As you already know I was traveling to Berlin last week. This time I discovered a super interesting sight: The Underground of Berlin!
Since 1997 there is a group of people that are specialized in discovering new underground treasures. Once new sights are found they renovate and prepare them to provide guided tours for the public. The group is called "Berliner Unterwelten e.V." (engl: Berlins underworlds) and celebrated their 20th birthday a few weeks ago.
The most famous tour is the bunker tour. You enter an actual bunker right below the Metro Station Gesundbrunnen that by the way this is also the place where you can get tickets and information for all this tours.
The meeting point is the selling office on the surface. From there you will be directed to some inconspicuous door right next to the metro, that you wouldn´t have noticed walking by.
Every tour includes two guides: One is explaining and answering questions and the other one is looking out for the people. He is responsible if somebody gets lost in the tunnel labyrinth. - So at all time they take care of you. No need to get afraid.
They told us that at every time of the 90min tour we could have been at the surface within 1 minute if we want to.
I have to admit that it is a bit scary in the beginning to walk through this tunnel system. The last time I went on an underground tour was in Edinburgh and that was really spooky.
This time the atmosphere was different. The guides where able to give us a very clear image of how these bunkers where used, how many people where in here and how the feeling was.
You also get a lot of background information about the world war and how the people managed their daily life in it. Both during the war and after. In the end you even get to see a little museum with things people used at that time, that where found in the bunkers and around the city.
The bunker at Gesundbrunnen has several floors and is still very authentic. During the tour walking from one room to the other you can hear the Metro passing by and feel the wind of the ventilation system. It is hardly imaginable to be here hearing sirens and bombers, restrained with hundreds of people!
You get a very interesting 90min tour, that is offered in 7 languages: German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch and Danish.
They already got more tours to offer besides the tour I just described. Click on the tour to get the full description of their website:
- Tour 1: Dark Worlds: Experience WW2 bombing raids through the eyes of civilians
- Tour 2 - From Flak Towers to Mountains of Debris: Explore the devastated ruins of a WW2 fortress
- Tour 3 - Subways and Bunkers in the Cold War: Prepare for a nuclear war with the people of West Berlin
- Tour M - Under the Berlin Wall: Hear the stories of the people who tunnelled to freedom.
- Tour F -The »Fichtebunker« Time Capsule: Discover 130 years of history under one roof
Here a few impressions:
For me this experience was a big highlight!! It is a shame that you are not allowed to take your own pictures during the tour. That´s why I searched you some from the internet, so you get a better idea from it.
In the end I will put you this link from the 20. Birthday of this organization and the official website link.
The video is in German though.. maybe you still wanna see it because of the impressions :) - I couldn´t find it in English.
http://www.berliner-unterwelten.de/en.html
I hope yo liked this post and I am always grateful for every Upvote, Follow & Resteem because you are supporting my world travel with it and I will be able to report you from all this places :)
For more pictures and German text click here / Für mehr Bilder und deutschen Text bitte hier klicken.
Cheers, Liz
Sieht alles sehr geil aus! Danke für die coolen Bilder :)
Hey wo warst du gestern? Hatten Munich Steemit Meetup ;) Wär cool gewesen dich auch mal kennenzulernen. Freut mich dass dir der Post gefällt. LG, Liz
Leider kommt immer was dazwischen... Ich hoffe nächsten Monat klappts :)
Das wäre cool! Ich versuch auch wieder da zu sein aber schaut eher schlecht aus... Schönes Wochenende dir!
Alles klar, dir auch :)
Love Berlin, one of my favourite cities in Europe. Great beer, great kebabs, amazing atmosphere, lots of historical places and one-of-a-kind vibe. What more do you need from a city? Great post!
Glad you like it!! The Kebabs are amazing and the vibe is special that is for sure ;) The beer is a bit better in Bavaria for my taste :D - have you been there often?
That is awesome! I love Berlin, have been there over 20 times and still can't get enough! following you right now!
Wow over 20 times?! Thats a lot! But you live around the corner :D Thanks my friend and thanks for the resteem!
Communication is key so commenting in my eyes is the best response. Plain and simple.
@lizanomadsoul
Hey, I like your blog. Left you a few comments :)
Incredible pics @lizanomadsoul!
I remember being there and It's a really exciting feeling :D
Of do you want to check my Berlin's pics here's my first post:
https://steemit.com/photography/@tese/daypics-04-berlin-wall-berlin-germany-part-1
Upvoted, Followed & Resteemed! :D
Hey there!! Thanks for your support as always! It really is a special place to be.. Did you also do one of the other tours I mentioned? I will check out your post right away! :)
Oh I didn't know about this wow thanks for sharing I will need to try this out :) I am living in Berlin at the moment great tip
Oh really? Nice!! Maybe you can also try out some of the other tours and let me know! I didn´t have the time to do more of them. I would love to hear about it! A shame we didn´t meet up when I was there :( ... Time passed too fast as always!
