Growing up on the East side close to the wall, you could hear and feel the rattling of the trains underneath the street in some places. We liked to stand on the manhole covers to feel it. One knew those were the 'forbidden' Western trains, so it was exciting. After the wall came down, the stations stayed closed for a few more months (until about summer 1990, so this video was filmed some time between November 1989 and summer 1990), so I did actually get to take rides on the 'ghost trains' as well.
As a kid I visited several times in Berlin. Two Underground (=Subway) lines had several stations where nobody was there except soldiers in bunkers. Yes and it was dim there. A strange feeling and uncomfortable, also for my dad. Trains have passed through these closed-down "east berlin" stations (isolated from access to the surface) and on slower speed. One east berlin station was open only to the western underground traffic: "Friedrichstrasse". Which was the border and transit station. Well taken care by the "Volkspolizei" and GDR border police to control passengers crossing between the east and the west. And I am sure lots of "Stasi" Spies/Agents were around also there. The S-Bahn however was merely avoided by the westerners because it was mainly operated by the east berlin government. This changed when the berlin wall fell down.
Thanks so much for uploading this. It is the best film record I have seen of the experience of Berlin ghost stations. Home video was brand new in the 1980s - no-one seemed to think of videoing these stations at the time. I wish I had...
Around 1977, as a tourist in West Berlin, I noticed those X marks on the subway map of stations inside East Berlin... you could take the train from one station in West Berlin to another station in West Berlin, and it looked like it traveled through East Berlin. So I decided to take a ride, and they were sort of dark and abandoned-looking stations, some had guards on the platforms, then we arrived at the other station inside West Berlin, and I admit I was a bit relieved. I'm guessing the East Germans charged the West German subway company something to be able to pass through those stations now in East Berlin. Yes, I understand this video shows the S-Bahn, but I'm referring to the underground subway lines that went under East Berlin, like 6 purple, and line 8 blue.
Thanks for bringing the memories back , in late 1970's I took flight from istanbul and landed at east Berlin airport early morning , took a taxi to Friedrich strasse station to go to west Berlin . I had west german money and gave him 50 Duetch mark bill and he gave me 30 east german mark back and I join the line to go through the checkpoint , A guy came and got me out of the line and said come with me u have east german mark and not allowed to take to the west and asked me to put everything on the table and start interrogation which took about an hour and kept my money and let me go. How did he know about east german money ? Taxi driver was spy and he probably tipped off to that guy after I left the cab. After clearance went downstairs and catch train which went through these ghost stations , dark , no sound , armed soldiers at some stations . Very scary looks like haunted houses . Thanks for sharing
Danke für dieses wunderbar zusammengeschnittene historische Dokument, das sowohl West- als auch Ostsicht mE sehr objektiv rüberbringt! Toll auch, dass der Ton nicht bearbeitet ist! Wundervoll! PS. Auch die Länge: nicht zu kurz, nicht zu lang! Aus meiner Sicht eine preisverdächtige Reportage! Kompliment!
Who didnt see and feel it live never will understand how bizarr it was.You felt sometimes like in a ghosttrain.Strange atmosphere,when you saw also sometimes east german border patrols on the station with weak and flickering light.The smell was also unique,just like the air was changed into east german air.Who remembers it knows what I mean.
I remember as a teen traveling from Poland to West Berlin, that crossing the iron curtain border and entering the free world, especially for the first time, was one of the most unreal and fascinating experiences one could imagine. I immediately fall in in love with that city. Passing with S-Bahn through the ghost stations was very surrealistic. The feeling somewhat late replicated in the computer games (going through dimmed train tunnels- where you don't know what happens next). Tempting for exploration, those stations were like time capsules. It seemed at that time as if they were left untouched for decades, perhaps since the end of WWII. Very mysterious places , especially when little or no info was available about them (they seemed empty, I did not even know that the guards were there). Thanks for uploading.
And yet the ruling party has the lion's share of seats, and opposition leaders mysteriously disappear with disturbing frequency. Our system may be flawed, but it's more of a democracy than Russia is by many orders of magnitude. Also, I don't face prison time for having the nerve to *suggest* that being gay isn't a bad thing. Being a bisexual, I'd say that that's a significant advantage.
America is only a free country for the wealthy (Oh, you got cancer and no money? Tough shit. Start to sell your house...). So, the oppression in the US may be much more subtle, but it's definitely there for anyone who dares to look at it. Russia uses a more straight-forward approach, but at they're honest and care for their people.
@eren mori When the wall fell, everyone assumed that the Western "free world" was coming to the East. In actual fact, it seems like the levels of freedom just stabilized somewhere in the middle, and in the West it feels more like the East came to the West, imho.
@Viktor Turtle No it wasn't, it was its own country. As a teenage Westerner traveling with school from China to Paris all the way by train (no it's not common and it was indeed an exceptional trip), I had the exact same experience as sinepopuli, traveling the last bit into the "free world" from Warsaw to Berlin East, then by S Bahn all the way to Zoo station via the border check mid-way and its infamously long lines. Arriving in Bahnhof Zoo, which back then was the major station and connecting West Berlin to Western Europe, felt exactly as sinepopuli described, really magical, and I too have always held a special place for Berlin in my heart ever since. There was a very peculiar atmosphere on both sides of the city, something in the air, but unmissable. West Berlin was something of a strong shot of free world, but walled-in. Very hard to describe accurately the intensity of the place back then, truly unforgettable.
