Dresden Hauptbahnhof ("main station", abbreviated Dresden Hbf) is the largest passenger station in the
Saxon capital of
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...
. In 1898, it replaced the ''Böhmischen Bahnhof'' ("Bohemian station") of the former
Saxon-Bohemian State Railway (''Sächsisch-Böhmische Staatseisenbahn''), and was designed with its formal layout as the central station of the city. The combination of a station building on an island between the tracks and a terminal station on two different levels is unique. The building is notable for its train-sheds, which are roofed with
Teflon-coated glass fibre
Glass fiber ( or glass fibre) is a material consisting of numerous extremely fine fibers of glass.
Glassmakers throughout history have experimented with glass fibers, but mass manufacture of glass fiber was only made possible with the inventio ...
membranes
A membrane is a selective barrier; it allows some things to pass through but stops others. Such things may be molecules, ions, or other small particles. Membranes can be generally classified into synthetic membranes and biological membranes. Bi ...
. This translucent roof design, installed during the comprehensive restoration of the station at the beginning of the 21st century, allows more daylight to reach the concourses than was previously possible.
The station is connected by the Dresden
railway node A railway node is a location in a railway
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to roa ...
to the tracks of the
Děčín–Dresden-Neustadt railway
The Děčín–Dresden railway, also called the Elbe Valley Railway (German: ''Elbtalbahn'') is an electrified main line (railway), main line in Saxony and the Czech Republic. Formerly called the Saxon-Bohemian State Railway (''Sächsisch-Böhmisc ...
and the
Dresden–Werdau railway
The Dresden–Werdau railway is an electrified, double-track main line in the German state of Saxony. It runs from Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German s ...
(
Saxon-Franconian trunk line), allowing traffic to run to the southeast towards
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
,
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
and on to south-eastern Europe or to the southwest towards
Chemnitz
Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt , ) is the third-largest city in the German state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden. It is the 28th largest city of Germany as well as the fourth largest city in the area of former East Germany a ...
and
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 ...
. The connection of the routes to the north (
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
), northwest (
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
) and east (
Görlitz
Görlitz (; pl, Zgorzelec, hsb, Zhorjelc, cz, Zhořelec, :de:Ostlausitzer Mundart, East Lusatian dialect: ''Gerlz'', ''Gerltz'', ''Gerltsch'') is a town in the Germany, German state of Saxony. It is located on the Lusatian Neisse River, and ...
) does not take place at the station, but north of
Dresden-Neustadt station
Dresden-Neustadt station () is the second largest railway station in the German city of Dresden after Dresden Hauptbahnhof and is also a stop for long-distance traffic. It is the junction for rail traffic on the northern side of the Elbe. It was b ...
(at least for passenger trains).
Location
![Dresden-Germany-Main Station-Entrance Hall](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/Dresden-Germany-Main_Station-Entrance_Hall.jpg)
The station is located south of the Inner Old Town in the Seevorstadt and the district of Südvorstadtat reaches its southern edge. Next door to the station area is the ''Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Dresden'' (University of Applied Sciences).
Federal highway 170 passes under the station area to the east of the station building, running north–south.
Prager Straße, the inner-city shopping street, begins at Wiener Platz to the north. Road traffic on Wiener Platz was diverted in the 1990s to run through a road tunnel with connections to underground parking, and it is now a pedestrianised street. Several major buildings have been constructed in the area in the modern style and there is an excavation in Wiener Platz, which was dug a few years ago, but construction has been abandoned (2013).
History
In 1839, the
Leipzig–Dresden Railway Company
The Leipzig–Dresden Railway Company (german: Leipzig-Dresdner Eisenbahn-Compagnie or LDE) was a private railway company in the Kingdom of Saxony, now a part of Germany. Amongst other things, it operated the route between Leipzig and Dresden, ope ...
(''Leipzig-Dresdner Eisenbahn-Compagnie'') opened the first long-distance railway in Germany from Leipzig to its Dresden terminus, the
Leipziger Bahnhof. In the following decades more railways were built, increasing the destinations that could be reached from Dresden. Each private company built its own station as the terminus of its lines. The
Silesian Station (''Schlesischer Bahnhof'') was opened in 1847 as the terminus of the
Görlitz–Dresden railway
The Görlitz–Dresden railway is a two-track main line railway in the German state of Saxony, originally built and operated by the ''Saxon-Silesian Railway Company''. It runs through Upper Lusatia from Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: '' ...
and the Bohemian station (''Böhmische Bahnhof'') was opened in 1848 on the line towards
Bohemia
Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...
. Seven years later, the
Albert station (''Albertbahnhof'') was opened on the
line towards Chemnitz and the
Berliner station (''Berliner Bahnhof'') opened in 1875 on the
line to Berlin.
Between 1800 and 1900, the population of Dresden grew from 61,794 to 396,146. As a result, traffic grew enormously. The existing railway facilities proved to be inadequate to satisfy the increasing traffic as a result of rising mobility, population increase and industrialisation. In particular, the railway tracks of the poorly interconnected stations were not designed for through traffic and the many level crossings created major traffic problems.
After the late 1880s, when all the railway infrastructure affecting the city had been nationalised, the Saxon government decided to carry out a fundamental reconstruction of the Dresden railway node under the leadership of the engineer Otto Klette. This would create a new central railway station, but there was no consensus on its location for a long time. After the Elbe flood of March 1845, the inspector of surveys, Karl Pressler suggested that the
Weißeritz
The Weißeritz (also: ''Vereinigte Weißeritz'' in German i.e. United Weißeritz, ''Bystrica'' in Sorbian) is a river of Saxony, Germany. It is long and a left tributary of the Elbe.
The river is formed by the confluence of the Wild Weißeritz ...
near Cotta should be relocated and that the existing riverbed could be used for a central station. This plan was taken up and the former riverbed was used for a connection line between Dresden's long-distance railway stations, but, instead of a central station, the planners foresaw a new main station in front of the former Bohemian station, as it was already the busiest station in Dresden and it was close to Prager Straße, which became the most important shopping street of Dresden in the last quarter of the 19th century.
[Kaiß/Hengst: Dresdens Eisenbahn, pp. 10f]
Böhmischer Bahnhof
On 1 August 1848, the
Saxon-Bohemian State Railway (''Sächsisch-Böhmische Staatseisenbahn'') opened the Bohemian station as the terminus of its line, which only extended to
Pirna
Pirna (; hsb, Pěrno; ) is a town in Saxony, Germany and capital of the administrative district Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge. The town's population is over 37,000. Pirna is located near Dresden and is an important district town as well as ...
.
It was initially only a barn-like half-timbered building spanning four tracks and it also had a makeshift locomotive depot, carriage sheds and workshops.
![EntwurfDresdenHauptbahnhof(Rossbach)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/EntwurfDresdenHauptbahnhof%28Rossbach%29.jpg)
The opening ceremony took place on 6 April 1851, coinciding with the extension of the line to Bodenbach (now
Děčín
Děčín (; german: Tetschen, 1942–1945: ''Tetschen–Bodenbach'') is a city in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 47,000 inhabitants. It is the 7th largest municipality in the country by area.
