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is Berlin 's new main Railway Station , scheduled to open on May 28 , 2006 . The new station will be the largest rail transportation hub in Europe. It is built on the site of the previous Lehrter Bahnhof, and as a nod to this heritage it is operating under the provisional name '''Berlin Hauptbahnhof – Lehrter Bahnhof''' as a stop on the Berlin S-Bahn local railway, prior to its full opening as a mainline station. The original Lehrter Bahnhof (Lehrte Station) opened in 1871 as the terminus of a railway linking Berlin with Lehrte , near Hanover , which later became Germany 's most important east-west Mainline . The station later became the endpoint for trains to and from Hamburg with the closure of the nearby Hamburger Bahnhof (Hamburg Station). In 1882 , with the completion of the Stadtbahn (City Railway, Berlin's four-track central elevated railway line, which includes both local and mainline services), just to the north of the main station, a smaller interchange station called "Lehrter Stadtbahnhof" was opened to provide connections to the new line. This station later became part of the Berlin S-Bahn . Following heavy damage during the Second World War , 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 the Communist East German railways, the Lehrter Bahnhof was demolished. Lehrter Stadtbahnhof, however, continued to serve as a stop on the S-Bahn. In 1987 the station 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 mainline, to supplement the existing east-west Stadtbahn. Therefore this became the logical - if not the most convenient - location for a new central station. LEHRTER BAHNHOF HISTORY Between 1868 and 1871 a 239-km railway was built between Hanover and Berlin via Lehrte by the Magdeburg Halberstaedter railway company. The Lehrter Bahnhof was constructed as the Berlin terminal. It was situated adjacent to the existing Hamburger Bahnhof, just outside of what was then Berlin's boundaries at the Humbolthafen port on the banks of the river Spree . Its architects were Alfred Lent , Bertold Scholz , and Gottlieb Henri Lapierre . In contrast to earlier railway stations, built with brick facades, and in keeping with then-current trends, Lehrter Bahnhof was designed in the French neo- Renaissance style. Its originally planned stone facade was replaced with glazed tiles to save money. With its magnificent architecture, the station was known as a "palace among stations." The station hall had a length of 188 m and width of 38 m. Its roof was a long Barrel Vault with steel supports. As was common for the period, the station was divided into an arrival terminal, on the west side, and a departure terminal 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 the building 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 duties of the Hamburger Bahnhof. A 300-m connector line was built; on October 14 , 1884 , traffic towards Hamburg, northeast Germany, and Scandinavia was diverted to the Lehrter Bahnhof, and the Hamburger Bahnhof was closed. In 1886 , the Berlin-Lehrte railway, and with it the Lehrter Bahnhof, were nationalized and subsequently fell into 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 departing from the station could attain a speed of 90 km/h. December 19 , 1932 marked the maiden voyage of the famous diesel-powered Fliegender Hamburger (Flying Hamburger), which whisked passengers to Hamburg at 160 km/h. In the Second World War the station was severely damaged. After the war, the shell of the station was repaired to the point where it could be used provisionally. However, the postwar Division Of Germany spelled the end for most of West Berlin's mainline stations. On August 28 , 1951 , the final train departed from Lehrter Bahnhof, headed for the Wustermark and Nauen . On July 9 , 1957 , demolition began, and on April 22 , 1958 , the main entrance was blown up. The biggest challenge in the demolition of the station was to spare the viaducts of the Stadtbahn, which ran directly underneath. Work was completed in the summer of 1959 . LEHRTER STADTBAHNHOF On May 15 , 1882 , the Lehrter Stadtbahnhof was opened. This four-track station on the Stadtbahn connected the city with suburban traffic and commercial transport. It was intended to connect central Berlin with the Lehrter Bahnhof and Schlesischer Bahnhof ( Silesia Station) terminal stations and nearby Charlottenburg , then still a separate city. It was located on the Stadtbahn Viaduct at the northern end of the Lehrter Bahnhof concourse. Because of steadily increasing traffic to the Lehrter Stadtahnhof, as well as its location on a bridge traversing the north end of the Lehrter Bahnhof, elaborate changes were made to the track structure in 1912 and again in 1929 . On December 1 , 1930 , the newly electricified suburban trains were given the designation S-Bahn , making the Lehrter Stadtbahnhof an S-Bahnhof. The S-Bahnhof survived the war intact, but came to lose its pre-war significance due to the division of Berlin; with the Lehrter Bahnhof itself closed, the Stadtbahnhof itself served only a relatively underpopulated area near the border to East Berlin . It was the final stop completely within West Berlin ; the next station (Berlin Friedrichstraße ) was divided between the Allied forces zone of occupation and the Soviet Zone of occupation. Furthermore, 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 750-year 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 , the Lehrter Stadtbahnhof was demolished to make way for the new central station. Despite its listed status, the argument was made that the station Hackescher Markt , in former East Berlin , was architecturally similar; it had been