BERLIN

With a length of over 155 km, Berlin has the largest subway network in Germany. The system moves around 580 million passengers and their very personal stories every year. In 26 minutes, we tell some of their stories that often remain undiscovered to the everyday eye.

We follow the artist collective “Rocco and his brothers” through their secret studio: the tunnels of Berlin and accompany them as they stage a radical art installation in a subway car while it is in operation.

We then travel with the author Dr. Verena Pfeiffer-Kloss through various eras of architectural history and are introduced to the impressive and diverse station architecture by Rainer G. Rümmler. A potpourri of diverse colors, shapes and materials.

On the next train, we meet the artist and musician Infidelix, who can easily be overheard singing about self-love and charity on subway line 1. Infidelix is a star online and is certainly the most famous homeless person in Berlin.

Anton Hangschlitt is likely to reach a similar “U-Bahnophile” target group on social media, with his pictures attracting over 100,000 followers online. His profile contains over 800 analog photographs of empty subway stations. Hangschlitt shows us his favorite stations and shares his enthusiasm with us.

Afterwards, we stop off at Bonny in the Späti at Neukölln station. Bonny knows exactly what’s going on in the city. From the homeless to the top floor - people shop with her. The East Berliner gives us an insight into her story, tells us about the fall of the Berlin Wall and why Berlin is the only place she can live.

A few kilometers further on, we stop at a very special station. The Museumsinsel station is located directly under the Spree Canal. Nevertheless, thousands of small points of light shine above the tracks. The station is a social media hotspot. Hardly an hour goes by without seeing young people posing there. More than 110,000 posts can be found under the hashtag #Museumsinsel.

But these are not the only people we meet at METROCOSMOS Berlin. There are also those who move through the system every day and for whom the subway is an integral part of their city life. They also tell their stories and anecdotes. The Berlin episode of METROCOSMOS is as diverse and colorful as everything on the surface of the metropolis and our 26-minute journey is like a captivating drug trip through the bloodstream of the megacity.