Schlesisches Tor underground station
Silesian Gate is a station of the U1 and the U3 of the Berlin subway in the district Kreuzberg of the district of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg . The high station is located above a small square not far from the Oberbaum Bridge . The station is named after the city gate in the Berlin customs wall , which stood there until the middle of the 19th century. It is 925 meters from Görlitzer Bahnhof underground station and 790 meters from Warschauer Straße train station . The station has neither elevators nor escalators , so it is not barrier-free .
history
Construction and opening
The Schlesisches Tor underground station - actually referred to as the "Hochbahnhof" because the Berlin underground trains run there six meters above street level - is one of the first stations on the Berlin elevated and underground railway. After the groundbreaking for the construction of the new means of transport took place on September 10, 1896 in Gitschiner Straße, construction work began at the end of 1897 on the eastern section of the route to the Warschauer Brücke and in 1899 construction began on the Schlesisches Tor station. The company Siemens & Halske completed the Schlesisches Tor station in 1901, one year before the ceremonial opening of the first line (main line) on February 15, 1902 between the stations Potsdamer Platz and Stralauer Thor by the company for electrical elevated and underground railways in Berlin ( elevated railway company ).
While the majority of the designs for Berlin's subway stations from the very beginning came from Siemens' construction office, Siemens & Halske put out a competition for the design of this station. This was due to the fact that at the turn of the century the area around the Schlesisches Tor was an important traffic junction, and there was a large steamboat landing in the vicinity. The architects Hans Grisebach and August Dinklage won the competition for the design . They designed a polygonal station in the historicist style , the numerous elements of the neo-Renaissance and the brick facade corresponded to the taste of the time, so that the station was positively received by the population. In the lower part of the station there was a spacious lounge, which also accommodated the “Torkrug” restaurant, a pastry shop and other shops. As the crowning glory of the station, the two architects designed a small onion dome on the southern side with a small weather vane allegedly from Paris with the initials “S” and “H” for Siemens & Halske.
Changes from 1914
Over the years, the flow of passengers grew considerably, so that the first structural changes were necessary. Apart from the roofing of the restaurant terrace in 1914, the operating elevated railway company had the hall expanded between 1926 and 1929, a Rabitz ceiling installed and the walls clad with ceramic tiles.
With the Second World War beginning in 1939, the first restrictions also began for the Schlesisches Tor station. Aside from the general blackout , the Allied air raids exposed the elevated railway line and its stations to constant dangers due to their exposed location. Nevertheless, the station was functional until April 1945, on April 22, 1945 the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) ceased operations due to the lack of electricity.
As early as June 11, 1945, the station was reopened - structurally simplified. Initially there was a shuttle service between the Kottbusser Tor and Schlesisches Tor stations. There the trains turned on the southern track, west of the station a switch was installed. The northern platform could not be approached in 1947, the end section to Warschauer Brücke , which was put into operation again on October 14, 1945, was initially used as a single track. From April 27, 1947, the entire elevated railway line was again passable.
From 1961 terminus
Due to the political development, the BVG built a double track change in front of the Schlesisches Tor train station so that the trains could end there. This was first necessary with the uprisings of June 17, 1953 in East Berlin . It then became permanently necessary from August 13, 1961, as the construction of the wall meant that trains could no longer travel over the Oberbaumbrücke to Friedrichshain to the Warschauer Brücke station (from 1995: Warschauer Straße). In 1962, the BVG extended the two side platforms of the station by 17 meters to 109 meters.
During the division, the importance of this last station before the sector border declined. The station has been a listed building since 1980 . Between the International Building Exhibition in 1984 and the 750th anniversary of Berlin in 1987, the BVG had the station carefully restored and refurbished. The steel ceiling in the entrance hall was restored.
The “Kaufhaus am Tor” (or Kato for short) was located in the premises of the former restaurant until 1981. The name "Kato" was continued to be used by a club that was later located there.
reunion
With the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Berlin and Germany , it was time to restore the route over the Oberbaum Bridge to the now renamed Warschauer Strasse station . After several years of construction, the trains on today's U1 line are once again going beyond Schlesisches Tor, so that no more trains end there and the station regained its function as a through station. Since the extension of the U3 line on May 7, 2018, it also stops at the Schlesisches Tor underground station as standard.
Since 2012 the club "Bi Nuu" has been using the rooms of the former Kato.
After 2000 the station received a guidance system for the blind . According to the list of priorities agreed between the BVG, the Senate and associations for the disabled, it is planned to make the subway station barrier-free, i.e. with elevators, only after 2016.
Connection
At the subway station Silesian Gate offers connecting flights from the lines U1 and U3 to the bus line 265 from stadtmitte over the Märkisches Museum underground station for S-Bahn station Schöneweide in the southwestern Berlin district of Treptow-Koepenick wrong. Among other things, the underground station is also served by the N1 night bus (Helsingforser Platz - U Nollendorfplatz - S + U Bahnhof Zoo ) and N65 ( S Hackescher Markt - Puschkinallee - Müggelschlößchenweg).
Web links
- Entry in the Berlin State Monument List
- BVG area map of the station (PDF; 85 kB)
- Description of the eastern trunk line between Warschauer Straße and Gleisdreieck
- More station pictures on untergrundbahn.de
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c Jürgen Meyer-Kronthaler: Berlin's subway stations - the first hundred years. be.bra Verlag, Berlin 1996, p. 242 f., ISBN 3-930863-16-2 .
- ↑ a b c Biagia Bongiorno: Traffic monuments in Berlin - The stations of the Berlin elevated and underground railway , Michael Imhof Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-86568-292-5 ; P. 95.
- ^ Alexander Seefeldt: U1 trunk line through Kreuzberg . 1st edition. Robert Schwandl, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-936573-51-0 , p. 60 .
- ↑ Chronicle of the Berlin U-Bahn, 1940s at berliner-untergrundbahn.de ( Memento of the original from November 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Ulrich Lemke and Uwe Poppel: Berliner U-Bahn , alba Verlag, Düsseldorf 1989, ISBN 3-87094-337-8 ; P. 17
- ↑ In an old department store at Schlesisches Tor, African artists meet at berliner-zeitung.de, accessed on February 7, 2016
- ↑ The station rocks . In: PLUS . March 2016, p. 22 ( online [accessed March 20, 2016]).
- ^ New in Kreuzberg: Das Bi Nuu at tip-berlin.de, accessed on February 7, 2017
- ↑ Current priorities of the elevator program of the Berlin Senate 2011-2016 (PDF, 89 kB), Senate Department for Urban Development, June 9th of 2009.
Coordinates: 52 ° 30 ′ 3.2 ″ N , 13 ° 26 ′ 29.7 ″ E