Bomb in Berlin

A couple of days ago I was working in the Staatsbibliothek, in the Unter den Linden branch.

(I've started to get my books delivered there instead of to the larger and (as I've found) easier-to-get-a-table-at Haus Potsdamer Straße, which takes somewhat longer to get to on public transportation.)

At 3:30 p.m. a woman walked into the reading room and said: "Liebe Leser und Leserinnen!" (I love how they call us "readers" rather than "ladies and gentlemen") "We've been informed that construction workers have just found a bomb in the street in front of the house. It is a bomb from the Second World War. We've been asked to evacuate the building within thirty minutes: please stop your work and make your way to the exit."

Well, this was different.

I made my way with the others to the exit, where the usual controls of library cards and personal possessions in clear plastic baggies proceeded with perhaps a bit less rigour than usual, got my coat and bag from my locker and wandered out onto the street. There I found myself behind police tape.

There was only the one block roped off, and I walked east, past the police officer, past Humboldt Universität to the Christmas Markt in front of the Palast der Republik.

When I made my way back to Unter den Linden at around 6:45 I found much, much more roped off. It was impossible to get to Humboldt, where I was expecting to attend a talk, It was also very difficult to get north, to the Friedrichstraße station, with almost all of Unter den Linden blocked off. The traffic was having a horrible, miserable time of it--nobody having expected to have to do without this street come rush hour time,...

Later I found out that it was a 500 Kilogram British Bomb that had been hiding 3 meters underground all these years--right behind the equestrian statue of Friedrich the Great.