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Pink groundwater pipes in front of the Rotes Rathaus, the city hall, September 2014.Photo: Tony Webster, 2014. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 2.0.

The pink pipes

In central Berlin the groundwater lies within three metres of the pavement. The pink pipes carry it away

Every building pit that goes deeper must pump the water out or be sealed against it. The pumped water climbs into pipes that cross the streets overhead, on their way to the Spree and the canals.

≤3m
to the groundwater in the inner city, by the Senate’s rule of thumb
~10%
of Berlin’s area has groundwater under 2 m down
8m
how far U- and S-Bahn pumping lowered the inner city’s water, at most
€0.31
the state’s fee per cubic metre pumped, after the first 6,000 a year

01The ground beneath Berlin

The city centre stands in a glacial valley full of sand and water

Berlin’s landscape was shaped by the Weichselian ice age. Its meltwater cut the Warsaw–Berlin glacial valley, which runs through the city from the Spandauer Forst to the Müggelsee and is filled mostly with sand and gravel. The Spree flows along it, and the old centre sits in it.

In that valley the groundwater lies between half a metre and seven metres below ground, the Umweltatlas finds, and closer to the surface the nearer you get to the Spree and the Havel. On the plateaus to the north and south it can lie tens of metres down.

In the inner city, the Senate tells builders to expect water at no more than three metres.

How far down is the groundwater?

Share of Berlin’s area in each depth class, May 2020, a time of low groundwater. Each band drawn at its true depth.

Under a Berlin street, depths to scale

A cross-section of a Berlin street and the ground beneath it, depths drawn to one true scale: the groundwater, a building pit pumped dry, the historic lowering of the water table, a sealed trough, and the overhead pipe that carries pumped water to the river.

Depths below the street are drawn to one true scale. Widths, the pit and the pipe’s height are schematic.

The river Spree between modern government buildings joined by a footbridge.
The Spree in the government quarter, 2007.Photo: Jorge Royan, 2007. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0.

The inner city

Water within three metres

In the inner city the Senate tells builders to expect groundwater no more than 3 m down. Near the Spree and the Havel it lies closer still.

Aerial view of a large lake surrounded by forest under a hazy sky.
The Müggelsee, the valley’s south-eastern end, 2012.Photo: Brücke-Osteuropa, 2012. Wikimedia Commons. CC0.

The glacial valley

Half a metre to seven metres

Across the whole valley, from the Spandauer Forst to the Müggelsee, the Umweltatlas finds the water between half a metre and seven metres down, mostly 2–7 m, measured at low water.

An old printed photograph of a deep construction pit with pumps, pipes and timber shoring.
Lowering the groundwater to build the Weinhaus Rheingold, 1907.Photo: Unknown author, 1907. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

A pit deeper than the water

Pump it down, or the pit fills

Dig below that level and the pit fills with water. One answer is to pump: wells around the site draw the water table down until the bottom is dry. Above 6,000 cubic metres a year this needs a permit.

Black-and-white photograph of a large open excavation in a city square with cranes, timber and workers.
U-Bahn works at Alexanderplatz, 1930.Photo: Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg, Staatsarchiv Freiburg, W 134 Nr. 001574, 1930. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 4.0.

1890–1945

The centre’s water fell by up to eight metres

Big dewatering for the U- and S-Bahn, at Alexanderplatz and Friedrichstraße, and for other large buildings lowered the inner city’s groundwater by up to 8 m for long periods.

The rule today

Deep basements go in a sealed trough

In the inner city, any building with more than one basement storey now generally needs a watertight trough: sealed walls and a sealed floor, so the water around it stays where it is and nearby old buildings are not put at risk.

A pink pipe on steel supports passes over street signs and a painted fence, with trees behind.
A pink pipe over Modersohnstraße, Friedrichshain, 2014.Photo: Tony Webster, 2014. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 2.0.

