East Berlin's RISKIEST Escape Route: Cold War Ghost Stations Explained

[Music] imagine it's 1966 and you're living in East Berlin 5 years ago the central government built a wall to prevent you from leaving the Eastern block by now you've had enough of life in the gdr and want to flee to Freedom with your friend Court here's the problem though overground gdr leadership has set up unassailable defense mechanisms to prevent the so-called Republic FL the escape to the Federal Republic of Germany AKA West Germany two walls thousands of soldiers and a strip of sand filled with treacherous surprises convince you not to take the overground route luckily you've heard some Whispers but another way to flee to West Berlin a handful of people successfully crossed the border deep underneath the wall they took the risky route through Berlin's Infamous uban tunnels now justifiably you might have a few questions why are there uban tunnels connecting East Berlin and West Berlin the answer is pretty straightforward the first line of the Berlin uban opened in 1902 between what was then strala tour today called OST halfen and pot Plotz fittingly that line largely corresponds to J1 line up until 1961 a large network of lines connecting all parts of Bin had been created but on the night of August 13th The Fortunes of one of the world's most impressive Metro networks would rapidly change for the world hours earli on August 12th the infamous Maron command ordered the complete blockade of West Berlin leading up to 1961 2 and a half million people had fled from the gdr to West Germany leaving the east on the brink of economic collapse in a cloak and dagger operation the people's police paramilitary groups and the military arm of the stazi began securing what was until that very night the open border between East and West Berlin at 1:00 a.m. right after the Berlin uban ended its operation for for the night the East Berlin uban control center announced new end points for lines A and B of the network both lines ran from west to east making them rather easy to split in two West berin trains on line one were to end at G drak now and line two trains now terminated at's tour the people's police forces and special units started barricading tracks Beyond those stations and shut off crucial rail facilities things get really spicy when we look at the north south lines though as you can see Transportation planners from decades past had little regard for the eventual division of Berlin line C's and D's end points are in West Berlin but both lines run right through the Eastern sector for just a couple of hours on the morning of August 13th a similar solution to that of lines A and B was imposed with trains ending at the last station before the Border however West Berlin authorities quickly realized that cutting off the city's vital North sou South artery was not sustainable the easts and wests transport authorities therefore negoti a compromise line C and D would be able to continue to operate with one obvious catch gdr leaders weren't just going to let their citizens buy a ticket to M and say in Forever therefore all but one station in the Eastern sector were closed down with trains not allowed to stop anymore West berin trains had to pass through all East berin stations at slow speeds with passengers looking out at the creepy and dimly lit stations that very sight inspired a new original German word gher ghost stations what most passengers on those trains did not realize their Transit underneath East Berlin was a lot more dangerous than they could have ever imagined to prevent anyone from escaping the East through the uban tunnels all emergency exits had been sealed with bricks now keep in mind that the trains in used back then were pre-World War II models models which had a much higher chance of catastrophic fires breaking out due to inflammable Parts than today's rail stock fortunately not a single fire broke out and not a single fatal accident was ever recorded one reason for this was that the West Berlin transport Authority no longer allowed trains with even the slightest damage to pass through the East Berlin tunnels stopping in the Eastern sector was to be avoided at all costs in the rare case where that would be inevitable drivers were not allowed to get off the train being mistaken for skps by transport police and bodyguards in the tunnels would have been incredibly dangerous the only thing that would have somewhat de-escalated those situations unlike at all other parts of the Border guards were not allowed to shoot at s side inside the tunnels with gdr leadership citing the risk of ricocheting bullets as the sole reason for the restrained use of [Music] force here is another Special Rule implemented by the West Berlin transport Authority bege if you were wanted by East Berlin police forces for what whatever reason and ended up on uban line C or D and forgot to get off at the last station before the Border there was still a way out just pull the emergency break here are the rules the be had for that scenario in the event that the emergency break is applied by a passenger after departure from the last station in the west sector and the train still comes to a stop along its entire length in West Berlin it must be ascertained whether the reason for the application of the emergency break could be the unintended Transit Journey Through the Eastern sector if the passenger confirms this and refuses the transit Journey the passenger must be given the opportunity to return to the last station on foot accompanied by the train attendant this regulation was written for groups who were recommended not to take the transit Journey For example high-ranking politicians or people that had previously fled the gdr fortunately this was another scenario that never materialized as the East forces never sto stopped or checked any trains the existence of the regulation speaks to the uncertain political situation and constant fear of the cultural escalating let's talk about money for a second all those Transit rids came at a steep cost for West berliners the beog was using exactly 7,921 M of track that were controlled and maintained by the Bobb in tough negotiations the Bobb made sure the rich West would send them a good chunk of valuable DeMark in adjusted for today the bogge paid about 4.5 million EUR per year to use the track starting in 1961 with that amount being raised every year from the year 1970 onwards in 1989 the Boge ended up paying one last ginormous bill of almost 12 A5 million e for that year that would be more than € 34,000 per day of operations and €435 per meter per day let's finally get back to the Escape of cour from the beginning of the video thank you by the way for watching until now I do know that my voice overs need a lot more work but that's why I appreciate so much that you're still watching at this point let's let's continue could be and D car tried to escape the east on the night of October 3rd 1966 first they broke into the closed down uban St Schmid St they broke through the wall up entrance and destroyed a rolling Grill and other barriers all in all it took them four days and nights to finally reach the tracks which speaks to how heavily barricaded and secured the ghost stations really were finally on the tracks of line D they made their way south towards morit plots about 100 m away from the underground border Kur and daa unknowingly stepped on a footboard on the tracks that was equipped with a signal contact and triggered an alarm two groups of Border guards stationed at nearby henr H came sprinting after them both p and daa were captured mere 25 M away from the border they were sentenced to multiple years of prison time this right here is where they would have crossed the border to Freedom had they just been a tiny bit luckier the end of Berling ghost stations came with the peaceful revolution of 1989 and German reunification in the days after the German people regained their freedom to travel from east to west and west to east the border crossing at fredas was completely over loaded planners quickly chose janovitz Booker to be the first ghost station to be reopened the station was easy to open as accesses were comparatively quickly reconstructed and easy to clean up it was also on line D which had significantly less traffic than line C but at the same time the capacity for six cars to stop while line C only had a maximum capacity for four cars on top of that janovitz Booker offered a transfer option to the St Barn taking a significant load of Fred sta on the morning of November 11th 1989 by coincidence the 70th birthday of my great-grandmother yanit book was opened marking an important day in maybe the proudest chapter of German history 28 years after the worldall was built Germans were finally able to travel freely again you've made it thank you so much for watching for more videos just like this one please subscribe and help me hit 7,000 subscribers

Channel: Mind The Map

Views: 250,483

Keywords: Mind The Map, Berlin, U-Bahn, Ghost Stations, Geisterbahnhöfe, Transit

Id: xXtyDQxCq7U

Length: 9min 27sec (567 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 17 2023