Administrative parts
D ...
).
A year later the opening of the Marienbrücke (Maria Bridge) for road and rail traffic on 19 April 1852 allowed the operation of traffic through the Bohemian station to the Leipziger station and the Silesian Station on the Neustadt side of the Elbe.
From 1861 to 1864, the passenger infrastructure was moved to the west, to make room for a new building. On 1 August 1864, a solid new entrance building replaced the previous provisional building
[Berger/Weisbrod: ''Über 150 Jahre Dresdener Bahnhöfe'', p. 16] Four 184 metre long wings, which were designed by Karl Moritz Haenel and Carl Adolph Canzler in the form of Italian Renaissance buildings, were annexed.The main platform could handle two trains simultaneous at first, but it was only 370 metres long. An additional 360-metre-long island platform was built between 1871 and 1872. This extension had become necessary because in 1869 the Bohemian station took over the passenger traffic of the Dresden–Werdau railway from the Albert Station, which was located about two kilometres to the northwest and subsequently only served coal traffic. In order to handle the traffic towards Chemnitz a new main station (''Hauptbahnhof'') was built in front of the Bohemian station.
[Kaiß/Hengst: Dresdens Eisenbahn, p. 6] In addition, the new Hauptbahnhof would handle the passenger traffic of the Berliner station, which was also located in the Old Town (''Altstädt'') on the south side of the Elbe, but almost three kilometres to the northwest.
Construction and opening
![Dresden Hauptbahnhof 1900](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Dresden_Hauptbahnhof_1900.jpg)
The basic functional design of the station with the combination of a large terminal hall at a low level and two flanking through halls at a high level is considered to be the work of Claus Koepcke, a ministry of finance official, and Otto Klette. This functional framework was based on an architectural competition held in 1892 for the design of the new station. Dresden architects
Ernst Giese
Ernst Friedrich Giese (16 April 1832 – 12 October 1903) was a German architect and university professor at the Düsseldorf Art Academy and at the Technical University of Dresden.
Early life
Giese grew up in Bautzen. There he attended the hig ...
and
Paul Weidner and Leipzig architect
Arwed Roßbach each won a first prize. The realised design incorporates elements of both drafts. Construction began in the same year, led by Ernst Giese and Paul Weidner. Railway operations continued at the Bohemian station while the south hall was opened to traffic on 18 June 1895. Subsequently, the Bohemian station was demolished and the construction of the central and northern halls started on its site. Until the completion of the entire building, the south hall served as the provisional station.
The new building, which had six terminal platform tracks in the central hall, six through high-level tracks and other terminal tracks in the eastern precinct, met all the requirements for greatly expanded passenger operations. A roofed building with two elevated tracks was built for freight traffic between the south hall and Bismarckstraße (now Bayrischen Straße) to the south. The entrance building covered an area of approximately 4,500 square metres. The steel fabrication company, August Klönne supplied 17,000 tons of steel for the structure of the platform halls and the masonry consists of
Elbe Sandstone. The cost of construction amounted to 18 million
marks
Marks may refer to:
Business
* Mark's, a Canadian retail chain
* Marks & Spencer, a British retail chain
* Collective trade marks, trademarks owned by an organisation for the benefit of its members
* Marks & Co, the inspiration for the novel '' ...
; corresponding to the equivalent of about €320 million.
[ (Brochure: 42 A4 pages)]
After more than five years of construction the whole building went into operation on 16 April 1898.
[Reichler: Dresden Hauptbahnhof, p. 31] At 2:08 AM the first train running as the ''101'' from Leipzig entered the newly opened Dresden Hauptbahnhof.
As a result of the restructuring of the Dresden railway infrastructure that was carried out simultaneously, the station received better links with the lines to
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
,
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
and
Görlitz
Görlitz (; pl, Zgorzelec, hsb, Zhorjelc, cz, Zhořelec, :de:Ostlausitzer Mundart, East Lusatian dialect: ''Gerlz'', ''Gerltz'', ''Gerltsch'') is a town in the Germany, German state of Saxony. It is located on the Lusatian Neisse River, and ...
, which had previously been poorly connected. A new high-capacity, continuous four-track urban connecting line was opened through the new Wettiner Straße station (now
Dresden Mitte station
Dresden Mitte (centre) station is a regional station in central Dresden. The station, which was opened in 1897 as Wettiner Straße, is located on the connecting line between Dresden Hauptbahnhof and Dresden-Neustadt station. It has been proposed as ...
) for suburban traffic and the Maria Bridge to
Dresden-Neustadt station
Dresden-Neustadt station () is the second largest railway station in the German city of Dresden after Dresden Hauptbahnhof and is also a stop for long-distance traffic. It is the junction for rail traffic on the northern side of the Elbe. It was b ...
in 1901. It was connected by rail junctions to other stations, in particular to Dresden-Friedrichstadt station.
Although it was built in the heyday of luxury trains, it was almost unaffected by this phenomenon with only one branch of the ''Balkanzug'' (Balkan train) serving Dresden between 1916 and 1918.
Early conversions and extensions
The builders of the station assumed that the new facilities would provide sufficient capacity for many decades. In fact, the volume of traffic developed more rapidly than assumed as indicated in the table below.
[Reichler: Dresden Hauptbahnhof, p. 36.]
Since the rapid increase in traffic could barely be handled, the first expansion of facilities was planned prior to the start of the First World War. In 1914, the Saxon Parliament approved funds for the expansion, but the beginning of the war prevented its realisation. The extension could not be started until the late 1920s.
[Kaiß/Hengst: Dresdens Eisenbahn, pp. 22ff]
![Dresden hbf bus](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Dresden_hbf_bus.jpg)
One obstacle to operations until then was that it was difficult to reach the terminal tracks in the eastern precinct. As a remedy, a new through track was built through the north hall between platforms 10 and 11, replacing a luggage platform. This would henceforth be used for the passage of additional trains to the eastern precinct and for the passage of unattached locomotives and freight traffic. To take advantage of the sharp rise in through passenger traffic, the covered side hall next to the south hall was demolished, so that the two freight train tracks could be moved on to an outer track on a new concrete structure over the pavement and the released space could be used for an island platform.
The
signal box
In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...
equipment was modernised at that time. New electromechanical systems replaced the mechanical systems and a new command signal box tower was built on the ''Hohe Brücke'' (bridge) that at that time carried an extension of Hohe Straße over the station's western track field. The architecture of the station was also transformed. Numerous decorations and structures were replaced by modern plain surfaces.
During the Third Reich
In the 1930s,
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 ...
built a high-speed rail network. It operated high-speed
diesel multiple unit
A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple-unit train powered by on-board diesel engines. A DMU requires no separate locomotive, as the engines are incorporated into one or more of the carriages. Diesel-powered single-unit railcars are also ...
s on routes between Berlin and Hamburg, Berlin and Cologne and Berlin and Frankfurt among other cities. However, the connection from Dresden to Berlin was served by a high-speed steam-hauled train, the
Henschel-Wegmann Train The Henschel-Wegmann Train was an advanced passenger express train operated by the Deutsche Reichsbahn in Germany, which ran non-stop express services between Berlin and Dresden (see Berlin–Dresden railway) from June 1936 to August 1939. Both the ...
