The Sky Beneath Unter den Linden – and Above Kreuzberg

As a city guide in Berlin’s historic center, one unfortunately shows visitors – regularly and often for many years – places that are construction sites. The Zeughaus, the Reichstag and the Platz der Republik, the Pergamon Museum, the Märkisches Museum, the Einheitswippe (Unity Swing), or the grand outside staircase (Freitreppe) in front of the Humboldt Forum, the reconstructed palace: the list could easily go on.

“And here we see the most beautiful square in Berlin – some even say in Europe – but unfortunately not at the moment!” For a long time, this was how tours introduced the Gendarmenmarkt, while fences and scaffolding dominated the view. For a while, the construction site could even be observed from a specially built viewing tower.

What gives me hope is the experience that even long-term construction sites eventually disappear – and that the waiting often turns out to have been worth it. One such place for me is Unter den Linden, and there the extension of the U5 line, which runs largely beneath the boulevard from Alexanderplatz to the main railway station.
The route reads like a list of Berlin landmarks: Rotes Rathaus, Museumsinsel, Unter den Linden, Brandenburger Tor, Bundestag, and on to the Hauptbahnhof.

With this extension, the U5 has become a line over 22 km long, directly connecting its eastern terminus in Hönow with the main station. For eastern Berlin, it’s fantastic to be able to reach the Hauptbahnhof directly; for the main station, it means direct access to the subway network; and for Museum Island, it marks the very first subway station on the island.

Subway stations are places we usually rush through in everyday life, barely noticing many of their details. Yet in many stations, there are striking – and more subtle – elements that often reflect the history of the surrounding neighborhood. It is well worth pausing for a moment to take a closer look.

As a Berlin resident, one probably uses these new U5 stations rather rarely. I, however, am there very often and even include some of the stations in my tours! They are all modern, well maintained, free of advertising, and each station has its own individual design.

Walking along the U5 platform at Brandenburger Tor, one finds not advertisements but a substantial exhibition on the history of the gate and the many historical events that made this former customs gate as famous as it is today. Images span many eras: from Napoleon’s entry into Berlin, Emperor Wilhelm I, Nazi parades, the Berlin Wall and the division of the city, to J. F. Kennedy, Willy Brandt, Fidel Castro, Helmut Kohl, Ronald Reagan, Mikhail Gorbachev, and finally the jubilant crowds on the “tank wall” that once encircled the gate on the Tiergarten side. The gate in the “death strip” thus became one of the symbols of the Cold War.
Capital city history – on the way through.

Before the U5 was extended here, there was only an underground S-Bahn station called Unter den Linden at this location. With the expansion and its new role as an interchange station, it was renamed Brandenburger Tor, as the newly built station one stop further on is now called Unter den Linden.

At the new Unter den Linden subway station, one encounters a very different exhibition. This is also where you exit for the main building of Humboldt University, housed since its postwar reconstruction in the Prinz Heinrich Palace. The New State Library is also just nearby.

In this “station of science,” there is an exhibition on the Anthropocene, the geological age of humankind. The graphics and texts are even displayed in proper glass cases, allowing for a relatively easy change of exhibitions.

And that’s not all: one is often enveloped here by the sound of classical music. This is a pilot project in cooperation with Klassik Radio called “Klangvoll im Untergrund” (“Soundful Underground”). I’m a fan – unfortunately I haven’t heard the music in recent months and very much hope that this does not mark the end of the project.

Unter den Linden station was also planned and built as an interchange station with the U6 line. As a result, it features a much more generous hall connecting the different levels. By the way: the nearby Französische Straße station is no longer in use and has become a ghost station.

For me, the most beautiful station on the line is the next stop: Museumsinsel. Located in the heart of Berlin’s historic center – living up to the saying “a Schinkel in every corner” – this station is a successful modern homage to the architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel, whose buildings continue to shape the city, especially in this area. This is also where my tour Buildings as Works of Art: Schinkel’s Architecture in Berlin Mitte takes place.

More information about the tour

A versatile artist, Schinkel also painted and designed stage sets. One particularly famous drawing is his design for a stage set for the Queen of the Night in Mozart’s The Magic Flute. This image inspired the deep blue, star-filled sky above the tracks. It also connects the station to its surroundings, as this is the stop for visiting the nearby Staatsoper Unter den Linden.

The rich blue harmonizes with the gray of the granite. There is no advertising here either. Instead, pairs of large-format photographs show details of nearby Schinkel buildings – details whose historic forms, combined with the traces of time, create a striking contrast to the pristine modernity of the subway station. To me, it almost feels like an architectural memento mori: what was new becomes old. The passage of time is relentless…
Beyond that, the photographs also reflect Schinkel’s method of telling stories about a building’s purpose through reliefs and paintings. I am genuinely delighted!