Berlin Central Station
Introduction
Berlin Central Station (Berlin Hauptbahnhof) is the largest through railway station in the European Union.
The complex is a design by the German architect Meinhard von Gerkan"), from the Gerkan, Marg und Partner studio. The initial cost of the project was 700 million euros, an amount that eventually rose to 900 million.[3].
History
The current station began to be built in 2002, being inaugurated on May 25, 2006, just in time for the celebration of the 2006 Soccer World Cup.[4][3] This new station replaces the eight terminal stations that existed in Berlin at the end of the century with a single interchange station on two levels in the shape of a junction.
The former terminal stations were severely damaged in the Second World War, and subsequently separated from their surroundings by the conditions of the division of Germany into two states and the three western sectors of Berlin. Berlin's entire railway network, east and west, was managed and operated by the Deutsche Reichsbahn of the GDR "Deutsche Reichsbahn (East Germany)"). The few trains that linked West Berlin with the FRG (West Germany) did not end at the historic terminal stations due to their destinations and origins, but they all passed through the Stadtbahn, the railway viaduct crossing the center of East-West Berlin and passing through the territory of the GDR at the Friedrichstraße station. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, state reunification and the decision to install the capital in Berlin forced major changes to be made to integrate the new situation. The Stadtbahn had insufficient capacity for all the traffic that had been created.
The solution carried out within the framework of the Berlin Redevelopment is a fungiform conception with the cap traced by the Stadtbahn and the stem by the new north-south line on the Nord-Süd-Fernbahn. The crossing station was built on the site of the former Lehrter Bahnhof (Lehrte Station) where trains from Hanover, Cologne and the neighboring Ruhr of the Hamburg Station terminated. Trains from the north arrive via the northern arch of the Ringbahn, the circular railway line, and those from the west via the Stadtbahn.
The lines formerly served by the Anhalter Bahnhof") are connected to the Central Station by the north-south tunnel Fernbahn ( or to differentiate from the north-south tunnel of the Berlin S-Bahn, which are not compatible due to their different electrification and the height of the trains).