Berlin Görlitzer Bahnhof
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Görlitzer Bahnhof was the name of the
Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
railway terminus for the mainline link between the capital,
Cottbus Cottbus () or (;) is a university city and the second-largest city in the German state of Brandenburg after the state capital, Potsdam. With around 100,000 inhabitants, Cottbus is the most populous city in Lusatia. Cottbus lies in the Sorbian ...
in
Brandenburg Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...
and
Görlitz Görlitz (; ; ; ; ; Lusatian dialects, East Lusatian: , , ) is a town in the Germany, German state of Saxony. It is on the river Lusatian Neisse and is the largest town in Upper Lusatia, the second-largest town in the region of Lusatia after ...
in
Lower Silesia Lower Silesia ( ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ) is a historical and geographical region mostly located in Poland with small portions in the Czech Republic and Germany. It is the western part of the region of Silesia. Its largest city is Wrocław. The first ...
(since 1945
Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...
). It stood overlooking Spreewaldplatz in the Outer Luisenstadt, the eastern part of
Kreuzberg Kreuzberg () is a district of Berlin, Germany. It is part of the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Berlin-Mitte, Mitte. During the Cold War era, it was one of the poorest areas of West Berlin, but since German reunification in ...
but wartime bombing and
Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
tensions led to its closure and eventual demolition. The Görlitzer Bahnhof (Berlin U-Bahn) station was named after this historic station and is located on a different site nearby.


The rise

The station was designed by August Orth, an architect later responsible for the Emmauskirche in nearby Lausitzer Platz, and built between 1865 and 1867 in the
Palazzo A palace is a large residence, often serving as a royal residence or the home for a head of state or another high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome whi ...
style of the Italian Renaissance. It formed part of a railway expansion project that would link Berlin with Cottbus and Görlitz, and then ultimately with cities such as Sagan (Żagań) and Breslau (Wrocław) (both in
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
since 1945) and
Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
in
Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
. On 13 June 1866 a military train bound for the Austro-Prussian war became the first train to leave the then incomplete station site. The connection was one of convenience because the military had built their barracks in neighbouring Wrangelstraße. Shortly afterwards, on 13 September, a regular passenger service began between Berlin and Cottbus. By late 1867 the Berlin-Görlitz line was complete and the route, which passed through the countryside of the Spreewald and
Lower Lusatia Lower Lusatia (; ; ; ; ) is a historical region in Central Europe, stretching from the southeast of the Germany, German state of Brandenburg to the southwest of Lubusz Voivodeship in Poland. Like adjacent Upper Lusatia in the south, Lower Lusa ...
and the towns of
Königs Wusterhausen Königs Wusterhausen (; , ) is a town in the Dahme-Spreewald district of the state of Brandenburg in Germany a few kilometers outside Berlin. Geography Geographical location Königs Wusterhausen – locally known as "KW" () or "KWh" ()– lie ...
, Lübben, and
Lübbenau Lübbenau (, ; officially Lübbenau/Spreewald, Lower Sorbian, L.S. Lubnjow/Błota (meaning ''Lübbenau/Spree Forest'') Polish language, Polish: ''Lubniów'') is a town in the Oberspreewald-Lausitz, Upper Spree Forest-Lusatia District of Brandenbu ...
, officially opened on 31 December 1867. Although founded by a private company, owned by industrialist and "rail king" Bethel Henry Strousberg, the service was nationalised on 28 March 1882. The new line proved an immediate success with the public. After only a few months, it was accommodating 70,000 travellers a day and during the whole of 1880, approximately 1.5 million people used Görlitzer Bahnhof. Its popularity had a stimulating effect on the surrounding area, with shops and cafés springing up in the neighbouring streets, helping to establish it as one of the liveliest in the city. Aside from the transport of people, the line also served as a vital trade route connecting the capital with the cloth factories, and the brick and glass works of industrial Görlitz. Lausitz proved to be not only a rich source of Spreewald gherkins but also, more importantly, of coal.


Görlitzer Tunnel

In order to improve access between the neighbourhoods that emerged around Görlitzer Straße (the Wrangelkiez) and Wiener Straße (the Reichenberger Kiez), an underpass was constructed under the railway site. Opened to the public in 1910, this connected Oppelner Straße on the northern side with Liegnitzer Straße to the south.Berliner-unterwelten.de
''Berliner Unterwelten e.V.''
This was officially known as the ‘Görlitzer Tunnel’, although it would later also acquire the nickname "Harnröhre“ (Urethra).


