Berlin Friedrichstraße railway station
Encyclopedia
Berlin Friedrichstraße (bɛɐˈliːn ˈfʁiːdʁɪçˌʃtʁaːsə) is a railway station in the German
capital Berlin
. It is located on the Friedrichstraße
, a major north-south street in the Mitte
district of Berlin, adjacent to the point where the street crosses the Spree
river. Underneath the station is the subway station
Friedrichstraße.
Due to its central location in Berlin and its proximity to attractions such as the Unter den Linden
boulevard, the Brandenburg Gate
and the Reichstag, the station is a favorite destination for tourists. At the same time, it is the main junction
for regional traffic in Berlin, measured by the number of passengers.
During the Cold War
, Friedrichstraße became famous for being a station that was located entirely in East Berlin
, yet continued to be served by S-Bahn, U-Bahn trains from West Berlin
as well as long distance trains from countries west of the Iron Curtain
. The station also was a major border crossing
between East and West Berlin.
as well as the Berlin S-Bahn
and the Berlin U-Bahn
.
S-Bahn and regional trains stop at the upper platforms A - C on the Berlin Stadtbahn viaduct
, elevated above city streets. This upper level of the station is enclosed by two train shed
halls. The smaller shed on the north side is used for the S-Bahn
, the larger on the south for regional trains. Platform D is a station on the North-South tunnel of the S-Bahn, located underground approximately aligned with the eastern bank of the Spree
river.
The underground station for the U6
line is located at the eastern end of the station, directly under the Friedrichstraße
. In addition, the south side of the station serves as station and terminus for a number of trams
and bus
es of the Berlin transportation company
.
In 1878, the first station was built after plans by Johannes Vollmer between the Friedrichstraße
and the river Spree
as part of the Berlin Stadtbahn construction. The architect was working on the neighbouring Hackescher Markt station
at the same time. Just as the elevated viaduct the station is integrated into, the station rests on large arches build with masonry. The station had two platforms with two tracks each, covered by a large, curved train shed
which rested on steel truss
es of different length to cover the curvature of the viaduct underneath. The main entrance was on the northern side, the pick-up for horse carriages on the south side. Station opening was on February 7, 1882, as part of the ceremonial opening of the Berlin Stadtbahn. Long distance trains started on May 15 of the same year.
Because of the large amounts of traffic going through the station even before World War I
, plans were made in 1914 to extend the station. There were a new, slightly elevated platform on the northern side for the S-Bahn, and the existing platforms had been made slightly narrower, leaving one platform for the S-Bahn, and two platforms for long distance trains. The steel-truss, double arched train shed was built between 1919 and 1925, featuring large glass fronts. On the northern side of the building, two entry halls in expressionist style
were built, and the whole northern side was covered by a characteristic dark tile. The southern facade was only plastered until the last renovation in 1999, when it was also covered by tile.
In 1923, the Friedrichstrasse underground station for line C (today's U6
and southeastern U7) was finished, creating the first part of the underground maze the station still has today.
In the beginning of the 1930s, construction returned again to the Friedrichstrasse station, as the North-South tunnel of the S-Bahn was driven under the station. A long pedestrian tunnel connecting to the homonymous underground station of Berlin U-Bahn
was also driven under the northern end of the station, and that underground station received the characteristic yellow tile still featured today. On 27 July 1936, just before the 1936 Summer Olympics
, the belowground S-Bahn station was opened.
After the "Kristallnacht
", starting December 1, 1938, thousands of Jewish children started or passed through the station to leave Germany as part of the Refugee Children Movement
.
The station was bombed by Polish resistance group "Zagra-lin" in early 1943, with 14 people dead and 27 wounded.
It escaped larger damage during the bombing of Berlin in World War II. U-Bahn and S-Bahn ceased operations on 23 and 25 April 1945, respectively, due to shortage of electricity supplies. Most likely on fore-noon of 2 May 1945, the day of Berlin's capitulation, the SS exploded the ceiling of North-South tunnel under Landwehrkanal
, which caused the subsequent flooding of the tunnel, including Friedrichstraße belowground S-Bahn station along with a large part of the Berlin underground system via the connecting tunnel between the S-Bahn and the Berlin U-Bahn
at their respective Friedrichstrasse stations. Like this the waters disgorged into one third of Berlin's Underground flooding 63 km of tunnels with 25 further stations. To this day it is unclear who set off the explosion: One theory says that it was executed by the German SS in accordance with Hitler's Nero Decree
.
Another, however, smaller leak in the tunnel ceiling under the Spree
was either caused by German forces exploding the Ebertsbrücke street bridge crossing at the river at the same section, where the tunnel passes underneath. Or some months later, after the end of fighting, Soviet
military engineer
s created the hole in the process of clearing the Spree
river of large concrete obstacles created by the bridge explosion. It is also unknown how many people (if any) drowned in the tunnel, most likely is that the bodies found later in the tunnel were wounded soldiers that had been dead before the tunnel flooding, since the tunnel S-Bahn station under the Friedrichstrasse station was used in the last days of the war as a emergency military hospital, with trains used as hospital rooms.
With the belowground rail system flooded, the aboveground railways heavily damaged due to bombings, the traffic ceased shortly before the end of the war, but reconstruction started in 1945. Trains were redirected at first to the aboveground facilities. By the end of May and early June 1945 the BVG
, the operator of Berlin's U-Bahn, sealed up the pedestrian tunnel between tunnel S-Bahn and U-Bahn station to stop water flooding into the underground tunnel. Reichsbahn
, the operator of the S-Bahn, had declared it lacked the means to close the tunnel leaks. On 4 June BVG started the drainage of its underground system. On 12 July the underground reopened its Friedrichstraße station for two one-track shuttle operations, one from north and one from south meeting there, regular two-track traffic restarted on since 5 December 1945. Reichsbahn drained its North-South tunnel only later and reopened belowground S-Bahn service on 2 June 1946. On 1 December the same year North-South tunnel and Friedrichstraße belowground S-Bahn station shut again for a serious refurbish lasting until 16 October 1947, when the North-South tunnel was fully operational again.
During the onset of the cold war
and its tensions between the Western and the Soviet occupied sectors of Berlin, the Friedrichstrasse station played an important role for citizens of Berlin to reach their friends and relatives in other sectors of Berlin. At the end of 1946, the Soviet Military Administration in Germany
had created an East German border police tasked with preventing Republikflucht
(escape from the East German republic). With the erection of the Inner German border in 1952, East Germany was to a large degree sealed off from the west. However, Berlin, and particular the public transport system that criss-crossed between the western Allied and Soviet sectors was still a hole in that iron curtain
. Accordingly, Berlin became the main route by which East Germans left for the West. The 3.5 million East Germans that had left by 1961 totaled approximately 20% of the entire East German population, many using the Friedrichstrasse station with its bustling traffic as the starting point for their escape. During the Uprising of 1953 in East Germany
and East Berlin Reichsbahn national railway interrupted any S-Bahn transport between 17 June until 9 July 1953.