. From 1936 until the outbreak of war in 1939, the journey time from Dresden to the
Anhalter Bahnhof
The Anhalter Bahnhof is a former 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 for traffic in 19 ...
was about 100 minutes.
In the late 1930s, the
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...
planned to reconstruct the city with the intention of glorifying the Third Reich on an enormous scale. A new central train station to be built at Wettiner Straße station would have been 300 metres wide and 200 metres long. In addition, an oversized station courtyard and spacious streets were intended to create spaces for rallies and marches. With the outbreak of the Second World War, however, these plans lapsed.
[Kaiß/Hengst: Dresdens Eisenbahn, pp. 27f]
During the Second World War, the station had only minor importance for the dispatch of troop and prisoner transports, though Dresden was a garrison town. However, it connected the Saxon railway network with
Bohemia
Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...
and formed a bottleneck as a result.
![Fotothek df ps 0000114 Zerstörter Straßenbahnfahrplan am Hauptbahnhof](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/Fotothek_df_ps_0000114_Zerst%C3%B6rter_Stra%C3%9Fenbahnfahrplan_am_Hauptbahnhof.jpg)
At the beginning of the war, Dresden hardly seemed threatened by air raids, so initially insufficient preparations were made and later additional preparations were no longer possible. The air raid shelters of the central station could accommodate about 2,000 people, but they lacked airlocks and ventilation systems. This had serious consequences: during the
great air raid on the night of 13 and 14 February 1945 the station burned down, and the entrance to the luggage store was set alight; as a result 100 people were burned to death and another 500 people suffocated in the air raid shelters.
Subsequent air raids destroyed the railway tracks entirely. The station was made permanently inoperable during the eighth and final air raids on the city on 17 April 1945 by 580
USAAF
The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...
bombers.
The long reconstruction
![Bundesarchiv Bild 183-42328-0006, Dresden, Hauptbahnhof, Bahnsteig](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-42328-0006%2C_Dresden%2C_Hauptbahnhof%2C_Bahnsteig.jpg)
In spite of its severe war damage the station was one of the distinctive buildings in the central Dresden. The restoration of rail connections had to take precedence over the restoration of the historic building. So passenger services were restored to
Bad Schandau
Bad Schandau (; hsb, Žandow) is a spa town in Germany, in the Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge district of Saxony. It is situated on the right bank of the Elbe, at the mouth of the valley of the Kirnitzsch and in the area often described as S ...
by 17 May 1945.
A temporary reconstruction began after the war and was completed in the same year. Some parts of the building, such as the concourses and the dome, were not immediately repaired and continued to deteriorate. At the same time a far-reaching reorganisation of the railway infrastructure was considered as the large-scale destruction of the city seemed to make it possible. Draft plans from 1946 show a turning loop south of the station, which would have allowed east–west traffic on the Chemnitz–Görlitz route to stop without a change of locomotives. In 1946 and 1947, several drafts of a new, generously-dimensioned central station replacing the Wettiner Straße station emerged. The former Hauptbahnhof would have been renamed ''Bahnhof Dresden Prager Straße'' and passenger services would have operated only through the north hall and from the east side. Initially a postal station was planned for the remaining area. This was abandoned in the draft of 1947; the south hall would now also be used for passenger operations, while the central hall would be used for any purpose.
It is not absolutely certain why these plans ultimately did not proceed. Possible reasons were financial problems, material shortages, labour shortages and general planning uncertainty during a period of social and political changes. A planned new entrance building on Wiener Platz with an attached new administration building for the Reichsbahndirektion
Railway division of Dresden was also not realised.
[Kaiß/Hengst: Dresdens Eisenbahn, pp. 44ff.]
The remaining structure was restored from 1950 in a similar but simpler form, due to economic difficulties and the shortage of skilled workers. The roof, which had previously been partially covered with glass, was temporarily covered with wood, board and slate. The station building itself was only partially restored. In particular, the buildings south of the main hall remained hollow ruins, although the outer walls implied a complete reconstruction. The intact steel construction of the dome over the main hall was also externally covered with wood and slate and a
coffer
A coffer (or coffering) in architecture is a series of sunken panels in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit or vault.
A series of these sunken panels was often used as decoration for a ceiling or a vault, also c ...
ed ceiling was built inside it. The construction work was not largely completed until the early 1960s. One of the last measures was the modification of the clock towers on either side of the entrance portal to fit the “skeletal” facade.
[Kaiß/Hengst: Dresdens Eisenbahn, pp. 52ff]
In the coming decades, the station's makeshift parking and traffic arrangements and its power lines shaped perceptions of it.
East German times
![Fotothek df n-10 0000437](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Fotothek_df_n-10_0000437.jpg)
From the 1960s the station again became an important hub for long-distance services from Western Europe and Scandinavia to Southeastern Europe. The well-known services of this period were the
Vindobona
Vindobona (from Gaulish ''windo-'' "white" and ''bona'' "base/bottom") was a Roman military camp on the site of the modern city of Vienna in Austria. The settlement area took on a new name in the 13th century, being changed to Berghof, or now si ...
(
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
–
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
), the Hungaria (Berlin–
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
) and the Meridian (
Malmö
Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal populat ...
–
Bar
Bar or BAR may refer to:
Food and drink
* Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages
* Candy bar
* Chocolate bar
Science and technology
* Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment
* Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud
* Bar (u ...
).
As part of the change in traction, trains hauled by
electric locomotive
An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime movers, such as diesel engines or gas ...
s reached Dresden from
Freiberg
Freiberg is a university and former mining town in Saxony, Germany. It is a so-called ''Große Kreisstadt'' (large county town) and the administrative centre of Mittelsachsen district.
Its historic town centre has been placed under heritage c ...
for the first time in September 1966.
[Reichler: Dresden Hauptbahnhof, p. 64] A good ten years later–on 24 September 1977–the final steam-hauled service departed the station towards Berlin as the Dresden Express.
Steam-hauled passenger trains were still seen running towards
Upper Lusatia
Upper Lusatia (german: Oberlausitz ; hsb, Hornja Łužica ; dsb, Górna Łužyca; szl, Gōrnŏ Łużyca; pl, Łużyce Górne or ''Milsko''; cz, Horní Lužice) is a historical region in Germany and Poland. Along with Lower Lusatia to the ...
until the late 1980s.
Since the headroom in the western part of the station area was insufficient, the ''Hohe Brücke'' (bridge) had to be demolished to permit the electrification of the railway lines.
Within the city and the surrounding area, the
Dresden S-Bahn
The Dresden S-Bahn is a network of S-Bahn-type commuter train services in Dresden and the surrounding area. It is commissioned by Verkehrsverbund Oberelbe (VVO) from DB Regio ''Verkehrsbetrieb Südostsachsen'' and currently consists of three servi ...
has carried the majority of traffic to the station since 1973 and has operated as its central point. In 1978, the Dresden Hauptbahnhof was heritage-listed.