Up and over

Into the pipe, over the street, into the river

What is pumped goes up into pipes that cross the streets high on steel supports and ends in the Spree or one of the canals. Every cubic metre costs €0.31 after the first 6,000 a year.

02Berlin, 1890–1945

When Berlin dug its railways, it pumped the centre’s water down by up to eight metres

From 1890 until the Second World War a fast-growing city drew more and more water, and its building sites pumped as well. The big dewatering for the U-Bahn and the S-Bahn, at Alexanderplatz and Friedrichstraße among other places, lowered the groundwater across the inner city by up to 8 m for long periods, the Umweltatlas records.

Black-and-white photograph of a trench and timber decking in a wide city street in front of a large hotel.
The north–south S-Bahn tunnel being dug in front of the Hotel Adlon, January 1935.Photo: Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg, Staatsarchiv Freiburg, W 134 Nr. 007416, 1935. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 4.0.
Black-and-white photograph of a deep excavation lined with steel sheet piling, with workers at the bottom.
Excavation for the north–south S-Bahn at the Anhalter Bahnhof, July 1935.Photo: Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg, Staatsarchiv Freiburg, W 134 Nr. 007422, 1935. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 4.0.
Black-and-white aerial view of a long open construction pit crossing a busy square.
Potsdamer Platz, 29 August 1938: the S-Bahn building pit seen from the Columbushaus.Photo: Willy Pragher, 1938. Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg, Staatsarchiv Freiburg, W 134 Nr. 008996a. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 4.0.

When the city’s water supply collapsed at the end of the war, the groundwater rose almost back to its natural level.

Today the rules push the other way. Large building sites must put back the groundwater they take, and deep basements in the centre are built inside sealed troughs, so that the water around them stays where it is.

03Why pink?

Pink because, the firm says, a psychologist asked children

The pipes are temporary, and they belong to the firms that run the pumps. The pink ones belong to Pollems, a Berlin specialist in lowering groundwater. Others paint theirs blue.

Why pink? A Pollems spokesperson told the Czech news agency ČTK in 2020 that a psychologist chose the colour with the help of many children, and that it decided against blue, the colour other companies used, on an expert’s assessment. The Berliner dates the research to 1992.

High on steel supports set in concrete footings, they cross busy roads and pass under railway bridges, past people’s windows.

A pink pipe on a tall steel mast bends over a street junction beside a traffic light and a Revaler Straße sign.
Revaler Straße, Friedrichshain, September 2014: the pipe climbs a mast and crosses high over the junction, leaving the road and the pavement open.Photo: Tony Webster, 2014. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 2.0.

How much pink pipe is there?

Two published figures, on one scale. Neither is a count: the Senate says no exact length can be given, because it changes almost daily.

04Below the pit

Under the building sites lies the water Berlin drinks

Berlin covers all of its public drinking water from its own groundwater. It comes from a freshwater layer about 150 m thick, sealed off from salt water below by some 80 m of clay. That is why pumping has a price: €0.31 for every cubic metre over 6,000 a year.

The waterworks pump far less than they did a generation ago. And building-site water that goes into the sewer instead of a river is let in only after aeration, with the iron sludge held back and every cubic metre metered, under the Berliner Wasserbetriebe’s terms.

Groundwater pumped for drinking water

Million cubic metres a year, waterworks in Berlin

A red-brick industrial hall with arched windows on a river embankment.
Hobrecht’s radial sewersHow Berlin took its wastewater away, from the 1870s. Radialsystem V on the Spree, 2008: a pumping station of Hobrecht’s sewer system, now a performance venue. Photo: Sir James, 2008. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 3.0.

The column under the city, to scale

Depth below ground, one linear scale. The inner city’s water table (top line) sits within 3 m.

Berlin stands on its own drinking water. Wherever a pink pipe crosses the street, a hole has gone below the water table.

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Berlinfographics (2026). “Berlin’s pink pipes”. Berlin Experiences. https://berlinfographics.com/berlin-pink-pipes/

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