When the East German government erected the Berlin Wall
on August 13, 1961, it also severed the U-Bahn, S-Bahn and long distance train connections that criss-crossed through Berlin. The district of Berlin Mitte, where the Friedrichstrasse station is located, was surrounded in the northerly, westerly and southerly directions by Western Sectors: For the S-Bahn at the Friedrichstrasse station, the next station to the west was across the wall in West Berlin
, to the north were three more stops in the Soviet sector and only two to the south. The situation was similar for the U6 subway underneath the Friedrichstrasse, which had three stations to the north and two stations to the south before crossing the wall.
Therefore, all of the stations underground facilities - the S-Bahn platform of the North-South tunnel and the underground station - were only usable for passengers from the western sectors as a transfer station wholly located in East Berlin, or to access the border crossing at the ground level.
The facilities above ground, on the arches of the Stadtbahn, were separated along the platforms:
Between the platforms B and C was a metal-glass barrier that practically fulfilled the same function as the Berlin wall
: East German border troops had separated the station into two completely isolated areas, both fully under armed control, the one for people within East Berlin and the other for transit travellers, persons switching between the different westbound train lines and few Easterners with the hard-to-obtain exit visa, all within one station building with a maze of connecting hallways, barriers, numerous cameras, armed guards with sniffer dogs, plain-clothes agents and a loggia under the roof for surveillance by armed border patrol and Stasi
officers.
Tracks between the western and eastern systems were, aside from the long distance tracks, completely separated. S-Bahn trains using the heavily guarded passing track west of platform C required permission from the commander of the border guard detail. An exchange of rolling stock
between the divided S-Bahn segments of Berlin was only possible via the long distance tracks on platform A. These tracks were equipped with derailers to prevent escape attempts
.
At the ground level, between the elevated and the underground part of the station, were the facilities for crossing into East Berlin. This included three individual passport
checks, customs
control, waiting rooms (since the crossing could take anywhere from 15 minutes to several hours), interrogation rooms, arrest cells, offices to register and record people crossing the border, and a counter for visa fees and the (mandatory) currency exchange.
Due to location in downtown Berlin, with its many shops, offices, official buildings, embassies, hotels as well as cultural and entertainment (Friedrichstadtpalast
, Metropol theater house, opera house
, Museum Island
), as well as being a border crossing, traffic in the station was enormous. In the beginnings after the wall had been built, both the eastbound and the westbound border traffic was controlled on the ground level of the station. These rather constrained circumstances, compounded by the traffic in and around the station, lead to the construction of a building on the square north of the station, which was connected underground to the main station. This new building was used for westbound border crossings, with separate check points for citizens of West Berlin, citizens of West Germany, foreigners and diplomats, transit travellers and East German citizens. On the door was a guard station to separate people permitted to cross the border from those ineligible, leading to many tearful "goodbye"s in front of the building. This gave the building the questionable moniker Tränenpalast
("Palace of Tears").
On the southern side of the station building was the so called "service entry" (Diensteingang) for personnel of the East German national railway. This entry, which lead through its own control room, and then via several corridors to a door on the ground floor of the "western" side, was used to infiltrate and ex-filtrate agents
of the East German intelligence service, and to allow members of the West German communist party and West Berlin socialist party
to pass without being checked or recorded. This secret pathway between the two cold war fronts was also the escape route for some members of the West German terror organization Red Army Faction
to avoid arrest in West Germany. On July 7, 1976, the officially wanted Movement 2 June
members Inge Vieth, Monika Berberich, Gabriele Rollnik and Juliane Plambeck escaped following their escape from prison, and on May 27, 1978 Till Meyer, escaped into East Germany via Friedrichstrasse station, though they did not stay there. Vieth later escaped to East Germany again and stayed there until the fall of the Berlin Wall. In opposite direction, on January 18, 1979, the East German double agent Werner Stiller used this path to escape to the West.
The train station held another attraction during those times: The ground level and the underground platforms on the "western" side of the station had so called Intershop
s, created specifically for travellers from West Berlin who did not want to pass through the East German border controls. Initially just mobile carts offering alcohol and tobacco, they were soon shops integrated into the station offering food, alcohol, tobacco, books, toys, jewelry, cosmetics, gift items and more. One could disembark from the subway, make a purchase, and then get back on the next train and go back to West Berlin, all without processing through the East German border controls. Purchases could be paid with any fully convertible currency, such as U.S. dollars, British pounds, Swiss franc
s, and especially the West German mark. The merchandise was offered duty free, which made especially the alcohol and tobacco products attractive to passengers from West Berlin. This was also known to the West Berlin customs agency
, which sometimes checked travellers coming from the Friedrichstrasse at their first station in West Berlin.
Between 1985 and 1987, a small renovation of the train shed took place, where the middle wooden roof section was replaced with glass. The lighting was replaced, and the metal parts of the train shed were painted.
Immediately after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the traffic for the S-Bahn in Berlin as well as long distance train traffic to and from Berlin increased dramatically. At first, to immediately ease travel between East- and West-Berlin, the walls and barriers that were built to separate the station were removed. By July 1990, the severed tracks on platform C were reconnected, and after almost 29 years, there was again uninterrupted traffic on the Stadtbahn viaduct
line from Berlin Alexanderplatz station to Berlin Zoo station
. Very little maintenance had been done to the station during the East German years, and especially the underground section looked like a relic from a different time.
Between August 1991 and February 1992, the North-South S-Bahn tunnel including the underground section of the Friedrichstrasse station was closed for a complete overhaul. Between October 1995 and September 1999, the ground level and the raised level on the Stadtbahn viaduct was completely renovated, costing the Deutsche Bahn
a total of 220 Million German Mark
s. The facade of the building was covered with terra cotta
clinker bricks as the original building had, this time including the southern face of the building. An additional tunnel for traffic to the U-Bahn U6 was driven under the station, and elevator
s were added between the floors. The 5200 square metres (6,219.1 sq yd) ground floor was converted into a shopping area with 50 businesses. Since reopening, regional trains now stop on platform A and B.
Beginning in 2002, the North-South S-Bahn tunnel was again renovated, which removed the last traces of East Germany - the green tile covering the walls - from the Friedrichstrasse station.
On November 30, 2008, a memorial was unveiled for the 10,000 Jewish children saved by the Refugee Children Movement
that started their journey on this station. Frank Meisler, the sculptor of the memorial, was himself saved by one of the trains bound for Liverpool
and London
.
