Lost Place in Brandenburg: “Little Pripyat” reminds of the ghost town near Chernobyl

Lost places exude a spooky yet beautiful attraction for many. This is no wonder, given that the locations are often diverse: old power plants, abandoned hotels, or spooky hospitals lie isolated in the landscape, left to decay. One of these lost places is the "Little Pripyat" airfield in Brandenburg .

The place is officially nameless, but urban explorers often call it "Little Pripyat." This travel reporter tells how the name came about and the place's long history.

The now-abandoned site was built by the Wehrmacht during World War II and was then called Brand Airfield. In 1938/39, barracks and railway tracks to the nearby train station were constructed. The airfield, located about 60 kilometers south of Berlin, received an additional 1,000-meter grass runway in 1939. However, no air squadrons were stationed there during World War II. Until 1942, the airfield served as a pilot training base, and a school building was also built for this purpose.

After the end of the war, the Soviet occupying forces took over the site. In the 1950s, the airfield was systematically expanded to accommodate front-line bomber aircraft. The location was strategically well-situated, as the Cold War front line ran through Germany.

The former airfield is now largely derelict.

Source: Felipe Tofani, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Two concrete runways, each 2,500 meters long, were built, along with a further two-kilometer-long temporary runway. Around the airfield, approximately 60 paved parking spaces for fighter aircraft were built. The massive, earth-covered shelters were designed to provide protection for the aircraft in the event of an attack and were therefore distributed around the runways.

Over the decades, primarily Soviet-designed front-line and fighter-bombers took off and landed here. And with the Cold War arms race, the military infrastructure also grew: command posts, maintenance hangars, fuel depots, and even a special weapons depot housing nuclear free-fall bombs were built.

Soviet troops left the airfield after the end of the Cold War.

Source: Felipe Tofani, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

But it wasn't just the aircraft that needed space. A prefabricated housing estate with a school, canteens, administrative buildings, and accommodations was built in the middle of the restricted area for the thousands of soldiers and their families.

The apartment blocks were built by the GDR's own special construction combine—using the then-widely used WB70 type, familiar from cities like Rostock, Leipzig, and Halle. Since many officers were stationed at an air force base, an above-average number of families also lived there. There was a school based on the Soviet curriculum, playgrounds, and convenience stores—a functioning Soviet town in the heart of eastern Germany.

After the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the troops withdrew and handed the airfield over to the Federal Property Administration. After that, a slow decline began. Today, the apartment blocks, canteens, and aircraft hangars have long since fallen into the hands of nature. The weather has taken its toll on the buildings, and plants and trees are sprouting where there was once a bustling activity.

Over the years, the former airfield became a lost place, dubbed "Little Pripyat" by fans. With the old Zeppelin hangar in the immediate vicinity, now home to the "Tropical Island" water park, the Soviet airfield is reminiscent of the Ukrainian city of Pripyat, from which the large halls of the nearby former Chernobyl nuclear power plant could be seen. Since the nuclear disaster in 1986, the Ukrainian city has also been largely abandoned.

Important: Entry to the "Little Pripyat" lost place near Berlin is currently prohibited for unauthorized persons. Nevertheless, the site remains popular with lost-place enthusiasts. Anyone who gains unauthorized access to the site should exercise extreme caution. Numerous buildings are in danger of collapsing, and several deep shafts are hidden in the forest floor. These are not secured and pose a high risk of injury.

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