Kaiserdamm (Berlin U-Bahn)
Kaiserdamm is a Berlin U-Bahn station located on the U 2. It is linked to the Berlin S-Bahn station of Messe Nord/ICC. Opened in 1908, this station was built by A. Grenander. In 1936, it was renamed to Kaiserdamm/Messedamm. However, protests from the people living nearby led to another change to the former name. Messe Berlin International Congress Centrum Berlin Zentraler Omnibus-Bahnhof
Berlin U-Bahn
The Berlin U-Bahn is a rapid transit railway in Berlin, the capital city of Germany, a major part of the city's public transport system. Together with the S-Bahn, a network of suburban train lines, a tram network that operates in the eastern parts of the city, it serves as the main means of transport in the capital. Opened in 1902, the U-Bahn serves 173 stations spread across ten lines, with a total track length of 151.7 kilometres, about 80% of, underground. Trains run every two to five minutes during peak hours, every five minutes for the rest of the day and every ten minutes in the evening. Over the course of a year, U-Bahn trains travel 132 million km, carry over 400 million passengers. In 2017, 553.1 million passengers rode the U-Bahn. The entire system is maintained and operated by the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe known as the BVG. Designed to alleviate traffic flowing into and out of central Berlin, the U-Bahn was expanded until the city was divided into East and West Berlin at the end of World War II.
Although the system remained open to residents of both sides at first, the construction of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent restrictions imposed by the Government of East Germany limited travel across the border. The East Berlin U-Bahn lines from West Berlin were severed, except for two West Berlin lines that ran through East Berlin; these were allowed to pass through East Berlin without stopping at any of the stations, which were closed. Friedrichstraße was the exception because it was used as a transfer point between U6 and the West Berlin S-Bahn system, a border crossing into East Berlin; the system was reopened following the fall of the Berlin Wall, German reunification. The Berlin U-Bahn is the most extensive underground network in Germany. In 2006, travel on the U-Bahn was equivalent to 122.2 million km of car journeys. The Berlin U-Bahn was built in three major phases: Up to 1913: the construction of the Kleinprofil network in Berlin, Schöneberg, Wilmersdorf. At the end of the 19th century, city planners in Berlin were looking for solutions to the increasing traffic problems facing the city.
As potential solutions and inventor Ernst Werner von Siemens suggested the construction of elevated railways, while AEG proposed an underground system. Berlin city administrators feared that an underground would damage the sewers, favouring an elevated railway following the path of the former city walls. Years of negotiations followed until, on 10 September 1896, work began on a elevated railway to run between Stralauer Tor and Zoologischer Garten, with a short spur to Potsdamer Platz. Known as the "Stammstrecke", the route was inaugurated on 15 February 1902, was popular. Before the year ended, the railway had been extended: by 17 August, east to Warschauer Brücke. In a bid to secure its own improvement, Schöneberg wanted a connection to Berlin; the elevated railway company did not believe such a line would be profitable, so the city built the first locally financed underground in Germany. It was opened on 1 December 1910. Just a few months earlier, work began on a fourth line to link Wilmersdorf in the south-west to the growing Berlin U-Bahn.
The early network ran east to west, connecting the richer areas in and around Berlin, as these routes had been deemed the most profitable. In order to open up the network to more of the workers of Berlin, the city wanted north-south lines to be established. In 1920, the surrounding areas were annexed to form Groß-Berlin, removing the need for many negotiations, giving the city much greater bargaining power over the private Hochbahngesellschaft; the city mandated that new lines would use wider carriages—running on the same, standard-gauge track—to provide greater passenger capacity. Construction of the Nord-Süd-Bahn connecting Wedding in the north to Tempelhof and Neukölln in the south had started in December 1912, but halted for the First World War. Work resumed in 1919, although the money shortage caused by hyperinflation slowed progress considerably. On 30 January 1923, the first section opened between Hallesches Tor and Stettiner Bahnhof, with a continuation to Seestraße following two months later.
Underfunded, the new line had to use trains from the old Kleinprofil network. The line branched at Belle-Alliance-Straße, now. In 1912, plans were approved for AEG to build its own north-south underground line, named the GN-Bahn after its termini and Neukölln, via Alexanderplatz. Financial difficulties stopped the construction in 1919; the first section opened on 17 July 1927 between Boddinstraße and Schönleinstraße, with the intermediate Hermannplatz becoming the first
Wittenbergplatz (Berlin U-Bahn)
Wittenbergplatz is a Berlin U-Bahn station on the U 1, the U 2, U 3 lines. The station is located on Wittenbergplatz square in Berlin's City West area, in the northwestern corner of Schöneberg neighbourhood, it is the only U-Bahn station in the city with five adjacent tracks on three platforms. The station building, erected in 1911–1913 according to plans designed by Alfred Grenander, is listed as an architectural monument. Wittenbergplatz is one of the oldest U-Bahn stations in Berlin, opened on 11 March 1902 with the first Stammstrecke line running under the eponymous square and adjacent Tauentzienstraße, today one of the major shopping streets in Berlin. A common underground station with two tracks on two side platforms, it was refurbished as an interchange from 1910 onwards; the new station serving three U-Bahn lines opened on 1 December 1912 with two island platforms and one side platform, serving five tracks at one below ground level and under a single roof. The remarkable entrance hall in the centre of Wittenbergplatz square, designed in an Art Nouveau style by Alfred Grenander, was finished in 1913.
