The Universal U-Bahn

Emerge from the darkness, erupt into life. Parallel platforms, parallel lives. Busy people. Bright yellow trains come and go. The roundel, the bullseye on the platform wall, donated by London Transport, red white and blue, tells you that you are at Wittenbergplatz, one of the busiest interchanges on the Berlin U-Bahn, but at the same time reminding you of the commonality, the generality, of the Underground / Subway / Metro / Chikatetsu / U-Bahn experience. Berlin, London, wherever – people and their travel habits are much the same. The same corny metaphor – darkness, light, darkness – for mortality itself.  You may even hear “Mind the gap” announced in English, though there may be something subtle missing from the intonation, compared with the original.

All human life is here, and this is arguably the centre of Europe. Even the centre of Western civilisation in this era of hesitant Americans, especially now that the tragic  Brits are (perhaps) walking away (how could they after everything that’s happened here ?) and the gilets jaunes are doing nothing to make their own capital city attractive. 

As you bustle around the city’s underground passages or rumble across its snaking viaducts, while you may not encounter the sculptural extravagances of the T-Bana of Stockholm, the marble of Milan,  the lavish decor beneath Moscow or St Petersburg, or the choreographed frenzy of Tokyo, you may well be reminded of elsewhere. If you’re inclined to mystical ruminations you may feel that you’re on the universal U-Bahn. Travel out to Olympia Stadion on Line 2 and do a double-take that you’re not on a Charles Holden stretch of the Piccadilly Line; contemplate elevated Line 1 as it hovers above the Landwehrkanal and winds around Hallesches Tor and Kottbusser Tor and Schlesisches Tor and pinch yourself that you’re not in Paris (or more confusingly specific, Stalingrad, given the tendency of Parisian toponymy towards universalism and completism); travel on many parts of the system, including in the former East, (but perhaps best of all at Kurfürstendamm station), and convince yourself that you’re not in New York. West of Gleisdreieck, Line 1 emerges from a tunnel (within apartment buildings) at a startlingly high altitude to cross sports grounds where once ran the tracks from the Potsdamer and Anhalter termini; could this perhaps be an out-take from somewhere in Brooklyn ? Somewhere a little Smith and Ninth ? Is it a dream?

Because of its history – pre-war, post-war, divided, re-united, British, American, Soviet – Berlin is polycentric, and its urban rail networks have been distorted accordingly. The former centres of West Berlin (“City West” - around the Ku-damm and Wittenbergplatz) and of East Berlin, centred on Alexanderplatz, are still joined awkwardly below ground (OK, so the S-Bahn links them above ground), with annoying gaps in the system surviving to this day. Even short journeys can be complicated and dog-leggy. The massive multilevel Berlin Hauptbahnhof which opened a few years ago is poorly connected to the U-Bahn, and access to and from airports is less than brilliant. However, work continues to improve connectivity. Overall – functionally as well as architecturally and atmospherically - it’s a wonderful system in an amazing city. Where else, as you’re hurtling along beneath the streets, will a real time display tell you about the next bus to Spandau or Schöneberg? All right, nowhere else has those sort of places, but the thoughtfulness is impressive.

 
“I hate crowds”, a commonplace sentiment I often share, especially as I get older, seems particularly churlish among one’s thrusting fellow passengers at a station like Tempelhof where, just while changing trains between U6 and the S-Bahn ring line (S41/S42), one passes at least three mouth-watering bakery outlets. No, whatever your opinion of pretzels, the correct emotion is to enjoy the fact of human life in all its variety, to glory in the busyness, the complexity, the centrality, the sheer number of people. The fact that all those people exist and that it’s all going on. Zurück bleiben !