Yeah definitely I was thinking of doing a few planned tours so I can be sure to let you know all about it ... I know I hate that, so much to do with little time... It is a shame maybe next time ;)
Great! I am looking forward to your feedback! Yeeeah it is really a shame!! Well I am going on my travel soon... are you gonna be in Munich at some point? If not we just meet up somewhere in the world while my world trip haha. Have a nice Friday! Weekend is close :)
Oh travelling I look forward to your posts soon then on your adventures... I am staying in Berlin at the moment hoping to move to Spain so I will probably only be seeing the whole of Berlin whilst I am here Munich would be good though... Yeah I will keep my eyes peeled for where you will be next then! You have a good weekend ;) Just enjoying a glass of wine now :)
Wow nice, I think you should come by to Munich first ;) Its totally diferent! I will do some post about it soon. Where do you wanna go in Spain? Its interesting too!! Soo much to see and do over there!! I will follow your travels too!
Yeah I think I will since I am in Germany for a while :) Yeah Look forward to you posts then ... Want to return back to Palma De Mallorca lived there last year and my friends live there so it's the goal to move back again.
Awesome! Thanks!
You are welcome :)
Looks interesting. I didn't go when I was in Berlin... definitely next time! :)
It isn´t that popular yet but I really enjoyed it and I think there will be more and more people visiting! It is definitely something special, you should see it some time :) Glad you liked it. I saw that cervantes is organizing a meeting in Madrid soon, thats great! We just talked about something like that in Germany yesterday at a steem meetup. I am following you to see how it was :)
Yes, Madrid meet up next Thursday, should be fun! And good to meet some Steemians in person... and brush up on my Spanish! ;)
Definitely keen on going to Germany again. Berlin for one, but also Munich and other places. I'll certainly keep an eye out for Steemups (or whatever the term is) and other meetups when I'm back there... :)
Are there a lot of people coming by? The Munich Steem ups are taking place in the second week of the month... most likely. Really a fun group. We had one yesterday.. I am gonna write about it soon.
I'm not sure... there seems to be a few interested but I'm not sure of final numbers, so we'll see! Sounds like things are rolling in Germany. I've mostly seen Barcelona mentioned (in terms of Spain) since I've been on Steemit, so it was good to see Madrid is alive and steeming!
Yeah, Germany is big! Don´t know about spain though. I will keep updated about your posts to know more soon :)
Fascinating! Thanks for sharing! Upvoted and resteemed.
Wow thanks! That is really kind of you! I saw that you are a traveler yourself and you do great art!! I am following you! Let me know if I can do sth for you :) I am always happy to support other travelers.
thanks so much!
Really interesting. I wonder whether all the bunkers were designed during WW2 or if some were built during the "communist occupation" and the cold war. Next time I'm in Berlin I'll check this stuff out for sure.
Invited and resteemed!
Hey there. Most of them where build in the WW2, but in the Cold war some of them where reactivated and renovated. I guess they also where building a few more as they prepared for a atomic war... there is an extra tour just about the bunkers at the Cold war time, I haven´t have the chance to do it though. Let me know if you know more ;) Did they have bunkers in England too?
Yes they do. During WW2 the London Underground railway stations were used for shelter during air raids. Those who had no access would build a shelter in their garden. However the bunkers you speak of were built during the Cold War. Of these I know of one open to the public. Others are still a secret 😂
Wow. Imagine how many underground bunkers are still there but forgotten all over Europe!! I think that is a very interesting theme. And spooky too! There must be hundreds! have you been to one before?
Wow - this must surely send a few chills down your spine
Oh yeah it did! Especially knowing that your grandparents had to live all that.. but it was really interesting. Something you normally just know from books. I loved it.
This is amazing travel to the Berlins Underground @lizanomadsoul. Upvoted, resteemed & DPS.
Thank you for your support! I am glad you liked the article :)
Very cool! In Amsterdam we also have hidden bunkers under the subway system. If you go to a certain elevator in a certain station and you have a special key you can turn the elevator and make it go down instead of up...you will find very cool spaces with stuff and material lying around from yeeeeeears ago. It's such a cool yet mysterious place
Wow really?! I didn´t know that!! Do they also offer public tours or is it just for people who know where to find it? It is really mysterious.. I love it.. so much to discover!!
Nope no public tours...its kind of a secret really. I just happened to know someone who got their hands on a key somehow. I bet very few people know of it or have actually been down there
Wow that sounds really interesting! You should shoot a few pictues and make a book about it. Thats how it all started in Berlin.. and the guided tours are getting bigger and bigger. There are real treasures down there. I would love to come visit someday.. It sounds super exciting!!
Yes unfortunately it's been a while ago...like 10 years really. Last time I heard the key got lost so I wouldn't know how to get there again...I might have some crappy photos somewhere on my old pc, like I said...over 10 years ago already ;)
Buuu such a shame!
I know, sorry :D
This is very cool but I imagine also quite creepy
It really s a bit creepy!! So much history and emotions that happened just right there! But really interesting!
incredible photos! the first is my favorite- i love tunnels. followed
Glad you liked it :) You are a great photographer!! I love your posts! Following back.
welcome
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Hey there, thanks :) We weren´t allowed to take pictures during the tour so I had to find them on the web... The video shows more inside though. Glad you liked it :)