In the district of Buckau, a small distance from the Centre of Magdeburg languish since 1996 the abandoned factory halls of Schwermaschinenbau-Kombinat Ernst Thälmann. SKET, once the largest employer in Magdeburg with around 13.000 employees, produced heavy machinery for the industry here, not only for the Eastern bloc countries but also for the West.
I found this place thanks to a tip from a nice old-port worker. It was a cloudy afternoon with sporadic dabs of rain when I parked my bike near the extensive site. Fortunately there was a door half open in the large metal gate otherwise it would have been a difficult climb to get in. Unfortunately I had but a few hours of time to take pictures. Hope to return soon here before the whole lot has been demolished because there were a couple more, impressive buildings ogling me..
Most photos were made from tripod with (once again) the Canon 24-105 mm. Next time I definitely bring the 17-40 mm with me.
For the enthusiasts who can read German an news paperarticle with some facts about SKET in Magdeburg.

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An impression of Externsteine, a mystical place near the village of Horn in North Rhine-Westphalia. This was a special discovery; a beautiful rock formation in the middle of the woods. The atmosphere was also very good, especially in the evening when the tourists went home. A place to return to and relax!
In the middle ages, the place was used by hermits and a small church was builtt in the 12th century in one of the caves. On picture 9 you can see a religious sculpture from the same era although researchers suspect that parts of it have been made much earlier. There are even traces of human use in prehistoric times. You can read more on this page (in Dutch).
Since the last century, partly because of the interest of the Nazis, It has become a kind of pilgrimage- annex cult place. Every year thousands of people still visit to celebrate the Solstice.
I've met several interesting people who regularly come to visit or live in the surrounding forests and more or less have turned their backs on society. They use the place to meet, to discuss, to make music etc. On pictures 12,13,14 and 15 you see Michael respectively, Rene, Ruud and Bear.

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In a train station annex house near the village of Neuegersleben in Eastern Germany I found a blue, metal letter A. It was not clear where the letter had served for. Maybe someday it hung somewhere in the station and had meaning for the travellers. Or did somebody bring the A from another place and had just left it behind? In two sessions I made a series in which I gave the mysterious A a home within the different spaces of the languishing building.
In the last century Hitler passed here by train on the way to Berlin. Now the rails have been removed and sold as scrap metal. Like a harbour without water.

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Slightly weathered, industrial architecture in Rinteln, Lower-Saxony. Late in the afternoon on a sunny day so beautiful light causing the warm colours of the buildings to be reinforced.
The photos are made with the Canon 24-105 mm L lens, a great lens but slightly too short for true wide angle. Meanwhile I purchased the Canon 17-40 mm and think I will use it more often for architecture. The camera, the Canon 6d full-frame, I've bought at the beginning of this year is a keeper. Know it through and through by now thanks to some night-time photo shoots where you should be able to operate the camera blindly. In this series I've used the built-in GPS function for the first time so later on you can see exactly where the photos were taken. Very useful!
The last picture with the word “War” is of course a bit of a trick. There are still a few letters behind but they are outside the frame. You can probably guess which letters.

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