Sarah
Have you heard of the Berlin underground tours? Well, if not, glad you are reading our article right now! Because these underground tours are one of the things that we absolutely recommend everyone to do when visiting Berlin! And if you already looked for information about this: We got you covered!
As you may know, Berlin is our home town and we are madly in love with the city. Markus was even born here and when we are not traveling, we are in Berlin as much as possible.
We rarely do all the “touristy stuff” that we would usually do when visiting another city (although we recently visited Futurium Berlin and published an article about the Berlin Festival of Lights).
But for Berlin underground tours (run by “Berliner Unterwelten e.V.”) we will always make an exemption. We have visited the same tour twice already because we wanted friends and family to see it!
Let’s tell you everything you need to know about these fascinating Berlin bunker tours – from content to opening times, location and prices. “Berliner Unterwelten” allows you to really experience the complex (and dark) history of Germany’s capital without the “museum feeling”!
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Who is “Berliner Unterwelten e.V.”?
Berlin underground tours are run by the private non-profit association “Berliner Unterwelten e.V.” since 1997.
They made it their mission to preserve the extensive underground and bunker history of Berlin and to make it accessible to the public. And they’ve done a really good job with that!
The different Berlin underground tours offered by “Berliner Unterwelten”
“Berliner Unterwelten” offers four Berlin underground tours in English focusing on different aspects of the German history. Tour 1 and 2 mainly tell you about WW2 while Tour 3 and M focus on the time of the cold war and the separation of Germany.
All tours approximately take 90 minutes. There are additional tours that are only carried out in German too.
Tour 1: Dark Worlds
Tour 1 is the “original Berlin underground tour” that takes you to the bunker below the U station “Gesundbrunnen”. You will learn about the history of World War II and how people seeked shelter from air raids in this underground bunker.
If you are looking for a Berlin bunker tour this should be your choice No 1 as only few bunkers remained intact after WW2.
But it’s not all “only” about WW2: You will also learn about the construction of the canalization as well as the subway of Berlin, beer cellars and the pneumatic tube system of the 19th century during tour 1!
Tour 2: From Flak Towers to Mountains of Debris
When WW2 came closer to being lost, massive fortresses were built by the Nazis to protect the population from the more and more frequent air raids. Most of these towers and fortresses were destroyed afterwards by the Allied forces.
Tour 2 takes you to the ruins of one of these flak towers and explains you everything about their use and purpose.
Please note: This tour has a minimum age of 18 years due to the content seen! This tour also has special requirements for your footwear – these need to be closed and sturdy (no flip flops or sandals allowed).
Tour 3: Cold War Nuclear Bunkers
This Berlin bunker tour focuses on the history of the cold war in Berlin.
First, you will visit an air raid shelter from WW2 that was renovated in the early 1980’s. Afterwards, Tour 3 will show you a modern bunker that was built in the fear of a third World War in 1977.
The Berlin underground tour 3 is a great way to learn about the threats that people were exposed to during this dark time and the preparations they made.
Tour M: Under the Berlin Wall
Tour M focuses on the history of escape tunnels during the separation of Berlin (and Germany). Numerous people attempted to built tunnels to flee from Eastern Germany to Western Germany. None of them was successful though.
During this tour you will also travel via subway to Bernauer Straße where you can still find pieces of the Berlin wall.
Our experience of the Berlin underground tour
This was already the second time that I went on Tour 1 and I greatly enjoyed the experience both times (first time with Markus)!
The guides of “Berliner Unterwelten” are really knowledgeable and they take care to tell all the history in an entertaining way! You can clearly see that they do this out of passion to preserve the unique history of Berlin and that they are happy to tell you all about it.
We definitely plan to do some of the other tours (available in German and English) as well and we will then tell you even more about our own experience with Berlin bunker tours!
Unfortunately, it is not allowed to take pictures during the tours due to some rights reserved about the artifacts you see during the tour.