The station building was badly damaged during the bombing of Berlin in World War II and reconstructed afterwards. Wittenbergplatz became one of the most frequented stations of the West Berlin urban traffic network, though after the building of the Berlin Wall the present-day U2 line to Nollendorfplatz was closed in 1972 and not re-opened until 1993. From 1980 to 1983 the station was renovated in line with the precepts of monument perception by architect Borchardt, he won the prize of the Ministry of Architecture in 1986. Platform No. 1 features a sign donated by the London Transport Executive in 1952 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Berlin U-Bahn. It features the station's name in the distinctive red-and-blue roundel used on the London Underground
Mohrenstraße (Berlin U-Bahn)
Mohrenstraße is an underground railway station in the German capital city of Berlin. It is located on the U 2 line in the district of Mitte; the original station designed by Alfred Grenander opened on 1 October 1908 on the new branch from Potsdamer Platz to Spittelmarkt. It was called Kaiserhof after a nearby grand hotel on the Wilhelmplatz square, it was rebuilt in the course of the 1936 Summer Olympics and damaged in World War II on 3 February 1945. When East Berlin fell under communist administration after the Second World War, the Wilhelmplatz square as well as the station were renamed on 18 August 1950 to Thälmannplatz, after the communist leader Ernst Thälmann. With the erection of the Berlin Wall from 13 August 1961, the line ceased to run between East and West Berlin and the station became the terminus of the line in East Berlin; because the square was overbuilt by a housing estate and the Czechoslovakian Embassy, on 15 April 1986 the station was renamed Otto-Grotewohl-Straße, the name of the Wilhelmstraße at that time, after the politician Otto Grotewohl.
On 3 October 1991, following German reunification, the station was renamed Mohrenstraße. The line was reconnected on 13 November 1993 and reconfigured, forming a new U2 line between Vinetastraße in the east and Ruhleben in the west. There was a longstanding belief that the red limestone used in the 1950 redesign of the station consisted of re-used claddings from the interior of Adolf Hitler's Reich Chancellery, standing close to the station. According to the East Berlin newspapers Neues Deutschland and Berliner Zeitung from 19 August 1950, the marble for the newly renovated station was delivered directly from quarries in Thuringia. In more recent times, petrographic research confirmed this origin of the material
Ernst-Reuter-Platz (Berlin U-Bahn)
Ernst-Reuter-Platz is a Berlin U-Bahn station located on the U 2 in the Charlottenburg district. After Werner von Siemens had presented the city fathers of Berlin, Schöneberg and Charlottenburg the elevated railway system several times in different variants, he received in 1895 permission from the city of Berlin to build an elevated railway from the Warschauer Brücke to Bülowstraße. In a second contract in the summer of 1896 Siemens agreed with Charlottenburg and Schöneberg the extension of this route from the Bülowstraße to the Zoological Garden, it was intended that at the former Auguste-Viktoria-Platz, today's Breitscheidplatz, an elevated railway system with a house passage should be created in order to not take the shine of the new building of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. But soon resisted these plans in Charlottenburg. In 1897, the Charlottenburg city council announced that an extension beyond the Zoologischer Garten station would only be possible if the Charlottenburg area had been tunneled.
Since the extension was desirable and could save Siemens & Halske in this way the costly passage through the house, there was no objection from the company. The station designed by Alfred Grenander, opened on 14 December 1902 as the western terminus of the first Berlin U-Bahn line to Warschauer Brücke, it was named Knie after a curve there on the historic road between the cities of Berlin and Charlottenburg, the present-day Straße des 17. Juni. In 1906 it became a through station with the extension of the line toward Wilhelmplatz. In 1953 the station and the eponymous square, a large roundabout, were renamed after the West Berlin mayor Ernst Reuter and extensively remodeled until 1959, it is used by the students of the nearby Berlin Institute of Technology
Mendelssohn-Bartholdy-Park (Berlin U-Bahn)
Mendelssohn-Bartholdy-Park is a Berlin U-Bahn station opened in 1998 on the U 2 line in the Tiergarten district, at the border with Kreuzberg. The station received its name after a small park east of the building, itself named in honor of the composer Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy known as Felix Mendelssohn. Though it is one of the youngest stations of the Berlin U-Bahn system, it is located on the first Stammstrecke line of 1902, where its northern branch crosses the Landwehr Canal on a viaduct and passes north through part of the Scandic Hotel before heading underground towards Potsdamer Platz. With the building of the Berlin Wall on 13 August 1961, train service was interrupted and for a brief time in 1991 the tracks served for the experimental M-Bahn maglev line, stopping at Bernburger Strasse station to the north. Following reunification, the M-Bahn was removed to allow the U-Bahn U2 to be reinstated; the line was reopened on 13 November 1993, the station with access to the debis headquarters of the former Daimler-Benz company however was not opened until 2 October 1998.
