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Berlin OstbahnhofLocation within BerlinShow map of Berlin
Berlin Ostbahnhof (German for Berlin East railway station) is a main line railway station in Berlin, Germany. It is located in the Friedrichshain quarter, now part of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough, and has undergone several name changes in its history. It was known as Berlin Hauptbahnhof from 1987 to 1998, a name now applied to Berlin's new central station at the former Lehrter station. Alongside Berlin Zoologischer Garten station it was one of the city's two main stations; however, it has declined in significance since the opening of the new Hauptbahnhof on 26 May 2006, and many mainline trains have been re-routed on the North–South mainline through the new Tiergarten tunnel, bypassing Ostbahnhof.
History
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Early history
The station opened on 23 October 1842 as Frankfurter Bahnhof, the terminus of an 81 km (50 mi) railway line to Frankfurt (Oder) via Fürstenwalde (Spree). In 1845 the previously independent Berlin–Frankfurt railway merged into the Niederschlesisch-Märkische-Eisenbahngesellschaft (Lower Silesian-Markish Railway Company, NME), aiming at the extension of the line from Frankfurt to Breslau. After the NME lines were taken over by the Prussian state in 1852, the station was renamed Schlesischer Bahnhof (Silesian Station).
In 1867, the Old Ostbahnhof (also called Küstriner Bahnhof), the terminus of the Prussian Eastern Railway line was opened, located slightly north of the present Ostbahnhof station. In 1882 the Old Ostbahnhof was again abandoned and Schlesischer Bahnhof was rebuilt on the present site when construction began on the Berlin Stadtbahn, an elevated railway through the Berlin city center built to link the city's major stations. The Stadtbahn was completed in 1886; two of the four tracks later came to form one of the main routes of the Berlin S-Bahn suburban railway.
As the terminus of both the Silesian and the Eastern Railway line, Schlesischer Bahnhof quickly developed to Berlin's "Gate to the East". Until World War I, trains ran from the German capital via Königsberg to Saint Petersburg (Nord Express) and to Moscow as well as to Vienna, Budapest, and Constantinople via Breslau and Kattowitz. During the Anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire, numerous Jewish refugees arrived here to travel on to the emigration harbors in Hamburg and Bremerhaven.
World War II and GDR
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The station was severely damaged by strategic bombing during World War II and had to be completely rebuilt by the East German railway, the Deutsche Reichsbahn. In 1950 it was renamed Berlin Ostbahnhof, as upon the implementation of the Oder–Neisse line, the former Silesia province was now largely a part of Poland, and its German population expelled. Memories of the German history of Silesia were repressed by the German Democratic Republic. Following the division of Germany, the station was, together with Berlin-Lichtenberg, one of two major railway stations in East Berlin. The Berlin Wall ran only 200 metres (660 ft) away from the station; today that part is the East Side Gallery, the longest remaining fragment of the wall. Express trains ran from Ostbahnhof to Leipzig, Halle, and Dresden. The station was again served by international trains like the Vindobona to Vienna.
In 1987 the postwar building was demolished and the station began to be rebuilt as East Berlin's main station, grandly renamed Berlin Hauptbahnhof (Berlin Central Station). The plan called for a hotel and a large reception area for arriving Soviet bloc dignitaries. However, only part of the work was complete by the time of German reunification in 1990. A partially built staircase to the underground car park from this period in front of the station remains (in 2006) unfinished and fenced off. A partly constructed hotel was demolished in the early 1990s.
Recent years
The name Hauptbahnhof remained long after the division of Berlin ended, until 1998, when the station was re-renamed Berlin Ostbahnhof, restoring the 1950-1987 name. One year later, work began to demolish the station and rebuild it once again, which was completed in 2002. Little remains of the 1980s structure except for an administrative block, some façade elements, and parts of the platform structure.
Characteristics
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The station has 11 tracks and 5 platforms. 5 tracks are used for main line and 4 for S-Bahn. 2 tracks are through tracks.
