Berlin Potsdamer Bahnhof
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Potsdamer Bahnhof is a former
railway terminus A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing suc ...
in
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
,
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
. It was the first railway station in Berlin, opening in 1838. It was located at
Potsdamer Platz Potsdamer Platz (, ''Potsdam Square'') is a public square and traffic intersection in the center of Berlin, Germany, lying about south of the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag (German Parliament Building), and close to the southeast corn ...
, about 1 km south of the Brandenburg Gate, and kick-started the transformation of Potsdamer Platz from an area of quiet villas near the south-east corner of the Tiergarten park into the bustling focal point that it eventually became. For more than a century it was the terminus for long-distance and suburban trains. Also located at this spot were underground stations on the
Berlin U-Bahn The Berlin U-Bahn (; short for , "underground railway") is a rapid transit system in Berlin, the capital and largest city of Germany, and a major part of the city's public transport system. Together with the S-Bahn, a network of suburban train li ...
and
S-Bahn The S-Bahn is the name of hybrid urban-suburban rail systems serving a metropolitan region in German-speaking countries. Some of the larger S-Bahn systems provide service similar to rapid transit systems, while smaller ones often resemble c ...
, and today's new underground ''Regionalbahnhof'', known as Bahnhof Potsdamer Platz, while the short-lived
M-Bahn The M-Bahn or Magnetbahn was an elevated Maglev train line operating in Berlin, Germany, experimentally from 1984 and in passenger operation from 1989 to 1991. The line was in length, and featured three stations, two of which were newly construc ...
crossed the site of the former terminus.


Early days

The Potsdamer Bahnhof was the Berlin terminus of the city's first railway, linking it with
Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream o ...
. Begun in 1835, it was opened from the Potsdam end as far as Zehlendorf on 22 September 1838, and its entire length of 26 km on 29 October. The first train was hauled by a
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
-built locomotive, the work of
Robert Stephenson Robert Stephenson FRS HFRSE FRSA DCL (16 October 1803 – 12 October 1859) was an English civil engineer and designer of locomotives. The only son of George Stephenson, the "Father of Railways", he built on the achievements of his father ...
at his Newcastle-upon-Tyne works in 1835, and called ''Adler'' (Eagle). In 1848 the lines were extended west to
Magdeburg Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river. Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebu ...
, to link up with routes extending across the future German state. The whole area around the Berlin terminus became a major focus for urban growth after its opening. Five major streets eventually converged here, most having started out as mere rough tracks through the Tiergarten park and adjoining fields.


A new terminus

The first Potsdamer Bahnhof lasted until 1869, when it was superseded by a far grander structure in response to growing traffic, built by
Julius Ludwig Quassowski The gens Julia (''gēns Iūlia'', ) was one of the most prominent patrician families in ancient Rome. Members of the gens attained the highest dignities of the state in the earliest times of the Republic. The first of the family to obtain the ...
(1824–1909) with five platforms, a trainshed roof that was 173m long and 36m wide, a booking hall with separate waiting rooms and facilities for four classes of ticket holders, and a separate entrance and reception area on the west side for visiting royalty. Opened on 30 August 1872, it eventually handled train services to and from
Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...
,
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
,
Frankfurt/Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its ...
, Strasbourg and
Aix en Provence Aix-en-Provence (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Ais de Provença in classical norm, or in Mistralian norm, ; la, Aquae Sextiae), or simply Aix ( medieval Occitan: ''Aics''), is a city and commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. ...
. By 1890 over 3 million people a year were using it, and it was holding its own against a larger rival down the road (the Anhalter Bahnhof).


