From the bridge you followed the footsteps to the east, under a fence, around a wall, and through what seems like a giant patch of weeds right along the River. That led you directly to ...

Die Berliner Icefabrik

Head back to Ostbahnhof by crawling through the fences or jumping some walls.

The Berlin Ice Factory was extremely important prior to the reunification of Germany. It was originally built in the early 1900s and provided services at that time to many places and helped with the continued development of Berlin. However, after Germany was split, it continued to exist as many places required it's services as refrigerators were in short supply. Most people had the old style Ice Boxes, which kept things cold through the use of ... you guessing yet... Blocks of Ice. In a market that required it's product, the company thrived as it's product was necessary for the continued growth of East Berlin. When reunification occurred in 1990, the factory shut down the following October.

The building was finally scheduled to be demolished in 1995, when a fire broke out. Since then, it's historical value has been pursued, and many different things have happened there since. There are questions about if it is demolished what will happen to some of the debris as it is right on the river Spree and so the destruction could potentially contaminate the river. If you'd care to read about it in German, you can access this wiki article.

Random Experiences:

This was one of the first abandoned buildings I found and explored. I came here several times over the course of the year I spent in Berlin. It was extremely fascinating to me as I'd never seen such a massive abandoned building before, so easily accessible. Several stories tall, this building was covered in graffiti like nothing I'd ever seen. I explored almost the entire place, except for the basement which smelled VERY bad. However, we discovered the roof. This was typical of my time in Berlin. Find a cool place, find access to the roof. Get drunk on said roof and look around at the city and watch the sun set.

One of the benefits of this roof was that the police just didn't care. You could make your way there any given night and walk up the stairs with your supplies and friends and have a party on the roof. It wasn't recommended to have hard liquor as you didn't want people being totally stupid and stepping off the roof to fall 4 stories down... probably which would end in their demise. But good old fashioned beer drinking happened quite often there. That led to me seeing a very strange evolution of the abandoned building.

When I arrived in Berlin, it was almost completely abandoned. No one was ever there. With the approach of Fall and the final settling of Winter upon Berlin, Yurts sprung up around the building, with everything from unofficial mailboxes and fenced off sections of the grounds around it. People had made the area their home. Inside, some people had even made fortified substructures where they took a corner of the large building and built out two more walls from wood, added a roof (yes, inside the building) to form a dwelling complete with a locking door. Hidden construction at its finest. One of the best treats for me was the constantly changing art.

One time I decided to explore the area near the grounds a bit more and found my way to a community garden that was obviously unsanctioned or legal. There was at least an acre of planted garden space as well as some outhouses and a small shed that probably housed all their supplies necessary for keeping it running. It was a testament to me of people doing whatever was necessary to survive... even in the heart of a major metropolis.

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