What remains when the machines stop? Explore the "Lithographic Labyrinth," a six-story industrial ruin in the heart of Halle. After 25 years of vacancy, police raids, and urban decay, the legendary Gravo Druck site is finally preparing for its second life. Discover the fascinating history of one of Saxony-Anhalt's most beautiful - and endangered - monuments.
Six floors of history
Six floors of Central German industrial history, standing empty for a quarter of a century, are just waiting for the bulldozer. The "Gravo Druck" lettering, which adorned the facade for decades, has already disappeared – the rest of the dilapidated monument has been waiting for an uncertain future for ages.
They still sit on the roof, at least occasionally. It's not quite like it used to be, says one of the young men. "Back then, nobody cared." Today, however, it takes luck not to be spotted by neighbors who, "of course, immediately call the police," as the regulars of one of Saxony-Anhalt's most beautiful industrial ruins complain.
Build in 1936
The former VEB Gravo Druck in Halle, located directly at a central intersection of the more than 1.000 years old city Halle in Germany, rises six stories high. It's a brick building that features a stepped accent on one side and boasts a semicircular stairwell on the other. Built in 1936, the entire complex is now a ruin with threadbare floors, cluttered rooms, and former production halls whose glass roofs allow rain to drip unhindered.
A quarter-century of vacancy has left its mark: fire damage, graffiti, moss on the floorboards, and young trees growing out of window openings. The annex, once located on the street and bearing the distinctive "Gravo Druck" lettering, has already disappeared.
What remains is the towering main building - a rambling, labyrinthine structure that gradually reveals new perspectives on more than 100 years of Central German industrial history. The Gravo-Druck building stands like a cautionary finger pointing to the sky above Halle.
Stone Printing Works
Nothing holds the plaster together anymore. In 1889, the Halle entrepreneur Carl Warnecke founded the "Lithographic Art Institute, Book and Stone Printing Works" on Kleine Ulrichstraße, which later moved to Reileck, at the corner of Ludwig-Wucherer-Straße.
Named after its founder, the printing company was "Großdruckerei Cawar" (Cawar Large Printing Works). In East Germany, the company was expropriated and became a state-owned enterprise with almost 250 employees.
Once a "Volksbetrieb"
Gravo produced packaging materials, posters, advertising brochures, and postcards. Ironically, in a state that barely used advertising. The irony of history: Business flourished as long as the "Graphische Volksbetrieb" (People's Graphic Enterprise), from which the abbreviation Gravo is derived, existed.
Production materials came from the NSW - in communist speech this means the "non-socialist economic area" - and the finished printed products were sent back there to decorate West German branded goods.
With the end of the socialist planned economy, the long-established printing company ran into difficulties. The first annual financial statement from 1990, now registered as a GmbH (limited liability company) under commercial register number HRB-08-896, already showed outstanding receivables of more than two million Deutsche Marks - with a share capital of a proud 3.36 million Deutsche Marks. Things never improved after that.
A filming location
By 1992, the company's coffers were completely empty. Gravo Druck, which during the GDR era also served as a filming location for the DEFA film "The Bewitched Fishing Village," went into insolvency proceedings, resulting in the eviction and abandonment of the buildings. The company was removed from the commercial register in 2004.
Of more than 100 years of Central German industrial history, only a ruin remained – in a prime location, where fires repeatedly broke out. Dilapidated parts of the buildings collapsed, roofs caved in. Firefighters and police became regulars at Reileck, partly because the picturesquely decaying building, despite being cordoned off, had become a popular hangout for young partygoers.
A historical monument
A few years ago, the State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments finally had to approve the demolition of the former administrative building due to the risk of collapse. Behind the remaining walls, a unique, magical world of decay has developed. Water, frost, sun, and snow relentlessly erode the more than one-hundred-year-old structures.
An investor is ready to create new housing and space for small businesses on the dilapidated site with a multi-million euro investment. A second life of Gravo Druck is expected to begin...