Since the remodel in 1999, the station houses numerous shops, boutiques and restaurants, making the station blend in with the neighboring Friedrichstrasse shopping street. In addition, the station houses a Berlin S-Bahn
customer center, and a Deutsche Bahn
travel center. On the plaza on the south side of the station is a large Taxi
stand, and the station is also connected to the Berlin bus and tram system.
The former Tränenpalast
was used as a club and stage for various performances, such as readings, concerts and cabaret
until 2006. The building is currently under construction.
In addition, the East German spy Werner Stiller describes his escape through the station in his memoirs Beyond the Wall.
In Mr Norris Changes Trains, novelist Christopher Isherwood
has William Bradshaw eating ham and eggs with Arthur Norris at the first class restaurant of the station.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
capital Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. It is located on the Friedrichstraße
Friedrichstraße
The Friedrichstraße is a major culture and shopping street in central Berlin, forming the core of the Friedrichstadt neighborhood. It runs from the northern part of the old Mitte district to the Hallesches Tor in the district of Kreuzberg...
, a major north-south street in the Mitte
Mitte
Mitte is the first and most central borough of Berlin. It was created in Berlin's 2001 administrative reform by the merger of the former districts of Mitte proper, Tiergarten and Wedding; the resulting borough retained the name Mitte. It is one of the two boroughs which comprises former West and...
district of Berlin, adjacent to the point where the street crosses the Spree
Spree
The Spree is a river that flows through the Saxony, Brandenburg and Berlin states of Germany, and in the Ústí nad Labem region of the Czech Republic...
river. Underneath the station is the subway station
Metro station
A metro station or subway station is a railway station for a rapid transit system, often known by names such as "metro", "underground" and "subway". It is often underground or elevated. At crossings of metro lines, they are multi-level....
Friedrichstraße.
Due to its central location in Berlin and its proximity to attractions such as the Unter den Linden
Unter den Linden
Unter den Linden is a boulevard in the Mitte district of Berlin, the capital of Germany. It is named for its linden trees that line the grassed pedestrian mall between two carriageways....
boulevard, the Brandenburg Gate
Brandenburg Gate
The Brandenburg Gate is a former city gate and one of the most well-known landmarks of Berlin and Germany. It is located west of the city centre at the junction of Unter den Linden and Ebertstraße, immediately west of the Pariser Platz. It is the only remaining gate of a series through which...
and the Reichstag, the station is a favorite destination for tourists. At the same time, it is the main junction
Junction (rail)
A junction, in the context of rail transport, is a place at which two or more rail routes converge or diverge.This implies a physical connection between the tracks of the two routes , 'points' and signalling.one or two tracks each meet at a junction, a fairly simple layout of tracks suffices to...
for regional traffic in Berlin, measured by the number of passengers.
During the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, Friedrichstraße became famous for being a station that was located entirely in East Berlin
East Berlin
East Berlin was the name given to the eastern part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. It consisted of the Soviet sector of Berlin that was established in 1945. The American, British and French sectors became West Berlin, a part strongly associated with West Germany but a free city...
, yet continued to be served by S-Bahn, U-Bahn trains from West Berlin
West Berlin
West Berlin was a political exclave that existed between 1949 and 1990. It comprised the western regions of Berlin, which were bordered by East Berlin and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945...
as well as long distance trains from countries west of the Iron Curtain
Iron Curtain
The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989...
. The station also was a major border crossing
Berlin border crossings
The Berlin border crossings were created as a result of the postwar division of Germany. Prior to the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, travel between the Eastern and Western sectors of Berlin was totally uncontrolled, although restrictions were increasingly introduced by the Soviet and East...
between East and West Berlin.
Train services
The station is serviced by regional trainsRegionalBahn
The Regionalbahn is a type of local passenger train in Germany.-Service:Regionalbahn trains usually call at all stations on a given line, with the exception of RB trains within S-Bahn networks, these may only call at selected stations...
as well as the Berlin S-Bahn
Berlin S-Bahn
The Berlin S-Bahn is a rapid transit system in and around Berlin, the capital city of Germany. It consists of 15 lines and is integrated with the mostly underground U-Bahn to form the backbone of Berlin's rapid transport system...
and the Berlin U-Bahn
Berlin U-Bahn
The Berlin is a rapid transit railway in Berlin, the capital city of Germany, and is a major part of the public transport system of that city. Opened in 1902, the serves 173 stations spread across ten lines, with a total track length of , about 80% of which is underground...
.
S-Bahn and regional trains stop at the upper platforms A - C on the Berlin Stadtbahn viaduct
Viaduct
A viaduct is a bridge composed of several small spans. The term viaduct is derived from the Latin via for road and ducere to lead something. However, the Ancient Romans did not use that term per se; it is a modern derivation from an analogy with aqueduct. Like the Roman aqueducts, many early...
, elevated above city streets. This upper level of the station is enclosed by two train shed
Train shed
A train shed is an adjacent building to a railway station where the tracks and platforms are covered by a roof. It is also known as an overall roof...
halls. The smaller shed on the north side is used for the S-Bahn
S-Bahn
S-Bahn refers to an often combined city center and suburban railway system metro in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Denmark...
, the larger on the south for regional trains. Platform D is a station on the North-South tunnel of the S-Bahn, located underground approximately aligned with the eastern bank of the Spree
Spree
The Spree is a river that flows through the Saxony, Brandenburg and Berlin states of Germany, and in the Ústí nad Labem region of the Czech Republic...
river.
The underground station for the U6
U6 (Berlin U-Bahn)
U6 is a 19.9 km-long line on the Berlin U-Bahn with 29 stations. It belongs to the Großprofilnetz, that is larger profile rail vehicles run through its larger tunnels...
line is located at the eastern end of the station, directly under the Friedrichstraße
Friedrichstraße
The Friedrichstraße is a major culture and shopping street in central Berlin, forming the core of the Friedrichstadt neighborhood. It runs from the northern part of the old Mitte district to the Hallesches Tor in the district of Kreuzberg...
. In addition, the south side of the station serves as station and terminus for a number of trams
Berlin Straßenbahn
The Berlin tram network is the main tram system in Berlin, Germany. It is one of the oldest tram networks in the world having its origins in 1865 and is operated by , which was founded in 1929. It is notable for being one of the largest tram systems; there are 22 tram lines operate across a...
and bus
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
es of the Berlin transportation company
Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe
The is the main public transport company of Berlin, the capital city of Germany. It manages the city's U-Bahn underground railway, tram, bus and ferry networks, but not the S-Bahn urban rail system....
.
