.
