Heinrich-Heine-Straße 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 the , located under the street of the same name in Mitte, and protected as an architectural landmark. The street and the station were called Neanderstraße until 1960.

History

After the City of Berlin took over the incomplete ''GN-Bahn'' ( Gesundbrunnen - Neukölln Railway) line from the AEG subsidiary which was unable to complete it in the aftermath of

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 Neanderstraße station was built in 1926–28 and opened on 6 April 1928.Die GN-Bahn: Südlicher Abschnitt
, Berliner-Untergrundbahn.de It was the northern terminus of the line for two years, until 18 April 1930, when Gesundbrunnen station opened.

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 Gr ...

designed the station in his characteristic sparse New Objectivist style and chose pale violet or

aubergine Eggplant ( US, Canada), aubergine ( UK, Ireland) or brinjal (Indian subcontinent, Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa) is a plant species in the nightshade family Solanaceae. ''Solanum melongena'' is grown worldwide for its edible fruit. Mo ...

(similar to

Kottbusser Tor Kottbusser Tor () is a Berlin U-Bahn station located on lines U1, U3, and U8. Many Berliners use the affectionate term ''Kotti'' (; see Berlin dialect). It is located in central Kreuzberg. The area has a bad reputation for the relatively ...

) as the distinguishing colour for the wall tiles and the tiled central pillars on the platform level.U-Bahnhof Heinrich-Heine-Straße, OBJ-Dok-Nr. 09035374
, Denkmale in Berlin, Senatsverwaltung für Stadtentwicklung, Berlin, updated 25 March 2008, retrieved 22 February 2011 The station lies at "one and a half depth" because it is under buildings. Like many Berlin U-Bahn stations, it has an island platform and entrances at both ends, north and south. All are stairways; the station has no lift. One of the two northern entrances is incorporated into a building on the corner of Köpenicker Straße, with offices and flats above. This building is also protected as an architectural landmark. The other northern entrance and the southern entrance, at the corner of Schmidstraße, were also formerly incorporated into buildings, one of the models being entrances to

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The ...

stations; Neanderstraße was then unusually narrow and this line was the first use in Berlin of entrances set into buildings. The other buildings were destroyed 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 opposing ...

and those stairs have since led directly from the street. Following the fall of Berlin, the U-Bahn was closed at the end of April 1945. Service resumed at Neanderstraße on 3 June that year. Mitte was within the Soviet zone which became East Berlin; the station was renamed Heinrich-Heine-Straße on 31 August 1960 following a decision by the Berlin ''Magistrat'' on 22 July to rename the street. After the construction of the Berlin wall a year later, on 13 August 1961, U-Bahn trains on Lines C and D ( and ) no longer stopped in East Berlin and Heinrich-Heine-Straße became one of the

ghost station A ghost station is a disused train station through which revenue-service passenger trains (especially rapid transit trains) pass but at which they do not stop. The term is also sometimes used for any unused underground station or any unused ...

s. The entrances were blocked up and the stairwell enclosures removed so that they were no longer visible. Use did not resume until German reunification almost 30 years later, on 1 July 1990. East Berlin U-Bahn stairway enclosures were built in early 1990 for the entrances from the street. Because of the long closure, the station retains much of its original appearance: 3 platform kiosks, direction indicators, nameplates (black with white lettering on this line; Grenander believed this made them easier to read), wooden poster frames, and wrought iron exit gates. The Sage Club, a Berlin dance club, has operated since 1997 in the disused station mezzanine level in the Köpenicker Straße building.Sage Club review
, TimeOut Berlin, retrieved 23 February 2011: "A labyrinthine complex of half a dozen or so dancefloors accessed via the north-side entrance to Heinrich-Heine-Strasse U-Bahn station"

References

External links

at Untergrundbahn.de
Club description page
at Sage Club {{DEFAULTSORT:Heinrich-Heine-Strasse (Berlin U-Bahn) U8 (Berlin U-Bahn) stations Buildings and structures in Mitte Railway stations in Germany opened in 1928 Heinrich Heine