Berlin–Szczecin railway
The Berlin–Szczecin railway known in German as the Stettiner Bahn is a mainline railway built by the Berlin-Stettin Railway Company between the German capital of Berlin and the now Polish city of Szczecin part of Prussia and known as Stettin. It was the company's trunk line; the line was duplicated between Berlin and Angermünde in 1863 and between Angermünde and Szczecin in 1873. The line is still used by regional trains on the Berlin–Angermünde route and on the Angermünde–Szczecin route as well as the long-distance trains on the entire Berlin–Szczecin line. Between central Berlin and the suburban station of Bernau the line has its own suburban tracks used by the Berlin S-Bahn; the line is a major route for the transport of freight between Germany and Poland. Except for the section between Passow and Szczecin Gumieńce the entire route is electrified; the route began at Stettiner Bahnhof —renamed in 1952 as Nordbahnhof —to the north of central Berlin. The track first runs to the northwest and turns toward the northeast.
Near the current Berlin Ringbahn and the Prussian Northern Railway, the line had a separate alignment, but this was abandoned in 1897. Since the line has run along the Ringbahn and along the Northern Railway to Bornholmer Straße where it returns to the old alignment. Before reaching the Berlin city limits north of Buch, the line has no significant curves. At Bernau the line swings to the east to avoid the medieval centre; as far as Angermünde it runs parallel with federal highway B2, which it crosses several times. To the north of the town of Eberswalde is the tunnel under the Oder–Havel Canal: one of the most important engineering structures on the line; the last section of the line turns a little more to the east towards the Oder river. In the last few kilometres before the border with Poland the line comes within a few hundred metres of the state border of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern without crossing it. About three kilometres beyond Rosow, 119.6 km from the beginning of the line, the line crosses the German-Polish border.
In Szczecin-Gumieńce, the railway joins the Bützow–Szczecin railway and runs to Szczecin central station. The station’s placement reflects the reasons for the line’s construction: it is located on the banks of the Oder at the foot of the hill on which the centre of the city is located; the station building does not face the city, but rather the promenade next to the quay. The line was Berlin's first fast connection to the sea, which connected Prussia to the rest of world by steamship from Stettin; the Berlin-Stettin Railway Company was founded in Berlin in March 1836 by a number of businessmen with the aim of building a railway from Berlin to Stettin. It was hoped that 39,000 people and 20,000 tons of freight would be transported annually and that with an estimated construction cost of 2.5 million thalers this would provide a return of just over five percent. On 10 July 1836, an interim licence was granted for the railway; the cost in the final draft was 2.724 million thalers. The increase was due to upgraded standards, such as the use of better structures and the placement of the Stettin station next to the Oder in the middle of the business district.
Since it had only sold shares worth 1.037 million thalers, it was taken over by the old Pomeranian local parliament, which guaranteed a return for six years, the sum of 500,000 thalers was invested by the citizens of Stettin and neighbouring landowners. The final concession was issued on 12 October 1840. During the acquisition of land, provision was made for doubling the track, the track base and the larger structures were prepared accordingly. At a general meeting of the company on 26 May 1842, it was decided to continue the line to Stargard in Pomerania. On 1 August 1842 the Berlin–Eberswalde section was opened and it was extended to Angermünde on 15 November 1842; the entire 134,7 km long Berlin–Stettin line was opened on 15 August 1843. The first time table provided for two pairs of passenger trains per day, taking four hours and 20 to 30 minutes, one pair of cargo trains taking five hours and 21 minutes and 45 minutes in the other direction. On 1 May 1846 the line was extended by the opening of the Stettin–Stargard section.
The Berlin station in Stettin was transformed into a through station. The opening of the Prussian Eastern Railway’s Krzyż–Piła– Bydgoszcz line in 1851 benefited the Szczecin Railway as the two lines were connected via the extension of the Szczecin–Stargard line to Krzyż in 1848. After the opening of the Eastern Railway’s Krzyż–Kostrzyn–Frankfurt –Berlin line in 1857, all of the Eastern Railway’s traffic to Berlin was transferred to that line; the second track from Berlin to Angermünde was put into operation on 22 December 1863 and on 1 August 1873 the work which had begun in 1872 on doubling the Angermünde–Stettin–Stargard line was completed. On 1 February 1880 the BStE became part of Prussian state railways. On 12 December 1897 the line along Grüntaler Straße in the Berlin district of Wedding, which had several level crossings, was moved on to the route of the Ringbahn to connect with the new transfer station of Gesundbrunnen. At Bornholmer Straße the line branched off the line of the Prussian Northern Railway to the east.