The initial station
Friedrichstraße
The Friedrichstraße is a major culture and shopping street in central Berlin, forming the core of the Friedrichstadt neighborhood. It runs from the northern part of the old Mitte district to the Hallesches Tor in the district of Kreuzberg...
and the river Spree
Spree
The Spree is a river that flows through the Saxony, Brandenburg and Berlin states of Germany, and in the Ústí nad Labem region of the Czech Republic...
as part of the Berlin Stadtbahn construction. The architect was working on the neighbouring Hackescher Markt station
Hackescher Markt
The Hackescher Markt is a square in the central Mitte locality of Berlin, Germany, situated at the eastern end of Oranienburger Strasse....
at the same time. Just as the elevated viaduct the station is integrated into, the station rests on large arches build with masonry. The station had two platforms with two tracks each, covered by a large, curved train shed
Train shed
A train shed is an adjacent building to a railway station where the tracks and platforms are covered by a roof. It is also known as an overall roof...
which rested on steel truss
Truss
In architecture and structural engineering, a truss is a structure comprising one or more triangular units constructed with straight members whose ends are connected at joints referred to as nodes. External forces and reactions to those forces are considered to act only at the nodes and result in...
es of different length to cover the curvature of the viaduct underneath. The main entrance was on the northern side, the pick-up for horse carriages on the south side. Station opening was on February 7, 1882, as part of the ceremonial opening of the Berlin Stadtbahn. Long distance trains started on May 15 of the same year.
Extensions and remodel
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, plans were made in 1914 to extend the station. There were a new, slightly elevated platform on the northern side for the S-Bahn, and the existing platforms had been made slightly narrower, leaving one platform for the S-Bahn, and two platforms for long distance trains. The steel-truss, double arched train shed was built between 1919 and 1925, featuring large glass fronts. On the northern side of the building, two entry halls in expressionist style
Expressionist architecture
Expressionist architecture was an architectural movement that developed in Europe during the first decades of the 20th century in parallel with the expressionist visual and performing arts....
were built, and the whole northern side was covered by a characteristic dark tile. The southern facade was only plastered until the last renovation in 1999, when it was also covered by tile.
In 1923, the Friedrichstrasse underground station for line C (today's U6
U6 (Berlin U-Bahn)
U6 is a 19.9 km-long line on the Berlin U-Bahn with 29 stations. It belongs to the Großprofilnetz, that is larger profile rail vehicles run through its larger tunnels...
and southeastern U7) was finished, creating the first part of the underground maze the station still has today.
In the beginning of the 1930s, construction returned again to the Friedrichstrasse station, as the North-South tunnel of the S-Bahn was driven under the station. A long pedestrian tunnel connecting to the homonymous underground station of Berlin U-Bahn
Berlin U-Bahn
The Berlin is a rapid transit railway in Berlin, the capital city of Germany, and is a major part of the public transport system of that city. Opened in 1902, the serves 173 stations spread across ten lines, with a total track length of , about 80% of which is underground...
was also driven under the northern end of the station, and that underground station received the characteristic yellow tile still featured today. On 27 July 1936, just before the 1936 Summer Olympics
1936 Summer Olympics
The 1936 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was held in 1936 in Berlin, Germany. Berlin won the bid to host the Games over Barcelona, Spain on April 26, 1931, at the 29th IOC Session in Barcelona...
, the belowground S-Bahn station was opened.
After the "Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, and also Reichskristallnacht, Pogromnacht, and Novemberpogrome, was a pogrom or series of attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938.Jewish homes were ransacked, as were shops, towns and...
", starting December 1, 1938, thousands of Jewish children started or passed through the station to leave Germany as part of the Refugee Children Movement
Kindertransport
Kindertransport is the name given to the rescue mission that took place nine months prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. The United Kingdom took in nearly 10,000 predominantly Jewish children from Nazi Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and the Free City of Danzig...
.
The station was bombed by Polish resistance group "Zagra-lin" in early 1943, with 14 people dead and 27 wounded.
It escaped larger damage during the bombing of Berlin in World War II. U-Bahn and S-Bahn ceased operations on 23 and 25 April 1945, respectively, due to shortage of electricity supplies. Most likely on fore-noon of 2 May 1945, the day of Berlin's capitulation, the SS exploded the ceiling of North-South tunnel under Landwehrkanal
Landwehrkanal
The Landwehr Canal, or Landwehrkanal in German, is a long canal parallel to the Spree river in Berlin, Germany, built between 1845 and 1850 according to plans by Peter Joseph Lenné...
, which caused the subsequent flooding of the tunnel, including Friedrichstraße belowground S-Bahn station along with a large part of the Berlin underground system via the connecting tunnel between the S-Bahn and the Berlin U-Bahn
Berlin U-Bahn
The Berlin is a rapid transit railway in Berlin, the capital city of Germany, and is a major part of the public transport system of that city. Opened in 1902, the serves 173 stations spread across ten lines, with a total track length of , about 80% of which is underground...
at their respective Friedrichstrasse stations. Like this the waters disgorged into one third of Berlin's Underground flooding 63 km of tunnels with 25 further stations. To this day it is unclear who set off the explosion: One theory says that it was executed by the German SS in accordance with Hitler's Nero Decree
Nero Decree
The Nero Decree was issued by Adolf Hitler on March 19, 1945 ordering the destruction of German infrastructure to prevent their use by Allied forces as they penetrated deep within Germany...
.
Another, however, smaller leak in the tunnel ceiling under the Spree
Spree
The Spree is a river that flows through the Saxony, Brandenburg and Berlin states of Germany, and in the Ústí nad Labem region of the Czech Republic...
was either caused by German forces exploding the Ebertsbrücke street bridge crossing at the river at the same section, where the tunnel passes underneath. Or some months later, after the end of fighting, Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
military engineer
Military engineer
In military science, engineering refers to the practice of designing, building, maintaining and dismantling military works, including offensive, defensive and logistical structures, to shape the physical operating environment in war...
s created the hole in the process of clearing the Spree
Spree
The Spree is a river that flows through the Saxony, Brandenburg and Berlin states of Germany, and in the Ústí nad Labem region of the Czech Republic...
river of large concrete obstacles created by the bridge explosion. It is also unknown how many people (if any) drowned in the tunnel, most likely is that the bodies found later in the tunnel were wounded soldiers that had been dead before the tunnel flooding, since the tunnel S-Bahn station under the Friedrichstrasse station was used in the last days of the war as a emergency military hospital, with trains used as hospital rooms.
With the belowground rail system flooded, the aboveground railways heavily damaged due to bombings, the traffic ceased shortly before the end of the war, but reconstruction started in 1945. Trains were redirected at first to the aboveground facilities. By the end of May and early June 1945 the BVG
Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe
The is the main public transport company of Berlin, the capital city of Germany. It manages the city's U-Bahn underground railway, tram, bus and ferry networks, but not the S-Bahn urban rail system....