The station has disabled access with lifts on the South entrance of the station
U2 (Berlin U-Bahn)
U2 is a line of the Berlin U-Bahn. The U2 line starts at Pankow S-Bahn station, runs through the eastern city centre to Potsdamer Platz, the western city centre and to the Ruhleben terminal station; the U2 has a length of 20.7 kilometers. Together with the U1, U3, U4 lines, it was part of the early Berlin metro network built before 1914; the route between Potsdamer Platz and Zoologischer Garten was the western section of the Stammstrecke, Berlin's first metro inaugurated in 1902. The line starts in what was West Berlin at Ruhleben and runs on a causeway between Rominter Allee and the railway line to Spandau. On the bend approaching Olympischen Straße, the line descends into tunnel to run beneath that road. Subsequently, the U2 pivots towards the national highway to Theodor-Heuss-Platz, where it runs in a curve to Kaiserdamm. Under Kaiserdamm, which becomes Bismarckstraße at Sophie Charlotte-Platz, the tunnel leads straight to Ernst-Reuter-Platz. Here again, it swings to the southeast, following the course of Hardenberger Straße towards Zoologischer Garten station.
In the tunnel, it passes the foundations of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in a tight arc follows Tauentzienstraße where the track emerges via a ramp to the elevated railway section after Wittenbergplatz - east of the intersection Kleist-Courbierestraße. The elevated railway reaches its full height at Nollendorfplatz station where all four lines of the small-profile network meet. In the underground part of the station, there are four more lines; the U2 continues above ground to the east of the Bülowstraße. After that U2 makes a curves over a long viaduct on the southernmost point of the route, passes through Gleisdreieck station and runs straight across the Landwehrkanal and returns into tunnel between Mendelssohn Bartholdy-Park and Potsdamer Platz stations. While the railway company intended it to continue along Leipziger Straße, this route was not built and it continues instead along Mohrenstraße, Markgrafenstraße and Niederwallstraße to the River Spree in Berlin Mitte. After passing the Märkisches Museum station, it goes under the River Spree in a tunnel, runs through Klosterstraße to Alexanderplatz station.
After leaving Alexanderplatz, the track turns under Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße and through the station of the same name. The line runs north underneath Schönhauser Allee and through Senefelderplatz station. Before reaching Eberswalder Straße station, the line emerges from tunnel and on to an elevated viaduct through to the Schönhauser Allee station, an S-Bahn interchange. From there the line runs beyond the former city limits and the elevated railway descends again into a tunnel to Vinetastraße and before reaching the terminus at Pankow. Since the introduction of the schematic line network plans at the Berlin subway, at least parts of today's line U2 always had the color red; when letters were introduced as a line name after the First World War, the small profile network received the letters "A" and "B". The inner city route, more important than the older route through Kreuzberg, became Line A, as did the two western branches to Charlottenburg and Dahlem; the routes from Kurfürstendamm and Schöneberg through Kreuzberg to the Warsaw Bridge were given the letter "B" and the color code green.
To distinguish the branches in the western part of the route, the letters were supplemented by Roman numbers, the Charlottenburg route was thus the line AI. From 1966, the designation of the lines operated by the Berlin public transport companies in West Berlin was converted to Arabic numbers; each line should be operated independently and without branching. The line 1 drove now from Ruhleben through Charlottenburg to Kreuzberg, the previous AII became the line 2; the severed eastern line section, used since 1949 by the BVG East / BVB, retained unchanged the "A" as a line designation, as well as the red color code. On January 9, 1984, the BVG took over the managed by the Deutsche Reichsbahn S-Bahn lines in West Berlin; the marking of the subway lines traveled by the BVG changed again because of the now parallel operated U- and S-Bahn. To better distinguish the two trades, the respective Arabic number, which has remained valid since 1966, was prefixed with the letter "U" as a line number. According to the model of public transport networks, such things were followed from various cities they were called U1 to U9 and equivalent to the acquired S-Bahn routes preceded by "S" and the route number.
With the merging of Berlin in the context of German reunification and the reconstruction of the disused section Wittenbergplatz - Mohrenstraße, the BVG decided to swap the western branches of the meeting at the Wittenbergplatz lines U1 and U2. The reunited former AI line has since been under the new name "U2", but as earlier by the two separate parts of the city with traditional red line color; the increasing traffic problems in Berlin at the end of the 19th century led to a search for new efficient means of transport. Inspired by Werner von Siemens, numerous suggestions were made for overhead conveyors, such as a suspension railway, as was built in Wuppertal, or a tube railway as was built in London. Siemens and some prominent Berliners submitted a plan for an elevated railway on the model of New York; these people opposed Siemens' suggestion of building an overhead railway in the major street of Friedrichstraße, but the city of Berlin opposed underground railways, since it feared damage to one of its new sewers.
After many years