Freight tracks on the section had been opened on 1 May 1897. Between 1903 and 1906, the Stettiner station was expanded and converted to accommodate suburban train services; the rapid growth of road transport at the beginning of the twentieth
Berlin Friedrichstraße station
Berlin Friedrichstraße 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 U-Bahn 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, located in East Berlin, yet continued to be served by S-Bahn and U-Bahn trains from West Berlin as well as long distance trains from countries west of the Iron Curtain; the station was a major border crossing between East and West Berlin. 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 built with masonry; the station had two platforms with two tracks each, covered by a large, curved train shed which rested on steel trusses of different length to cover the curvature of the viaduct underneath. The main entrance was on the pick-up for horse carriages on the south side. Station opening was on 7 February 1882, as part of the ceremonial opening of the Berlin Stadtbahn. Long distance trains started on 15 May the same year; because of the large amounts of traffic going through the station before World War I, plans were made in 1914 to extend the station. There was a new elevated platform on the northern side for the S-Bahn, the existing platforms had been made narrower, leaving one platform for the S-Bahn, 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, 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 covered by tile. In 1923, the Friedrichstrasse underground station for line C was finished, creating the first part of the underground maze the station still has today. At the beginning of the 1930s, construction began again at the Friedrichstrasse station, as the North-South tunnel of the S-Bahn was driven under the station. A long pedestrian tunnel connecting to the underground station of the same name Berlin U-Bahn was driven under the northern end of the station, that underground station received the characteristic yellow tile still featured today. On 27 July 1936, just before the 1936 Summer Olympics, the underground S-Bahn station was opened. After the "Kristallnacht", starting 1 December 1938, thousands of Jewish children started from or passed through the station to leave Germany as part of the Refugee Children Movement.
The station was bombed by Polish sabotage and diversionary squad "Zagra-lin" in early 1943, with 14 people dead and 27 wounded. It escaped major damage during the bombing of Berlin in World War II. U-Bahn and S-Bahn ceased operations on 23 and 25 April 1945 due to shortage of electricity. During the morning of 2 May 1945, the day Berlin capitulated, a detonation of the North-South tunnel under the Landwehrkanal, caused the flooding of the tunnel, including Friedrichstraße's 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. Reconstruction started in 1945. Trains first returned to the facilities above ground. By the end of May and early June 1945 the BVG, the operator of Berlin's U-Bahn, had 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 that 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 and reopened below-ground S-Bahn service on 2 June 1946. On 1 December the same year North-South tunnel and Friedrichstraße below-ground S-Bahn station shut again for an extensive refurbishment which lasted until 16 October 1947, when the North-South tunnel was 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. With the erection of the Inner German border in 1952, East Germany was to a large degree sealed off from the west.
However, in 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; the 3.5 million East Germans that had left by 1961 totaled 20% of the entire East German p
Berlin-Gesundbrunnen station
Berlin-Gesundbrunnen is a railway station in Berlin, Germany. It is situated in the Gesundbrunnen district, part of the central Mitte borough, as an interconnection point between the northern Ringbahn and Nord-Süd Tunnel lines of the Berlin S-Bahn, as well as a regional and long distance station of the Deutsche Bahn network; the station is operated by the DB Station&Service subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn AG and is classified as a Category 1 station, one of 21 in Germany and four in Berlin, the others being Berlin Hauptbahnhof, Berlin Südkreuz and Berlin Ostbahnhof. When the Berlin–Stettin railway was opened in 1842, the tracks ran farther northwestwards with a hazardous level crossing on Badstraße. Nearby Gesundbrunnen station was inaugurated on 1 January 1872 with the northern Ringbahn line. From 1 May 1897, it offered access to the Berlin–Stettin line, whose original tracks were shifted southwards to meet the parallel Ringbahn here. On 8 August 1924 Gesundbrunnen was one of the first stations to become part of the Berlin S-Bahn system when third rail trains ran from Stettiner Bahnhof to Bernau.