, the operator of Berlin's U-Bahn, sealed up the pedestrian tunnel between tunnel S-Bahn and U-Bahn station to stop water flooding into the underground tunnel. Reichsbahn
Deutsche Reichsbahn
Deutsche Reichsbahn was the name of the following two companies:* Deutsche Reichsbahn, the German Imperial Railways during the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich and the immediate aftermath...
, the operator of the S-Bahn, had declared it lacked the means to close the tunnel leaks. On 4 June BVG started the drainage of its underground system. On 12 July the underground reopened its Friedrichstraße station for two one-track shuttle operations, one from north and one from south meeting there, regular two-track traffic restarted on since 5 December 1945. Reichsbahn drained its North-South tunnel only later and reopened belowground S-Bahn service on 2 June 1946. On 1 December the same year North-South tunnel and Friedrichstraße belowground S-Bahn station shut again for a serious refurbish lasting until 16 October 1947, when the North-South tunnel was fully operational again.
Border crossing during the cold war
During the onset of the cold war
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
and its tensions between the Western and the Soviet occupied sectors of Berlin, the Friedrichstrasse station played an important role for citizens of Berlin to reach their friends and relatives in other sectors of Berlin. At the end of 1946, the Soviet Military Administration in Germany
Soviet Military Administration in Germany
The Soviet Military Administration in Germany was the Soviet military government, headquartered in Berlin-Karlshorst, that directly ruled the Soviet occupation zone of Germany from the German surrender in May 1945 until after the establishment of the German Democratic Republic in October...
had created an East German border police tasked with preventing Republikflucht
Republikflucht
"Republikflucht" and "Republikflüchtling" were the terms used by authorities in the German Democratic Republic to describe the process of and the person leaving the GDR for a life in West Germany or any other Western country .The term...
(escape from the East German republic). With the erection of the Inner German border in 1952, East Germany was to a large degree sealed off from the west. However, Berlin, and particular the public transport system that criss-crossed between the western Allied and Soviet sectors was still a hole in that iron curtain
Iron Curtain
The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989...
. Accordingly, Berlin became the main route by which East Germans left for the West. The 3.5 million East Germans that had left by 1961 totaled approximately 20% of the entire East German population, many using the Friedrichstrasse station with its bustling traffic as the starting point for their escape. During the Uprising of 1953 in East Germany
Uprising of 1953 in East Germany
The Uprising of 1953 in East Germany started with a strike by East Berlin construction workers on June 16. It turned into a widespread anti-Stalinist uprising against the German Democratic Republic government the next day....
and East Berlin Reichsbahn national railway interrupted any S-Bahn transport between 17 June until 9 July 1953.
When the East German government erected the Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin...
on August 13, 1961, it also severed the U-Bahn, S-Bahn and long distance train connections that criss-crossed through Berlin. The district of Berlin Mitte, where the Friedrichstrasse station is located, was surrounded in the northerly, westerly and southerly directions by Western Sectors: For the S-Bahn at the Friedrichstrasse station, the next station to the west was across the wall in West Berlin
West Berlin
West Berlin was a political exclave that existed between 1949 and 1990. It comprised the western regions of Berlin, which were bordered by East Berlin and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945...
, to the north were three more stops in the Soviet sector and only two to the south. The situation was similar for the U6 subway underneath the Friedrichstrasse, which had three stations to the north and two stations to the south before crossing the wall.
Therefore, all of the stations underground facilities - the S-Bahn platform of the North-South tunnel and the underground station - were only usable for passengers from the western sectors as a transfer station wholly located in East Berlin, or to access the border crossing at the ground level.
The facilities above ground, on the arches of the Stadtbahn, were separated along the platforms:
- Platform A was used for long distance trains. This included the so called InterzonenzügeInterzonal trafficThe term inter-zonal traffic was used to describe the cross-border traffic between the four designated garrison zones in Germany between 1945 and 1973 that were created in 1945 by the victors of the Second World War.- History :...
, trains running non-stop from Berlin through East German territory to West GermanyWest GermanyWest Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
. For those trains the Friedrichstrasse station was a terminus. This platform was also a stop for trains with international destinations such as CopenhagenCopenhagenCopenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
, StockholmStockholmStockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
(using the ferryFerryA ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...
connection between SassnitzSassnitzSassnitz is a town on the Jasmund peninsula, Rügen Island, in the Federal State of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. The population as of 2007 was 10,747....
and TrelleborgTrelleborgTrelleborg is a locality and the seat of Trelleborg Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden with 25,643 inhabitants in 2005. It is the southernmost town in Sweden.-History:...
) or the legendary ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
- MoscowMoscowMoscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
express. The latter could not be boarded by East German passengers at this station, they could only board the train at its next stop Berlin OstbahnhofBerlin OstbahnhofBerlin Ostbahnhof is a mainline railway station in Berlin, Germany. It is in Friedrichshain, now part of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district, and has undergone several name changes in its history. It was known as Berlin Hauptbahnhof from 1987 to 1998, a name now applied to Berlin's new central station...
. - Platform B became the terminus for the Stadtbahn arriving from West Berlin to and from WannseeWannseeWannsee is a locality in the southwestern Berlin borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf, Germany. It is the westernmost locality of Berlin. In the quarter there are two lakes, the larger Großer Wannsee and the Kleiner Wannsee , are located on the river Havel and are separated only by the Wannsee bridge...
and StaakenStaakenStaaken is a locality at the western rim of Berlin within the borough of Spandau. In the west it shares border with the Brandenburg municipalities of Falkensee and Dallgow-Döberitz in the Havelland district. Buildings range from small detached houses in the west to larger 1960s and 1970s housing...
. Passengers were able to transfer to the underground lines of the S-Bahn and the U-Bahn, or to long distance trains without entering East Germany. - Platform C in the smaller train shed on the north side was used by traffic going to East Berlin and East Germany, which became now the terminus for the Stadtbahn lines to ErknerErkner railway stationErker is a railway station situated in the municipality of Erkner, in the Oder-Spree district of Brandenburg. It is the eastern terminus of S-Bahn line .-Train services:The station is served by the following service:-External links:...
, Königs Wusterhausen, Strausberg NordStrausberg Nord railway stationStrausberg Nord is a railway station in the city of Strausberg in Brandenburg. It is the eastern terminus of S-Bahn line .-See also:*Strausberg Railway*Straussee Ferry*Strausberg station*Strausberg Hegermühle station*Strausberg Stadt station...
, Ahrensfelde, Wartenberg and to the Berlin-Schönefeld airport.