Opening times of “Berliner Unterwelten” and timing of Berlin underground tours in English
“Berliner Unterwelten” opens at 10 am (9 am on weekends) and closes at 4 pm (5 pm on weekends).
They generally run their Berlin underground tours year-round except a few dates like Christmas. Check their website to see if they are open if you plan to visit on one of these “critical dates”.
As tours are run in at least 7 different languages, it is best to check the homepage of Berliner Unterwelten, which tour is running at which timing in which language.
As of October 2019, English tours were held at 11 am, 1 pm, 3 pm and 3:30 pm (+5 pm on weekends). However, the schedule of Berlin underground tours changes based on the day of the week and is a bit complicated.
Tickets and Prices of Berlin Underground Tours
Tickets for Berlin underground tours by “Berliner Unterwelten” CANNOT be purchased online. You have to get them at the ticket office directly. Please bear in mind that there might be a queue and arrive with some spare time before your scheduled tour!
Prices for Berlin underground tours:
- Tour 1,2,3: 12€ (reduced: 10€)
- Tour M: 15€ (reduced: 12€)
How to get to Berlin Underground Tours (Berliner Unterwelten)
The ticket office (and meeting point) of “Berlin Unterwelten” is located directly at the S+U train station “Gesundbrunnen” in the north of Berlin (Brunnenstraße 105).
You can reach it via the North-South S line (S1/2/25), the “ring train” (S41/42) and the U8. “Gesundbrunnen” is a major train station in Berlin and is even served by regional trains and Intercity Express Trains (ICE).
If you come by S-train, simply go up to the highest level and then quickly walk over to the building as marked on Google maps.
DO NOT TRUST THE SIGNS TO “Berliner Unterwelten” – some of the will first send you down to the U station and then back up and forth. They are really confusing so it’s best to ignore them!
The small ticket shop is just next to a small food store called “Grill Time”, don’t be surprised! 🙂
Exhibition “Myth of Germania”
Your ticket to Berlin Underground tours also grants you a 50% reduced entrance to the neighboring exhibition “Myth of Germania” 3€ instead of 6€).
“Myth of Germania” is a permanent exhibition located in an underground building of the U8 station “Gesundbrunnen”. It focuses on the mad development plans that Hitler and his folks had for Berlin. They wanted to built gigantic structures and develop Berlin into an entirely different city which they planned to call “Germania”. Luckily, they never succeeded.
The exhibition is open from 11 am to 4 pm (6 pm in summertime) – so you can easily combine the visit with your Berlin underground tour!
FAQ for Berlin underground tours
There are a few topics that people have already asked me about that have not yet been covered by this article about the Berlin underground tours yet.
Let me quickly sum these up by a short FAQ. Just click on the questions below to see the answer! If you still have any questions not yet answered, please don’t hesitate to shoot me an email to [email protected]
Not really. It depends on the age of the kids and if they get frightened more easily, but tours are targeted to adults.
I wouldn’t worry to much about taking kids of 12+ years but would be careful with younger children. They might be frightened by the narrow spaces and generally not be interested too much in the history aspect.
The official recommendation from Berliner Unterwelten is to only take children of 14+ years and children younger than 7 years are not allowed to enter.
For tour 2 the minimum age is 18 years!
Berlin Underground Tours are walking tours that require you to be able to walk some stairs. However, these are not adventure tours and you will have plenty of options to sit down during the tour (especially Tour 1). So a normal level of fitness is absolutely fine for these tours.
No you can’t. The “Führerbunker” has been destroyed after WW2 and thus, cannot be visited.
No, Berliner Unterwelten does NOT have the ability to store your luggage. Also, you can only take a normal handbag with you and not a suitcase.
Should you plan to leave Berlin from Gesundbrunnen directly after the tour, you can store your luggage at the train station though!
You can actually visit Berlin Underground Tours year-round (except for a few dates) and the temperature does not dramatically change in wintertime. In fact, it’s pretty cold in summer time in the bunkers too! A great time to visit Berlin though is during the Festival of Lights!
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