After the opening of the Nord-Süd Tunnel in 1939, trains ran from Gesundbrunnen via Humboldthain station and Stettiner Bahnhof directly to Anhalter Bahnhof in the south. Plans for an access of Gesundbrunnen station to the Berlin U-Bahn network were developed by the AEG electric company prior to World War I; the present-day station, located on the U 8, was not opened until 18 April 1930. Designed in a New Objectivity style according to plans by Alfred Grenander with a separate reception building, the U-Bahn platform crossed deep beneath the railway tracks and served as an air-raid shelter during the bombing of Berlin in World War II. On 3 February 1945, this station was destroyed by the air raids. After World War II and the division of Berlin, long-distance train service diminished and was discontinued on 18 May 1952; the S-Bahn system was affected by the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, when the network was partitioned into an eastern and western half. When the wall was built, it became a terminus for the Berlin Ringbahn, because of the breakup.
Its services are Sonnenallee/Köllnische Gesundbrunnen. Bernau and Helligensee service were merged into Helligensee and Waidmannlust - Lichterfelde and Lichtenrade services, because Bornholmer Straße was closed due to the Berlin Wall construction; because of the strike, Lichtenrade – Frohnau and Lichterfelde Süd – Heiligensee were the only ones left from 1980 to 1984. And it was replaced, although it remains the same for Lichtenrade to Frohnau, Anhalter Bahnhof to Wannsee until the German reunification in 1990. After German reunification in 1990, Gesundbrunnen was rebuilt extensively - it did delay the reopening of the rapid transit link to Berlin Schönhauser Allee station until 17 September 2001; the last stretch, from Westhafen to Gesundbrunnen was reopened on 15 June 2002. In the Pilzkonzept master plan the station was modernized as Berlin's northern long-distance train station and during 2005 there were discussions to rename the station to Nordkreuz reflecting the names of the other connection stations on the Ringbahn namely Ostkreuz, Südkreuz and Westkreuz.
The rename did not occur however and the work on the railway hub was completed on 26 May 2006. Despite its station category 1 the station had no representative entrance building - the old entrance building had been demolished and it had never been replaced giving the new station a peculiar appearance; the area designated for the entrance building is left as a public open space. The planning was stopped not only by financial cuts but due to the existence of the nearby Gesundbrunnen-Center shopping center, opened in 1997 offering 25000 square meters of shopping facilities plus a direct connection to the railway station; the planning was resumed during 2010 and the construction work on a new entrance building is due to begin by the end of 2011, with the 3300 square meters projected to cost a total of 7.4 million euros. The new entrance building opened in autumn 2015; the station is served by the following service: Intercity Express services Köln - Wuppertal - Hamm - Hannover - Berlin Intercity Express services Düsseldorf - Essen - Dortmund - Hamm - Hannover - Berlin Intercity-Express service Berlin - Halle - Jena - Nuremberg - Munich Intercity-Express service Rostock - Neustrelitz - Berlin - Leipzig - Jena - Nuremberg - Munich Intercity service Binz - Stralsund - Eberswalde - Berlin - Dresden - Prague Intercity service Binz - Stralsund - Eberswalde - Berlin - Halle - Erfurt - Frankfurt Regional services RE 3 Stralsund - Greifswald - Pasewalk - Angermünde - Berlin - Ludwigsfelde - Jüterbog - Falkenberg - Elsterwerda Regional services RE 3 Schwedt - Angermünde - Berlin - Ludwigsfelde - Jüterbog - Lutherstadt Wittenberg Regional services RE 5 Rostock - Neustrelitz - Berlin - Jüterbog - Lutherstadt Wittenberg Regional services RE 5 Stralsund - Neustrelitz - Berlin - Wunsdorf-Waldstadt - Elsterwerda Regional services RE 6 Berlin – Hennigsdorf – Neuruppin – Wittstock – Pritzwalk – Wittenberge Local services RB 27 Berlin - Karow - Basdorf - Groß Schönebeck / Wensickendorf Local services RB 66 Berlin - Bernau - Eberswalde - Angermunde - Szczecin Gesundbrunnen is a station on Berlin S-Bahn and Berlin U-Bahn networks.
The station is served by the following services: S1 S2
Bus transport in Berlin
Bus transport is the oldest public transport service in Berlin, the capital city of Germany, having been introduced in 1846. Since 1929, services have been operated by BVG, although during the Cold War-era division of the city they operated in West Berlin only. BVG's fleet consists of 1,300 vehicles. 30 October 1846 saw the first bus services from the Concessionierte Berliner Omnibus-Compagnie. In 1868, a new company was created, the ABOAG which on 1 January 1929 merged with other Berlin public transport companies to create the BVG. After the opening of Berlin Wall, the transport companies were no longer able to cope up with the traffic, so once again, solo buses by other transport companies and 100 hired coaches were used; the 3-digit numbering system was unified and implemented on June 2, 1991, just before the reunification of BVG in 1 January 1992. Normal bus routes make up most of the network and consist of around 300 lines, numbered from 100 to 399; the most famous line is the 100, which serves the tourist route from Alexanderplatz to the Zoological Garden passing many of Berlin's sights.
