Olympia-Stadion 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, in the Westend district. It serves Berlin's

Olympic Stadium ''Olympic Stadium'' is the name usually given to the main stadium of an Olympic Games. An Olympic stadium is the site of the opening and closing ceremonies. Many, though not all, of these venues actually contain the words ''Olympic Stadium'' as ...

, where football matches and other events are regularly held. The station is located around from the similarly named

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 co ...

station,

Olympiastadion Olympiastadion is the German, Finnish and Swedish word for Olympic Stadium and may refer to: * Stockholm Olympic Stadium, the host of the 1912 Summer Olympics (though mostly referred as simply ''Stockholms Stadion'') * Olympiastadion (Berlin), the ...

, whose name – without

hyphen The hyphen is a punctuation mark used to join words and to separate syllables of a single word. The use of hyphens is called hyphenation. ''Son-in-law'' is an example of a hyphenated word. The hyphen is sometimes confused with dashes (figure d ...

– more closely reflects that of the Olympic Stadium. Bahnhof Stadion Berlin 1913

History

The ''Stadion'' station was opened on 8 June 1913, together with the ''

Deutsches Stadion The ''Deutsches Stadion'' ("German Stadium") was a monumental stadium designed by Albert Speer for the Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg, southern Germany. Its construction began in September 1937, and was scheduled for completion in 1943. ...

'', the predecessor of the Olympic Stadium. Due to

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the

1916 Summer Olympics The 1916 Summer Olympics (german: Olympische Sommerspiele 1916), officially known as the Games of the VI Olympiad, were scheduled to be held in Berlin, German Empire, but were eventually cancelled for the first time in its 20-year history due to ...

, for which the building of the stadium was intended, were cancelled and regular train service at the ''Stadion'' station was not available until 1922. Subsequent to Berlin's successful application for the

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (German: ''Olympische Sommerspiele 1936''), officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad (German: ''Spiele der XI. Olympiade'') and commonly known as Berlin 1936 or the Nazi Olympics, were an international multi-sp ...

, the renowned U-Bahn architect

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 ...

redesigned the building and the station was named ''Reichssportfeld''. On 15 February 1944, it was directly hit by the air raids. From 1950 on, the station was called ''Olympia-Stadion''; between 1992 and 1999, it bore the name ''Olympia-Stadion (Ost)''. The building was extensively restored in preparation of the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

and received blue pillars and benches, according to the colours of the local

Hertha BSC Berlin Hertha, Berliner Sport-Club e. V., commonly known as Hertha BSC (), and sometimes referred to as Hertha Berlin, Hertha BSC Berlin, or simply Hertha, is a German professional football club based in the locality of Westend of the borough of Charlo ...

football club.

References

{{BU-BahnStations U2 (Berlin U-Bahn) stations Berlin U-Bahn stations located above ground Buildings and structures in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf Railway stations in Germany opened in 1913