Underground Berlin

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Berlin Underworlds bunker

ABOVE: A ghostly bunker in Tour 3's civil-defense shelter.

Guided tours

Berliner Unterwelten offers a variety of guided tours in German, English, and other languages. Some are available only to groups, but the three main numbered tours are geared to individuals:

Tour 1, "Dark Worlds," visits a World War II bunker and air-raid shelter complex that's hidden behind a green door in the Gesundbrunnen U-Bahn station. The tour also shows exhibits and artifacts from Berlin's sewer system, 19th Century pneumatic-tube mail network, and giant brewery cellars.

Tour 2, "From the Flak Towers to the Mounts of Debris," explores a deep bunker from World War II that was filled with rubble until the Berliner Underworlds Association spent more than 8,000 hours cleaning out the debris. (The tour is offered only from April through October to avoid disturbing the bats who take up residence during the winter months.)

Tour 3, "Subways and Bunkers in the Cold War," illustrates the subterranean division of Berlin after World War II and a massive nuclear fallout shelter from the years of Soviet occupation. One of the odder exhibits is a glow-in-the-dark room; other displays include fallout suits and a diagram of a spy tunnel that was drilled under East Berlin by Western intelligence agencies. (On page 3 of this article, you can see photos that were taken during the tour.)

For tour times, ticket prices, and other information about individual and group tours (including downloadable brochures in Adobe Acrobat PDF format), see Berliner Unterwelten's English-language Guided Tours page.

Visitor information

Berliner Unterwelten's ticket office is in the southern entrance of the Gesundbrunnen underground station, The station entrance is at the corner of Badstraße and Hochstraße, where it faces the Gesundbrunnen Shopping Centre. (See map.)

Gesundbrunnen is in the northeastern part of the city and is served by lines of the U-Bahn, S-Bahn, RE regional trains, and the German Federal Railways.

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 when tours are scheduled. Reservations aren't necessary, but you can call +49 (30) 499 105-17 or visit the Berliner Unterwelten Web site (see link below) to confirm tour times.

Web links

Berliner Unterwelten e.V.
The official Berlin Underworlds Web site has information on tours, the organization's history and activities, and current exhibits. (Click the appropriate flag icon for text in English or another language.)

Exploring Berlin's Underground
Campell Jeffries wrote this article for TravelIntelligence.com.

Underground Berlin: A First-Hand Look at Berlin's Buried History
Jodi Rose's blog article was published by Viator, our sightseeing and excursion partner.

Berlin in the Underground
Dietmar Arnold, co-author of this CD-ROM, is a founder of Berliner Unterwelten e.V. The CD is an "interactive journey through time under the Potsdamer Platz" with more 600 pictures, maps, diagrams, etc. along with 90 minutes of spoken audio and a virtual tour with 360° panorama photos.

Next page: More photos

In this article:

Underground Berlin - Introduction

Guided tours, visitor information

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