Gesunbrunner-Bunker Underground Tour

Dinner last night was great. I had authentic Japanese wontons and a delicious dessert made with pomegranate. It was a long walk to Suse's house, so we didn't get back until quite late last night. That is one thing about Berlin. The city is very large, but all of the people either walk, take the Underground (subway), take the street train, the S train, or bus because finding a parking spot for a car (if you have one) is almost impossible.

We got home late, but made it a goal to get up and out of the house by ten to make it to The Underground Tour. We toured the Gesundbrunnen Bunker, which was built to keep the citizens of Germany safe during air raids in WWII. The tour was full of interesting artifacts from the time and provided good knowledge on the topic. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures though, which was a huge bummer for the tourist inside me.

The bunker had many different rooms that held many people (but not enough during the time of emergency). It had areas for both men and women to use the bathroom too. It was interesting how small the bunker compared to how long it was needed to be used, but the German's thought that the air raids would only last for minutes  instead of hours, because at the time built planes couldn't fly for to long, but as the war continued planes became more advanced.

Many times the people would be stuck in the bunker for hours standing crammed together. They would be in there for so long that they would light candles at ankle level, waste level, and shoulder level to be sure there was enough oxygen for the individuals to survive. Once the ankle candle went out, the mothers would have to pick up the children so they wouldn't suffocate.

There was one mother and children room that was meant for women to be able to stay the night inside it with their children. But, those given the room first were women who worked, because these women needed to be well rested so they could get in the factory in the morning and help prepare the war equipment that German soldiers needed to fight.

One really cool thing about the tour was the glow in the dark room. This room was painted with glow in the dark paint so if the power went out the men hired could do their job if the power went out. Their job was to run out before the citizens in the bunker and make sure it was clear to evacuate the bunker.

Surprisingly enough, these bunkers were not actually completely safe. It was nothing like Hilter's bunker, which was really far down under cement (we are talking really really far). This bunker was close enough to the top that if a bomb it the ground right above the bunker, the sealed room it hit would be destroyed as would the rooms touching it. So it really wasn't that safe for the citizens, but the citizens were not aware of the dangers.

I would recommend this tour to others it is really interesting to see the stuff and hear the facts provided and we only froze a little bit. Because I don't have pictures you can look at www.berliner-underwelten.de so see if they have any, but it's not the same I know.