On the night of 30 September and 1 October 1989, six so-called refugee trains were operated from
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
through Dresden station and the territory of the
German Democratic Republic
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
to
West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
. Two hours before the news spread to the West German media about these trips, a few quick and resolute citizens managed to jump on a train during transit. More East Germans were queuing in the
West German embassy in Prague and so more trains were run. Therefore, on the following days, more and more disgruntled citizens collected at the station, amounting to about 20,000 people on the night of 4 and 5 October, according to the police. While the majority of the demonstrators and the security forces confronted each other that night in Lenin-Platz (now Wiener Platz), three of the expected trains from Prague passed on the southern tracks of the Hauptbahnhof but were hardly noticed. Due to the critical situation in Dresden, five additional special trains were diverted via
Vojtanov and
Bad Brambach
Bad Brambach is a municipality in the Vogtlandkreis district, in Saxony, Germany. It is the southernmost municipality in Saxony and also in what was formerly East Germany
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: ...
to
Plauen
Plauen (; Czech language, Czech: ''Plavno'') is, with around 65,000 inhabitants, the fifth-largest city of Saxony, Germany after Leipzig, Dresden, Chemnitz and Zwickau, the second-largest city of the Vogtland after Gera, as well as the larges ...
. Most demonstrators were peaceful, but there were also violent clashes between about 3,000 demonstrators and the
Volkspolizei
The ''Deutsche Volkspolizei'' (DVP, German for "German People's Police"), commonly known as the ''Volkspolizei'' or VoPo, was the national police force of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1945 to 1990. The Volkspolizei was a h ...
and property at the station was damaged. In the following days, peaceful demonstrations took place in Lenin-Platz and the adjacent Prager Straße, resulting in the beginning of a dialogue on state power at the local level with the establishment of the Group of 20 (''Gruppe der 20'') on the evening 8 October.
With a combined 156 arrivals and departures of scheduled long-distance trains per day in the station in the summer 1989 timetable, it was the third most important node in the network of
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 ...
, after Berlin and Leipzig.
After the political changes in the GDR
![Ellok371002CD](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Ellok371002CD.jpg)
Since the 1990s, Dresden has gradually become part of the
Intercity
InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to regional, local, or commuter trains) generally call at m ...
network. From 1991, individual Intercity services ran via Leipzig and the
Thuringian Railway
Thuringian is an East Central German dialect group spoken in much of the modern German Free State of Thuringia north of the Rennsteig ridge, southwestern Saxony-Anhalt and adjacent territories of Hesse and Bavaria. It is close to Upper Saxon sp ...
to
Frankfurt am 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 na ...
and these service have run every two hours since 1992. The first pair of
EuroCity
EuroCity, abbreviated as EC, is a cross-border train category within the European inter-city rail network. In contrast to trains allocated to the lower-level "IC" (InterCity) category, EC trains are international services that meet 20 criteri ...
services ran from Dresden to
Paris-Est
The Gare de l'Est (; English: "Station of the East" or "East station"), officially Paris-Est, is one of the six large mainline railway station termini in Paris, France. It is located in the 10th arrondissement, not far southeast from the Gare ...
over the same route on 2 June 1991.
That same year,
InterRegio trains served Dresden for the first time. The 2048/2049 and 2044/2143 trains pairs ran between Cologne and Dresden.
Later, other connections were added. In 1993, a north–south connection through Dresden was included in the EuroCity network and some of the eight EC trains that now run to Prague, Vienna and Budapest were introduced.
On 25 September 1994, scheduled
Intercity-Express
The Intercity Express (commonly known as ICE ()) is a system of high-speed trains predominantly running in Germany. It also serves some destinations in Austria, Denmark (ceased in 2017 but planned to resume in 2022), France, Belgium, Switzerla ...
(ICE) services operated for the first time to the station. The ICE ''Elbkurier'' ran in the evening on the line from the
Zoo station in Berlin to Dresden in one hour and 58 minutes. In the morning there was a service in the opposite direction. The introduction of the ICE meant that construction work at the station had to be carried out in advance.
Until the timetable change on 28 May 2000, a pair of trains ICE ran daily via Berlin to Dresden, then the hourly ICE line 50 service, which has continued to the present, was introduced from Dresden to Frankfurt via Leipzig, eliminating the connection via Berlin. Dresden station became the starting point of the central east–west connection in the German ICE network.
This change caused changes in locomotive-hauled long-distance operations, since Dresden was now served almost exclusively in the north–south direction by Intercity (IC) and EuroCity (EC) trains. There were other related changes to the IC/EC network. So already the service, subsequently numbered EC/IC 27 (Prague–Dresden–Berlin), received a through connection to Hamburg in 1994 and in 2003 two pairs of trains continued to Vienna and a pair of trains continued to
Aarhus
Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and approximately northwest ...
in Denmark for the first time.
ICE TD
The DBAG Class 605, commonly known as the ICE TD is a high-speed diesel multiple unit (DMU) train, formerly in service with Deutsche Bahn and DSB.
History Development
Following the successful inauguration of the Intercity-Express system ...
(class 605) services ran on the Saxon-Franconian trunk line to Nuremberg from 10 June 2001. These replaced
InterRegio services that had been abandoned a year earlier. After the
2002 Elbe flood and the resulting disruption of the line between Chemnitz and Dresden, as well as problems with the
tilting systems, Deutsche Bahn discontinued the operation of the trainsets from the summer of 2003. Instead services were operated with Intercity trains until the end of long-distance services in 2006.
A
suitcase bomb
A suitcase nuclear device (also suitcase nuke, suitcase bomb, backpack nuke, snuke, mini-nuke, and pocket nuke) is a tactical nuclear weapon that is portable enough that it could use a suitcase as its delivery method.
Both the United States and ...
was discovered in the station by an explosive-detection dog on 6 June 2003. After the evacuation of the entire building, the police destroyed the suitcase bomb. The bomb consisted of a standard wheeled suitcase which contained an alarm clock, a pressure cooker, explosives and stones as well as an ignition device with fuse. According to experts, this bomb was capable of exploding.
The fundamental renovation after 2000
![DresdenMainTrainstation](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/DresdenMainTrainstation.jpg)
The first restoration work took place in the 1990s. The bridges over
federal highway 170 were renovated and the eastern building was given a new facade on the street side and new entrance steps.
A draft plan by
Gerkan, Marg and Partners
Gerkan, Marg & Partners (gmp) is an international architectural company based in Hamburg, Germany. The company was founded in 1965 by Meinhard von Gerkan and , and now has more than 300 employees in 13 offices. In the same year the archite ...
for the modernisation of the station in the mid-1990s envisaged part of the central hall remodelled as a market as well as the building of an office and hotel tower.
This design was not realised.
At the end of December 2000, the Board of Deutsche Bahn, let a contract for modernisation work. The planned construction costs amounted to approximately
DM 100 million, which was funded from the federal government's remediation funds, Deutsche Bahn's own funds and a grant from the state of Saxony (DM 13 million). The completion of construction works was scheduled for the spring of 2003.