restored in 1994 - 1996 , after German Reunification . HAUPTBAHNHOF – LEHRTER BAHNHOF Soon after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 , city planners began work on a transport plan for reunified Berlin. One element of this became the "Pilzkonzept" (mushroom concept), in which a new north-south railway line intersecting the Stadtbahn was to be constructed. The name derived from the shape formed by the new line and existing lines, which vaguely resembles a mushroom. In June 1992 the federal government decided the new station should be built on the site of the old Lehrter Bahnhof. While close to the center of Berlin and government buildings, the area was still not heavily populated. The following year, a design competition for the project was held, which was won by the Hamburg architecture firm Gerkan, Marg And Partners (gmp). The design called for traffic on five levels. The highest is the main deck, including two S-Bahn platforms, on a bridge construction 10 meters above street level, and the lowest comprises four platforms 15 meters underground. A new tunnel to Potsdamer Platz under the Spree and the Tiergarten, Berlin's central park, form a new north-south line running to the northern part of the S-Bahn ring around central Berlin. Platforms for the planned extension to U-Bahn line 5 are also included, as were platforms for the cancelled Transrapid Maglev Train . The building work so far has taken place in several stages. In 1995 the construction of the Tiergarten tunnel began, and the work finished in 2005 with the completion of the last station tunnel. The tunnel provides four tubes for long-distance and regional services and two tubes in a separate alignment for the U-Bahn, in addition to a road tunnel ventilated by a 60-meter-high tower completed in 2004 . During its construction, the course of the Spree had to be diverted ( 1996 - 1998 ). Water leaks in the tunnels caused over one year's delay to the construction work. Construction of the bridges for the new S-Bahn route began in 2001 . These needed to span not only the entire length of the station, but also the adjacent Humboldthafen port, and therefore are 450 meters long. Because of the alignment of the S-Bahn they are curved and are up to wide, although each pair of tracks is a separate bridge. Bridges of this type had never previously been built, and representeded a special challenge for the engineers. The main station hall is spanned by a similarly curved glass roof with a surface area of about 85 × 120 meters, which was installed in February 2002 . A Photovoltaic system was integrated into the glass surface. The steel and glass construction was a difficult task for the engineers, particularly as the glass roofs were shortened by approximately 100 meters to speed up construction. Over the first weekend of July 2002 the bridges and main station hall were brought into service so that traffic could be diverted onto the new alignment. The old Lehrter Stadtbahnhof S-Bahn station was closed and rapidly demolished to make way for further new building. On 9 September 2002 the station was renamed "Berlin Hauptbahnhof – Lehrter Bahnhof". The main concourse, supported by two towers, will offer roughly 44,000 m&2 of commercial space. Construction of the towers began in 2005 . On two separate weekends, 29 July and 13 August 2005 , structural frames were installed, supporting the structure above the east-west tracks. This was built using a new technique: the frames, each weighing 1250 tonnes, were lowered by ropes at a rate of six meters per hour; the remaining two-centimeter gap between the bow frames upon completion of the lowering process was subsequently closed. During summer 2003 a survey commissioned by Peter Strieder, Berlin ’s Senator for City Development and Traffic, and Deutsche Bahn director Hartmut Mehdorn, was conducted among Berlin residents with the intention of selecting a name for the station. Of the three possibilities listed on the survey, the majority of participants opted for the name Lehrter Bahnhof; nevertheless, the station remained "Berlin Hauptbahnhof – Lehrter Bahnhof," an option that was not listed. It was decided early in 2005 that the station would be renamed "Berlin Hauptbahnhof " (literally, "main station") on the date of its opening, May 28 , 2006 , to avoid confusing rail passengers. On the same day, Berlin Papestraße station, which has been rebuilt as the city's second-largest station, will also open officially under its new name, Berlin Südkreuz . This station is also located on the new north-south route. The mainline platforms may be used for local traffic with the expected heavy demand during the 2006 FIFA World Cup , held in part in Berlin. The architect Meinhard von Gerkan filed a complaint against Deutsche Bahn in October 2005 after Deutsche Bahn altered the station construction timeline without proper authority (16th Berlin Superior Court of Justice, AZ 16 O 240/05). There may therefore be further construction on the station in the future. In addition, Deutsche Bahn decided to further break with the "Pilzkonzept" by running intercity train lines through the new Tiergarten tunnel rather than via the Stadtbahn. This would force passengers to use the new central station, providing businesses the opportunity to establish successful operations in the station complex. This move has been unpopular for its effect on Berlin's two current main stations; Berlin Zoologischer Garten (Zoo Station) would consequently be downgraded to a regional railway station, and the number of mainline services to Berlin Ostbahnhof (East Station) would also be drastically reduced. EXTERNAL LINKS |
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