Category Archives: Germany

Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp

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Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp (Orienienburg, Germany)
A Morbid Must-See!

I visited this compelling concentration camp in the former East Germany in the summer of 2014 with a couple of friends who are of the non-morbid persuasion.  I didn’t think they’d be very interested, so I tried to be polite and only allowed a few hours for the visit.  As it turned out, they were every bit as fascinated by this tragic site as I was and we all wished that we’d had a full day to explore.  They have done an incredible job of reconstructing the horror of life and death in the camp via first person accounts and memorabilia, with an especially huge collection of medical history memorabilia.  I highly recommend that if you go, you allot a full day and get there early!

The account of my visit can be read on my Forlorn Photography site:
Nineteen Thirty-Sick!

Museum of Sepulchral Culture

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Museum of Sepulchral Culture (Kassel, Germany)

sepulchral

This sounds like a goth dream come true!  A museum that blends death-themed modern art with ancient coffins, tombstones, hearses, framed death notices, memorial photography, embalming equipment, mourning clothing, etc.   Here’s an article that goes into greater depth on this fascinating museum:

German Museum of Death Anything But Morbid

Thanks to Steve ORourke for the link.

Medieval Crime Museum

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Medieval Crime Museum (Rothenburg, Germany)

TandoMando highly recommends this site: “If anyone gets to the medieval walled town of Rotenburg ob der Tauber, in the Rhine valley, I highly recommend the museum of torture and death! It’s located at the far end of the entrance to the city. They have all the standard medieval torture devices like iron maidens, stretching racks, large metal hoods worn for various transgressions, for all manner of punishment meted out way back in the day. Some were positively bizarre, including one that was basically a table to which the victim was tied, and had a spike that went in the anus, forced into the body so far it resulted in death.” Sounds like my cup o’ tea!

Holocaust Memorial (Berlin)

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Holocaust Memorial (Berlin, Germany)

Berlin Holocaust Memorial by K.

Berlin Holocaust Memorial by K.

K. suggests this site: “I don’t know I would strictly say this is a morbid sightseeing example, although if you include the museum underneath it might qualify. Regardless, it certainly is worth a wander through if you are in that part of the world.

“In 2005 I was backpacking through Europe, and made a point of getting to Berlin to do a tour of the city. On the tour we stopped at many places including the remaining sections of the wall, Hitler’s hiding place and the Holocaust Memorial. It was the memorial that intrigued me the most. It is made up of hundreds of pillars all of differing heights, and placed on the ground which was a series of dips and rises. Our guide explained that part of the reason for the design was to show how you might meet up with people for a while, but then turn off and only see people for a second before they disappear behind another pillar, which was an effort to show how people passed each other in the death camps during the Holocaust as they were shifted around.

“The thing that really intrigued me was part of the controversy of the memorial. Each pillar is covered with what they call an ‘Anti-graffiti agent’, made by a company called Degussa, making it possible for any graffiti to be easily washed off. Yet Degussa also made Zyklon B Gas, which was used by the Germans in their gas chambers during the Holocaust.

“A lot of people on the tour thought this was appalling, however I thought it to be quite fitting. Sure it could more than likely come down to their bottom line and how much profit/publicity they could get off it, hell that is what business is about after all, but I prefer to think they saw how they had contributed in such a horrific way, and this is some small way of saying sorry.

“There are heaps of articles about it on the net, here is one where I checked info:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4531669.stm

“I have attached a photo I took while in the middle of the memorial. You can see how the ground looks like a wave, and how high the pillars get. It really is quite unnerving being in there after hearing all the tales of what happened.”