The Berlin Underworlds Museum: Tour 1 – Dark Worlds A journey in time through a Second World War air-raid shelter

Every day, hundreds of people walk past a green door in the Gesundbrunnen Underground railway station unaware that within lies a subterranean labyrinth full of authentic history waiting to be experienced. How uncomfortable it must have been during WWII to be crammed inside these small chambers – the depleted air supply, the incessant clanging of ventilation machines, the thundering of bomber aircrafts overhead. This atmosphere of fear and anguish can still be sensed today.

Tour 1 will lead visitors through civilian shelters and bunker complexes as they learn about life during the bombing campaigns in Berlin. Over the course of the tour, visitors will view a museum exhibition of WWII remnants that the Berlin Underworlds Association has retrieved during their work below ground. The Underworlds Museum displays objects from many layers of the long and fascinating history of subterranean Berlin. Visitors will see artifacts from Berlin's late-19th century pneumatic dispatch system, as well as documentation of the hundreds of kilometres of Berlin's sewer systems and of the city's many amazing cathedral-like brewery cellars.

Contents
The “Berlin Underworlds Association” 2
Tours under Berlin 5
Timeline of Berlin’s underground 6
“Bunker B” in the Gesundbrunnen underground station 8
“Aborte” (toilets) 11
Light and shadows 12
Preparing for air-raids 13
Beds and benches in the bunker 14
“Valuables under rubble” or “swords into ploughshares” 15

Bunker discoveries:
The “ADREMA” card index 16
A French identification card 17
Around the “Fuehrer Bunker” 18

The underground transportation network 19
The pneumatic post – Berlin’s smallest subway 20
Water and sewage 21
Brewers conquer the hills 22

Book recommendations 23
“the documentary theatre berlin”
Imprint / picture credits 24