Between the platforms B and C was a metal-glass barrier that practically fulfilled the same function as the Berlin wall
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin...
: East German border troops had separated the station into two completely isolated areas, both fully under armed control, the one for people within East Berlin and the other for transit travellers, persons switching between the different westbound train lines and few Easterners with the hard-to-obtain exit visa, all within one station building with a maze of connecting hallways, barriers, numerous cameras, armed guards with sniffer dogs, plain-clothes agents and a loggia under the roof for surveillance by armed border patrol and Stasi
Stasi
The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security (German: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), commonly known as the Stasi (abbreviation , literally State Security), was the official state security service of East Germany. The MfS was headquartered...
officers.
Tracks between the western and eastern systems were, aside from the long distance tracks, completely separated. S-Bahn trains using the heavily guarded passing track west of platform C required permission from the commander of the border guard detail. An exchange of rolling stock
Rolling stock
Rolling stock comprises all the vehicles that move on a railway. It usually includes both powered and unpowered vehicles, for example locomotives, railroad cars, coaches and wagons...
between the divided S-Bahn segments of Berlin was only possible via the long distance tracks on platform A. These tracks were equipped with derailers to prevent escape attempts
Republikflucht
"Republikflucht" and "Republikflüchtling" were the terms used by authorities in the German Democratic Republic to describe the process of and the person leaving the GDR for a life in West Germany or any other Western country .The term...
.
At the ground level, between the elevated and the underground part of the station, were the facilities for crossing into East Berlin. This included three individual passport
Passport
A passport is a document, issued by a national government, which certifies, for the purpose of international travel, the identity and nationality of its holder. The elements of identity are name, date of birth, sex, and place of birth....
checks, customs
Customs
Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting and safeguarding customs duties and for controlling the flow of goods including animals, transports, personal effects and hazardous items in and out of a country...
control, waiting rooms (since the crossing could take anywhere from 15 minutes to several hours), interrogation rooms, arrest cells, offices to register and record people crossing the border, and a counter for visa fees and the (mandatory) currency exchange.
Due to location in downtown Berlin, with its many shops, offices, official buildings, embassies, hotels as well as cultural and entertainment (Friedrichstadtpalast
Friedrichstadt Palast
The Friedrichstadt-Palast is a revue in the Berlin district of Mitte . The term Friedrichstadt-Palast designates both the building itself, and the revue theater as a body with his ensemble...
, Metropol theater house, opera house
Berlin State Opera
The Staatsoper Unter den Linden is a German opera company. Its permanent home is the opera house on the Unter den Linden boulevard in the Mitte district of Berlin, which also hosts the Staatskapelle Berlin orchestra.-Early years:...
, Museum Island
Museum Island
Museum Island is the name of the northern half of an island in the Spree river in the central Mitte district of Berlin, Germany, the site of the old city of Cölln...
), as well as being a border crossing, traffic in the station was enormous. In the beginnings after the wall had been built, both the eastbound and the westbound border traffic was controlled on the ground level of the station. These rather constrained circumstances, compounded by the traffic in and around the station, lead to the construction of a building on the square north of the station, which was connected underground to the main station. This new building was used for westbound border crossings, with separate check points for citizens of West Berlin, citizens of West Germany, foreigners and diplomats, transit travellers and East German citizens. On the door was a guard station to separate people permitted to cross the border from those ineligible, leading to many tearful "goodbye"s in front of the building. This gave the building the questionable moniker Tränenpalast
Tränenpalast
The Tränenpalast is the Berlin colloquialism for the former border crossing station at the Berlin Friedrichstrasse railway station. The name comes from the many tearful goodbyes that took place in front of the building, where visiting citizens of the divided city had to say farewell to their East...
("Palace of Tears").
On the southern side of the station building was the so called "service entry" (Diensteingang) for personnel of the East German national railway. This entry, which lead through its own control room, and then via several corridors to a door on the ground floor of the "western" side, was used to infiltrate and ex-filtrate agents
Cold War espionage
Cold War espionage describes the intelligence gathering activities during the Cold War between NATO and the Warsaw Pact. Because each side was preparing to fight the other, intelligence on the opposing side's intentions, military, and technology was of paramount importance. To gather this...
of the East German intelligence service, and to allow members of the West German communist party and West Berlin socialist party
Socialist Unity Party of West Berlin
Socialist Unity Party of West Berlin was a communist party in West Berlin. The party was founded on November 24, 1962 when the West Berlin local organization of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany was separated from the main party...
to pass without being checked or recorded. This secret pathway between the two cold war fronts was also the escape route for some members of the West German terror organization Red Army Faction
Red Army Faction
The radicalized were, like many in the New Left, influenced by:* Sociological developments, pressure within the educational system in and outside Europe and the U.S...
to avoid arrest in West Germany. On July 7, 1976, the officially wanted Movement 2 June
Movement 2 June
Movement 2 June was a West German terrorist organization that was based out of West Berlin. Active only from 1971–1980, the anarchist group was one of the few violent groups at the time in West Germany. Although Movement 2 June did not share the same ideology as the Red Army Faction , these...
members Inge Vieth, Monika Berberich, Gabriele Rollnik and Juliane Plambeck escaped following their escape from prison, and on May 27, 1978 Till Meyer, escaped into East Germany via Friedrichstrasse station, though they did not stay there. Vieth later escaped to East Germany again and stayed there until the fall of the Berlin Wall. In opposite direction, on January 18, 1979, the East German double agent Werner Stiller used this path to escape to the West.
The train station held another attraction during those times: The ground level and the underground platforms on the "western" side of the station had so called Intershop
Intershop
Intershop was a chain of government-run retail stores in the German Democratic Republic in which only hard currencies could be used to purchase high-quality goods. The East German mark was not accepted as payment...
s, created specifically for travellers from West Berlin who did not want to pass through the East German border controls. Initially just mobile carts offering alcohol and tobacco, they were soon shops integrated into the station offering food, alcohol, tobacco, books, toys, jewelry, cosmetics, gift items and more. One could disembark from the subway, make a purchase, and then get back on the next train and go back to West Berlin, all without processing through the East German border controls. Purchases could be paid with any fully convertible currency, such as U.S. dollars, British pounds, Swiss franc
Swiss franc
The franc is the currency and legal tender of Switzerland and Liechtenstein; it is also legal tender in the Italian exclave Campione d'Italia. Although not formally legal tender in the German exclave Büsingen , it is in wide daily use there...
s, and especially the West German mark. The merchandise was offered duty free, which made especially the alcohol and tobacco products attractive to passengers from West Berlin. This was also known to the West Berlin customs agency
Zollkriminalamt
The German Customs Investigation Bureau in Cologne and its investigation offices are federal agencies that fall under the German Finance Ministry...
