Tuchfabrik Wittstock Dosse
Explore the Tuchfabrik Wittstock Dosse, built in 1905 and eventually abandoned in 1997. This abandoned factory is a piece of history, frozen in time. It tells a story of a different era, where industry was king.
Cloth production has been important in Wittstock an der Dosse since the Middle Ages. Around 1800 there were more than 80 cloth manufacturers and almost 140 thousand sheep in the region. But with industrialization, everything shifted dramatically. Fast-forward just 100 years, and only two major cloth manufacturers remained: the Friedrich Wilhelm Wegener factory, which started in 1828, and Friedrich Paul’s factory, which opened in 1845. Eventually, these two companies joined forces and set up a new factory just outside the city.
Draeger-Paul-Wegener-Werke
The impressive industrial four-floor high-rise and the shed roof hall were built in 1905. In 1911, the industrialist Günther Quandt and the Draeger brothers became co-owners of the Friedrich-Paul cloth factory. The result was Draeger-Paul-Wegener-Werke GmbH, which specialized in uniform cloths. In 1917, a six-story production building was built.
Soviet times
In 1945, the machines from the plants were dismantled and transported to what was then the Soviet Union. During the first years of the DDR, a factory for the production of kitchen furniture was set up and the VEB Tuchfabrik Wittstock was founded. The factory has been empty since 1997 and is rapidly deteriorating. Today, the once so proud industrial complex is in such a bad condition that it hardly seems salvageable.
Walking through the empty halls, you can imagine the workers who once filled this place. Today, Tuchfabrik Wittstock Dosse stands silent and abandoned. The large brick buildings are still there, but nature is slowly taking over. The windows are broken, and the walls are covered in graffiti.
Educational campus
The city plans to transform the monument into an educational campus by 2025. The old administration building of the cloth factory, sitting empty since 1994 and previously used by the district council of Pritzwalk, will be turned into apartments. Additionally, the Pritzwalk city and brewery museum will be expanded in this area. I photographed the abandoned complex in 2022. Follow this link for more lost textile factories.