The extensive redevelopment had already commenced in 2000 with the commissioning of the Leipzig remote
electronic control centre. The additional redevelopment included the renovation of the entrance building and the train shed roof, track work of the north and south hall and changes to the track and signaling systems. To ensure uninterrupted movement of trains, the track structures of the north hall were first rehabilitated and recommissioned in November 2003. Subsequently, the renovation of the track structures of the south hall began at the end of 2004. The train shed roof was renovated from 2002 and the station building was renovated from the end of 2003. Because of the construction, shops were accommodated in containers in the station hall from 2002 to 2006. The dome above the connection hall between the two halls, which is up to 34 metres high, the connecting hall and the large waiting rooms were restored to their historical designs. A travel centre and a supermarket were opened in the waiting rooms in July 2006, simultaneously with the commissioning of the central hall. The high-level platforms are now reached via escalators and lifts.
![DresdenHauptbahnhofSuedhalle](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/DresdenHauptbahnhofSuedhalle.jpg)
In December 2007, the newly designed network of tracks was put into operation on the station's south side, except for platform 1, which was opened at the end of 2008.
In addition, the two freight train tracks outside the south hall were rebuilt, but omitting the platform between the tracks that had been built with the tracks in about 1930.
The 2002 floods delayed the renovation work significantly. On 12 August 2002, the station was closed due to flooding by the
Weißeritz
The Weißeritz (also: ''Vereinigte Weißeritz'' in German i.e. United Weißeritz, ''Bystrica'' in Sorbian) is a river of Saxony, Germany. It is long and a left tributary of the Elbe.
The river is formed by the confluence of the Wild Weißeritz ...
, which had returned to its old route through Dresden and followed the route of the line to Chemnitz to reach the Hauptbahnhof, reaching a height of up to 1.50 m at the station.
Water, mud and debris caused damage of €42 million.
Many sections of track were impassable for a long time, especially towards Chemnitz. After a few regional trains reached the station on 2 September 2002, a long-distance train also reached it.
The building was, in part, demolished down to its basement, except for its facade;
this work lasted until the end of 2004.
The cost of the remediation amounted to about €250 million up to November 2006. Of this amount, €85 million was spent on the membrane roof and €55 million on the entrance building. The federal government contributed about €100 million of this and the government of Saxony contributed about €11 million. The renewal of the elevated track structures in the south hall had still not been carried out at that time, it would be supported by the federal government with some €54 million.
![Dresden hauptbahnhof opening ceremoney plate](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Dresden_hauptbahnhof_opening_ceremoney_plate.jpg)
The inauguration of the renovated station took place under the dome of the lobby on the evening of 10 November 2006. It was carried out in 2006 to coincide with the celebration of the 800-year anniversary of the city. The opening meant the end of a significant obstacle for tourism, but the renovations have not yet finished even in 2014.
After 20 months of construction, carried out as part of the federal economic stimulus package, the refurbishment of the station's energy systems were completed in June 2011. This construction work included the renovation of the royal pavilion.
Since the summer of 2011, Deutsche Bahn has been developing a future retail space under the tracks of the north and south hall of the station. Around €25 million were expected to be invested by 2014. It has around 40 storefronts with a total area of 14,000 square metres.
The first new stores opened in August 2013, although construction work had not been completed in April 2014.
The second stage of the development of the Dresden railway node was planned in 2009 to be completed in 2011. However, this construction phase was not included in the 2011–2015 federal Investment Framework Plan (''Investitionsrahmenplan'') and construction is not currently scheduled (as of 2012). In September 2013, Deutsche Bahn said that the platforms of the central hall would be replaced by 2019 and they would also be slightly raised.
The ''Förderverein Dresdner Hauptbahnhof e. V.'' (Friends of Dresden Hauptbahnhof) supported the renovation and enabled the recovery of some details about the required conservation measures. So broken decorative elements on a sandstone facade of the
clock tower
Clock towers are a specific type of structure which house a turret clock and have one or more clock faces on the upper exterior walls. Many clock towers are freestanding structures but they can also adjoin or be located on top of another buildi ...
were returned to their correct places, windows were equipped with arches and
architrave
In classical architecture, an architrave (; from it, architrave "chief beam", also called an epistyle; from Greek ἐπίστυλον ''epistylon'' "door frame") is the lintel or beam that rests on the capitals of columns.
The term can ...
s and the crowning group statue of ''Saxonia'' with personifications of science and technology have been restored.
Building
![Dresden HBF Empfangshalle](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/Dresden_HBF_Empfangshalle.jpg)
The station building is oriented in a northwest–southeast direction and is divided along its longitudinal axis into three
train shed
A train shed is a building adjacent to a station building where the tracks and platforms of a railway station are covered by a roof. It is also known as an overall roof. Its primary purpose is to store and protect from the elements train car ...
s with eye-catching arched roofs. The lobby is located to the east of the central and largest of the three buildings and it is centered between the outer halls; it has an approximately square plan. A small forecourt facing on to federal highway (''Bundesstraße'') 170 is in front of the main entrance. This road passes at roughly right angles under the railways running through the other two halls.
![DresdenHauptbahnhofSchema](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/DresdenHauptbahnhofSchema.png)
The tripartite platform hall covers an area that is 60 metres wide and 186 metres long. The iron arch structure of the roof rises up to 32 metres high and has a width of 59 metres. The spans of the train sheds are 31 or 32 metres and 19 metres wide. The dimensions of the roof were necessary during the days of
steam
Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...
so that smoke could be blown away.
On the other side of federal highway 170 opposite the main entrance is the station's east wing. Several bay platforms are arranged in an elevated position between the running lines from the north and south hall. These are mainly used for stabling short sets.
Impressive entrances to the station building were built not only from the east, but also from the north and the south. Additionally from these sides there are direct entrances to the central train shed under the elevated through tracks. The entrance from Wiener Platz to the station hall was also perceived as the main entrance during construction, which led to contemporary criticism that "the organic development of the building had to suffer from the needs of two main entrances with one having greater architectural significance and the other responding more to the needs of users."
![DresdenHauptbahnhofEingangKönigspavillon(2009)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/DresdenHauptbahnhofEingangK%C3%B6nigspavillon%282009%29.jpg)
In the northwest is the royal pavilion (''Königspavillon''), which is built in the
Baroque Revival
The Baroque Revival, also known as Neo-Baroque (or Second Empire architecture in France and Wilhelminism in Germany), was an architectural style of the late 19th century. The term is used to describe architecture and architectural sculptur ...
style. Originally it served to receive state guests of the
Kingdom of Saxony
The Kingdom of Saxony (german: Königreich Sachsen), lasting from 1806 to 1918, was an independent member of a number of historical confederacies in Napoleonic through post-Napoleonic Germany. The kingdom was formed from the Electorate of Saxon ...
. After the end of the monarchy in 1918, it contained a ticket office before it was again reserved for functions and receiving dignitaries during the
Third Reich
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
. From 1950, the royal pavilion contained the ''Kino im Hauptbahnhof'' (cinema in the station), which had more than 170 places. On 31 December 2000, Deutsche Bahn dismissed the operator and the Pavilion has since been unused. During a renovation to make it energy-efficient in 2010, the facade of the Pavilion was repaired and new windows and a new roof were installed. In April 2014, the royal pavilion is to be opened as an additional entrance to the station, allowing direct access to platforms 17, 18 and 19 from the north-west side. In the royal pavilion itself there will be room for cultural projects and art exhibitions.