, which sometimes checked travellers coming from the Friedrichstrasse at their first station in West Berlin.
Between 1985 and 1987, a small renovation of the train shed took place, where the middle wooden roof section was replaced with glass. The lighting was replaced, and the metal parts of the train shed were painted.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall until today
Viaduct
A viaduct is a bridge composed of several small spans. The term viaduct is derived from the Latin via for road and ducere to lead something. However, the Ancient Romans did not use that term per se; it is a modern derivation from an analogy with aqueduct. Like the Roman aqueducts, many early...
line from Berlin Alexanderplatz station to Berlin Zoo station
Berlin Zoologischer Garten railway station
Berlin Zoologischer Garten station was the central transport facility in West Berlin during the division of the city, and thereafter for the western central area of Berlin until opening of the new Berlin Central Station on 28 May 2006...
. Very little maintenance had been done to the station during the East German years, and especially the underground section looked like a relic from a different time.
Between August 1991 and February 1992, the North-South S-Bahn tunnel including the underground section of the Friedrichstrasse station was closed for a complete overhaul. Between October 1995 and September 1999, the ground level and the raised level on the Stadtbahn viaduct was completely renovated, costing the Deutsche Bahn
Deutsche Bahn
Deutsche Bahn AG is the German national railway company, a private joint stock company . Headquartered in Berlin, it came into existence in 1994 as the successor to the former state railways of Germany, the Deutsche Bundesbahn of West Germany and the Deutsche Reichsbahn of East Germany...
a total of 220 Million German Mark
German mark
The Deutsche Mark |mark]], abbreviated "DM") was the official currency of West Germany and Germany until the adoption of the euro in 2002. It is commonly called the "Deutschmark" in English but not in German. Germans often say "Mark" or "D-Mark"...
s. The facade of the building was covered with terra cotta
Terra cotta
Terracotta, Terra cotta or Terra-cotta is a clay-based unglazed ceramic, although the term can also be applied to glazed ceramics where the fired body is porous and red in color...
clinker bricks as the original building had, this time including the southern face of the building. An additional tunnel for traffic to the U-Bahn U6 was driven under the station, and elevator
Elevator
An elevator is a type of vertical transport equipment that efficiently moves people or goods between floors of a building, vessel or other structures...
s were added between the floors. The 5200 square metres (6,219.1 sq yd) ground floor was converted into a shopping area with 50 businesses. Since reopening, regional trains now stop on platform A and B.
Beginning in 2002, the North-South S-Bahn tunnel was again renovated, which removed the last traces of East Germany - the green tile covering the walls - from the Friedrichstrasse station.
On November 30, 2008, a memorial was unveiled for the 10,000 Jewish children saved by the Refugee Children Movement
Kindertransport
Kindertransport is the name given to the rescue mission that took place nine months prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. The United Kingdom took in nearly 10,000 predominantly Jewish children from Nazi Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and the Free City of Danzig...
that started their journey on this station. Frank Meisler, the sculptor of the memorial, was himself saved by one of the trains bound for Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
and London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
Services
- Aboveground, on platform C, depart the Berlin Stadtbahn lines S5S5 (Berlin)S5 is a line on the Berlin S-Bahn. It operates from Strausberg Nord to Westkreuz over:*the Strausberg–Strausberg Nord line, completed in 1955 and electrified in 1956,...
(StrausbergStrausbergStrausberg is a city in Brandenburg, Germany, located 30 km east of Berlin. With a population of 26,206 in 2010 it is the largest town in the district of Märkisch-Oderland.-History:...
↔ Westkreuz), the S7S7 (Berlin)S7 is a line on the Berlin S-Bahn. It operates from Ahrensfelde to Potsdam over:*the Wriezen Railway, completed on 1 May 1898 and electrified to Marzahn in 1976, to Mehrower Allee in 1980 and to Ahrensfelde in 1982,...
(AhrensfeldeAhrensfeldeAhrensfelde is a municipality in the district of Barnim, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated 13 km northeast of Berlin ....
↔ PotsdamPotsdamPotsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, southwest of Berlin city centre....
), the S75S75 (Berlin)S75 is a line on the Berlin S-Bahn. It operates from Wartenberg to Spandau over:*a section of the Outer ring, completed in the early 1940s as part of the Outer freight ring,...
(SpandauSpandauSpandau is the fifth of the twelve boroughs of Berlin. It is the fourth largest and westernmost borough, situated at the confluence of the Havel and Spree rivers and along the western bank of the Havel, but the least populated.-Overview:...
↔ WartenbergWartenberg- Buildings :* Wartenberg castles, situated on the Wartenberg hill in the municipality of Muttenz near Basel.- Places :* Wartenberg, Hesse in the district Vogelsbergkreis, Hesse, Germany* Wartenberg, a locality in the borough of Lichtenberg in Berlin, Germany...
), and the S9S9 (Berlin)S9 is a line on the Berlin S-Bahn. It operates from Schönefeld Flughafen to Berlin-Blankenburg station over:*a very short section of the Outer ring, opened in 1951 and electrified in 1983,...
(Berlin Schönefeld Airport ↔ SpandauSpandauSpandau is the fifth of the twelve boroughs of Berlin. It is the fourth largest and westernmost borough, situated at the confluence of the Havel and Spree rivers and along the western bank of the Havel, but the least populated.-Overview:...
). - The underground platform of the station is serviced by the Berlin S-BahnBerlin S-BahnThe Berlin S-Bahn is a rapid transit system in and around Berlin, the capital city of Germany. It consists of 15 lines and is integrated with the mostly underground U-Bahn to form the backbone of Berlin's rapid transport system...
lines S1S1 (Berlin)The S1 is a line on the Berlin S-Bahn. It operates over:*the Prussian Northern Railway, opened on 10 July 1877 and electrified in 1925,*a short section of the Berlin-Szczecin railway, opened on 1 August 1842 and electrified in 1924,...
(WannseeWannseeWannsee is a locality in the southwestern Berlin borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf, Germany. It is the westernmost locality of Berlin. In the quarter there are two lakes, the larger Großer Wannsee and the Kleiner Wannsee , are located on the river Havel and are separated only by the Wannsee bridge...
↔ OranienburgOranienburgOranienburg is a town in Brandenburg, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Oberhavel.- Geography :Oranienburg is a town located on the banks of the Havel river, 35 km north of the centre of Berlin.- Division of the town :...
), S2S2 (Berlin)S2 is a line on the Berlin S-Bahn. It operates from Bernau to Blankenfelde over:*the Berlin-Szczecin railway, opened on 1 August 1842 and electrified on 8 August 1924,...
