Tierpark underground station
The underground station Tierpark is a station of the Berlin U-Bahn - U5 in the district Friedrichsfelde . It is located directly at the gates of the Berlin zoo and is the only underground underground station built in the GDR . At BVG it is used under the abbreviation Tk .
history
Shortly after the zoo opened in 1955, the then director Heinrich Dathe tried to find a rapid transit connection to save visitors long distances. Just one year later, an above-ground continuation of line E (today: U5) was planned from the Friedrichsfelde underground station across the premises of the Friedrichsfelde workshop to Treskowallee (today: Am Tierpark), where it runs parallel to it at about the level of Friedrichsfelder Castle the double-track terminus should be located. Although this solution would have been much more cost-effective than an underground extension, the planning was discarded because a further extension to Karlshorst required an underground route anyway and the proposal was seen as too simple. Therefore, the Friedrichsfeld underground station was initially given the addition of a zoo .
The planning was taken up again at the end of the 1960s. This time, however, the decisive factor was not the connection of the zoo to the underground network, but the imminent discontinuation of the tram route through the Liberation Road (today: Alt-Friedrichsfelde , part of the federal highways B 1 and B, which run on the same route 5 ). This led from Lichtenberg train station to the zoo and would have left a gap in the network if it had not been used. The task of the subway, which also stopped in Lichtenberg, was to close this gap.
Although the approval was given this time, no official decision was made to continue building the line. Since VEB Tiefbau, which was commissioned with the construction, was not fully utilizing its capacities, the first “secret” pile-driving took place on September 19, 1969 in the presence of the directors of the Berlin transport company. The location of the later subway station was deliberately chosen as such a construction stop would have been least expected.
After almost four years of construction, the station was opened on June 25, 1973. The approximately 1.2 km long new line runs exclusively underground and swings to the south just before the terminus, where it runs parallel to the Am Tierpark street . The train station is located in front of the new main entrance to the zoo.
This was based on the previous train stations on line E, also laid out one and a half times lower. It has several exits at both ends of the platform that lead to the zoo, the newly built Hans-Loch-Viertel and directly to the tram . Since another platform for a line Marzahn - Oberschöneweide below was considered during the construction , the platform was twelve meters wide and slightly larger than others. The station is supported by a double row of green tiled pillars. The walls are tiled in the masonry bond and kept cream-colored. As with the other stations, the ground is also paved .
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The approximately five-meter-wide space between the pillars has been completely freed from station superstructures, so ticket machines or benches are usually located between the pillars along the direction of travel. The service building for the supervisory staff was built about three meters above the ground. The aim was to increase safety on the platform, especially for groups of children, which were easier to see. For the passage to the zoo, the artist Dagmar Glaser-Lauermann created an approximately 20 square meter wall mosque with animal and plant motifs.
Behind the station there was a three-track sweeping system and a double track change in front of the station. Since, contrary to the original plans, the line was not to be routed to Karlshorst in the 1980s, but instead along the former VnK route to Hellersdorf , the facilities ultimately had to be converted accordingly. The new route initially uses the tracks of the sweeping system and then swings in a tight left curve parallel to the VnK route and then emerges. The sweeping tracks have been redesigned so that they can only be reached from Friedrichsfelde. The track change in front of the train station was dismantled on one track so that the trains coming out of the sweeping system in the direction of Friedrichsfelde can then swivel back onto the "correct" track.
After the extension of line 5 on July 1, 1988, the sweeping system at the Tierpark station is only used for construction work or special trips.
Since December 2008, the station has had an elevator to the street surface, making it easier to switch to the above-ground north-south tangent of the Berlin tram. The cost of building the elevator was 425,000 euros.
Connection
At the underground station you can change from the U5 line to the M17, 27 and 37 tram lines as well as to the BVG bus line 296 .
Others
The music video for Paul van Dyks We are alive was mostly filmed in the Tierpark underground station and in the associated feeders and underpasses.
literature
- Peter Bock (Ed.): U5 Between Alex and Hönow. Story (s) from the underground. GVE e. V., Berlin 2003. ISBN 3892180792 .
Web links
- BVG map of the station (PDF; 37 kB)
- More pictures at untergrundbahn.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Manfred Heidicke: Illustrated short report on the wall mosaic by Dagmar Glaser-Lauermann in the Tierpark underground station . In: Berliner Zeitung . May 10, 1973, p. 6 .
Coordinates: 52 ° 29 ′ 47 ″ N , 13 ° 31 ′ 24 ″ E