The fall

During
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, the Allied aerial bombardments of 3 February 1945, which left 3,255 dead or missing and over 119,000 homeless in the surrounding Kreuzberg district, caused severe damage to the station. Nevertheless, by June, a mere month after the surrender of Berlin, a makeshift Görlitzer Bahnhof was back in service. The revival proved temporary, however. From 25 September 1946 all its long-distance trains were redirected to Schlesischer Bahnhof (renamed Ostbahnhof in 1950) on the central Stadtbahn. Furthermore, over the next few years the ongoing expansion of the electric
S-Bahn The S-Bahn ( , ), , is a hybrid urban rail, urban–suburban rail system serving a metropolitan region predominantly in German language, German-speaking countries. Some of the larger S-Bahn systems provide service similar to rapid transit syst ...
system would supersede its role in the local network too. Ultimately though, it was the deepening crisis in political relations between East and West that sealed the station's fate, and made its position as a Western station operating an Eastern line untenable. It therefore came as no surprise when the
GDR East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally vie ...
decided to close Görlitzer Bahnhof to passenger trains on 29 April 1951. Although the complete absence of the railway on the 1954 Berlin city map suggests the station was subsequently demolished and cleared, it actually remained relatively undisturbed in its bombed-out state for ten years after the closure. The arrival of the Wall in 1961, however, quashed any hopes of a reconstruction. Over the following decade or so all the remaining station buildings were demolished, beginning with the large platform hall in 1962 and the main reception area in 1967. The remaining public buildings – which included two towers, various waiting rooms and a restaurant – were levelled in 1975 during a wave of demolitions during the 1970s that claimed many historic victims across the city. The reason given at the time for the demolition was that the buildings served no practical purpose in standing empty and as a result were being occupied by an "anti-social" element. The removal of these "ruins" would therefore be better for the image of West Berlin. By 1976 the site lay mostly empty.


Continuing use of Görlitzer Bahnhof after closure

Although the station stood abandoned and the site lay undeveloped for over thirty years, the area was never dormant. Since the closure in 1951, the land and buildings were used variously for coal storage, as a scrapyard, an auto garage, and for other small enterprises. Furthermore, the northern goods side of the station site remained in active use by the
Deutsche Reichsbahn The ''Deutsche Reichsbahn'' (), also known as the German National Railway, the German State Railway, German Reich Railway, and the German Imperial Railway, was the Weimar Republic, German national Rail transport, railway system created after th ...
for transporting freight between West and East Berlin, and for this reason a border crossing point stood on the bridge over the
Landwehrkanal The Landwehr Canal (), is a canal parallel to the Spree river in Berlin, Germany, built between 1845 and 1850 to plans by Peter Joseph Lenné. It connects the upper part of the Spree at the eastern harbour () in Friedrichshain with its lowe ...
. This passage of freight was permanently discontinued on 30 June 1985. Between the years 1984 and 1987 a local swimming pool, the Spreewald Bad, an innovative structure designed by Christoph Langhof architects, was built on the site of the former station. Before the remaining area from Skalitzer Straße up to the Görlitzer Ufer was developed into Görlitzer Park in the early 1990s, it was a waste ground partly accessible by the public. This vacancy led to the site being occupied during the summer of 1989 by the Mutoid Waste Company, an anarchist art commune from London. The location was chosen in part because of its proximity to the Wall. On one memorable occasion the scrap metal artists created a "Peace Bird" contraption which featured a bird suspended high in the air which was able to roll along the railway tracks to the border point on the bridge and, in a gesture of peace towards the GDR, exhibit the bird to those in the east. Although the Görlitzer Tunnel remained in use until the beginning of the 1990s, the public access to the site prompted by the new park left it redundant. By the creation of a 'natural' arena in the centre of the park, the tunnel was largely destroyed, although its remains were incorporated into the design.


The remains

The only obvious physical remains of the station site are the two goods sheds, an old office building, the railway bridge and the remnants of the underpass visible in a crater in the centre of the park. Nevertheless, it is possible to follow part of the old railway route on foot, as it leads out of the park, over the Landwehrkanal and then comes to an end over Elsenstraße in
Treptow Treptow () was a former borough in the southeast of Berlin. It merged with Köpenick to form Treptow-Köpenick in 2001. Geography The district was composed by the localities of Alt-Treptow, Plänterwald, Baumschulenweg, Niederschönewei ...
, just before the original line would have met the ring of the S-bahn. The historic building itself lives on in existing local names. In 1926, the local
U-Bahn Rapid transit in Germany consists of four systems and 14 systems. The , commonly understood to stand for ('underground railway'), are conventional rapid transit systems that run mostly underground, while the or ('city rapid railway') are c ...
station Oranienstraße was renamed as Görlitzer Bahnhof to indicate the neighbouring mainline terminus but despite the latter's demise the U-bahn stop maintains the historical name, much like with the similarly doomed
Anhalter Bahnhof The Anhalter Bahnhof is a former train station, railway terminus in Berlin, Germany, approximately southeast of Potsdamer Platz. Once one of Berlin's most important railway stations, it was severely damaged in World War II, and finally closed fo ...
. In addition to this, the road that runs alongside the western side of Görlitzer Park, was renamed Wiener Straße in 1873, because the first trains connecting Berlin and the Austrian capital Vienna left from Görlitzer Bahnhof. Likewise, the neighbouring squares Spreewaldplatz and Lausitzer Platz were named after the areas of countryside once accessible from its platforms.


Filming location

The 1966 film ''
Funeral in Berlin ''Funeral in Berlin'' is a 1964 spy novel by Len Deighton set between Saturday 5 October and Sunday 10 November 1963. It was the third of Deighton's novels about an unnamed British agent. It was preceded by '' The IPCRESS File'' (1962) and '' ...
'' used the front of the building, which still stood at that time, as the filming location for the fictional East Berlin "Marx-Engels-Platz 59".


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berlin Gorlitzer Bahnhof Railway stations in Germany opened in 1867 Demolished buildings and structures in Berlin 19th century in Berlin 20th century in Berlin Gorlitzer Bahnhof Gorlitzer Bahnhof Gorlitzer Bahnhof Railway stations in Germany closed in 1946