Tour 3 – Subways, Bunkers, Cold War

Last friday I took another Berliner Unterwelten tour, this time one about the Cold war bunkers. A very small group this time, just me and three Americans and two guides - as usual. One who does the talking (this time a 32 years old American who has UK citizenship and lives and has a child in Berlin - If I recall correctly) and another one who makes sure nobody gets accidentially locked up behind the group.

This tour was very interesting as well. First we visited a WW2 bunker which was upgraded to serve as a nuclear fallout shelter and then took a short subway ride to a "modern" bunker. Cool fact: the subway station in which we stopped, was part of the bunker. In case of an emergency, huge doors could shut off the entrances, and bunk beds would be set up on the platforms.

We then visited the rest of the bunker, which wasn't open to the train passengers, and visited the airlocks, water tanks, infirmary... We also got a lot of information on the cynical way of thinking when they were constructing these bunkers (why build bunkers for everyone? A lot of people would die however what and we don't have the money anyway) and on the situation of the u-bahn-lines in the period of the Wall (some lines starting and ending in the western part crossed the eastern part, where the stations were locked up tight and guarded. The eastern part got money for allowing the trains to pass.)

Anyway, a very interesting tour again, can't wait till next thursday when I want to do the Führung in the flak tower in humboldthain park.

The pictures are showing a passageway and the water storage. Not my pictures as visitors aren't allowed to take photos, they come from the Berliner Unterwelten website.