Hannover Hauptbahnhof (
German
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
**Ge ...
for ''Hanover main station'') is the main
railway station
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 road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...
for the city of
Hanover
Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
in
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...
,
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 ...
. The railway junction is one of the 21 stations listed as a railway Category 1 station 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, ...
. It is also the most important public transport hub of the region of Hanover and it is served regional 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 ...
services. The station has six platforms with twelve platform tracks, and two through tracks without platforms. Every day it is used by 250,000 passengers and 622 trains stop at the platforms (as of October 2012). About 2,000 people work here.
History
![Inauguration of the Ernest-Augustus Monument at Hanover - ILN 1861](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Inauguration_of_the_Ernest-Augustus_Monument_at_Hanover_-_ILN_1861.jpg)
The first station on the current site, a temporary building that served the
line to Lehrte, was erected in 1843. Instead of building a monumental terminus, a through station was built along with the line, making it the first through station in a major German city.
The first central station (''Central-Bahnhof'') was built from 1845 to 1847. Its architect is not certain, but it is sure that the far-sighted city architect August Heinrich Andrae was involved in selecting its specific location and that the Hanoverian court architect
Georg Ludwig Friedrich Laves
Georg Ludwig Friedrich Laves (17 December 1788 – 30 April 1864) was a German architect, civil engineer and urban planner. Born in Uslar, Lower Saxony, he lived and worked primarily in the city of Hanover and also died there. He was appointed ...
and Ferdinand Schwarz contributed to it. It was built in a romantic-
neoclassical style as a strictly symmetrical building. The massive masonry was covered in yellow plaster. Laves planned a new district, the Ernst-August-Stadt, for the area between Georgstraße and the railway. Roads led from several directions and converged on the station forecourt, the Ernst-August-Platz.
A wooden platform area was built next to the entrance building and on each side of the two tracks. That was enough for the first traffic because the still short trains running to the east and the west stopped at the same platform. There were no through trains initially. The first through train ran from 1 May 1851 between Berlin and Cologne. The first railway workshop was built opposite the station building. In 1853, the opening of the first section of the
Southern Railway to
Alfeld
Alfeld is a town in the state of Lower Saxony, Germany. Located on the Leine river, it is the second biggest city in the district of Hildesheim in southern Lower Saxony and part of the Metropolitan region Hannover-Braunschweig-Göttingen-Wolfsbur ...
,
Göttingen
Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911.
General information
The ori ...
and
Kassel made the through station into a railway junction. A marshalling yard was established in Hainholz to relieve the station in 1868.
The increasingly dense traffic on the railway created a problem since the railway line cut through the city. It was decided in 1873 to raise the railway line through the urban area by a height of . The old station building was demolished in 1875. The route built between 1875 and 1879 became the model for the
Berlin Stadtbahn
The Berlin Stadtbahn ("city railway") is a major railway thoroughfare in the German capital Berlin, which runs through Berlin from east to west. It connects the eastern district of Friedrichshain with Charlottenburg in the west via 11 interme ...
and similar projects in other German cities. In 1876, a yard for general freight was established at Weidendamm.
Second Station of 1879
![Bahnhofstunnel IMG 2990](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Bahnhofstunnel_IMG_2990.jpg)
As the first station was built at street level and therefore hindered the expansion of the city, of railway track were laid for a new rail network that was grade-separated from the street system. In addition, the new station had a long system of tracks. After preparatory work in 1873 to relocate the workshops to Leinhausen and the marshalling yards to Hainholz and the construction of freight diversion routes, construction of the core network, which still exists, began in 1875. The new station building was designed by Hubert Stier in the
Renaissance Revival
Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range o ...
style. It was again a symmetrical building with a main hall and two wings, each of which was completed by a corner building. The eastern corner building with its (literally 'Emperor's room') had a separate driveway. The building was designed in yellow brick with red brick stripes and a sandstone base. The four platforms with seven platform tracks and two through tracks were spanned by two halls with a span. After the demolition of the nearly 30-year-old station building, the construction of the new station began in April 1877. It was opened on 22 June 1879 after 26 months of construction. Access to the platforms was via three tunnels and there were two more tunnels for the transport of luggage and for postal traffic. The system of tracks finished in 1883 comprised seven platform tracks and two central through tracks for freight trains. The train sheds consisted of two separate halls, each wide and long with a wide space between them for the two through tracks. The construction cost 12.7 million
marks
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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 ...
for the buildings and 22.5 million marks for the entire station precinct.
In 1910, a third hall was built between tracks 10 and 11. The new hall, made of steel, had a span of and a height of and was built to a design by municipal architect Möller. Of particular operational significance for the
Hanover–Hamburg railway
The Hanover–Hamburg railway is one of the most important railway lines in Lower Saxony and Germany. It links the Lower Saxon state capital of Hanover with Hamburg, running through Celle, Uelzen and Lüneburg.
