Exploring Berlin Under Your Feet

There's an unremarkable green door in the central Berlin subway station. Hundreds of people pass by it every day. Few of them suspect that behind it lies an extensive network of underground rooms that literally breathe history.

Behind the green door lies the passage to a World War II era bunker.

The Berlin Underground Association regularly puts on tours of this structure and others like it. The group is dedicated to uncovering the secret treasures hidden under Berlin’s city streets.

Going back to the time of war

Once the people on the guided tour have gone through the green door, they go down a number of dark stairs and descend into a murky world that seems largely unchanged since the war days.

Old lettering on the walls prohibits smoking, or communicates the room’s maximum occupancy. Some rooms have bunk beds, others just long narrow benches on the walls. And it’s not hard to imagine frightened Berliners huddling here as allied bombs rained down on the city above.

"Everything you see is original," explains Michael Foedrowitz, and points to the furniture and the technical equipment. "Everything here was built during World War II"

Michael Foedrowitz is a member of the Berlin Underground Association and a specialist on bunkers. "We collected all these things not only from this bunker but from other bunkers in Berlin and from bunkers in West Germany. And then we started to put together an exhibition."

Life during the bombing raids

Visiting the bunker, tourists now get to see the underground clinic, complete with old medical supplies, and the bunker's command center with air raid guidelines.

There are cracked dishes and cutlery, steel helmets, a child’s doll, and a hand-cranked ventilation system that still works. It pulled in fresh air to the four thousand people who during air raids were packed liked sardines into this bunker designed for only a third of that number.

As the war raged in Berlin, the Nazis constructed gigantic subterranean airplane factories. They also built the first foundations of a new Berlin, the future Nazi world capital of "Germania."

All that’s left now are two underground tunnels behind the Brandenburg Gate.

A city under ground

But there’s much more than just bunkers lying buried in Berlin’s sandy soil - there’s a whole catalogue of subterranean structures and systems. And many of them were constructed long before the 20th century.

Labyrinthine sewers and underground vaults were built in the 19th century along with a pneumatic tube system that reflected Berlin’s growing industrial might.

"It was used to transport letters and postcards and secret mails," explains Michael Foedrowitz. "All the ministries were connected with this kind of communication system. It was the most modern of its time."

That same pneumatic tube system was used all the way up until the 1970’s.

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Adapting with time

During the Cold War Berlin’s underground continued to change with the times. Bunkers got new life as warehouses, storing food for the West Berlin population during the Soviet blockade.

And new tunnels were built, this time less officially, by people digging under the Berlin Wall or by American spies trying to intercept East Germany’s messages to Moscow.

Ghosts in the subway

And there are some twelve subway stations and tunnel sections that were built but never connected to the rest of the system for various reasons, usually financial.

These so-called "ghost stations" sit silently, their blind tunnels stretching out like a web under Berlin’s skin, waiting for trains that never come.

A city hidden from view

"Berlin is sitting on a treasure it doesn't even know about," says Dietmar Arnold. He's the co-founder of the Berlin Underground Association.

Dietmar Arnold thinks that many of these treasures are being destroyed. "Much too much is being torn out. We founded the group to counter that. It can be seen as a kind of lobby for Berlin’s underground constructions and an attempt to save at least a part of this history."

A history worth preserving?

But it’s a history that makes some of German’s politicians uncomfortable, since it reminds them of the darkest period of the country’s past. So when the organization located the personal bunkers of some of the Nazi elite and appealed to the government to open them up, the authorities weren’t that enthusiastic.

"They are very keen to eliminate those buildings from World War II or the Nazi time," says bunker-expert Michael Foedrowitz. "It’s a pity because it means a destruction of a part of our history. It’s not a good one, but anyway it’s a part of history."

Underground treasures to discover

According to Dietmar Arnold of the Berlin Underground Association, 40 percent of central Berlin’s construction is to be found underground. So there’s still a lot of history there.

"I think we’ve got plenty to do for the next five years, surely, if not longer," says Arnold. "We’ll undertake expeditions and research more underground structures, document them and then make them available to the government" and to the public.

Underground tourism

Besides the weekly tours of the bunkers, the association holds special excursions through former underground vaults, breweries, power plants, and even the sewers for the especially brave.

English-language tours can be set up for those who call ahead of time.

Dietmar Arnold finds he’s spending more and more time underground as his group keeps growing, along with demand for tours. "But I hope I don’t look so pale that people think I actually live underground. It’s not that bad yet."