🌟Späti Stories Special: 35 Years After the Wall – Meet Dietmar Arnold, co-founder of Berliner Unterwelten
Today marks 35 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall—a pivotal event that shaped not only German history but world history, leaving an indelible mark on the lives of Berlin’s residents.
The freedom we experience in Berlin today is deeply tied to the city’s scars. People risked their lives to achieve it: constructing and flying balloons, digging tunnels, and in many cases, making the ultimate sacrifice. Some, like Joachim, sought freedom to reunite with loved ones, while others, like Burkhart, dedicated themselves to helping others achieve that same freedom (you can read their stories here).
This memory remains alive in books, movies, and storytellers—and through Berlin’s own Berliner Unterwelten, an association dedicated to preserving the stories hidden beneath the city’s surface.
For this special edition commemorating the Wall’s fall, we interviewed West Berliner, author, and Berliner Unterwelten e.V. co-founder and chairman Dietmar Arnold. (And we’ve partnered with Berliner Unterwelten to raffle two tickets for their Tour D—scroll down to participate!)
It may be cold outside, but today brings a warm reminder of what humanity can accomplish when united in peace. Grab a coffee and join us.
Dietmar Arnold, author of Dunkle Welten: Bunker, Tunnel und Gewölbe unter Berlin, has dedicated his life to uncovering Berlin’s hidden history. As co-founder and chairman of the Berliner Unterwelten association, he works to preserve the stories beneath the city. Recently, he shared his insights on learning from history in a TEDx Talk. Born and raised in West Berlin, Dietmar was there when the Wall fell, witnessing firsthand a moment that would shape his lifelong mission.
When we launched Späti Stories, our first focus was the city’s spirit of freedom. In that issue, we shared the stories of Joachim Neumann and Burkhart Veigel, who dug escape tunnels during the Cold War to help people flee the DDR.
We first encountered the stories of Berlin’s escape tunnels on the Berliner Unterwelten’s Under the Berlin Wall tour, which takes visitors underground to see how the tunnels once looked. For this special edition, we knew we wanted to feature someone from the association who understands the significance of this day and is dedicated to preserving these memories. When Dietmar Arnold, co-founder and chairman of Berliner Unterwelten e.V., agreed, we were thrilled.
We met him at the Berliner Unterwelten office on Brunnenstrasse, where the second part of the Under the Berlin Wall tour begins. He greeted us punctually, wearing a beret and a yellow safety vest with his name tag displayed. After a quick tour of the underground space to scout for photos, we sat down upstairs to start the interview.
Dietmar explained that he studied urban and regional planning with a focus on architecture and historic preservation—“a bit different from a straightforward architecture degree,” he clarified. His interest in this field stemmed from a deep passion for history. “I didn’t just want to study history; I wanted to actively contribute to the positive development of the city,” he said, reflecting his commitment to Berlin’s transformation and preservation.
“I’m a West Berliner, which often gets overlooked – we were like a third category in Germany. There were the “Ossis” (East Germans) and the “Wessis” (West Germans), but we West Berliners lived like islanders in the middle of East Germany, giving us a very different understanding of the GDR”, he adds.
Dietmar’s studies in urban and regional planning led him to an exchange with a university in Paris. During a project there, he encountered a group known as “cataphiles”—students who explored the Paris catacombs. He spent three days underground with one of these groups, becoming fascinated by their work. That experience left a lasting impression, and when he returned to Berlin, he felt compelled to discover what lay beneath his own city. This pivotal experience, he shares, was his main personal motivation and the beginning of his journey into Berlin’s underground.
After German reunification, Dietmar and some colleagues recognized both an opportunity and a mission—to explore and document Berlin’s underground before large-scale development projects erased many of these fascinating spaces. In the mid-90s, numerous historic sites were demolished to make way for new developments, destroying much of what lay beneath.
Together with photographer Frieder Salm and his brother, historian Ingmar Arnold, Dietmar co-authored Dunkle Welten: Bunker, Tunnel und Gewölbe unter Berlin. Published in early 1997 and now in its eleventh edition, the book offers a unique perspective on Berlin’s history through its underground structures.
