Who still knows about Berlin's very first railway tunnel?
Admittedly, it's difficult to find and not really open to the
public. The tunnel is located on the former territory of the AEG
company between Brunnenstraße and Ackerstraße. It has a length
of almost 300 metres and is still in a good condition. A few
cables and other pieces of equipment bear testimony to the fact
that, from 1897 until about 1914, an electric tunnel railway was
in operation there. The tunnel came into being as part of the
preparations for Berlin's first real railway. Two large
companies, AEG and Siemens, competed for this prestigious
project. The former already forwarded a concept for a
subterranean railway in 1891, based on the system operational in
London, and the construction of this test tunnel was one of the
steps which followed. It was important for the AEG to
demonstrate this way that it really was possible to drill
tunnels into Berlin's sandy soil – thereby tackling all the
numerous doubts which existed in that context head on.