Ringbahnhof and Wannsee Bahnhof

Still the facilities could not cope, and so in 1890–1891 two additional termini were built on either side of it for short-haul and suburban traffic: on the east side, the ''Ringbahnhof'', opened on 1 April 1891 to serve the
Ringbahn The Ringbahn (German for circle railway) is a long circle route around Berlin's inner city area, on the Berlin S-Bahn network. Its course is made up of a double-tracked S-Bahn ring and a parallel freight ring. The S-Bahn lines S41 and S42 prov ...
itself, the circular route skirting the city's perimeter with connections to all the main termini and open throughout its length since 15 November 1877; and the
Wannsee Wannsee () is a locality in the southwestern Berlin borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf, Germany. It is the westernmost locality of Berlin. In the quarter there are two lakes, the larger ''Großer Wannsee'' (Greater Wannsee, "See" means lake) and the ...
Bahnhof on the west side, opened on 1 October 1891 for trains to Wannsee and the south western suburbs. Both these stations were located further south, with the north entries just north of the line ''Bernburger Straße''. In 1901, separate tracks for the suburban line along the Anhalter Bahn to Lichterfelde-Ost were built together with a number of new stations. The Berlin city terminus was moved from the Anhalter Bahnhof to the Potsdam Ringbahn station. This line was the first Berlin suburban line to be electrified with
Third Rail A third rail, also known as a live rail, electric rail or conductor rail, is a method of providing electric power to a railway locomotive or train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway ...
, opened on 2 July 1903. Originally using 550 V DC, it was converted to 800 V in April 1929, in the course of the "Grand Electrification" of the core of Berlin's city, Ring, and suburban lines. The lines terminating in the Potsdamer Bahnhof Wannsee station and the mainline terminus had to wait until 15 May 1933 to be electrified. The Ringbahnhof ultimately handled many times as many passengers as the mainline terminus.


1930s heyday

Although smaller than the Anhalter Bahnhof, the Potsdamer Bahnhof was much the busier of the two. By 1939 up to 83,000 people per day were using it, actually making it the busiest station in Berlin by a considerable distance. Since most of these were specifically using the Ringbahnhof, it gave the impression that the entire terminus was simply a suburban or commuter station handling exclusively short haul services, yet the main line services, including those to Paris and other French destinations, were definitely still running. The previous year, the terminus, together with the line from Potsdam, had reached its centenary, and the celebrations featured an operational replica of the "Adler" locomotive that had hauled the very first train 100 years previously (the original loco had been scrapped at
Augsburg Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ...
in 1857). The replica was the work of the DRG restoration workshop at Kaiserslautern in 1935. In 1939 the Wannsee Bahnhof on the west side closed, superseded by the new
S-Bahn The S-Bahn is the name of hybrid urban-suburban rail systems serving a metropolitan region in German-speaking countries. Some of the larger S-Bahn systems provide service similar to rapid transit systems, while smaller ones often resemble c ...
North-South Link described below.


