الجمعة · 4 سبتمبر · 18:00 · Starbucks am S-Hackescher Markt
**Evening Walking Tour: 'Comms and Connections' - in Berlin Mitte: Alleys, Hinterhöffe, Pipes, Wires and horses.** **Theme:** Walking Tour + Communications + Industrial Heritage + Beer **Meet Time:** 18:00 **Meet Place:** Hackeshermarkt outside starbucks **Suggested Contribution:** €5 Join me on an evening historical walk through Berlin's communications district, exploring how messages, money, news and information moved around the city long before the internet. **The plan:** We'll grab a *Wegbier* and explore one of the most remarkable concentrations of communications infrastructure in Berlin-Mitte. Within just a few streets we'll encounter telegraph offices, telephone exchanges, postal infrastructure, pneumatic tubes, electrical systems and the institutions that helped connect Berlin to the rest of the world. There are lots of fun alleys and Hinterhofs to explore on this tour, physically connections to the heritage of wires, stables, tubes and machines that kept Berlin connected. The tour finishes at the old Haupttelegrafenamt where we can we will explore the - still intact - pneumatic tube network that was still in use right up till 1976 Berlin's rise as a modern metropolis depended on more than factories and railways. It also needed a way to communicate. Telegraph wires, telephone cables, pneumatic tubes, postal carriages and electrical networks created a new nervous system for the growing city. Much of that nervous system is still visible around Oranienburger Straße. As we make our way there we will encounter some architectural highlights of a similar style, including three generations of electrical transformer station in one location! and the famous Jewish girls School on Augustusstr. If you like history, want to discover more about Berlin beyond the usual stories of the Nazis and the Cold War, and would like to take part in a sociable evening of exploration and discussion, come along. I am an accredited tour guide in Berlin, specialising in telling stories about the city's industrial heritage. I charge a small fee of €5 to organise the tour and share my knowledge. Highlights 📡 Discover the enormous Haupttelegrafenamt and learn how Berlin became one of Europe's great telecommunications centres 📨 Explore the Postfuhramt, where postal transport, telegraphy, telephones and pneumatic post all came together 💨 Discover the extraordinary story of Berlin's Rohrpost, which carried messages through tubes beneath the city ☎️ Visit the former Fernsprechamt Berlin Nord and discover how Berlin's telephone network moved from manual operators to automatic switching 🏛️ See the Institut für Post- und Fernmeldewesen and discover how telecommunications developed in East Germany 📻 Learn how Berlin's telegraph network became connected to the emerging world of radio communication ⚡ Explore the Umspannwerk Koppenplatz and discover why communications networks depended on reliable electricity 🏭 Discover the Dieselhaus, where emergency power helped keep the communications system running 🔌 Learn how electricity and communications became increasingly interconnected 📸 Enjoy fantastic photography opportunities among some of Mitte's most unusual industrial and institutional architecture I estimate the walk will take around hours, including plenty of stops for stories, photographs and discussion. It should be nice - and after we can find the others at Friday Night Drinks. Hope to see you there! Simon