- Dogs allowed inside restaurants
- Deli and bakery workers serving customers bare handed
- Dentists working on patients bare handed
- Standing next to original WWII toxic glow-in-the-dark paint in a Berlin bunker
How did I happen upon this precarious situation? The Berliner Unterwelten (Berlin Underground) Tour. A group of archaeologists formed the Berliner Unterwelten in 1997 to preserve, analyze, and share Berlin's "subterranean architecture" with the world. After excavations and plenty of research, they started offering tours of various underground highlights. We had the pleasure of taking the WWII bunker tour a few weeks ago. The tours guides are incredibly knowledgeable, friendly, and speak wonderful English.
This tour was hardly your run-of-the-mill WWII history lesson. The tour guides focused on the unusual aspects of their exhibits. We learned about how Hitler's regime required citizens to purchase expensive "air raid survival kits" to raise money, regardless of the fact that they would not help in a true air raid. He also lacked the time or money to build sufficient bomb shelters, so the pre-existing bunkers we toured were decorated as such and air raid drills were held inside, again painting the picture of safety despite a lack of structural support.
The tours are capped for good reason - as we all huddled into the "shelter," I was thankful for this. Plan ahead for the English tours and get there early (it's conveniently across from the Gesundbrunnen underground station). They offer a variety of different tours - I am eyeing the "Breaching the Berlin Wall" tour next!
Berliner Unterwelten website: http://berliner-unterwelten.de/home.1.1.html
Underground tours: http://berliner-unterwelten.de/files/buev_flyer_eng-spa_2013-06_web.pdf
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