Ullsteinstraße Subway Station - The World in Shards
28.05.2026
A cool breeze greets me as I walk down the gray stone steps to the Ullsteinstraße subway station. The station has a ’60s charm; the yellow tiles are already slightly dirty, and a piece of the ceiling paneling is missing.
“Please step back,” I hear just as the doors of the U6 heading toward Kurt-Schumacher-Platz close in front of me, before I can get on.
As I watch the departing train, it reveals the wall behind it, where a large section of the yellow tiles is missing. And right next to an advertisement, by the platform sign marked with the number 2, I spot it: a mosaic made of shards of mirror.
It’s a bit inconspicuous, and only at second glance do I realize that it depicts a map of the world. Continents and countries are pieced together from broken mirror glass; the oceans are visible as gray mortar.
The world in shards—how fitting for the many global crises…
And yet, the mosaic of shards seems quite alive; people are reflected in it as they walk along the subway platform.
I can see myself, too; my reflection is broken into multiple pieces, and I find myself, so to speak, on several continents at once. Thoughtfully, I gaze at the mosaic and follow with my eyes the reflections of the passing faces as they wander across the shattered world map.
As broken as this image of the world may seem at first glance, it’s also full of life. It’s the people in this subway station who bring color and vitality to the fragments. Perhaps that’s exactly what our deeply wounded world needs—each and every one of us.
A short while later, the next subway train pulls in, glides in front of the mosaic, and obscures it once again.
I board the train, and as I take a seat by the window, I catch one last glimpse of this fragile image of the world and briefly look at my reflection before the train pulls away.
“We carry this treasure in fragile vessels; this makes it clear that all power comes from God and not from us.”
The Bible, Second Letter to the Corinthians
You can find more from Sr. Thekla on the “Kirche im RBB” website:
https://www.kirche-im-rbb.de/autorinnen/detail/thekla-schoenfeld
“Please step back,” I hear just as the doors of the U6 heading toward Kurt-Schumacher-Platz close in front of me, before I can get on.
As I watch the departing train, it reveals the wall behind it, where a large section of the yellow tiles is missing. And right next to an advertisement, by the platform sign marked with the number 2, I spot it: a mosaic made of shards of mirror.
It’s a bit inconspicuous, and only at second glance do I realize that it depicts a map of the world. Continents and countries are pieced together from broken mirror glass; the oceans are visible as gray mortar.
The world in shards—how fitting for the many global crises…
And yet, the mosaic of shards seems quite alive; people are reflected in it as they walk along the subway platform.
I can see myself, too; my reflection is broken into multiple pieces, and I find myself, so to speak, on several continents at once. Thoughtfully, I gaze at the mosaic and follow with my eyes the reflections of the passing faces as they wander across the shattered world map.
As broken as this image of the world may seem at first glance, it’s also full of life. It’s the people in this subway station who bring color and vitality to the fragments. Perhaps that’s exactly what our deeply wounded world needs—each and every one of us.
A short while later, the next subway train pulls in, glides in front of the mosaic, and obscures it once again.
I board the train, and as I take a seat by the window, I catch one last glimpse of this fragile image of the world and briefly look at my reflection before the train pulls away.
“We carry this treasure in fragile vessels; this makes it clear that all power comes from God and not from us.”
The Bible, Second Letter to the Corinthians
You can find more from Sr. Thekla on the “Kirche im RBB” website:
https://www.kirche-im-rbb.de/autorinnen/detail/thekla-schoenfeld