Seeing that countless historic sites were disappearing and heritage organizations weren’t stepping in, Dietmar and his colleagues realized Berlin’s underground needed preservation. In 1997, they founded Berliner Unterwelten with just eleven members, aiming to advocate for these hidden spaces. Within a year, membership had nearly reached 100, and by 2000, they welcomed their first 3,000 visitors.
Today, Berliner Unterwelten offers tours in multiple languages, bringing history to life across eras—from the imperial period, industrialization, and WWII to the Cold War’s ghost stations, escape tunnels, and nuclear bunkers—revealing the vivid layers of Berlin’s 20th-century history.
When the Wall fell, Dietmar was there—not just in the city, but right in the heart of it, meeting East Berliners who had just crossed over. Together, they went to a Späti for drinks (which was already nearly emptied) and then made their way to the Brandenburg Gate to celebrate, united as Berliners at last.
We would say that for the interview, Dietmar was more on the serious side - but to tell this story, he was smiling. “November 9, 1989, was an incredible moment, and I happened to be there. I was helping my then girlfriend, a seamstress, pick up a sturdy clothing rack on Koloniestraße. We’d checked, and it would fit on the subway.
Around 10 p.m., near Osloer Straße—a quiet border area at the time—we heard an unusual noise but didn’t think much of it. Then, a wave of people suddenly came toward us. We must have looked odd standing there with this huge rack. I asked someone what was happening, and they replied, ‘They opened the Wall!’ At first, I thought it was a joke. Then we realized it was true and hugged, crying.
I'm still friends with the people I met that evening, musicians from the Komische Oper at the time.”
“For me, it was an incredible experience—a ‘shining hour of humanity.’ Without a single shot or drop of blood, the Wall disappeared as quickly as it had gone up in 1961. It was an amazing stroke of luck for everyone who experienced it.”
After reunification, he explained, he had hoped for more dialogue and understanding on both sides. Instead, Eastern identity seemed dismissed, as if everyone had Stasi ties—a perception far removed from reality for most people.
Dietmar observed that Berliners had experienced both systems—capitalism in the West and socialism in the East—and had the unique opportunity to see each side firsthand. For him, however, the reunification process was disheartening. “It felt like the West marched through the Brandenburg Gate with brass bands,” he remarked, “while the citizens of the former GDR were suddenly deemed worthless.”
One example he shared was in academia: the entire educational foundation of the East was swept aside, regardless of any Stasi connections, erasing the GDR’s academic landscape and elevating the West as inherently superior. This approach disregarded Eastern contributions, allowing the West to dominate without fully engaging with Eastern experiences.
According to Dietmar, today’s issues with extremist parties like the AfD are, in part, a consequence of 30 years of missed opportunities and disregard for Eastern perspectives. "The reunification disrupted Eastern identity, built over 40 years. While the East was often dismissed, it also had strengths not found in the West—like the equal societal position of women. In the East, women were independent from the outset, while in the West, they needed permission from their husbands to work or even drive until the 1960s. Respecting these differences instead of discounting them as ‘bad’ is essential", he concludes.
Finally, we wanted Dietmar to answer - as a Berliner, what does freedom mean to him.
“Freedom, to me, is the right to express my opinion and the ability to read whichever newspaper I choose—whether left- or right-leaning. Press freedom is crucial. A functioning judiciary is also essential to freedom. If the administration mistreats me, I have the right to bring it to court and sue the state. I believe many people today don’t fully appreciate what we have here today. Here, I can criticize the chancellor without fear of repercussions—something that would have been unthinkable in the GDR”, he shared.
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Did you know? November 9th holds a unique significance in German history, with eight major events tied to this date. Five of these have left a lasting impact: the execution of Robert Blum in 1848, the end of the German monarchies in 1918, Hitler’s failed coup attempt in 1923, the horrific Nazi-led pogroms against Jewish communities in 1938, and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
🎉 Mauerfall Special Giveaway: Win TWO TICKETS for the English ‘Tour D – Tunnel and Bunker Dresdener Straße’ on November 24th with Berliner Unterwelten. To participate, go here.
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To wrap up, today you can walk through Berlin and trace a 4-kilometer stretch where the Wall once stood—now symbolically "reconstructed" with posters celebrating freedom. This is all part of the Mauerfall35 project, marking the official celebration today.
Happy Mauerfall Day,
Isabelle and Lua