World War II and its aftermath

The fate of the Potsdamer Bahnhof was determined by
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, and yet even if the war had not occurred, major changes would still have taken place. Under the grand plan by
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
(1889–1945), to transform Berlin into the ''Welthauptstadt'' (World Capital) Germania, to be realised by Albert Speer (1905–81), the building would have ceased to be a railway terminus. The new North-South Axis, the linchpin of the plan, would have severed its approach tracks, leaving the terminus stranded on the wrong side of it. All trains arriving in Berlin would have run into either of two vast new stations located on the
Ringbahn The Ringbahn (German for circle railway) is a long circle route around Berlin's inner city area, on the Berlin S-Bahn network. Its course is made up of a double-tracked S-Bahn ring and a parallel freight ring. The S-Bahn lines S41 and S42 prov ...
to the north and south of the centre respectively, to be known as ''Nordbahnhof'' (North Station) and ''Südbahnhof'' (South Station), located at
Wedding A wedding is a ceremony where two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes. Most wedding ceremonies involve an exchange of marriage vo ...
and Südkreuz. The intended use of the Potsdamer Bahnhof has not been documented. In any event, things took a very different course. During World War II the terminus, like most of Berlin, was devastated by
Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...
and
US Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sig ...
bombs and
Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
artillery shells. Despite some rubble clearance and emergency repairs, damage to rail infrastructure further out was so great that the mainline terminus never saw another train, it and the Ringbahnhof finally closed on 3 August 1944. Shortly after the war's end the Ringbahnhof received a reprieve of sorts, temporarily reopening on 6 August 1945 as terminus of the Wannseebahn trains, while the U-Bahn and S-Bahn received extensive repairs, beginning with pumping out thousands of tonnes of water. The Ringbahnhof closed for good on 27 July 1946 after some fragmentary train workings had resumed along the U-Bahn and North-South Tunnel on 2 June. The services were extended further in 1951. Potsdamer Bahnhof had a unique location in post-war Berlin. Located in the so-called lower Friedrichsvorstadt the Potsdamer Bahnhof became part of the new Kreuzberg borough in 1920. Since a change of borough boundaries in 1938, the boroughs of Tiergarten and Kreuzberg lay on either side of Potsdamer Bahnhof, but the boundary of the borough of Mitte skirted around the site of Potsdamer Bahnhof, so it formed a long thin rectangle within Mitte extending as a salient south from the rest of Mitte towards, and just over, the
Landwehr Canal The Landwehr Canal (german: Landwehrkanal), 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 Friedri ...
. The result was that Potsdamer Bahnhof was in the Soviet Sector of Berlin, which became the de facto capital of
East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
, while the approach track and neighbourhood to the East were in the American Sector of Berlin, and the neighbourhood to the West in the
British Sector British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
. As a terminus within East Berlin, but with its approach tracks coming through
West Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...
, as with the Stettiner Bahnhof, 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 German national railway system created after the end of World War I from the regiona ...
were not particularly anxious to restore many services to the station. Another interruption of services was caused by the
Uprising of 1953 in East Germany The East German uprising of 1953 (german: Volksaufstand vom 17. Juni 1953 ) was an uprising that occurred in East Germany from 16 to 17 June 1953. It began with a strike action by construction workers in East Berlin on 16 June against w ...
, no trains running between 17 June, the day of the uprising, and 9 July. Above ground the remains of the terminus were cleared away in stages between 1957 and 1960 after a vague attempt at restoration was aborted. Besides the Dresdner and Hamburger Bahnhöfe (which were not operating by the time of WWII) all of Berlin's other rail termini suffered a similar fate, leaving a network that remained fragmented and inconvenient for decades, exacerbated by the
Division of Berlin The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the governmen ...
and the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961 (see below). The building of the Berlin Wall had a further impact. The now-derelict site of the station would have required two or more kilometres of wall to surround an unused area of 8.5-hectares. The East German regime decided to leave the site of the Potsdamer Bahnhof outside of the wall, although it remained formally and legally part of the Soviet Sector until 21 December 1971, when
East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
were paid DM 31 million for this piece of land as part of a wider land swap. By contrast, the route of the
S-Bahn The S-Bahn is the name of hybrid urban-suburban rail systems serving a metropolitan region in German-speaking countries. Some of the larger S-Bahn systems provide service similar to rapid transit systems, while smaller ones often resemble c ...
through the
Berlin Nord-Süd Tunnel The North–South S-Bahn Tunnel (german: Nord-Süd-Tunnel) is the central section of the North–South transversal Berlin S-Bahn connection crossing the city centre. It is not to be confused with the , the central tunnel part of the North–South ...
having been re-opened, as described above, crossed under the Berlin Wall between Anhalter Bahnhof and the Potsdamer Platz S-Bahn station, so the Potsdamer Platz S-Bahn station closed, like the other stations in East Berlin on the
North-South ''North-South'' ( hy, Հյուսիս-Հարավ) or ''Four Buddies and the Bride'' is an Armenian comedy directed by Davit Babakhanyan and Vazgen Muradyan, starring Diana Malenko, Sona Shahgeldyan and David Tovmasyan. The film was produced by L ...
line (apart from
Friedrichstraße The Friedrichstraße () (lit. ''Frederick Street'') is a major culture and shopping street in central Berlin, forming the core of the Friedrichstadt neighborhood and giving the name to Berlin Friedrichstraße station. It runs from the northern pa ...
). Trains that were now only for use in
West Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...
travelled between Anhalter Bahnhof via Friedrichstraße without stopping, and then on to Humboldthain. The Potsdamer Platz S-Bahn station remained closed until 1 March 1992. The building of the Berlin Wall and the closure of Potsdamer Platz S-Bahn station left the area to the West of the site of the Potsdamer Bahnhof a long way from rapid transport networks. West Berlin's purchase of the site from the East opened an opportunity to solve that problem, and trains, of a sort, returned to the site of the station, since a part of Tiergarten quarter, in the shape of the short-lived
M-Bahn The M-Bahn or Magnetbahn was an elevated Maglev train line operating in Berlin, Germany, experimentally from 1984 and in passenger operation from 1989 to 1991. The line was in length, and featured three stations, two of which were newly construc ...
, which crossed the site. However, the purpose of the M-Bahn disappeared with the fall of the Wall, and it was quickly dismantled and removed, since the trackbed at Gleisdreieck was an obstruction to re-unifying the ends of the U2 Underground line, which since re-instatement has also effectively replaced the M-Bahn.