The suburban buses, operating outside Berlin and not managed by BVG, are included in the tariff area of Berlin public transport. Each bus line has a 3-digit number; the second digit indicates the borough in which the line runs: 0 = across more than 1 or 2 boroughs 1 = for the former boroughs of Wilmersdorf and Zehlendorf 2 = for the district of Reinickendorf 3 = for the district of Spandau 4 = for the districts of Mitte and Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg 5 = for the district of Pankow and the former one of Hohenschönhausen 6 = for the district of Treptow-Köpenick 7 = for the districts of Tempelhof-Schöneberg and Neukölln 8 = for the former district of Steglitz 9 = for the district of Marzahn-Hellersdorf and the former one of Lichtenberg As for the MetroTram lines, there are 17 MetroBus lines, each running every 10 minutes with a 24-hour service. Unlike the other bus lines, they are shown on many tramway maps and on some railway maps of the city; the list of Metrobus routes are: M11: Dahlem-Dorf - Schöneweide M19: Grunewald - Mehringdamm M21: Rosenthal - Jungfernheide M27: Pankow - Jungfernheide M29: Grunewald - Hermannplatz M32: Rathaus Spandau - Dallgow-Döberitz, Havelpark M37: Spandau - Staaken M41: Sonnenallee - Hauptbahnhof M44: Buckow - Hermannstraße M45: Spandau - Zoologischer Garten M46: Zoologischer Garten - Britz-Süd M48: Zehlendorf - Alexanderplatz M49: Heerstraße/Nennhauser Damm - Zoologischer Garten M76: Walter-Schreiber-Platz - Lichtenrade M77: Marienfelde, Waldsassener Straße - Alt-Mariendorf M82: Marienfelde, Waldsassener Straße - Rathaus Steglitz M85: Lichterfelde Süd - Hauptbahnhof The express buses are 13 rapid lines used to reach the airports or linking the suburbs to the city centre, with far fewer stops.
The most famous route is TXL. X7: Schönefeld - Rudow X9: Zoologischer Garten - Tegel Airport X10: Zoologischer Garten - Teltow, Rammrath-Brücke X11: Krumme Lanke - Schöneweide X21: Märkisches Viertel, Quickborner Straße - U Jakob-Kaiser-Platz X33: Märkisches Viertel, Wilhelmsruher Damm - Rathaus Spandau X34: Kladow - Zoologischer Garten X36: Rathaus Spandau - Haselhorst X49: Staaken - Messe Nord/ICC X54: Pankow - Hellersdorf X69: Marzahn - Köpenick, Müggelschlößchenweg X76: Walter-Schreiber-Platz - Lichtenrade X83: Königin-Luise-Straße/Clayallee - Lichtenrade The night buses, consisting of 45 lines, substitute the U-Bahn; the other lines serve suburban neighbourhoods not served by any public service running in daytime. Apart from the service buses managed by BVG and other local companies, in the city there are hundreds of private tourist coaches. For national and international routes an important company based in the city is the Berlin Linien Bus; the main bus station of Berlin is the Zentraler Omnibusbahnhof Berlin known as ZOB.