History
The main section of th ...
was the completion of the (literally 'rabbit line')a branch line planned in 1913 from the
Heath Railway from
Langenhagen via
Großburgwedel
Großburgwedel is a village northeast of Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany. Formerly an independent municipality, it is part of the town Burgwedel since 1974. Großburgwedel is home to the town hall of Burgwedel and other town institutions such as th ...
to
Celle: from May 1938 trains could run directly between Hamburg and southern Germany without running through
Lehrte; it was no longer necessary for trains to reverse in Hanover.
In the timetable of summer 1939, Hanover station had a total of 144 scheduled long-distance arrivals and departures. It was the most important junctions on
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 ...
’s long-distance network after the terminal stations of Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt am Main and the main stations of
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 ...
and
Duisburg
Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in No ...
.
War damage and reconstruction
![US-luftbild hannover bahnhof 1945](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/US-luftbild_hannover_bahnhof_1945.jpg)
The station was largely destroyed during the air raids on Hanover in July and October 1943. Only the skeleton of the halls and the outer walls of the entrance building remained. It took four days to re-open one track.
On 13 June 1945, passenger services ran for the first time after the war to
Minden,
Nienburg and
Göttingen
Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911.
General information
The ori ...
. On 14 August, passenger services were significantly expanded. Passenger services again ran from Hanover to
Bremerhaven
Bremerhaven (, , Low German: ''Bremerhoben'') is a city at the seaport of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany.
It forms a semi-enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the Riv ...
, Duisburg,
Hamelin, Göttingen,
Braunschweig
Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the ...
and
Uelzen
Uelzen (; officially the ''Hanseatic Town of Uelzen'', German: ''Hansestadt Uelzen'', , Low German ''Ülz’n'') is a town in northeast Lower Saxony, Germany, and capital of the county of Uelzen. It is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region, a ...
. On 15 August 1946, Hanover was again served for the first time after the war by the
Nord Express
Nord, a word meaning "north" in several European languages, may refer to:
Acronyms
* National Organization for Rare Disorders, an American nonprofit organization
* New Orleans Recreation Department, New Orleans, Louisiana, US
Film and televisi ...
running from Paris by Berlin and thus reconnected to the international long-distance network.
After the severe bomb damage, the reconstruction of the entrance building began in the summer of 1948, resulting in a facade with newly designed interiors and the remaining steel work of the roofs of the old halls was removed and the platforms were covered by temporary wooden canopies. The platforms were rebuilt from 1959 to 1961 and the baggage platforms disappeared as baggage lifts were built on the passenger platforms. The middle entrance was widened, the side pedestrian tunnel was closed and the platforms received new canopies. Since 1957, signals and switches were controlled by a
mechanical 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 r ...
. In 1963, the fifth platform was extended on track 12 (tracks 5 and 6 were through tracks without platforms). Coming from the south, electrification of the tracks reached Hannover Hauptbahnhof on 26 May 1963. Electrification was extended to Lehrte on 20 December 1963 and to Bremen on 14 December 1964. The connection to Hamburg was electrified at the end of 1964 and the two tracks to Celle were electrified on 6 April 1965. The overhead line from Lehrte via Brunswick to Helmstedt was not completed until 1976.
Construction of the Hanover StadtBahn
![Hannover HBF rück](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/Hannover_HBF_r%C3%BCck.jpg)
The construction of the
Hanover Stadtbahn
The Hanover Stadtbahn is a Stadtbahn (light rail) system in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany. The Stadtbahn opened on 29 September 1975, gradually replacing the city's tramway network over the course of the following 25 years. Current ...
caused far-reaching alterations to the station. Since the entire station had to be operated during the reconstruction, construction was only possible by blocking tracks. Between July 1969 and the spring of 1973, a sixth platform was built on tracks 13 and 14.
Upon completion, two tracks were blocked from 1970 to 1975, through which the Stadtbahn tunnel and an overlying pedestrian level were built. For this, the central pedestrian tunnel was blocked and access to the platforms was via the re-opened side tunnel. As part of this restructuring the through track 6 was shifted to lie between platform tracks 8 and 9, while the through track 5 (now 40) remained at the old place (now 80). Then the station was rebuilt. The platforms including the canopies were also renewed. The western ''Lister Meile'' underpass between the main post office and the parcel post office located on Raschplatz was connected by long ramps for the transport of baggage and mail to the platforms.
With the introduction 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 in 1971, Hanover became a transfer hub, where it was possible to change between IC trains on the same platform. A passenger information system with information displays on the stairways and platforms was installed in the spring of 1988.
With a total of 323 arrivals and departures of regularly scheduled long-distance trains, the station was the fourth most-important junction in the
Deutsche Bundesbahn
The Deutsche Bundesbahn or DB (German Federal Railway) was formed as the state railway of the newly established Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) on 7 September 1949 as a successor of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (DRG). The DB remaine ...
network in the summer 1989 timetable.
