Ernst-Reuter-Platz is a

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 ...

station on line U2, located in the

Charlottenburg Charlottenburg () is a Boroughs and localities of Berlin, locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Established as a German town law, town in 1705 and named after Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, Queen consort of Kingdom ...

district.

U-Bahn Berlin Ernst-Reuter-Platz Knie Eingang 1904

History

After Werner von Siemens had presented the city fathers of Berlin, Schöneberg and Charlottenburg the elevated railway system several times in different variants, he received permission from the city of Berlin in 1895 to build an elevated railway from the Warschauer Brücke to Bülowstraße. In a second contract in the summer of 1896, Siemens agreed with Charlottenburg and Schöneberg to an extension of this route from Bülowstraße to the Zoological Garden. It was intended that at the former Auguste-Viktoria-Platz, today's Breitscheidplatz, an elevated railway system with a house passage should be created in order to not take the shine of the new building of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. But soon these plans faced resistance in Charlottenburg. In 1897, the Charlottenburg city council announced that an extension beyond the Zoologischer Garten station would only be possible if the Charlottenburg area had been completely tunneled. Since the extension was definitely desirable and could save Siemens & Halske in this way the costly passage through the house, there was no objection from the company. The station, originally designed by

Alfred Grenander Alfred Frederik Elias Grenander (26 June 1863 – 14 March 1931) was a Swedish architect, who became one of the most prominent engineers during the first building period of the Berlin U-Bahn network in the early twentieth century. Biography Gre ...

, opened on 14 December 1902 as the western terminus of the first U-Bahn line (''Stammstrecke'') to

Warschauer Brücke Warschauer is a German-language toponymic surname literally meaning "of/from Warschau" (Warsaw). It may refer to: People * Anna Warschauer (1841–1866), wife of Ludwig Passini * (1855–1930), German historic, see State Archives in Gdańsk * ...

. It was named ''Knie'' ("knee") after a curve there on the historic road between the cities of Berlin and Charlottenburg, the present-day

Straße des 17. Juni The Straße des 17. Juni (, en, 17th of June Street), is a street in central Berlin, the capital of Germany. Its name refers to the 1953 East German uprising, 17 June 1953 uprising in East Germany. It is the western continuation of the boule ...

. In 1906 it became a through station with the extension of the line toward

Wilhelmplatz Wilhelmplatz was a square in the Mitte district of Berlin, at the corner of Wilhelmstrasse and Voßstraße. The square also gave its name to a Berlin U-Bahn station which has since been renamed Mohrenstraße. A number of notable buildings were con ...

. In 1953, the station and the eponymous square, a large

roundabout A roundabout is a type of circular intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junction.''The New Shorter Oxford En ...

, were renamed after the

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 ...

mayor

Ernst Reuter Ernst Rudolf Johannes Reuter (29 July 1889 – 29 September 1953) was the mayor of West Berlin from 1948 to 1953, during the time of the Cold War. Biography Early years Reuter was born in Apenrade (Aabenraa), Province of Schleswig-Holstein ...

and extensively remodeled until 1959. It is mainly used by the students of the nearby

Berlin Institute of Technology The Technical University of Berlin (official name both in English and german: link=no, Technische Universität Berlin, also known as TU Berlin and Berlin Institute of Technology) is a public research university located in Berlin, Germany. It was ...

.J. Meyer-Kronthaler: Berlins U-Bahnhöfe. be.bra Verlag (1996)

Notes

{{BU-BahnStations U2 (Berlin U-Bahn) stations Buildings and structures in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf Railway stations in Germany opened in 1902