Hung up for good: Remote German forest depot where thousands of phone boxes go to die... and one could be yours for just £250

  • More than 3,000 pink and yellow booths are stored at the Deutsche Telekom site near Michendorf, eastern Germany
  • Buyers turn them into greenhouses, showers and libraries - but have to take home the 100kg beasts themselves
  • One buyer wanted to surprise his wife with a yellow phone box because they met next to one 35 years ago
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Its wares splayed in dazzlingly pink neat rows, this is the remote forest depot where thousands of phone booths go to die.

Some 3,000 pink and yellow boxes are stored at the secluded site near Berlin - and they are being sold to the public for as little as £250 each.

The sale has prompted a wave of nostalgia in Germany, where the dominance of mobile phones has rendered the booths largely useless and turned them instead into miniature libraries, personal mementos, custom-built showers and even a recording studio.

Hung up: Scattered in pink rows, these are the thousands of German phone booths which have reached the end of their useful life at a remote forest depot near Berlin. Deutsche Telekom is now selling them for as little as £250 each, but there's a catch - any buyers will have to lug the 100kg monsters home all by themselves

Hung up: Scattered in pink rows, these are the thousands of German phone booths which have reached the end of their useful life at a remote forest depot near Berlin. Deutsche Telekom is now selling them for as little as £250 each, but there's a catch - any buyers will have to lug the 100kg monsters home all by themselves

Strangely beautiful: The one and a half acre site is hidden in the forest near the town of Michendorf, eastern Germany. Yellow booths (top) are the oldest and cost most

Strangely beautiful: The one and a half acre site is hidden in the forest near the town of Michendorf, eastern Germany. Yellow booths (top) are the oldest and cost most

Vast: German photographer Ralf Hirschberger captured the incredible images of the depot for German newspapers, prompting a wave of nostalgia in the country

Vast: German photographer Ralf Hirschberger captured the incredible images of the depot for German newspapers, prompting a wave of nostalgia in the country

The one-and-a-half acre site, buried deep in the woods near the town of Michendorf, is Germany's only mass phone box graveyard of its kind.

Nowadays it has few yellow boxes, which are the oldest types, and is full mainly of newer pink phone booths which have had to be discarded through lack of use by Deutsche Telekom.

Although some will be stored for reuse when other booths in prominent places break, they are being sold to the public for as little as 300 Euros (£250) each.

The 'vintage' yellow boxes command a higher price of 450 Euros (£370).

There is a catch, however - buyers must find a way to lug the 300lb (135kg) monsters home themselves.

Since the sale began the phone booths have found some quirky uses, Deutsche Telekom spokesman Georg von Wagner told Der Taggespiegel.

March of the phone booths: Those sold already have been turned into greenhouses, recording studios, showers, miniature libraries, movie props and beach shelters

March of the phone booths: Those sold already have been turned into greenhouses, recording studios, showers, miniature libraries, movie props and beach shelters

Aerial of discarded phone boxes of German telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom
An aerial photo shows old Deutsche Telekom telephone booths

Deutsche Telekom employee Betina Kückels-Viehl said: 'A buyer met his wife 35 years ago against a yellow phone booth and he wanted to surprise her with a copy'

'Often, they also serve as a shelter for technical equipment or be placed in museums,' he said - but several have been bought by artists.

Some people have put them in their gardens to be used as miniature greenhouses. Others have turned them into boutique shower rooms.

More still have become movie props, tiny recording studios, beach shelters and even a soundproof room to make phone calls - from mobiles.

It may sound surprising, but the firm said many office workers were finding their environment so distracting that it helped to have four metal and glass walls built up around them.

'Telephone booth awaken in many people fond memories,' said Deutsche Telekom employee Betina Kückels-Viehl - revealing one buyer even met his wife next to one of the booths.

She said: 'A prospective buyer had volunteered for example, because he had met his wife 35 years ago against a yellow phone booth and he wanted to surprise her with a copy.'

Overtaken by nature: Weighing more than 100kg each, many of the phone booths have languished at the depot for some time. Here, a tree appears to grow from one

Overtaken by nature: Weighing more than 100kg each, many of the phone booths have languished at the depot for some time. Here, a tree appears to grow from one

Spot the depot: This satellite image shows the sheer scale of the site compared to the nearby town of Michendorf, just outside Berlin. Once indispensable, such booths have been in terminal decline since the dawn of mobile phones, with the number across Germany dropping from 100,000 to 40,000 in just over a decade

Spot the depot: This satellite image shows the sheer scale of the site compared to the nearby town of Michendorf, just outside Berlin. Once indispensable, such booths have been in terminal decline since the dawn of mobile phones, with the number across Germany dropping from 100,000 to 40,000 in just over a decade

But the most common idea of all, Mr Wagner told Der Taggespiegel, was to turn the booths into public libraries.

The sale began at the end of last year, and is likely to go on for some time as phone booths gradually vanish from public life.

Once the only way for children to tell parents they were alive or for jobseekers to apply for work, the metal boxes have been in terminal decline worldwide since the dawn of mobile phones.

In 2003, there were still more than 100,000 across Germany - but in many areas they have been gradually eliminated or replaced with cheaper, easier-to-run wall-mounted models.

Now there are only around 40,000 left.

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