The Gleim tunnel runs underneath what was once a freight train station, Eberswalder Strasse/Bernauer
Strasse, connecting the districts of Wedding and Prenzlauer Berg. It was completed in 1904
and is 130 meters long and 23 meters wide. Workers from densely populated Prenzlauer Berg used
it to get to the large factories in Wedding. Ornamented with Corinthian columns, eighty cast iron pillars
arranged in pairs support the ceiling structure. Today, the Gleim tunnel is a protected historical
landmark.
Between 1961 and 1989, the Gleim tunnel was closed off, because the border between East and West
Berlin was located there. Ever since it was reopened to pedestrians in autumn 1990 (and then later
to traffic), its sparse lighting has turned it into more of an automobile tunnel: pedestrians prefer to
avoid it.
„Light Assistant“ is based on the principle of visualizing the ways that pedestrians move through the
tunnel. Comparable to so-called „pursuers“ — theatrical spotlights — spotlights attached to openings
in the ceiling illuminate the path a pedestrian can take to go through the tunnel. If the pedestrian
stops, the lights stop, too, and continue only when the person moves on. If two people come
from opposite directions, the spotlights also move toward each other, meet, and then drift apart.