Construction began on Deutsche Bahn's largest
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 ...
to date in 1993. The system, which cost about 100 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 ...
, was designed to control about 5,000 trains and shunting movements each day, 279
sets of points and 535 signals by ten dispatchers.
According to the manufacturer, it was the largest and most advanced electronic interlocking in the world in August 1998.
The station was the most important node in Deutsche Bahn network in the summer 1996 timetable, with 398 arrivals and departures of regularly scheduled long-distance trains each day.
Remodelling for Expo 2000
![Passaralle Hannover Bahnhof](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/Passaralle_Hannover_Bahnhof.jpg)
The station was again completely rebuilt for
Expo 2000
Expo 2000 was a World Expo held in Hanover, Germany from 1 June to 31 October 2000. It was located on the Hanover Fairground (Messegelände Hannover), which is the largest exhibition ground in the world. Initially some 40 million people were expe ...
: the entrance building was gutted to the outer walls and rebuilt; the central tunnel was enlarged and opened to the platforms in order to allow in daylight; and passenger lifts to the platforms were installed. The conversion created a promenade in the station. Among other things, a shopping area was built in the entrance building after the relocation of the ticket office and the closure of the system for transporting baggage.
Between the summer of 2004 and the spring of 2006, the passageway in the basement was extensively modernised and adapted to become part of the Niki-de-Saint-Phalle-Promenade from
Kröpcke
Kröpcke is the central square of the city of Hanover in Germany. The square is situated at the crossroads of Georgstraße, Karmarschstraße, Bahnhofstraße and Rathenaustraße. It is named after ''Wilhelm Kröpcke'', one of the owners of the fo ...
to Raschplatz. There is a wide variety of outlets in the of retail space on two levels, and most stores are open to 10 PM on weekdays.
The
Hanover S-Bahn was opened on 28 May 2000. Platforms 1 and 2 now serve S-Bahn services towards H-Bismarckstraße and Wunstorf and platforms 13 and 14 serve S-Bahn services towards Lehrte and Celle. At the same time, the approaches to the station were changed: in the west an additional pair of tracks was built south of the existing tracks for the S-Bahn track to Lehrte and in the east an additional track was built to the north of the existing tracks.
Train services
![Hannover-Hbf Aufgang-zu-Gleisen-7-und-8 LWS95](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Hannover-Hbf_Aufgang-zu-Gleisen-7-und-8_LWS95.JPG)
Hannover Hauptbahnhof is served by some 622 trains daily, excluding the
Hanover Stadtbahn
The Hanover Stadtbahn is a Stadtbahn (light rail) system in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany. The Stadtbahn opened on 29 September 1975, gradually replacing the city's tramway network over the course of the following 25 years. Current ...
and tramway. Hannover Hauptbahnhof connects the north-south ICE lines from
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
to
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
with the west–east lines from
Dortmund and
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 ...
towards
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 ...
.
The station is served by the following services:
Timetables for Hannover Hbf station
Long-distance services
Regional services
Hannover S-Bahn
Hannover Hauptbahnhof is served by all S-bahn services. It is in ''Zone 1'' of Hanover.
*Hannover S-Bahn services ''Minden - Haste - Wunstorf - Hannover - Weetzen - Haste''
*Hannover S-Bahn services ''Nienburg - Wunstorf - Hannover - Weetzen - Haste''
*Hannover S-Bahn services ''Hannover - Lehrte - Hildesheim''
*Hannover S-Bahn services ''Bennemühlen - Langenhagen - Hannover - Hannover Messe/Laatzen - Hildesheim''
*Hannover S-Bahn services ''Hannover Airport - Langenhagen - Hannover - Weetzen - Hameln - Paderborn''
*Hannover S-Bahn services ''Hannover - Celle''
*Hannover S-Bahn services ''Hannover - Lehrte - Celle''
*Hannover S-Bahn services ''Hannover Airport - Langenhagen - Hannover - Hannover Messe/Laatzen''
Tram services
Hannover Hauptbahnhof is served by all A, B and D lines. It's the terminus of line 8 and the event line 18. The station is the only one on the Hanover Stadtbahn
The Hanover Stadtbahn is a Stadtbahn (light rail) system in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany. The Stadtbahn opened on 29 September 1975, gradually replacing the city's tramway network over the course of the following 25 years. Current ...
where one can change from A to B line via Cross-platform interchange
A cross-platform interchange is a type of interchange between different lines at a metro (or other railway) station. The term originates with the London Underground; such layouts exist in other networks but are not commonly so named. In the U ...
.
References
;Sources
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External links
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*
{{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 ...
Railway stations in Germany opened in 1843
Hanover–Würzburg high-speed railway