30 Times People Had To Look Twice To Understand What They Were Seeing On The Berlin Subway

Bored Panda got in touch with the person behind “Berlin Subway Creatures” and they were kind enough to answer some of our questions. First, we wanted to know what was the story behind the page’s creation. 

“Like most of the time with these kind of things it started off pretty stupid. Basically, when I moved in 2015 I had a group chat with my friends from my hometown to keep in touch and I was occasionally sending them silly things from the subway in Berlin. I don't know if they got sick of the messages or whatnot but at some point, someone was like: "Why don't you make an Instagram and we will all follow it?"”

“At the time I didn't think it would "blow up" to 26k followers and I was rather lazy with the name and took over the Subwaycreatures (of the New York subway). I do use their hashtag in order to hopefully give them some traffic back in return though. Anyway, big shout out to the OG Subwaycreatures, but no, I'm not affiliated with them (I wish:-D),” they shared with Bored Panda.

We also wanted to know what they thought was the main draw for people. “I think honestly that relatability is a big player here. Like, so many people use public transport every day and when you live in a city like Berlin, you KNOW how wild it can get. So we can really all relate to what is posted in one way or another I feel. Besides that, let's not forget Voyeurism. I think on social media we love to be observers and document things we see. The page is a fly on the wall I feel for what goes on in the Berlin subways.”

“The 26K followers is also ALL organic traffic, no bought followers, no promoted posts, etc. It took a while to get here and besides the page, I'm an event production Freelancer, so I also have my hands full. But I had some help from pages like the “bvg_weilwirdichlieben”, they even projected a post in U Friedrichstr. and “berlinclubmemes” so that also really helped boost followers.”

Naturally, we were curious to hear what made the Berlin subway so special. “Well, if you live in Berlin, you know how crazy it can get! But on a "serious" note, I think Berlin is such a diverse city, you really can find every type of human here. For the good and for the worse. Now imagine a high concentration of different people all together in 1 vehicle. You literally see everything. From rats to people peeing to people raving to some funky outfits, the list goes on. On top of that, contrary to the New York/Parisian/London subway, you can enter the trains without a ticket. There are no "fare gates" (barriers limiting access to those who don't pay the fare), so really EVERYONE can enter.”

“I just want to give a big shoutout to all the people who have supported the page! Keep liking, and resharing, it always makes me smile to see people make their own captions. I haven't worked with any brands really, so if there are some nice brands out there that want to support, slide into my DM's! Because I have literally poured 8 years into this for free, and I have to make rent too!”

While “Berlin Subway Creatures” uses the very American term “subway,” Europeans might call this type of transportation a metro. Or, since the subjects of this list are from Berlin, it might be more proper to use the German term, U-Bahn. Since being opened in 1902, the Berlin U-Bahn runs trains to 175 stations across the city and its outskirts. 

So it’s little wonder that you can really find a full cross-section of the city's demographics strewn across metro seats. In 2019, the U-Bahn helped transport 596 million passengers, although that number has actually dropped since the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020. With remote work still going strong, fewer people need to travel every day. 

Since 2020, many of the trains in the Berlin U-Bahn are BVG Class IK models. With 72-80 seats and a capacity for over 200 people standing, you can practically see a cross-section of entire neighborhoods as you travel. Currently, this model services half of Berlin’s ten metro lines, with plans to expand it to others in the future.

While most people-watching content focuses on fashion or mocking the people pictured (think “the people of Walmart”), “Berlin Subway Creatures” avoids these specific lines by covering all sorts of people. In general, out of boredom or genuine interest, many of us enjoy people-watching.

After all, it can be a fun little game to try and see what stories you can concoct about random strangers, just based on their appearance and movement. But, if you have lived in a dense urban area long enough, you tend to already, in broad strokes, know the sort of people you will encounter in any given area.

But on public transport, particularly a cross-city line, the sky's the limit. While the time of day does tend to determine what you might come across, it’s worth noting that in big cities, which Berlin absolutely qualifies as there are all sorts of happenings at every hour. As a result, the tedium of sitting on the subway for a few minutes a day can, instead, become a sort of people-watching lottery. 

Indeed, given the eccentricity of the outfits, one might be able to start theory-crafting not just details about the person’s life, but the event, party, or who knows what else they might be going to. Of course, there is a reasonable chance, given the realities of living in Berlin, that this is just the actual normal daywear of this particular person.