Underground stories
From the surreal to the neo-classical, there is more to Berlin’s U-Bahn stations than you might think.
Photo by Tamsin Ross Van Lessen
Paulsternstraße (district: Spandau; opened: 1984; line: U7; designed by Rainer G. Rümmler). Rümmler designed a large number of Berlin U-Bahn stations between the 1960s to the 1990s in styles ranging from minimalism to pop art and postmodernism. The ceiling depicts a starry night. The station’s design evolved further when Rümmler discovered the nearby lowlands area and pine forest, historically called the “Sternfelde”: the pillars became colourful trees and the walls show fields filled with grass and flowers.