It is located in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf and linked to the stations of Kaiserdamm and Messe Nord/ICC. On 18 February 2011 MR Software released "OMSI - The Bus Simulator" for Windows, it is a bus simulator set in the late 1980s in West Berlin that features the MAN SD200 and MAN SD202 double-decker buses with a complex set of functions and made in various years. The player operates these buses along line 92 that served the Staaken, Wilhelmstadt and Falkenhagener Feld localities in the borough of Spandau; as of 2015, the BVG bus fleet consisted of 1300 buses. Single Decker Long Bus Bendy Bus Double Decker Dieter Gammrath, Hein Jung: "Berliner Omnibusse". Alba, Düsseldorf 1988, ISBN 3-87094-334-3 Gammrath, Schmiedeke: "Berliner Omnibusse". Alba, Düsseldorf 1999, ISBN 3-87094-359-9 Route planner by WikiRoutes.info BVG official website Bus transport page on BVG website
Train station
A train station, railway station, railroad station, or depot is a railway facility or area where trains stop to load or unload passengers or freight. It consists of at least one track-side platform and a station building providing such ancillary services as ticket sales and waiting rooms. If a station is on a single-track line, it has a passing loop to facilitate traffic movements; the smallest stations are most referred to as "stops" or, in some parts of the world, as "halts". Stations elevated. Connections may be available to intersecting rail lines or other transport modes such as buses, trams or other rapid transit systems. In British English, traditional usage favours railway station or station though train station, perceived as an Americanism, is now about as common as railway station in writing. In British usage, the word station is understood to mean a railway station unless otherwise qualified. In American English, the most common term in contemporary usage is train station. In North America, the term depot is sometimes used as an alternative name for station, along with the compound forms train depot, railway depot, railroad depot, but applicable for goods, the term depot is not used in reference to vehicle maintenance facilities in American English.
The world's first recorded railway station was The Mount on the Oystermouth Railway in Swansea, which began passenger service in 1807, although the trains were horsedrawn rather than by locomotives. The two-storey Mount Clare station in Baltimore, which survives as a museum, first saw passenger service as the terminus of the horse-drawn Baltimore and Ohio Railroad on 22 May 1830; the oldest terminal station in the world was Crown Street railway station in Liverpool, built in 1830, on the locomotive hauled Liverpool to Manchester line. As the first train on the Liverpool-Manchester line left Liverpool, the station is older than the Manchester terminal at Liverpool Road; the station was the first to incorporate a train shed. The station was demolished in 1836 as the Liverpool terminal station moved to Lime Street railway station. Crown Street station was converted to a goods station terminal; the first stations had little in the way of amenities. The first stations in the modern sense were on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, opened in 1830.
Manchester's Liverpool Road Station, the second oldest terminal station in the world, is preserved as part of the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. It resembles a row of Georgian houses. Early stations were sometimes built with both passenger and goods facilities, though some railway lines were goods-only or passenger-only, if a line was dual-purpose there would be a goods depot apart from the passenger station. Dual-purpose stations can sometimes still be found today, though in many cases goods facilities are restricted to major stations. In rural and remote communities across Canada and the United States, passengers wanting to board the train had to flag the train down in order for it to stop; such stations were known as "flag stops" or "flag stations". Many stations date from the 19th century and reflect the grandiose architecture of the time, lending prestige to the city as well as to railway operations. Countries where railways arrived may still have such architecture, as stations imitated 19th-century styles.
Various forms of architecture have been used in the construction of stations, from those boasting grand, Baroque- or Gothic-style edifices, to plainer utilitarian or modernist styles. Stations in Europe tended to follow British designs and were in some countries, like Italy, financed by British railway companies. Stations built more often have a similar feel to airports, with a simple, abstract style. Examples of modern stations include those on newer high-speed rail networks, such as the Shinkansen in Japan, THSR in Taiwan, TGV lines in France and ICE lines in Germany. Stations have staffed ticket sales offices, automated ticket machines, or both, although on some lines tickets are sold on board the trains. Many stations include a convenience store. Larger stations have fast-food or restaurant facilities. In some countries, stations may have a bar or pub. Other station facilities may include: toilets, left-luggage, lost-and-found and arrivals boards, luggage carts, waiting rooms, taxi ranks, bus bays and car parks.
Larger or manned stations tend to have a greater range of facilities including a station security office. These are open for travellers when there is sufficient traffic over a long enough period of time to warrant the cost. In large cities this may mean facilities available around the clock. A basic station might only have platforms, though it may still be distinguished from a halt, a stopping or halting place that may not have platforms. Many stations, either larger or smaller, offer interchange with local transportation. In many African, South American countries, Asian countries, stations are used as a place for public markets and other informal businesses; this is true on tourist routes or stations near tourist destinations. As well as providing services for passengers and loading facilities for goods, stations can sometimes have locomotive and rolling stock depots (usually with facilities for storing and refuelling rolling stock an
Trams in Berlin
The Berlin tramway 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 Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe, founded in 1929, it is notable for being the third-largest tram system in the world, after Melbourne and St. Petersburg. Berlin's streetcar system is made up of 22 lines that operate across a standard gauge network, with 800 stops and measuring 190 kilometres in route length and 430 kilometres in line length. Nine of the lines, called Metrotram, operate 24 hours a day and are identified with the letter "M" before their number. Most of the recent network is within the confines of the former East Berlin—tram lines within West Berlin having been replaced by buses during the division of Berlin. In the eastern vicinity of the city there are three private tram lines that are not part of the main system, whereas to the south-west of Berlin is the Potsdam tram system with its own network of lines. In 1865, a horse tramway was established in Berlin.
