2023-10-09 04:54:00
The entrance to this unusual museum is located near the Berlin metro station and Gesundbrunnen train station. The historical society’s visitor center is also located here. Berlin Underworlds eV (“Berlin Dungeons”), offering thematic excursions in different parts of the German capital.
Berlin after the war
Berlin Cathedral in 1946Photo: picture-alliance/Judaica-Sammlung Richter
This is what Berlin looked like after the defeat of the Third Reich. Fierce fighting took place here at the very end of the war, but long before that, entire streets and neighborhoods had been destroyed by bombing. Berlin was raided more often than other German cities. The number of victims among residents was, according to various estimates, from 20 to 50 thousand people. In Germany as a whole – about 600 thousand.
Air defense
American bombers over Germany in 1945Photo: picture alliance/AP Images/United States Strategic Air Forces
The National Socialists began preparing for war in the skies over Germany immediately after seizing power, for which already in 1933, at the direction of Hermann Goering, the Imperial Air Defense Union (Reichsluftschutzbund) was created.
Visual propaganda
“The enemy is eavesdropping!” Photo: Markus C. Hurek/picture-alliance/dpa
Throughout the country they began to build bomb shelters, deepen and refurbish basements, create teams to extinguish incendiary bombs and control blackouts, publish posters…
Museum in a bomb shelter
Exhibition in a bunker at the Gesundbrunnen metro stationPhoto: Berliner Unterwelten e.V./Holger Happel
In Berlin, in one of these civilian bomb shelters there is now a museum dedicated not only to bunkers from the Second World War, but also to city dungeons in general – from the beginning of the 19th century to the present day. It was created in the late 1990s.
Historical Society
The front of the head car of the Berlin metro is one of the exhibits in the former bunker Photo: Berliner Unterwelten eV/R.Janick
The Berlin Dungeons society consists of more than 500 people. Thanks to the efforts of enthusiastic historians in different parts of the city, it is now possible to get to previously inaccessible places. Forgotten and abandoned sites and structures have become tourist attractions and are preserved for history. In 2006, this organization was awarded Germany’s most important award in the field of monument protection – the Silver Hemisphere (Silberne Halbkugel).
“Dark Worlds”
Participants in the tour of the bunker Photo: picture-alliance/dpa/MC Hurek
The excursion “Dark Worlds” (Dunkle Welten), which we will go on today, takes place in a bunker intended for passengers of the Berlin transport company BVG. It was designed for 1,300 people, but at the end of the war it sometimes accommodated three times that number. Groups linger for ten minutes in one of the rooms, taking a place on these benches.
During the war
Inscriptions from the Second World War with directions and instructions Photo: Berliner Unterwelten eV/Holger Happel
When there were a lot of people, the ventilation couldn’t cope. Condensation formed on the walls, flowing onto the concrete floor into special recesses… At the beginning of the war, the raids lasted 10-15 minutes, at the end they often lasted more than an hour. Inscriptions from those times have been preserved on the walls.
In office premises
Multi-tier beds in an underground bunker Photo: Berliner Unterwelten eV/Holger Happel
A four-story bomb shelter at Gesundbrunnen station was built in the subway’s office premises, which were originally intended for a canteen, employee rest, and storage of tools, equipment and other materials. The branch line was launched in 1930, but these premises remained empty until the spring of 1941, since there was not enough money to equip them after the start of the global economic crisis.
For passengers
Former women’s restroom Photo: Berliner Unterwelten eV/Dietmar Arnold
In this place, the metro and commuter rail lines intersected and now intersect. When raids on the then capital of the “Third Reich” began to become more frequent, they decided to equip a shelter for passengers here. This room housed the women’s restroom. The fastenings from the partitions are still visible on the walls. Toilets were waterless, filled with peat or crushed bark.
Exhibits
Faustpatron and other exhibits Photo: Berliner Unterwelten eV/Holger Happel
In the rooms of the former air-raid shelter there are exhibits found in Berlin at construction sites, during excavations, donated by individuals or organizations – brochures, documents, this Faustpatron… Among them there is also a card index on metal plates, found in an abandoned bunker in the Tempelhof area and containing , including data on forced laborers of one of the Berlin companies.
Card index
Card index on metal platesPhoto: Kalozois George/Berliner_Zeitung/picture-alliance
Members of the Berlin Dungeons discovered the file cabinet. They studied the information and were able to find more than 20 people who, based on these confirmations, received compensation for forced labor in the “Third Reich.” Note that address-archiving machines developed by the German company Adrema at the beginning of the last century were used in Germany until the 1970s.
“Graffiti”
Photos of “graffiti” from the driver’s bunker Photo: Berliner Unterwelten eV/Holger Happel
These exhibits were found in the underground shelter of drivers from Adolf Hitler’s personal fleet. At the end of the war, their bunker was filled in, so much of it remained, including the Nazi graffiti they left on the walls. In 1992, archaeologists took photographs of the drawings, and also removed from there many different things and objects that occupy several display cases in the exhibition.
Pneumatic mail
Pneumatic mail pipes Photo: Berliner Unterwelten eV/Holger Happel
Leaving the bunker, we will linger near this apparatus, demonstrating the operation of pneumatic mail. The first line in Berlin was launched in 1865. In 1940, the length of the underground pipeline system was 400 kilometers. Operation of the city system was stopped only in the 1970s, but such internal mail – fast and reliable – is still used by some trading houses and companies.
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