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.
