This week’s urban exploration adventure led me to the abandoned Anatomy Institute in Rathaus Steglitz, Berlin. This was the former location for Freie Universität Berlin’s Institute of Anatomy before it moved to a new campus in Mitte. Opened in 1949 the institute was only abandoned in 2005, the majority of the building is classrooms and lecture halls, however, dig a little deeper and you will find a whole lot more than you bargained for.
The building itself has been completely trashed, there was no window left un-smashed and no wall left untouched with the exception of one extremely creepy room containing a strange hospital trolley bed and a viewing gallery. Upstairs were traces of people squatting and although the building was in pretty bad shape, structuraly it seems to be pretty sound.
Heading down to one of three basements is where the real fun starts. Be prepared to stumble across an array of cadaver cabinets used to store dead bodies, an autopsy table and some strange sinks – I don’t even want to imagine the purpose of (but if anyone does know then please tell me!), just be careful which door you choose and which cadaver cabinet you open, because you never know what lies in the shadows.
If you can stomach it then head down into one of the three basements (it’s more fun if I don’t tell you which one) to find the morgue – the darkness and immediate temperature drop make for a chilling setting. See if you can find the mortuary table through this labyrinth of rooms, but watch out for the dead bodies, and whatever you do, do not follow the signs. I recommend bringing someone to hold your hand and possibly a torch but in my experience leading the way via camera flash is a whole lot more entertaining.
Tourist-o-meter Rating: 9/10
While this place is still illegal to enter, the foot traffic was unbelievable. We saw groups practicing spray painting, kids smashing things, loud music being played and even one creepy guy in the cellar who appeared from the shadows asked us in German to ‘please keep it down’.
Thank you for stopping by and reading about my latest urban exploration adventure, you can read about more abandoned places by clicking on the links below or heading to > Travel > Abandoned Places in the menu.
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Abandoned Nazi and Soviet Military Complex, Berlin
