The Underground Berlin

These are some doors you would notice as you walk past a flight of stairs in Berlin to reach the underground station at Pankstrasse. Looked like a broom cupboard or like some nice door hiding the meter boxes or electrical equipment. But during our guided tour of the Berlin Underground bunkers, I discovered that it was the entrance to a complete living quarters for many people , in short, a fully functional bunker. The thrilling history of this city came alive for me in this trip when it suddenly hit me that this was a city that was at the centre of the world wars and the cold war too. It was the introduction to the painful heart of the city that is under its surface.With tunnels, bunkers, sewage systems and its transport systems there is a pathala loka to explore in Berlin.

For those of you who don't want to Google right now, let me remind you that bunkers are safe places that people can go to underground to avoid air raids or nuclear contamination. As our guide explained their purpose was more psychological than functional because the roofs were never reinforced with the correct amount of concrete and all the electricity to run the air pumps or lights was anyway linked to the city's main resources. If the power went off, strong men would have to hand turn the pump continuously sweating and making the place more stinky.

You had enough chances surviving outside as much as you had in a bunker. She gave a demo of the demoralizing effect of the pump switching off and the psychological problems of the people inside the bunker. And also cheerfully told us thta the bathrooms had no doors and very lightly attached light fixtures to prevent suicides by hanging or cutting wrists. (Aaa, may be that's the logic of common shower room at studenten dorf too)

We saw an infirmary and sleeping places. and the stretcher like four level stack-able beds . One for every two people who would sleep in 12 hour shifts. There were behind some other white doors, more than 3000 of these beds and supportsThe bunker has been redone in the modern times, for a cold war and the whole metro station seals itself off as a bunker against contamination for two weeks. It can hold 3000 people and has the VIP rooms behind the white doors. The common people sleep in the station platform!! Every metro station  I have begun to look for these pillar things  that have drawer like structures for air flow to flow down through sand on the walls near the track.That station can be a bunker...

Very wry sense of humour , the guide had. " Of course in case of a direct nuclear attack we would all evaporate bunker or no bunker" she said with a finality. Then we trotted behind her through the tunnels and through doors and corridors painted with very good luminous paint markings to find our way in dark. We traveled to shower rooms and an infirmary bodily and at the same time mentally we were walked through the wars and rushed past painful II world war and then sauntered through the Berlin divide of 1961.

In one of the opening rooms when we were given a history lesson, as I looked at a map of Berlin, I suddenly realized that the whole of Berlin was in East Germany, DDR! West Berlin was an Island and so supplies had to be air lifted from West Germany and flown into West Berlin during the lock down period in 1961.

You can look at the history here. Or see these Wikkimaps

Whats interesting is the how the transport lines of Berlin's metro ( called Ubahn) were stopped by the wall. It is supposed to have happened in three days and the soviets influenced DDR simply closed all borders.So instead of cutting across mid-town, some west Berliners had to skirt around the East Berlin walled areas to reach other parts of the south- west Berlin by metro. So  West Germany paid East Berlin lots of money to use only the already laid train tracks and these West Berlin metro trains would pass right through  the underground of East Berlin. Of course there were no stops at ghost stations that were sealed off completely and guarded like fortresses on the east Berlin side. Guards would line the empty platforms in these, warning off people. The people from East Berlin who wanted to escape never got to use this metro tunnels for escape as it was too well protected. When the wall came down, 20 years ago, theses trains stopped at the stations again.


The underground of Berlin has other tunnels besides the metro or the bunkers. Large sewer systems run across the city and cannot be blocked off by a wall or political action. There were cage like blocks that would block people but not sewage but nothing that a good hacksaw couldn't tackle. The story of an escape was narrated by the guide where many people (over 180, I think) escaped from a manhole to the west through the sewers. The smart move- the man hole cover was opened by a west Berlin tourist who came in to east for a day, gently who closed it after they moved in, so nothing was discovered amiss and they escaped.
Then, suddenly others who may be had seen what was happening tried the same trick but alas, without the man hole moved back in place, they were caught .The DDR put in new types of bars in the sewage routes. With alarm triggers and lubricated inner rods and concrete filed pipes.
All this got me really excited and I am going to do another tour called the M tour, which is about Escape routes and tunnels underground.
Some students of Frei University also tunneled routes to the East to help people escape. Do you think we at NIAS should dig a tunnel under the China wall to IISC? LOL!


Another fact is that the S bahn runs above ground so when the U bahn was constructed, to avoid vibration damage they had to go really deep for the tunnels. That left them with a nice in-between space to use for the bunkers. If you come to Berlin do take one of these tours in English, they are by a non-profit NGO and it is  really nice to see history from bottom up. You have to go by Sbahn to Gesundbrunnen, which is in the northeastern part of the city . The ticket office is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m Monday to Friday, and at 10:30 a.m. on weekend days whenever tours are scheduled. Take along a shopping bag, there is a huge shopping centre close by called "Gesundbrunnen " and.. just behind the exit is
which we didn't enter. But for the non veg foodies,who want Kebab... Go ahead, stuff yourselves.





Ladies and gentle men there's also... this- Kaufland, (that you can see in the sign) that has good cheap clothes and shoes and also one Euro shops selling knick knacks. The large circular building is a huge shopping mall with an electronics shop that has lots of cameras piled up like potatoes in a large basket and you can pick off the tvs and goods off the shelf with a mega shopping cart! The prices are not that different from ours, so no fun.

PS Can you see the wrapped up people? That's how cold it is.


The pavement is very wide. You can see the Bicycle tracks paved with red tiles towards the roadside. Note the central foot path. They have a red, then amber light followed by a go signal for the cycles. Then the green light for traffic. So cycles get out of the way first. The little yellow box on the signal pole is the 'request for crossing' light . It can allow a walk across green signal based on traffic density and signal co ordination. And no speed bumps. Residential areas have rubble- pavemented whole streets to prevent speeding.
More on the FU -berlin University campus. nad naturalist observations next.

Its cold and rainy today and the grass in front of my window is covered with leaves. More next time. This is Meera signing off from Berlin!