Bremen Underground Guided Tour

The elephant monument and its hidden crypt

The tour begins at the brick elephant on Gustav-Deetjen-Allee, a short distance from Bremen central station. The ten-metre elephant was built in 1932 as a colonial memorial, and in 1990 the city rededicated it as an anti-colonial monument, a symbol of remembrance and of Bremen's partnership with Namibia. Today it stands in a small park and is one of the most discussed landmarks in the city.

What few passers-by know is that a crypt lies beneath the monument. Your guide unlocks it and explains its history and how the space is used today. This first stop sets the tone for the whole Bremen underworld tour: familiar places seen from an unexpected angle, with stories that connect the city's past to the present. Allow about 20 minutes here.

The ABC bunker under Bremen central station

Next you head to the forecourt of the central station, where a large air-raid shelter was built at ground level in the 1940s to protect travellers and residents from bombing raids. At the height of the Cold War the bunker was modernised into an ABC shelter, designed to protect against atomic, biological and chemical attack, with air filters, heavy steel doors and rows of bunks.

This Bremen bunker tour stop is for many guests the highlight of the afternoon. Walking through the narrow corridors, you get a powerful sense of how people expected to survive a crisis and how many thousands passed through the station every day above your head. The guide shows the original equipment and explains how the shelter would have worked, in a visit of about 30 minutes.

The Bremen ramparts

From the station the route crosses the Wallanlagen, the old city ramparts. In the 17th century Bremen was surrounded by star-shaped fortifications and a moat. When the walls lost their military purpose they were turned into a public park from the early 19th century, one of the first of its kind in Germany, and the zigzag line of the moat still traces the outline of the old defences.

Today the ramparts form a green belt around the old town, with lawns, old trees and the historic windmill on the Wall that has become a much-photographed symbol of the city. Crossing them on foot between the underground sites takes about 15 minutes and offers a pleasant breath of fresh air, as well as a good view of how compact the medieval centre of Bremen really is.

The Church of Our Lady and its medieval crypt

The Church of Our Lady stands next to the Market Square and is one of the oldest churches in Bremen, with a Gothic hall church built mainly in the 13th century on even older foundations. During the Second World War several shelters were dug around it, and your guide uses historical photos to show what these bunkers looked like and how they protected people in the old town.

The tour ends inside the church's crypt, which served as a burial place in the Middle Ages and is among the oldest spaces in the city, with parts reaching back to the 11th century. Its low vaults and thick columns make a quiet, atmospheric finale. From here the Market Square, the Town Hall and the Roland statue are just steps away, perfect for continuing your day of things to do in Bremen.

The second route from Contrescarpe 72

If you choose the second option, the tour starts at Contrescarpe 72 in the city centre, at the entrance of Bremen's first and only underground street. This passage once supplied the surrounding shops from below and, so the story goes, remained unknown to the Bremen police for a long time. With historical photos the guide then shows what once lay under the green court of the Overseas Museum and explains how the central station survived the Second World War.

The route continues to the freight yard, where the former banana ripening halls recall the time before the First World War when exotic fruit arrived through Bremen's ports. It ends with a descent into the huge ABC high-rise bunker on Admiralstraße. Both routes last about two hours, start at 14:00 and can be selected in the booking panel.