Stralauer Tor (''Osthafen'' as of 1924) was 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 in

Berlin-Friedrichshain Friedrichshain () is a quarter (''Ortsteil'') of the borough of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg in Berlin, Germany. From its creation in 1920 until 2001, it was a freestanding city borough. Formerly part of East Berlin, it is adjacent to Mitte, Prenzl ...

. It operated between

Warschauer Straße Warschauer Straße is a major thoroughfare in the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district of central Berlin, the capital of Germany. The street begins at Frankfurter Tor to the north and spans 1.6km south to the intersection of the Oberbaumbrücke, Mü ...

and Schlesisches Tor stations on today's U1. Following its destruction in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

it was never rebuilt and is one of three Berlin U-Bahn stations (the others being Nürnberger Platz, which was closed and demolished in 1961 and Französische Straße, which was closed in 2020) to have been abandoned after having previously been in service.

History

''Stralauer Tor'' was an elevated station built into the north-eastern part of the

Oberbaumbrücke The Oberbaum Bridge (german: Oberbaumbrücke) is a double-deck bridge crossing Berlin's River Spree, considered one of the city's landmarks. It links Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg, former boroughs that were divided by the Berlin Wall, and has ...

viaduct, which featured a barrel-shaped roof and two street level stairwell entrances accommodating opposing platform sides.berliner-untergrundbahn.de
''Berlins U-Bahnstrecken'' It was constructed by German engineering company

Siemens & Halske Siemens & Halske AG (or Siemens-Halske) was a German electrical engineering company that later became part of Siemens. It was founded on 12 October 1847 as ''Telegraphen-Bauanstalt von Siemens & Halske'' by Werner von Siemens and Johann Geo ...

. The

groundbreaking Groundbreaking, also known as cutting, sod-cutting, turning the first sod, or a sod-turning ceremony, is a traditional ceremony in many cultures that celebrates the first day of construction for a building or other project. Such ceremonies are o ...

ceremony held on 10 September 1896 effectively laid one of the foundation stones of today's U-Bahn network, given the new elevated station would mark the eastern end of the city's very first elevated and subterranean electric train line – the western end terminated at Potsdamer Platz. However, although its historic status remains intact, its role as line terminus would be short-lived; six months after the station opened to the public on 15 February 1902, the present terminus Warschauer Straße (then named ''Warschauer Brücke'') assumed the role, opening for service on 17 August 1902. The design of Stralauer Tor astride the north-eastern end of the Oberbaumbrücke was conceived before the bridge was built. The construction of both edifices took place consecutively; once Otto Stahn had directed the erection of the bridge between 1894 and 1896, the engineering firm set about integrating their new station into the viaduct design. Stralauer Tor was renamed ''Osthafen'' in 1924 to indicate its proximity to the city's Eastern port, which was situated alongside the Oberbaumbrücke on the northern bank of the river Spree. On 10 March 1945, during the final stages of

, the station suffered severe bombing damage. Although some consideration was given to rebuild it after the war – to the extent that it appears on a 1946 Berlin map under a new name, ''Bersarinstraße'' – construction was never started, and so the station never reopened. The reasons for this were that it had become unnecessary, Warschauer Straße station was only 320 metres away and the destruction of many buildings around the Stralauer Tor during the war had reduced potential passenger footfall. However, more significant for its long-term prospects, it was situated on the border between the Soviet and American sectors of occupation. Those would later divide the city into East- and

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 ...

. The construction of the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government ...

along this frontier in 1961 led to the section of the U1 that traversed the Oberbaumbrücke into East Berlin being abandoned, and the remainder of the line instead terminating prematurely at Schlesisches Tor, the last station within West Berlin. Following

German reunification German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...

, the line's eastern end reopened in 1995, but Stralauer Tor was not reconstructed. Today, only struts on the viaduct remain to indicate its former location.

References

External links

U-Bahn history
{{coord, 52.503, N, 13.447, E, display=title, source:nlwiki Disused Berlin U-Bahn stations Buildings and structures in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg Berlin StralauerTor Berlin Osthafen