Originally there was another entrance to the Pavilion on the north side. Eliminating it led to criticism from architects and the press, as the royal pavilion would now not be integrated into a harmonious structure.
Among the elevated tracks of the north and south hall there was originally facilities for loading luggage and offices for the management and inspection of operations (north hall) and rooms for the staff (south hall). Since the redevelopment there are shops for travel necessities below the eastern part of the north hall and a waiting hall with its own lost property office and sanitary facilities under a part of the south hall. The development of further rooms below the north hall and south hall is still continuing (as of 2013).
Platforms
The central train shed today serves as a terminal station with seven tracks running from the west. Originally, however, it housed only six platform tracks. Even before the Second World War another platform track was integrated into the train shed, the current platform 14. This change involved the abolition of two luggage platforms, leaving only the former luggage platform between platforms 6 and 9. The tracks of the central part of the station are approximately at street level, while all the through tracks run in a second level which is about 4.50 metres higher.
The north and south halls house three through tracks (without platforms) that run in a southeasterly direction past the terminal hall. The eastern sections of platforms 1 and 2 are also referred to as platforms 1a and 2a. The north hall also houses an additional through track without platform. During the refurbishment works carried out since 2000, the platform height was adjusted to meet current standards. The east wing originally had a second terminal track, but only platform track 4 is still in use.
In addition to structural changes, the system of operations has also changed. It was initially mainly operated with tracks arranged according to direction (that is with fast and slow lines in the same direction). The tracks are now largely arranged as discrete lines (for instance some tracks are dedicated to S-Bahn services). The following table gives an overview of the aspects of the platform and their original and current use (November 2009). The island platform added between the freight tracks south of the south hall in the 1930s has not existed since the reorganisation in the new millennium and therefore it is not shown in the table.
Roof construction
![Dresden Luftbild Hauptbahnhof 2005](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Dresden_Luftbild_Hauptbahnhof_2005.jpg)
A special feature of the station is the renovated roof, which was designed by the British architect
Sir Norman Foster
''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as p ...
. The previous panes of framed glass were replaced by 0.7 mm-thick glass fibre membranes which have been stretched between the arched halls. The membranes have double-sided
Teflon
Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is a synthetic fluoropolymer of tetrafluoroethylene that has numerous applications. It is one of the best-known and widely applied PFAS. The commonly known brand name of PTFE-based composition is Teflon by Chemou ...
coatings that are 0.1 mm-thick and are self-cleaning. It was the first time that a historic building had been treated with this new material. Designed for a service life of 50 years, the membrane can resist tensile forces of up to about 150
kN per metre. It can be walked over by trained personnel with a safety harness.
The membrane is largely translucent during the daytime and reflects the light of the concourse back at night; the structure appears to be silver from the outside. Narrow slits between the membranes are left open over the hall arches, forming a total of 67
skylight
A skylight (sometimes called a rooflight) is a light-permitting structure or window, usually made of transparent or translucent glass, that forms all or part of the roof space of a building for daylighting and ventilation purposes.
History
Open ...
s. The roof area is about 33,000 square metres (of which 29,000 square metres is composed of glass fibre membrane), which covers a surface area about 24,500 square metres. The architects who won the competition emphasised their entry's relatively easy installation, low weight and low maintenance costs (self-cleaning). According to the Deutsche Bahn specifications, cooling is not required due to the "tent construction" of the roof even in bright sunlight.
The restoration was carried out between February 2001 and July 2006 with trains running through the station. 800 tons of material were installed in the two outer halls from elevated work platforms and more than 1600 tons of material were installed in the central hall. On 15 May 2001, workers began with the removal of the old glass roof. Some of the old steel beams were rebuilt and some new ones have been inserted as wind bracing between the hall arches. Secondary structures were then built to attach the membranes on the beams. A total of more than 100,000 screws were installed, some of which also replaced
rivet
A rivet is a permanent mechanical fastener. Before being installed, a rivet consists of a smooth cylindrical shaft with a head on one end. The end opposite to the head is called the ''tail''. On installation, the rivet is placed in a punched ...
s on the historic hall arches. A service lift was also installed.
The planning began in 1997 and originally a full canopy covering the outer platforms was envisaged, but this was rejected in 2000. Instead it was decided to take up an option to extend the two outer roofs by 200 metres to the east above the outer platforms using a membrane roof.
The membrane roof has been damaged several times during bad weather. In the winter of 2010/2011, eight cracks, which were up to two metres wide, were formed. Responsibility for the damage was still being contested in court in January 2013.
Main entrance and lobby
![Dresden-hauptbahnhof](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Dresden-hauptbahnhof.jpg)
The main entrance of the station building forms part of a large circular portal window arch. The portal is installed in the massive
Avant-corps
An ''avant-corps'' ( it, avancorpo or , plural , german: Risalit, pl, ryzalit), a French term literally meaning "fore-body", is a part of a building, such as a porch or pavilion, that juts out from the ''corps de logis'', often taller than othe ...
that dominates the centre of the facade. In addition there is a statue of Saxonia, the embodiment of the spirit of Saxony, which is arranged between
allegories
As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory th ...
of science and technology. Both the portal of the entrance building and the clock towers on both sides show the association of the station with the architectural style of
Historicism
Historicism is an approach to explaining the existence of phenomena, especially social and cultural practices (including ideas and beliefs), by studying their history, that is, by studying the process by which they came about. The term is widely u ...
, which was typical of the buildings of the kingdom of Saxony in Dresden.
The entrance building consists of two elongated, T-shaped crossings, which intersect under the large glass dome of the hall. The main corridor leads to the central hall, while the side halls can be reached by passages running parallel to the cross passage through the central hall. During the renovation of the business and administrative areas, large parts of the station building were converted into facades and additional areas of glass were inserted into its roofs for
daylighting
Daylighting is the practice of placing windows, skylights, other openings, and Reflective surfaces (climate engineering), reflective surfaces so that sunlight (direct or indirect) can provide effective internal lighting. Particular attention is ...
.
While the interiors of the lobby are now simply decorated, they appeared much more lively before the destruction of the station during World War II. Ceiling paintings and the 26 emblems of the administrative districts of the Kingdom of Saxony in their
heraldic
Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known branc ...
colours adorned the lobby. The waiting rooms of the first and second class were graced with large murals made of porcelain tiles to the design of Prof. Julius Storm of Meissen.
For a long time many locals have met at the ''Unterm Strick'' (“rope end"), which is just below the center of the dome of Dresden station. Before the renovation of the station, a so-called rope hung here in the middle of the entrance hall. Although nothing has hung here since the station redevelopment, the old name is still used for this meeting place by many in Dresden.