The Potsdamer Bahnhof site today

Today a number of vast new developments can be seen around Potsdamer Platz. Despite some initial reservations, the new quarter has become a commercial success, and a must-see for the majority of visitors to Berlin. Where the Potsdamer Bahnhof once stood is a long landscaped strip of land named after the Austrian actress
Tilla Durieux Tilla Durieux (born Ottilie Godeffroy; 18 August 1880 – 21 February 1971) was an Austrian theatre and film actress of the first decades of the 20th century. Early Years Born Ottilie Helene Angela Godeffroy on 18 August 1880, she was the daug ...
(1880–1971), stretching for 450 m down to the Landwehrkanal. Despite appearances on the surface, long-distance trains have returned to the site, since the
Berlin North–South mainline The Berlin North-South main line (German: ''Nord-Süd-Fernbahn''), also called the ''North-South link'' (''Nord-Süd-Verbindung'') is an electrified railway line in Berlin which was opened in 2006. It is an important component of the “mushroom ...
runs under the site of the Potsdamer Bahnhof, with the
Potsdamer Platz Potsdamer Platz (, ''Potsdam Square'') is a public square and traffic intersection in the center of Berlin, Germany, lying about south of the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag (German Parliament Building), and close to the southeast corn ...
station extending under some of the site of the Potsdamer Bahnhof. A major fire at the
DB Museum The Nuremberg Transport Museum (') is based in Nuremberg, Germany, and consists of the Deutsche Bahn's own DB Museum and the Museum of Communications ('). It also has two satellite museums at Koblenz-Lützel (the '' DB Museum Koblenz'') and Halle ...
(German State Railway Museum) in
Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
on the night of 17/18 October 2005 destroyed a historical shed and 25 locomotives including the ''Adler'' replica featured in the centenary celebrations for the Potsdamer Bahnhof in 1938. Deutsche Bahn have apparently ordered another operational replica in time for the 175th anniversary celebrations in 2010, for the
Nuremberg - Fürth railway line The Bavarian Ludwig Railway (''Bayerische Ludwigseisenbahn'' or ''Ludwigsbahn'') was the first steam-hauled railway opened in Germany. The ''Königlich privilegierte Ludwigs-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'' ("Royal Privileged Ludwig Railway Company ...
, Germany's first.


See also

*
Berlin Potsdamer Platz station Berlin Potsdamer Platz is a railway station in Berlin. It is completely underground and situated under Potsdamer Platz in central Berlin. Regional and S-Bahn services call at the station, and it is also served by U-Bahn line U2. History ...


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Potsdamer Bahnhof Railway stations in Berlin Berlin S-Bahn stations Buildings and structures in Mitte
Berlin Potsdamer Bahnhof The Potsdamer Bahnhof is a former railway terminus in Berlin, Germany. It was the first railway station in Berlin, opening in 1838. It was located at Potsdamer Platz, about 1 km south of the Brandenburg Gate, and kick-started the transfor ...
Buildings and structures in Berlin destroyed during World War II
Berlin Potsdamer Bahnhof The Potsdamer Bahnhof is a former railway terminus in Berlin, Germany. It was the first railway station in Berlin, opening in 1838. It was located at Potsdamer Platz, about 1 km south of the Brandenburg Gate, and kick-started the transfor ...
Berlin Potsdamer Bahnhof The Potsdamer Bahnhof is a former railway terminus in Berlin, Germany. It was the first railway station in Berlin, opening in 1838. It was located at Potsdamer Platz, about 1 km south of the Brandenburg Gate, and kick-started the transfor ...
1838 in Germany