Berlin Hauptbahnhof


Berlin Hauptbahnhof is the main railway station in Berlin, Germany. It came into full operation two days after a ceremonial opening on 26 May 2006. It is located on the site of the historic Lehrter Bahnhof, and on the Berlin S-Bahn suburban railway. The station is owned by DB InfraGO, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn AG, and is classified as a Category 1 station, one of 21 in Germany and four in Berlin, the others being Berlin Gesundbrunnen, Berlin Südkreuz and Berlin Ostbahnhof. It is open 24/7.
Lehrter Bahnhof opened in 1871 as the terminus of the railway linking Berlin with Lehrte, near Hanover, which later became Germany's most important east–west main line. In 1882, with the completion of the Stadtbahn, just north of the station, a smaller interchange station called Lehrter Stadtbahnhof was opened to provide connections with the new line. This station later became part of the Berlin S-Bahn. In 1884, after the closure of nearby Hamburger Bahnhof, Lehrter Bahnhof became the terminus for trains to and from Hamburg.
Following heavy damage during World War II, limited services to the main station were resumed, but then suspended in 1951. In 1957, with the railways to West Berlin under the control of East Germany, Lehrter Bahnhof was demolished, but Lehrter Stadtbahnhof remained as a stop on the S-Bahn. In 1987, it was extensively renovated to commemorate Berlin's 750th anniversary. After German reunification, it was decided to improve Berlin's railway network by constructing a new north–south main line, to supplement the east-west Stadtbahn. Lehrter Stadtbahnhof was considered to be the logical location for a new central station.

Location

The station is located in the Moabit district, in the Mitte borough. To the north is and Invalidenstraße, and to the south is Washingtonplatz and the Spree. South of the station is the Spreebogenpark, the Bundeskanzleramt, and the Paul-Löbe-Haus. To the east is the Mitte district and the Humboldthafen.

Function

Berlin Hauptbahnhof is part of the mushroom concept in Berlin, in which the station forms a connecting point for converging and intersecting lines of different modes of public transport.
The station's length is, though some of the platforms are long.
Structurally, the entire station complex is a tower station, while operationally it is a crossing station similar to all central stations. The complex consists of several independent operating points:
  • Tracks 1 to 8 are underground and are used for regional and intercity services on the Berlin North–South mainline.
  • Tracks 9 and 10 are underground and will be used for the future S21 S-Bahn line.
  • Tracks 11 to 14 are elevated and are used for regional and intercity services on the Berlin Stadtbahn.
  • Tracks 15 and 16 are elevated and are used for S-Bahn services on the Stadtbahn.
  • Tracks U1 and U2 are separate from the main station and are used for U-Bahn line U5.

    Construction and techniques

Building

The station building has two platform levels and three connecting and business levels. Compared to Raffles Place MRT station and Taipei main station, it is one of the most densely packed stations. The upper platform level serves the Berlin Stadtbahn and consists of six elevated tracks on four bridge structures, served by three island platforms high. The outer bridges carry one track each, while the inner bridges carry two each. The lower platform level serves the Berlin North–South mainline, and consists of eight underground tracks served by four island platforms deep. To the east are two tracks and an island platform serving U-Bahn line U5. Further to the east, a similar double track platform is being built as part of the S21 project.
The bridges carrying the Stadtbahn are approximately long, and span not only the station area, but also the adjacent Humboldthafen. Due to the way the Stadtbahn is aligned, they are curved, and due to the broadening from four to six tracks and the additional platforms, the total width has increased from wide. The Humboldthafen Bridge spans the Humboldthafen with a span of. It consists of a bow with steel tubes and pre-stressed concrete beam as upper flange.
The upper platform hall, which runs east–west, is long and consists of the arched, column-free, glass roof structure, which is supported by the two outer railway overpass structures. In the glass surface, a photovoltaic system with a capacity of 330 kilowatts was integrated. The hall is between wide and a maximum of high. It consists of three sections, with the western segment and the eastern long. In between lies the wide and long north–south roof, whose barrel vaults with the main roof form a flat viaduct. Parallel to the north–south roof, the two "ironing structures" span the main roof of the platform hall and carry the north–south roof. These ironing structures contain of office space.
On the northeastern part of the two diagonally opposite station terraces, the sculpture of Rolling Horse, erected in 2007 by Jürgen Goertz, artificially complements the building and is reminiscent to Lehrter Bahnhof and Lehrter Stadtbahnhof. There are integrated artificial elements, which can be viewed through four portholes.
From the southwestern terrace, it rises the disguised chimney located underneath the Tunnel Tiergarten Spreebogen.
During Cyclone Kyrill, on 18 January 2007, the long, horizontal strut high, crashed from the lattice-like exterior onto a staircase, onto the southwestern part of the building, another strut was torn from the anchorage. These decorative elements had only been hung up and should only hold their own weight. As a remedy, small sheets were placed above the carrier to prevent further carrier dissolution.