In 1881, the world's first electric tram line opened. Numerous private and municipal operating companies constructed new routes, so by the end of the 19th century the network developed quite and the horse trams were changed into electric ones. By 1930, the network had a route length of over 630 km with more than 90 lines. In 1929, all operating companies were unified into the BVG. After World War II, BVG was divided into an eastern and a western company but was once again reunited in 1992, after the fall of East Germany. In West Berlin, by 1967 the last tram lines had been shut down. With the exception of two lines constructed after German reunification, the Berlin tram continues to be limited to the eastern portion of Berlin; the public transport system of Berlin is the oldest one in Germany. In 1825, the first bus line from Brandenburger Tor to Charlottenburg was opened by Simon Kremser with a timetable; the first bus service inside the city has operated since 1840 between Alexanderplatz and Potsdamer Bahnhof.
It was run by Israel Moses Henoch, who had organized the cab service since 1815. On 1 January 1847, the Concessionierte Berliner Omnibus Compagnie started its first horse-bus line; the growing market witnessed the launch of numerous additional companies, with 36 bus companies in Berlin by 1864. On 22 June 1865, the opening of Berlin's first horse tramway marked the beginning of the age of trams in Germany, spanning from Brandenburger Tor along today's Straße des 17. Juni to Charlottenburg. Two months on 28 August, it was extended along Dorotheenstraße to Kupfergraben near today's Museumsinsel, a terminal stop, still in service today. Like the horse-bus, many companies followed the new development and built horse-tram networks in all parts of the today's urban area. In 1873, a route from Rosenthaler Platz to the Gesundbrunnen was opened, to be operated by the new Große Berliner Pferde-Eisenbahn which would become the dominant company in Berlin under the name of Große Berliner Straßenbahn. On 16 May 1881, the region of Berlin again wrote transport history.
In the village of Groß-Lichterfelde, incorporated into Berlin-Steglitz 39 years Werner von Siemens opened the world's first electric tramway. The electric tram in Groß-Lichterfelde was built to 1,000 mm metre gauge and ran from today's suburban station, Lichterfelde Ost, to the cadet school on Zehlendorfer Straße; the route was intended as a testing facility. Siemens named it an "elevated line taken down from its pillars and girders" because he wanted to build a network of electric elevated lines in Berlin, but the skeptical town council did not allow him to do this until 1902, when the first elevated line opened. The first tests of electric traction on Berlin's standard gauge began on 1 May 1882, with overhead supply and in 1886 with chemical accumulators, were not successful. Definitively, electric traction of standard-gauge trams in Berlin was established in 1895; the first tram line with an overhead track supply ran in an industrial area near Berlin-Gesundbrunnen station. The first line in more a representative area took place with accumulators for its first year, but got a catenary, four years later.
In 1902, the electrification with overhead wiring had been completed, except for few lines on the periphery. The last horse-drawn tram line closed in 1910. On 28 December 1899, it became possible to travel underground under the Spree, upon completion of the Spreetunnel between Stralau and Treptow. Owing to structural problems, it was closed on 25 February 1932. From 1916 to 1951, the tram had a second tunnel, the Lindentunnel, passing under the well-known boulevard Unter den Linden; the history of tramway companies of the Berlin Strassenbahn is complicated. Besides the private companies, which changed because of takeovers and bankruptcies, the cities of Berlin, Spandau, Köpenick, Rixdorf; the most important private operating company was the Große Berliner Pferde-Eisenbahn, which called itself Große Berliner Straßenbahn after starting the electrification. GBS acquired nearly all of the other companies through the years. In 1920, the GBS merge
Schönhausen Palace
Schönhausen Palace is a Baroque palace at Niederschönhausen, in the borough of Pankow, Germany. It is surrounded by gardens; the palace is maintained by the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg and reopened to the public in 2009 after extensive restoration. In 1662 Countess Sophie Theodore, a scion of the Holland-Brederode family and wife of the Brandenburg general Christian Albert of Dohna, acquired the lands Niederschönhausen and Pankow far north of the Berlin city gates. In 1664 she built a manor at Niederschönhausen in "Dutch" style. Minister Joachim Ernst von Grumbkow acquired it in 1680 and, in 1691, his widow sold it for 16,000 Thalers to the Hohenzollern elector Frederick III of Brandenburg, who had fallen in love with the property earlier. Frederick put the manor under the care of the Amt Niederschönhausen and had it remodeled into a palace from 1691–93 based on plans designed by Johann Arnold Nering. In August 1700 the Prince-elector prepared and planned his coronation as King in Prussia at Schönhausen Palace.
