Exploring the Soviet-era Abandoned Buildings

Guest article by Seamus Murphy of Trenditionist at urbanghostsmedia

If you visit the city of Chemnitz in the German Free State of Saxony, your first impression is going to be distinctly Soviet. You might regret you came, even wishing you went to one of Germany’s more alluring destinations like Munich, Hamburg or Berlin. But it’s important to persevere, because hidden under Chemnitz’s grey and gritty exterior, it’s possible to unearth a plethora of historical riches.

Not far away from the beautiful city of Dresden, Chemnitz was named Karl-Marx-Stadt between 1953 and 1990. German reunification tore the heart out of the city’s traditional industrial backbone. Struggling to compete in a new Germany driven by economic powerhouses in cities like Munich and Stuttgart, Chemnitz started to decline. Its factories and apartment blocks were torn down or abandoned as people flooded west in search of new opportunities.

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