If “lost places” can be described as fascinating, then unfinished buildings are downright melancholy. They are embodied memories of everything that could have been and never was – of plans and hopes that were never realized. Germany, too, has a diverse collection of such building projects that perhaps proved too ambitious. Here is our selection of the 5 most impressive surviving buildings that were never completed.
1st Stendal Nuclear Power Plant
What was planned to be one of the largest nuclear power plants in Germany turned out to be one of the most expensive failed projects. The construction of the Stendal nuclear power plant near Magdeburg was commissioned by the GDR government in the 1980s. With a total electrical output of around 4000 megawatts, it was to be the most important in the whole of East Germany.
However, construction was fraught with problems and excessive costs, and by 1989 investment had soared to 20 billion GDR marks (around 2.5 billion euros). Furthermore, after reunification, the safety systems proved to be inadequate compared to those of Western nuclear power plants. Together with the lack of a business and financing basis, it was decided to halt construction in 1991.
2nd subway line 10 in Berlin
When it was inaugurated in 1902, Berlin’s subway network was already one of the largest in Europe. Twenty years later, there were plans to extend it even further. Engineers designed a subway line that was to run from Lichterfelde right across the city (via Steglitz, Potsdamer Platz and Alexanderplatz) to Weißensee.
Nevertheless, the capital’s most ambitious subway line encountered a number of insurmountable obstacles. The war, the subsequent division of the city and finally the funds that flowed into the construction of the S-Bahn hindered the project considerably. After decades of planning, all that remained was a half-finished station at Innsbrucker Platz and tunnels in Schlossstraße and Rathaus Steglitz.
3rd Bertzit Tower
At the beginning of the 20th century, lignite mining was booming in the south of Brandenburg. Among other things, the Ada deep lignite mine was located there. In the 1920s, the company operating the mine decided to build a refinery for the lignite mined. To this end, a 35-metre-high tower was erected next to the factory. Using a new technology at the time, it was intended to help dry the coal.
Why the construction of the tower and the entire plant was never completed remains a mystery. Nevertheless, some historians claim that the underlying technology did not work as expected. In any case, the tower is now a landmark visible from afar in the lowlands of the Black Elster.
4th KdF seaside resort on Rügen
The seaside resort on the Baltic Sea island of Rügen, also known as the “Colossus of Prora“, is a vivid example of the monumental and absurd architecture of fascism – and of its idea of peace and relaxation. It was planned by the National Socialist leisure organization Kraft durch Freude (KdF) as a vacation resort for up to 20,000 people and consisted of eight identical blocks lined up next to each other with a length of 4.5 kilometers. This sounds all the more astonishing when you consider that Rügen has a diameter of only 52 kilometers at its longest point.
Construction work began in 1936, but the start of the Second World War prevented completion. After the conflict, part of it was destroyed and the rest was used as a gigantic barracks complex for the GDR army. Since reunification, the remaining blocks have been sold and returned to their original purpose – albeit separately.
5th strategic railroad embankment
After more than a hundred years of industrial revolution, the railroad proved to be a revolutionary and fundamental infrastructure for a country’s economy – and also for the military. So it was not surprising that as tensions escalated between the European powers at the beginning of the 20th century, one of the many railroad lines built in Germany for strategic purposes was the Strategic Railway Embankment. Also known as the Ruhr-Moselle relief line, it was intended to connect the Ruhr region with the Saarland and Lorraine in order to avoid bottlenecks in Cologne and Düsseldorf.
Ironically, time passed too quickly for this railroad line: although construction began in 1904, it was far from finished when the First World War broke out. In the end, it turned out to be completely useless when one of the war victors – France – halted its construction in 1924. Nevertheless, sections of the line, road overpasses and railroad tunnels were completed in some regions. In others, only individual station buildings or even the piers of viaducts were completed.