In 1704 the now King Frederick I in Prussia contracted Eosander von Göthe to again enlarge the palace and its gardens. However after the king's death in 1713, his son and successor Frederick William I did not care much for the place; as a result, civil servants, such as Minister Friedrich Wilhelm von Grumbkow, moved in to use it as office space, part of the land was leased and both the palace and the park became dilapidated in the ensuing years. Under King Frederick II of Prussia known as "Frederick the Great", the palace was once again turned into a royal residence for his wife, Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Bevern, who used it as her regular summer residence from 1740–90. Artist Johann Michael Graff most contributed the lavish stucco decorations executed during this time; as Frederick's relations with his wife were strained, he never visited Niederschönhausen and spent his summers at Sanssouci in Potsdam. During the Seven Years' War in 1760, while the queen retreated to the Magdeburg fortress, Russian troops pushed deep into Prussia, occupied Berlin and devastated Niederschönhausen Palace.
After 1763 it was rebuilt in its current form according to plans by Johann Boumann and the gardens were remodeled in a Rococo à la française style. After the death of Queen Elisabeth Christine in 1797 the palace was used. At times Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, widow of Prince Louis Charles of Prussia, lived at Schönhausen and had the gardens again remodeled, this time by Peter Joseph Lenné into an English landscape garden. Apart from that it served as a storage facility for furniture and paintings, it was rumored that King Frederick II had his favorite horse Condé buried in the gardens, but whether the hill in question is a horse's grave has not been proven. In fact Condé outlived its owner and died in 1804, aged 38, its skeleton is kept at the veterinary department of the Free University of Berlin. The Prussian ruling Hohenzollern dynasty owned Schönhausen Palace until it was dispossessed and became a property of the Free State of Prussia in 1920, following the end of the monarchy in the course of the German Revolution of 1918–1919.
It was opened to the public and used for numerous art exhibitions as well as the government's official art department during the Nazi era, when several paintings of banned so-called "degenerate art" were stored here. During the Battle of Berlin at the end of World War II, the palace suffered some damage but was repaired immediately by a Pankow Künstlerinitiative so that it could be used for an exhibit as early as September 1945. Soon thereafter the Soviet Military Administration confiscated the palace and turned it into an officer's mess, it served as a boarding school for Soviet students. When the German Democratic Republic was established in the Soviet occupation zone on 7 October 1949, the Soviets turned Schönhausen Palace over to the East German authorities and until 1960 it served as the official seat of the GDR president Wilhelm Pieck, where he received state guests like Nikita Khrushchev and Ho Chi Minh. For this purpose, it was again renovated and expansion of the complex took place to the north for garages for the vehicle fleet of the President and to the south for a casino and a chancellery in a prestigious courtyard with two gatehouses.
The castle garden was separated by a wall into an inner, no longer public, an outer, public part. The interior design of the garden was done by architect Reinhold Lingner as a cheerful, open-looking garden in the typical style of the 1950s. After the death of the first and only President of the GDR in 1960 it served at first as the seat of the newly established East German State Council, which moved to the Staatsratsgebäude at Mitte in 1964, it was used by the GDR government as its official guest house and renamed Schloss Niederschönhausen. Numerous state visitors lodged here, among them Indira Gandhi, Fidel Castro, the last Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, his wife Raisa Gorbachova, in October 1989 on the eve of the East German Peaceful Revolution. At that time, the palace and part of the gardens were closed to the public and surrounded by a tall wall. While German reunification was in progress in 1989 and 1990, the so-called Round Table met in the palace's outbuildings. Major portions of the negotiations leading to the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany took place here, a plaque now memorializes this period.
After German reunification, the palace became the property of the Bundesvermögensamt, the division of the German treasury in charge of managing government-owned real estate. In 1991 the state of Berlin became the new owner of the palace and its gardens, in 1997 the
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