History

Lehrter Bahnhof from 1871 to 1958

Between 1868 and 1871, a railway was built between Hannover and Berlin via Lehrte by the Magdeburg Halberstädter railway company. Lehrter Bahnhof was constructed as the Berlin terminus. It was adjacent to Hamburger Bahnhof, just outside what was then Berlin's boundary at the Humbolthafen port on the river Spree. Its architects were Alfred Lent, Bertold Scholz, and Gottlieb Henri Lapierre.
In contrast to earlier railway stations, built with brick façades, and in keeping with then-current trends, Lehrter Bahnhof was designed in the French Neo-Renaissance style. Its originally planned stone façade was replaced with glazed tiles to save money. With its magnificent architecture, the station was known as a "palace among stations".
The train shed was long and wide. Its roof was a long barrel vault with steel supports. As was common for the period, the station was divided into an arrival side on the west, and a departure side on the east. Originally there were five tracks, four of which ended at the side and the central platform; the fifth track had no platform and served as a turnaround for the locomotives. At the turn of the century this track was removed to accommodate the widening of the central platform.
Although the front of the building was ornate and had a grand entrance, most passengers entered and left via the east side, where horse-drawn carriages were able to stop.
In 1882 the metropolitan railway, predecessor of the S-Bahn, began service along two of the Stadtbahn tracks; long-distance traffic commenced in 1884 along the other two. With the expansion of Lehrter Bahnhof, it was able to take over the functions of Hamburger Bahnhof. A connector line was built; on 14 October 1884, traffic towards Hamburg, northeast Germany, and Scandinavia was diverted to Lehrter Bahnhof, and Hamburger Bahnhof closed.
In 1886, the Berlin-Lehrte railway, and with it Lehrter Bahnhof, was nationalized and subsequently came under the control of the Prussian State Railways.
Even in its early years, the line was known as one of the country's fastest: in 1872, express trains could attain a speed of. 19 December 1932 marked the maiden voyage of the famous diesel-powered Fliegender Hamburger, which whisked passengers to Hamburg at.
In the Second World War the station was severely damaged. After the war, the shell was repaired such that it could be used temporarily. During the late 1940s it became a frequent spot for Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany soldiers to sexually assault passengers. However, the postwar division of Germany spelled the end for most of West Berlin's mainline stations. On 28 August 1951 the final train departed from Lehrter Bahnhof, heading for Wustermark and Nauen. On 9 July 1957 demolition began, and on 22 April 1958 the main entrance was blown up. The biggest challenge in the demolition of the station was to preserve the viaducts of the Stadtbahn, which ran directly overhead. Work was completed in the summer of 1959.

Lehrter Stadtbahnhof from 1882 to 2002

On 15 May 1882, Lehrter Stadtbahnhof opened, situated on the Stadtbahn viaduct at the northern end of Lehrter Bahnhof's concourse.
This four-track station on the Stadtbahn was used mainly by suburban trains. The main purpose of the Stadtbahn was to connect central areas of Berlin with the Lehrter Bahnhof, the Schlesischer Bahnhof termini with nearby Charlottenburg, then still a separate city. It also provided an east–west railway connection across the centre of Berlin.
Because of steadily increasing traffic to Lehrter Stadtbahnhof and its location on a bridge crossing the north end of Lehrter Bahnhof, elaborate changes were made to the track structure in 1912 and again in 1929. On 1 December 1930, the newly electrified suburban trains were given the designation S-Bahn, making the Lehrter Stadtbahnhof an S-Bahnhof.
During the War, in April 1943 the station was bombed by the Polish sabotage and diversionary squad "Zagra-lin".
The Stadtbahnhof survived WWII intact, but came to lose its pre-war significance due to the division of Berlin; with Lehrter Bahnhof closed, the Stadtbahnhof served only a relatively underpopulated area near the border with East Berlin. It was the final stop in West Berlin; the next station, Berlin Friedrichstraße, was in East Berlin, although it served as a stop on the West Berlin S- and U-Bahn systems; these parts of the station were sealed off and inaccessible to East Berliners. The S-Bahn, like the mainlines leading to West Berlin, was run by the East German railway, the Deutsche Reichsbahn. The 1961 construction of the Berlin Wall further isolated the station, and led to a boycott of the S-Bahn in West Berlin that lasted until the 1980s, when operation of the West Berlin S-Bahn lines was transferred to the West Berlin transit authority, the BVG.
Berlin's 750th-anniversary celebration in 1987 saw the station, now under West Berlin control, renovated at a cost of about DM 10 million. Because it had largely been preserved in its original condition, it became a listed building.
However, in 2002, Lehrter Stadtbahnhof was demolished to make way for the new central station, despite its listed status. The argument was that Bellevue and Hackescher Markt stations were architecturally similar. Hackescher Markt, in the former East Berlin, had been restored in 1994–1996, after German reunification.