Train services
The station is served by the following service(s):
Long distance
| Line | Route | Interval | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ICE 9 | Berlin Ostkreuz – Berlin Ostbahnhof – Berlin – Cologne – Bonn | One train pair | |||
| ICE 10 | Berlin Ostbahnhof – Berlin – Wolfsburg – Hanover – | Bielefeld – Hamm – | Dortmund – Duisburg – Düsseldorf – | Cologne | Hourly |
| Mönchengladbach – Aachen | One train | ||||
| Wuppertal – Cologne | Every 2 hours | ||||
| Bremen – Oldenburg | One train pair | ||||
| ICE 12 | Berlin Ostbahnhof – Braunschweig – Göttingen – Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe – Fulda – Frankfurt (Main) – Mannheim – Freiburg – Basel (– Bern – Interlaken Ost) | Every 2 hours | |||
| ICE 13 | Berlin Ostbahnhof – Braunschweig – Göttingen – Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe – Fulda – Frankfurt South – Frankfurt Airport | Every 2 hours | |||
| ICE 14 | (Ostseebad Binz – Stralsund – Pasewalk –) Berlin Ostbahnhof – Hannover – Bielefeld – Hamm / Osnabrück – Duisburg – Cologne / Aachen | Some trains | |||
| ICE 19 | Berlin Ostbahnhof – Berlin Hbf – Berlin-Spandau – Hanover – Bielefeld – Hagen – Wuppertal – Cologne (– Bonn – Koblenz – Mainz – Mannheim – Heidelberg – Stuttgart) | Every 2 hours | |||
| IC 56 | Norddeich Mole – Emden – Oldenburg – Bremen – Hannover – Magdeburg – Potsdam – Berlin Ostbahnhof – Cottbus | One train pair | |||
| ICE 77 | Berlin Ostbahnhof – Berlin Hbf – Wolfsburg – Hanover – Osnabrück | – Münster (ICE) | Some trains | ||
| IC 77 | – Rheine – Amersfoort – Amsterdam (IC) | Every 2 hours | |||
| EC 95 PKP: EIC |
Berlin-Warszawa-Express: Berlin Hbf – Frankfurt (Oder) – Poznań – Warszawa Centralna |
Four train pairs daily | |||
| EC 95 PKP: IC |
Gedania: Berlin Hbf – Frankfurt (Oder) – Poznań – Gdynia Głowna |
One train per day | |||
| EC 95 PKP: IC |
Wawel: Berlin Hbf – Frankfurt (Oder) – Wrocław – Katowice – Kraków – Rzeszów – Przemyśl |
One train per day | |||
| NJ Berlin-Zürich | Berlin Ostbahnhof – (Braunschweig – Göttingen –) Frankfurt (Main) Süd – Mannheim – Freiburg – Basel – Zürich | One train pair | |||
| NJ | Nightjet Berlin-Charlottenburg – Berlin Ostbahnhof – Frankfurt (Oder) – Wrocław – |
Ostrava – Breclav – | Vienna | One train pair | |
| Bratislava – Budapest | |||||
| Katowice – Kraków – Przemyśl | |||||
| ES | Brussels – Rotterdam – Amsterdam – Amersfoort – Bad Bentheim – Berlin – Berlin Ostbahnhof – Dresden – Bad Schandau – Prague | 1 train pair thrice a week | |||
Regional services
| Line | Route |
|---|---|
| HBX | Harz-Berlin-Express Berlin Ostbahnhof – Berlin Hbf – Berlin Zoologischer Garten – Potsdam – Magdeburg – Halberstadt (train split) (– Quedlinburg – Thale) / (Wernigerode – Goslar) |
| RE 1 | Magdeburg – Brandenburg – Potsdam – Berlin-Wannsee – Berlin Hbf – Berlin Ostbahnhof – Erkner – Fürstenwalde (Spree) – Frankfurt (Oder) (– Cottbus) |
| RE 2 | Nauen – Berlin-Spandau – Berlin Hbf – Berlin Ostbahnhof – Berlin Ostkreuz – Königs Wusterhausen – Lübbenau (Spreewald) – Vetschau – Cottbus |
| RE 7 | Dessau – Bad Belzig – Michendorf – Berlin-Wannsee – Berlin Hbf – Berlin Ostbahnhof – Königs Wusterhausen – Lübben (Spreewald) – Senftenberg |
| RE 8 | Wismar – Schwerin – Wittenberge – Nauen – Berlin-Spandau – Berlin Hbf – Berlin Ostbahnhof – Berlin Ostkreuz – BER Airport |
| RB 23 | Golm – Potsdam – Potsdam Griebnitzsee – Berlin-Wannsee – Berlin Alexanderplatz – Berlin Ostbahnhof – Berlin Ostkreuz – BER Airport |
|
Spandau – Westkreuz – Hauptbahnhof – Alexanderplatz – Ostbahnhof – Ostkreuz – Karlshorst – Köpenick – Erkner |
|
Westkreuz – Hauptbahnhof – Alexanderplatz – Ostbahnhof – Ostkreuz – Lichtenberg – Strausberg Nord |
|
Potsdam – Wannsee – Westkreuz – Hauptbahnhof – Alexanderplatz – Ostbahnhof – Ostkreuz – Lichtenberg – Ahrensfelde |
|
Spandau - Westkreuz – Hauptbahnhof - Alexanderplatz – Ostbahnhof – Schöneweide – BER Airport |
In popular culture
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The Ostbahnhof was featured in the 2004 movie The Bourne Supremacy. In the film, Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) is seen parking his car here, entering the station and leaving a bag in a locker, and tracking down Pamela Landy (Joan Allen).
See also
- East Side Gallery
- Maria am Ostbahnhof
- Deutsche Bahn
- Sibirjak
- S-Bahn Berlin
- B.V.G.
- Berlin Wriezener Bahnhof
References
- Code for DB Main line
- Code for S-Bahn
- "Der VBB-Tarif: Aufteilung des Verbundgebietes in Tarifwaben und Tarifbereiche" (PDF). Verkehrsbetrieb Potsdam. Verkehrsverbund Berlin-Brandenburg. 1 January 2017. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 October 2020. Retrieved 26 November 2019.
- Timetables for Berlin Ostbahnhof (in German)
External links
- Berlin Ostbahnhof information on the website of Deutsche Bahn
| Long-distance stations in Berlin | ||
|---|---|---|
| ICE/IC stops |
|  |
| Other stations | ||
| Former railway termini in Berlin | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 | | ||