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Date : between 2002 and 2006
| Berlin Hauptbahnhof
Item 2 on 7
Monument(s) and Building(s)
Outdoor architecture
Area related
Berlin (Germany)
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| Description |  |
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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 that the new station should be built on the site of Lehrter Bahnhof. While close to the centre 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.
The design called for traffic on five levels. The highest is the main deck, including two S-Bahn platforms, on a bridge 10 metres above street level, and the lowest comprises four platforms 15 metres underground. New tunnels 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 short line U55 should open in 2007.
The building work took place in several stages. In 1995 the construction of the Tiergarten tunnels began, and this work was finished in 2005 with the completion of the last station tunnel. The tunnels provide 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-m-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 are 450 metres long. Because of the alignment of the S-Bahn they are curved, and each pair of tracks has a separate bridge. Bridges of this type had never been built before, and represented 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 metres by 120 metres, 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 metres 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 provide roughly 44,000 m² 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 t, were lowered by ropes at a rate of six m per hour; the remaining 20-mm 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 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" on the date of its opening, May 28, 2006, to avoid confusing rail passengers. On the same day, Berlin Papestraße station, which was rebuilt as the city's second-largest station, opened officially under its new name, Berlin Südkreuz (South Cross), similar to the existing Ostkreuz and Westkreuz stations. It is also on the new north-south route.
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). The complaint was upheld in late 2006. There may therefore be further construction on the station in the future.
In addition, Deutsche Bahn decided to implement a slightly different version of the "Pilzkonzept" by running intercity trains through the new Tiergarten tunnels rather than via the Stadtbahn. This move was unpopular for its effect on Berlin's two previous main stations; Berlin Zoologischer Garten (Zoo Station) was downgraded to a regional railway station, and the number of main line services to Berlin Ostbahnhof (East Station) was drastically reduced.
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