Paradestraße 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 Berlin S-Bahn, S-Bahn, a network of ...

station Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle statio ...

on the line. It was opened in 1927 as ''Flughafen'' (airport) and at that time provided the world's first direct connection between a metro system and an airport (

Tempelhof Airport Berlin Tempelhof Airport () was one of the first airports in Berlin, Germany. Situated in the south-central Berlin borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg, the airport ceased operating in 2008 amid controversy, leaving Tegel and Schönefeld as the ...

History

The station opened on 10 September 1927, taking over as the southern terminus of the north-south line from ''Kreuzberg'', now

Platz der Luftbrücke Platz der Luftbrücke is a landmarked Tempelhof Tempelhof () is a locality of Berlin within the borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg. It is the location of the former Tempelhof Airport, one of the earliest commercial airports in the world. The former airport and surroundings are now a park call ...

. As indicated by its original name, Flughafen, it was intended to provide access to

. The platform is broad and four of the stairs from it led to a large mezzanine from which two exits led towards the airport, for the use of both passengers and flight show spectators.Der Tempelhofer Abzweig der Nord-Süd-Bahn
, Berliner Untergrundbahn.de A pedestrian tunnel connecting directly to the airport terminal building, which at the time lay roughly one kilometer to the east, was planned but never built. However, the airport was rebuilt in the 1930s, both because it proved too small and because part of Hitler's plan for converting Berlin into

Welthauptstadt Germania ''Welthauptstadt Germania'' (), or World Capital Germania, was the projected renewal of the German capital Berlin during the Nazi period, as part of Adolf Hitler's vision for the future of Nazi Germany after the planned victory in World War II ...

was for the main entrance to the airport to be aligned with the triumphal arch on the North-South Axis. The station was no longer in the correct position and in January 1937 was renamed Paradestraße; the Kreuzberg station became the new connection between the U-Bahn and the airport and was renamed Flughafen. The eastern exits at Paradestraße were sealed and the mezzanine reduced in size. The

Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe The (German: 'Berlin Transport Company') is the main public transport company of Berlin, the capital city of Germany. It manages the city's (underground), trams in Berlin, tram, bus transport in Berlin, bus, replacement services (EV) and fe ...

(Berlin Transport) used the closed-off portion as a shooting gallery. On 28/29 January 1944, there was a direct hit in the ceiling of the platform hall. The ceiling collapses on 29 April 1944, this is the second ceiling opening in this station. The damage to the track and station facilities is now so sustainable that an orderly underground operation is no longer possible even in the longer term. At some stations, the subway can no longer hold or some routes are so destructive that the operation had to be completely shut down. In 1946 the city planned to rename the station again, to Franz-Werfel-Straße, and even made the change on street maps, but it was never actually changed. In the early 1990s, one of the two remaining stairways from the street to the station was replaced with a lift, leaving only one exit in case of fire. The station now again has 2 stairways in addition to a lift. The extension of the line south to Kreuzberg and Flughafen, and later beyond, was originally known as C^II. In 1966 it became known as Line 6 and in 1986 as U6.

Design

The station was 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 Gr ...

and was originally sandy-coloured.Robert Schwandl, ''Berlin U-Bahn-Album: alle 192 Untergrund- und Hochbahnhöfe in Farbe'', Berlin: MetroPlanet, 2002,

Around 1992, it was retiled in small white tiles with multicoloured accents representing the colours of all the Berlin U-Bahn lines, making it one of the most colourful stations in the system.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paradestrasse (Berlin U-Bahn) U6 (Berlin U-Bahn) stations Buildings and structures in Tempelhof-Schöneberg Railway stations in Germany opened in 1927