Little Moscow': Crumbling remains of Red Army's last abandoned Cold War German base goes under the hammer for £3million

Wünsdorf army base, located 25 miles from Berlin, was once Soviet army's biggest headquarters outside Russia
Built under the reign of Kaiser Wilhelm II in the late 1800s and continued to operate until end of Cold War in 1994
The secret city which had its own swimming pool, theatre, casino, bakery and housed tens of thousands in 1980s
It has been put on sale and vendors are thought to want at least £3million and a guarantee that it will be renovated

These are the last crumbling remains of the Soviet army's biggest Second World War base in Germany that once served the Nazis.
The now abandoned and long-forgotten Wünsdorf facility, 25 miles from Berlin, was once home to tens of thousands of Red Army soldiers stationed there since it was built in the late 1800s.
Now overgrown and fallen into disrepair, the spooky clock on the bell tower is forever stuck at 11.16am, the exact moment the Russians pulled out of Wünsdorf for the final time in August 1994.
The sound of boots clacking on its hardwood floors, once so clean 'you could eat off them', have fallen silent and many of its buildings and barracks are a shadow of the buildings they once were.
But there could be hope for this former bastion of Soviet might. It has gone on sale and, while the price has not been publicly disclosed, the vendor, believed to want at least £3million, is demanding a guarantee that the buyer restores Wünsdorf back to its former glory.

The secret Soviet base served the military ambitions of two German Kaisers before it became the epicentre of Nazi armed might.
Today, it has been left under the watchful eye of Juergen Naumann, who came here in its Soviet heyday to compete against Russian soldiers in volleyball and pistol shooting competitions. He is the watchman and gatekeeper that patrols its lonely halls, with only one forgotten figure to keep him company.
His name is Vladimir Illyich Ulyanov, better known as Lenin, the former Soviet leader who was responsible for the deaths of more than four million.
He has been toppled from his plinths in cities large and small since the Iron Curtain fell along with the Soviet Union, but he remains master of the ghost town of Wünsdorf and the only remaining one of his kind in western Europe.
'It's such a shame that this place was never used after the change,' said Naumann, a veteran of 19 years with the Peoples' Army of the German Democratic Republic, referring to 'Die Wende,' or change, as the collapse of communism and its absorption into the west is called.
'When they packed up and went home you could have eaten your food off the floors here. They had 50,000 men tied up here and they had to have something to keep them busy.

'So they cleaned and they cleaned and then they cleaned some more. The joke around here was that the leaves of the trees were polished at Wünsdorf.
'So much could have been done with what was left behind. The authorities offered to let schoolchildren use the Olympic-standard swimming pool, but they didn't want to. The sports field was offered to another community who said no.
'And so it was left to rot. Buildings that are as solid now as when they were built in the time of the Kaiser are still structurally sound. They can still be renovated. But until there is more infrastructure around here, what will they do with them?'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3313785/Crumbling-remains-Russia-s-biggest-army-base-Germany-Second-World-War-sale-Little-Moscow.html

Haunting: The Wünsdorf army base was once home to 50,000 soldiers and was the biggest Soviet army headquarters outside of Russia. It has fallen into disrepair since the last troops left in August 1994 and has been put on sale for around £3million

Former glory: The sprawling Wünsdorf had its own swimming pool (pictured), theatre, casino, bakery and even a railway line direct to the Russian capital, Moscow. The secret Soviet base served two German Kaisers before it became the epicentre of Nazi armed might

Eerie: But the last Soviet soldiers marched out of the base in August 1994 and since then, the facility has been gated up and left to rot

Dictator: This statue of the tyrannical former Soviet leader Lenin is the only one of its kind still standing in Western Europe

[b]Mystery: Wünsdorf, which was once known as 'Little Moscow', was the Soviet army's biggest headquarters in Germany. Many Russian soldiers who came here saw the train and life inside the town but nothing else. The Red Army didn't like them fraternising with the locals

Wasted: Naumann, 63, is most sad about the decline of the swimming pool with its original ceramic tiles and murals dating back to 1890. 'It was in pristine condition with the heaters working when they left. So much could have been done with what was left behind. The last commander swam the last length in it before they all left. And look at it now! What a shame. What a waste,' he told MailOnline

Former glory: The buildings go on forever, most of them in the mustard colour hue that they were first painted with when the Uhlans and the Pioneers of Imperial Germany, who would fight and die on the western front in WWI, first strutted about on their pristine floors

The end: The clock on Wünsdorf's bell tower is forever stuck at 11.16am to symbolise the moment the Red Army pulled out of the citadel for good in August 1994. In where the toilets once stood, the Russians ripped them all out and carted them home when the day came to leave, can still be found fading colour photographs that the Russians pinned to the walls of friends, families, parties, lovers[/b]