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Berlin's Potsdamer Bahnhof was located at Potsdamer Platz, about 800m south of the Brandenburg Gate, and it was this that kick-started the transformation of Potsdamer Platz from an area of quiet villas near the south-east corner of the Tiergarten into the teeming focal point that it eventually became. Berlin’s first railway, linking it with Potsdam and begun in 1835, it was opened from Potsdam as far as Zehlendorf on 22nd September 1838, and the entire 26km on 29th October. The first train was hauled by a British-built locomotive, the work of Robert Stephenson no less, at his Newcastle-upon-Tyne works, in 1835, and called “Adler” (Eagle). That same year, on 7th December, it hauled the first train to run anywhere in the future Germany, on the short (7km) Nuremberg to Furth Railway. But three years later, on 22nd September 1838, it hauled the first train to operate in Prussia, between Potsdam and Zehlendorf, and would take it all the way into the Berlin terminus on 29th October. The whole area around the terminus became a major focus for urban growth from this time on. Five major streets would eventually converge there, most having started out as mere dirt-tracks through the Tiergarten and adjoining fields. The first Potsdamer Bahnhof lasted until 1869, by which time it could not cope with growing traffic, so it was superseded by a far grander structure built by Julius Ludwig Quassowski (1824-1909), with five platforms, a train-shed roof 173m long by 36m wide, and a separate entrance on the west side for royalty. Opened on 30th August 1872, by 1890 over 3 million people a year were using it, and it was holding its own against a much larger rival down the road (the Anhalter Bahnhof). Still the facilities could not cope, and so in 1890-91 two extra termini were built either side of it for short-haul and suburban traffic: on the east side, the Ringbahnhof, opened 1st April 1891 to serve the Ringbahn itself, the circular route skirting the city’s perimeter with connections to all the main termini; and the Wannsee Bahnhof on the west side, opened 1st October 1891 for trains to Wannsee and the south western suburbs. Steam-operated at first, the Ringbahnhof lines were electrified (550v DC), 4th June 1903 (converted to 800v DC on 2nd July 1929), but the lines from the Wannsee Bahnhof, and also the main-line terminus (alternatively known as the “Fernbahnhof,” meaning Long-Distance Station, to distinguish it from the others), had to wait until 15th May 1933. The Ringbahnhof ultimately handled many times as many passengers as the Main-Line Terminus. The Ringbahn itself had originally opened in two stages: the eastern section for goods on 17th July 1871 and passengers on 1st January 1872; and the western section for all traffic on 15th November 1877. Although smaller than the Anhalter, the Potsdamer Bahnhof became much the busier of the two. By 1939 up to 80,000 people per DAY were using it. The Wannsee Bahnhof actually closed that year, superseded by the new S-Bahn north-south link between Unter den Linden and Yorckstrasse (via Potsdamer Platz and Anhalter Bahnhof), opened in stages during the year. During World War 2 the terminus, like most of Berlin, was devastated by British and American bombs and Soviet artillery shells. The air raid that sealed the station's fate was that on the night of 23rd/24th November 1943, when the station lost its roof and the whole area around Potsdamer Platz was pulverised, but despite some rubble clearance and emergency repairs, damage to the rail infrastructure further out was so great that the Main-Line Terminus never saw another train, its formal closure and that of the Ringbahnhof occurring on 3rd August 1944. The Ringbahnhof got a reprieve of sorts, though, temporarily reopening on 6th August 1945 while the U and S-Bahn received massive repairs (millions of gallons of water needed to be pumped out for starters), before final closure on 27th July 1946. After lingering on for 11 more years, the remains were cleared away in 1957. The Anhalter Bahnhof and all of Berlin’s other rail termini suffered a similar fate, (exacerbated in some instances by the Division of Berlin and the building of the Wall in 1961), leaving a network that remained fragmented and inconvenient for decades. Today a number of vast and spectacular new developments can be seen around Potsdamer Platz. Although perhaps not to everyone's taste architecturally, the new quarter is certainly a commercial success, and a must-see for the majority of visitors to Berlin. But where the Potsdamer Bahnhof once stood is a long landscaped strip of land named after the great Austrian actress Tilla Durieux (1880-1971), stretching for 450m down to the Landwehrkanal. |
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