At this point of the roof, there is now a round cushion, 15 metres in diameter and made of
ETFE
Ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) is a fluorine-based plastic. It was designed to have high corrosion resistance and strength over a wide temperature range. ETFE is a polymer and its source-based name is poly(ethene-co-tetrafluoroethene). It i ...
foil. Its height can be adjusted and it serves mainly to regulate the ventilation.
In the upper floor of the station there has been a ''DB Lounge'' for first class passengers and frequent travellers since September 2006. In the entrance building there are shops for travel needs. It includes leased retail space of 3,969 square metres in addition to the space below the elevated tracks of the south hall; this provision is low compared to other metropolitan stations.
Operations
As an important transport hub in Dresden, the station is linked to various transport services. It is not only a stop on the rail network, but it is also an important transfer point for public transport, a grade-separated crossing of two main roads and the beginning of the pedestrianised route through the inner city.
Railway lines and operations
Unifying railways
![DresdenBahnlinienSchema](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/DresdenBahnlinienSchema.png)
The Dresden station is located on three electrified double-track main lines:
* The
Děčín–Dresden railway (also called the ''Elbtalbahn''–Elbe Valley Railway) (route 6240) passes through the station running over two lateral elevated railway tracks and runs to the south-east. It connects with
Děčín
Děčín (; german: Tetschen, 1942–1945: ''Tetschen–Bodenbach'') is a city in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 47,000 inhabitants. It is the 7th largest municipality in the country by area.
Administrative parts
D ...
and
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
through the valley of the
Elbe
The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Repu ...
. The section to
Pirna
Pirna (; hsb, Pěrno; ) is a town in Saxony, Germany and capital of the administrative district Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge. The town's population is over 37,000. Pirna is located near Dresden and is an important district town as well as ...
is designed for speeds up to 160 km/h.
* From Dresden Hauptbahnhof to the vicinity of
Dresden-Neustadt station
Dresden-Neustadt station () is the second largest railway station in the German city of Dresden after Dresden Hauptbahnhof and is also a stop for long-distance traffic. It is the junction for rail traffic on the northern side of the Elbe. It was b ...
there is a parallel single or double-track line for freight traffic (route 6241). The double track line branches off in Dresden Hauptbahnhof and runs south of the south hall. The line is single track from the vicinity of
Dresden Mitte station
Dresden Mitte (centre) station is a regional station in central Dresden. The station, which was opened in 1897 as Wettiner Straße, is located on the connecting line between Dresden Hauptbahnhof and Dresden-Neustadt station. It has been proposed as ...
over the Marien Bridge to Dresden-Neustadt station and it is shared by passenger trains and runs as a single track to the line to Dresden-Klotzsche.
* The
Pirna–Coswig S-Bahn line (route 6239) runs parallel to the Elbe Valley Railway; it runs through the northern hall of Dresden station.
* The
Dresden–Werdau railway
The Dresden–Werdau railway is an electrified, double-track main line in the German state of Saxony. It runs from Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German s ...
(route 6258) starts in the station and branches on the western approach over a grade-separated junction. It represents the first section of
Saxon-Franconian trunk line via
Chemnitz
Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt , ) is the third-largest city in the German state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden. It is the 28th largest city of Germany as well as the fourth largest city in the area of former East Germany a ...
,
Zwickau
Zwickau (; is, with around 87,500 inhabitants (2020), the fourth-largest city of Saxony after Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz and it is the seat of the Zwickau District. The West Saxon city is situated in the valley of the Zwickau Mulde (German: ' ...
and
Hof to
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 ...
.
![Dresden Hauptbahnhof 2008](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Dresden_Hauptbahnhof_2008.jpg)
The Hauptbahnhof is also connected with
railway to Berlin via the triangle of rail tracks between Dresden Freiberger Straße and Dresden Mitte and with the
railway to Leipzig and
railway to Görlitz via Dresden-Neustadt.
Components of the station
An
electronic interlocking
In railway signalling, an interlocking is an arrangement of signal apparatus that prevents conflicting movements through an arrangement of tracks such as junctions or crossings. The signalling appliances and tracks are sometimes collectively re ...
controls the Dresden junction to the limits on Dresden station. For operational purposes, Dresden Hauptbahnhof (Hbf) is part is part of the Dresden “operating agency” (''Betriebsstelle''; DDRE) which consists of the following station parts:
* Dresden Hbf
* Dresden-Altstadt
* Dresden Freiberger Straße
* Dresden Freiberger Straße platform
* Dresden Mitte
* Dresden-Neustadt Pbf (passenger station)
* Dresden-Neustadt Gbf (freight yard)
All lines to Dresden have entry signals, as do the opposite tracks. The operating agency of Dresden has a total of 15 entry signals.
Rail operations
![Dresden-Hauptbahnhof2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Dresden-Hauptbahnhof2.jpg)
Two long-distance railway corridors intersect in Dresden. In addition to the important long-distance route to Leipzig, there is also the north–south corridor from Berlin via Dresden and Prague to
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
. A third corridor from
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 ...
to
Wrocław
Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...
has lost its importance in Germany and Poland and is no longer served by long-distance traffic.
Journey times are as follows from Dresden to:
* Leipzig (120 km): 65 minutes, with stops in Dresden-Neustadt and
Riesa
Riesa is a town in the district of Meißen in Saxony, Germany. It is located on the river Elbe, approximately northwest of Dresden.
History
The name ''Riesa'' is derived from Slavic ''Riezowe''. This name, romanised as "Rezoa", appears first i ...
; corresponding to an average speed of 110 km/h;
* Berlin (
Berlin Hauptbahnhof
Berlin Hauptbahnhof () (English: Berlin Central Station) is the main railway station in Berlin, Germany. It came into full operation two days after a ceremonial opening on 26 May 2006. It is located on the site of the historic Lehrter Bahnhof, ...
, low level) (182 km): 128 minutes, with stops in Dresden-Neustadt (some trains),
Elsterwerda
Elsterwerda (; Lower Sorbian: ''Wikow'') is a town in the Elbe-Elster district, in southwestern Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated on the Black Elster river, 48 km northwest of Dresden, and 11 km southeast of Bad Liebenwerda.
Histo ...
(some trains) and
Berlin-Südkreuz; corresponding to an average speed of 85 km/h;
* Prague (
Holešovice
Holešovice () is a district in the north of Prague situated on a meander of the River Vltava, which makes up the main part of the district Prague 7 (an insignificant part belongs to Prague 1). In the past it was a heavily industrial suburb; ...
) (191 km) 126 minutes, with stops in Bad Schandau, Děčín and Ústí nad Labem; corresponding to an average speed of 90 km/h.
In the plans of the European Union, the station is the starting point of "
Pan-European Corridors III and IV" to
Kyiv
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...
and southeast Europe.
Train services
The station is served by the following services (incomplete list):
Traffic
Each day the station is used by around 60,000 passengers, 381 trains (including 50 long-distance services), including up to ten S-Bahn services each hour. In passenger traffic it is served by services operated by
DB Fernverkehr
DB Fernverkehr AG ( German for "DB Long-Distance Traffic") is a semi-independent division of Deutsche Bahn that operates long-distance passenger trains in Germany. It was founded in 1999 in the second stage of the privatisation of Deutsche Bahn, ...