En 1980, en tant que militaire français, j'ai emprunté à de nombreuses reprises la ligne U6 en passant sous Berlin Est. C'était vraiment fantomatique ces stations traversées à vitesse réduite dans le sombre avec ses gardes armés à chaque extrémités. Bien entendu l'état major nous interdisait d'utiliser cette partie de la ligne mais ça obligeait à faire plusieurs correspondances de lignes pour aller à notre destination. Donc je le faisais quand même mais en faisant attention et toujours en civil, jamais en uniforme. De bons souvenirs aujourd'hui...
When 2000 people per day were leaving via a broken wire fence in the early 60ies, surely the East German Government should have realised that they were doing something wrong.
The partition of East and West Berlin was quite a crazy situation. I'm sure the "ghost stations" were rapidly refurbished and modernized after the end of the division, and there's no trace anymore of what they were during that time.
It went quickly with the subway ("U-Bahn"), most stations were open by 1993 again. The overground lines ("S-Bahn") took longer and reached it's pre-division state in the early 2000s. You can still notice architectural differences in the stations, especially in the subway network, which was heavily expanded in the west during the 70s.
I went to one of these former ghost stations a few months ago when I went on a trip to Berlin and it was so quiet, so empty, and yes, very old compared to other U Bahn stations around Berlin. Me and my bf were kinda creeped out. XD
It's an interesting documentary, but they're mixing up the S-Bahn (commuter trains, like the "London Overground" in London or "Metro North" in NYC) and the U-Bahn (subway) in the video. The red-beige ones are S-Bahn, the yellow ones are U-Bahn. They're mostly talking about the subway, but show the commuter trains most of the time.
The S-Bahn runs mostly underground in the city-center. So the most ghost-stations were S-Bahn. The U-Bahn lines were just cut at the border-line, but there were 2 or 3 S-Bahn lines that had to cross the East from one Western-Borough to anotherone. That's what they're talking about.
The book from which I first learned about the Berlin S-Bahn was the 1987 "Zoo Station" by British author Ian Walker, who travelled frequently between the two Berlins. Mr. Walker for some reason liked the East Berlin S Bahn better than the West Berlin U Bahn.
The U Bahn is only 20% overground, S Bahn was run by East Berlin even in West Berlin. It had a peculiar atmosphere and the biggest advantage as a foreigner is that it enables sightseeing while traveling, because of being principally overground.
Apparently the creator of this documentary found it more important to show off his cutting skills than content. Adding some artistic cutting is fine. Adding more is not necessarily better.
The drivers and crew at S-Bahn service usually got very quiet watching all these lights at West Berlin, that effect you get when lightning a Christmas Tree for the first time. It was eerie.
It's too bad, though, that the creators couldn't use music from Michael Mann's film _The Keep_ because of copyright restrictions (seeing as how said film's soundtrack was composed and performed by a German band).
The names are so famous, all of them. So evocative. A gem of a nugget of a weird time in european history. What happened when a train broke down, I wonder?
Cuando atravesabas, en esa línea de metro de Berlín Occidental, la frontera entre los dos Berlín, en el túnel veías que estaba dibujada en la pared una línea blanca gruesa que marcaba la división.
Hier war von "Kontrasten" die Rede -der ist auch heute noch zu beobachten! Man braucht ja nur mit der U5 Richtung Hönow fahren und auf die Kleidung der Menschen zu achten. Ab Lichtenberg ist man ganz offensichtlich wieder im Osten angekommen! XD
olmaBLN Potsdamer Platz also!As a West Berlin Kid i remember those Ghost Stations very well.Drive through those Stations gives me chills always,sometimes you could also see East German Soldiers watching the Train passing by!Very Spooky!
I was always wondering: i once heard that (in the '70s or '80s or something) during the night the television stations in West-Berlin but also tv station in East Berlin, broadcasted images from metro rides ('phantom rides' or something like that)? Metro rides from the DDR metro and also from the West-German metro.. I heard it was quite polular, because people on both sides of the berlin wall could see a glimpse from the "other side of Berlin" (at least from the metro). Is this true? I can't find any information about it, but if i remember correctly it was quite popular at that time (i believe they even selled tapes of these metro rides). Does someone have more information about this or knows if there are youtube video's (tv recordings) from these 'night tv broadcasts'? Thx
Actually, they're talking about both U- (subway) and S-Bahn (overground), yet they're mixing it up. To make it clear: Some U-Bahn / subway lines went partly under east-berlin and the trains didn't stop there. The whole west-berlin S-Bahn / overground network was still operated by the east until the mid 80s and was mostly boycotted by the west people.
Were the S bahn stations in West Berlin...really part of East Berlin?-did they have DDR border guards at them? If not..I'm surprised the drivers didnt simply get off the trains and escape to west Berlin!
@@keithrogers4170 No there were no guards at the western platforms, however as you can see in the video, not all drivers were permitted to drive trains in the West. Only those deemed loyal or trustworthy to the regime - either out of belief or because of a hold the regime had on their family.
All railway installations (including S-Bahn) in West Berlin were actually under DDR authority, but according to my memory only railway police, not DDR state police (Transportpolizei) was accepted in West Berlin. On the other hand, West Berlin state police had no access to the railway installations. The drivers on the trains in West Berlin were mostly citzens of West Berlin. One of the three railway officers in the video is talking about his time on transit ("Ghost") trains, be he is obviously a West Berlin citizen (and hardcore anti-communist too), while the other two East Berlin drivers say: "How much we had liked to drive to West Berlin once, but at Friedrichstraße the journey always ended ..."