(BlankenfeldeBlankenfelde stationBlankenfelde is a railway station of Blankenfelde-Mahlow mununicipality in the Teltow-Fläming district of Brandenburg. It is served by the S-Bahn line as well as RegionalExpress lines 3 and 7. On the official S-Bahn maps its name is styled Blankenfelde Blankenfelde is a railway station of...
↔ BernauBernauBernau may refer to:*Bernau bei Berlin, a town in Brandenburg, Germany*Bernau am Chiemsee, a municipality in the district of Rosenheim in Bavaria, Germany*Bernau im Schwarzwald, a municipality in Baden-Württemberg, Germany...
), and S25S25 (Berlin)S25 is a line on the Berlin S-Bahn. It operates from Teltow Stadt to Hennigsdorf over:*the Anhalt Suburban Line, opened on 1 December 1901, electrified in 1929 and extended to Lichterfelde Süd in 1943 and Teltow Stadt in February 2005,...
(TeltowTeltowTeltow is a town in the Potsdam-Mittelmark district, in Brandenburg, Germany.-Geography:Teltow is part of the agglomeration of Berlin. The distance to the Berlin city centre is , while the distance to Potsdam is ....
↔ HennigsdorfHennigsdorfHennigsdorf is a town in the district of Oberhavel, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated north-west of Berlin, just across the city border, which is formed mainly by the Havel river.-History:...
). - The subway stationBerlin U-BahnThe Berlin is a rapid transit railway in Berlin, the capital city of Germany, and is a major part of the public transport system of that city. Opened in 1902, the serves 173 stations spread across ten lines, with a total track length of , about 80% of which is underground...
is serviced by the U6 (TegelTegelTegel is a locality in the Berlin borough of Reinickendorf on the shore of Lake Tegel. The Tegel locality, the second largest in area of the 95 Berlin districts, also includes the neighbourhood of Saatwinkel.-History:...
↔ MariendorfMariendorfMariendorf is a locality in the southern Tempelhof-Schöneberg borough of Berlin.- Geography :Mariendorf is situated between the localities of Tempelhof in the north and Marienfelde and Lichtenrade in the south...
). - Platforms A and B of the station are a stop for the Regional-Express RE1 between MagdeburgMagdeburgMagdeburg , is the largest city and the capital city of the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Magdeburg is situated on the Elbe River and was one of the most important medieval cities of Europe....
and Frankfurt (Oder)Frankfurt (Oder)Frankfurt is a town in Brandenburg, Germany, located on the Oder River, on the German-Polish border directly opposite the town of Słubice which was a part of Frankfurt until 1945. At the end of the 1980s it reached a population peak with more than 87,000 inhabitants...
, the RE2 between CottbusCottbusCottbus is a city in Brandenburg, Germany, situated around southeast of Berlin, on the River Spree. As of , its population was .- History :...
and RathenowRathenowRathenow is a town in the district of Havelland in Brandenburg, Germany, with a population of 26,433 .-Overview:The Protestant church of St. Marien Andreas, originally a basilica, and transformed to the Gothic style in 1517-1589, and the Roman Catholic Church of St...
, and the RE7 between DessauDessauDessau is a town in Germany on the junction of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2007, it is part of the merged town Dessau-Roßlau. Population of Dessau proper: 77,973 .-Geography:...
and WünsdorfZossenZossen is a German town in the district of Teltow-Fläming in Brandenburg, south of Berlin, and next to the B96 highway. Zossen consists of several smaller municipalities, which were grouped together in 2003 to form the city.-Geography:...
. In addition, the regional trainRegionalBahnThe Regionalbahn is a type of local passenger train in Germany.-Service:Regionalbahn trains usually call at all stations on a given line, with the exception of RB trains within S-Bahn networks, these may only call at selected stations...
RB14 between NauenNauenNauen is a town in the Havelland district, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated 38 km west of Berlin and 26 km northwest of Potsdam.-History:...
and SenftenbergSenftenbergSenftenberg is a town in southern Brandenburg, Germany, capital of the Oberspreewald-Lausitz district.-Geography:Senftenberg is located in the southwest of the historic Lower Lusatia region at the border with Saxony...
stops at the station as well.
Since the remodel in 1999, the station houses numerous shops, boutiques and restaurants, making the station blend in with the neighboring Friedrichstrasse shopping street. In addition, the station houses a Berlin S-Bahn
Berlin S-Bahn
The Berlin S-Bahn is a rapid transit system in and around Berlin, the capital city of Germany. It consists of 15 lines and is integrated with the mostly underground U-Bahn to form the backbone of Berlin's rapid transport system...
customer center, and a Deutsche Bahn
Deutsche Bahn
Deutsche Bahn AG is the German national railway company, a private joint stock company . Headquartered in Berlin, it came into existence in 1994 as the successor to the former state railways of Germany, the Deutsche Bundesbahn of West Germany and the Deutsche Reichsbahn of East Germany...
travel center. On the plaza on the south side of the station is a large Taxi
Taxicab
A taxicab, also taxi or cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice...
stand, and the station is also connected to the Berlin bus and tram system.
The former Tränenpalast
Tränenpalast
The Tränenpalast is the Berlin colloquialism for the former border crossing station at the Berlin Friedrichstrasse railway station. The name comes from the many tearful goodbyes that took place in front of the building, where visiting citizens of the divided city had to say farewell to their East...
was used as a club and stage for various performances, such as readings, concerts and cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
until 2006. The building is currently under construction.
In popular culture
There are numerous movies that include scenes filmed at the Friedrichstrasse station:- In the Bourne Supremacy, Jason BourneJason BourneJason Charles Bourne is a fictional character and the main protagonist in the novels of Robert Ludlum and subsequent film adaptations. He first appeared in the novel The Bourne Identity...
escapes the police by leaping off the bridge in front of the station onto a boat below. - The movie The Legend of RitaThe Legend of RitaThe Legend of Rita is a 2000 German film about fictionalised exiled West German radical left Red Army Faction members, though the fictional characters all have close parallels to several real-life RAF members...
has numerous scenes where the RAF terrorists use the station to escape to East Berlin.
In addition, the East German spy Werner Stiller describes his escape through the station in his memoirs Beyond the Wall.
In Mr Norris Changes Trains, novelist Christopher Isherwood
Christopher Isherwood
Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood was an English-American novelist.-Early life and work:Born at Wyberslegh Hall, High Lane, Cheshire in North West England, Isherwood spent his childhood in various towns where his father, a Lieutenant-Colonel in the British Army, was stationed...
has William Bradshaw eating ham and eggs with Arthur Norris at the first class restaurant of the station.
External links
- Station information (S-Bahn)
- The Berlin S-Bahn at The Locomotive & Carriage Institution