(long-distance),
DB Regio
DB Regio AG is a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn which operates regional and commuter train services in Germany. DB Regio AG, headquartered in Frankfurt am Main. It is a 100% subsidiary of the Deutsche Bahn Group and there part of the DB Regio bus ...
(Nordost and Südost), and
Vogtlandbahn (under the brand name of ''Trilex''). In addition, about 200 freight trains operated by different railway companies pass the station daily.
The most common direct destination outside the area of the
Dresden S-Bahn
The Dresden S-Bahn is a network of S-Bahn-type commuter train services in Dresden and the surrounding area. It is commissioned by Verkehrsverbund Oberelbe (VVO) from DB Regio ''Verkehrsbetrieb Südostsachsen'' and currently consists of three servi ...
is
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
with up to 32 services daily. The other most frequent long-distance destinations are
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
,
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
,
Frankfurt
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 na ...
,
Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...
,
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
and
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
. The
Saxon-Franconian trunk line via
Chemnitz
Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt , ) is the third-largest city in the German state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden. It is the 28th largest city of Germany as well as the fourth largest city in the area of former East Germany a ...
and the
Vogtland
Vogtland (; cz, Fojtsko) is a region spanning the German states of Bavaria, Saxony and Thuringia and north-western Bohemia in the Czech Republic. It overlaps with and is largely contained within Euregio Egrensis. The name alludes to the former ...
to
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 ...
has been discontinued in recent years, despite the growth of long-distance traffic and is now only operated by
DB Regio
DB Regio AG is a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn which operates regional and commuter train services in Germany. DB Regio AG, headquartered in Frankfurt am Main. It is a 100% subsidiary of the Deutsche Bahn Group and there part of the DB Regio bus ...
as far as
Hof.
The number of direct connections to the station mean that it has national significance as an interchange. It is one of the 21 stations of the highest
category
Category, plural categories, may refer to:
Philosophy and general uses
* Categorization, categories in cognitive science, information science and generally
*Category of being
* ''Categories'' (Aristotle)
*Category (Kant)
*Categories (Peirce)
* ...
as classified by
DB Station&Service
DB Station&Service AG is a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn, responsible for managing over 5,400 train station
A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, fre ...
.
Transport links
Public transportation
The station is the main inner-city hub for national passenger services. From the outset, it was the centre of the
tram network
A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...
of the
Dresdner Verkehrsbetriebe
Dresdner Verkehrsbetriebe AG (DVB) is the municipal transport company of the city of Dresden in Germany. It is a member of the Verkehrsverbund Oberelbe transport association that manages a common public transport structure for Dresden and its sur ...
(Dresden Transport) or its predecessor organisations. Today, along with Postplatz, Albertplatz and
Pirnaischer Platz
The Pirnaischer Platz is a square in Dresden, 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 ...
, it is one of the four major tram hubs of the city. The first bus service was operated in Dresden from April 1914 via the station as the overland buses of the ''Kraftverkehrsgesellschaft Freistaat Sachsen'' (KVG) from 1919 until the end of World War II.
![RVD Buses Dresden 2007 04 23](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/RVD_Buses_Dresden_2007_04_23.JPG)
Tram stops are located on the station forecourt fronting highway B170 and on Wiener Platz. The distance from the centre of the station to each of the tram stops is about 100 metres. The connecting path runs at ground level from the head of the platforms. Also in front of the entrance building is the bus stop, which is served by city and regional buses. As part of further restructuring, a new central bus station (''Zentraler Omnibus Bahnhof'', ZOB) is being built at the western end of Wiener Platz. Bus passengers will then be able to use the station entrance by the royal pavilion.
Four tram lines (3, 7, 8, 10), a city bus route (66) and several regional bus services operated by ''Regionalverkehr Dresden'' (Regional Transport Dresden), line 261 operated by the
Pirna-Sebnitz Upper Elbe Transport Company
The Oberelbische Verkehrsgesellschaft Pirna-Sebnitz (OVPS; en, Pirna-Sebnitz Upper Elbe Transport Company) was a company that operated public transport services in the German state of Saxony. It was a member of the ''Verkehrsverbund Oberelbe'' ( ...
(''Oberelbischen Verkehrsgesellschaft Pirna-Sebnitz'') and other services operated by long-distance transport companies regularly stop at the station. Apart from destinations in the surrounding area of Dresden, services are also operated to
Annaberg-Buchholz
Annaberg-Buchholz () is a town in Saxony, Germany. Lying in the Ore Mountains, it is the capital of the district of Erzgebirgskreis.
Geography
The town is located in the Ore Mountains, at the side of the ''Pöhlberg'' ( above sea level).
Hi ...
,
Olbernhau and
Mittweida
Mittweida () is a town in Saxony, Germany, in the Mittelsachsen district.
Geography
Mittweida is situated on the river Zschopau, 18 km north of Chemnitz, and 54 km west of Dresden. Embedded within the steep hills and valleys of the riv ...
as well as
Teplice
Teplice () (until 1948 Teplice-Šanov; german: Teplitz-Schönau or ''Teplitz'') is a city in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 49,000 inhabitants. It is the second largest Czech spa town, after Karlovy Vary. The his ...
in the Czech Republic, among other places. In addition, tram lines 9 and 11 stop at the Hauptbahnhof Nord stop, which is about 150 metres to the northeast of the station. In the Bayerischen Straße to the south of the station are the bus stops of several long-distance bus services. After the completion of the planned ZOB, this is to be served by all regional and long-distance bus services.
Private transport
Stopping places for cars are provided near the entrances on the south side of the station. An underground car park with 350 parking spaces is located at Wiener Platz in front of the northern entrances of the station. It is reached from the road tunnel under the Platz running to the east. Further parking is available in parking garages and parking lots along Prager Straße and south of the station.
Awards
The renovated station in Dresden received the 2007 Renault Traffic Future Award for special transport architecture. In addition, the architectural firm of Foster and Partners received a second place in the award of the
Stirling Prize
The Royal Institute of British Architects Stirling Prize is a British prize for excellence in architecture. It is named after the architect James Stirling, organised and awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). The S ...
in the same year and in 2008 the new roof of the station hall received the
Brunel Award
The ''Brunel Awards'' are given to railway companies, to encourage outstanding visual design in railway architecture, graphics, industrial design and art, technical infrastructure and environmental integration, and rolling stock. The name is ass ...
, an award for railway design.
In August 2014, the station was given an award by ''Allianz pro Schiene'' entitled "Station of the Year in the category of large city railway station". The jury praised the station as being a "monument of a clear, lilting lightness."
Notes
References
* (brochure)
*
*
*
*
*
External links
Dresden Hauptbahnhof , Deutsche Bahn AG- Official DB site (in English).
Foster + Partners - project description
{{Authority control
Hauptbahnhof
Central stations or central railway stations emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century as railway stations that had initially been built on the edge of city centres were enveloped by urban expansion and became an integral part of the ...
Foster and Partners buildings
Lattice shell structures
DresdenHauptbahnhof
Railway stations in Germany opened in 1897
Rebuilt buildings and structures in Dresden