RAILWAYS ABROAD
A BERLIN BREAK
The German capital boasts some fascinating railway architecture, from timbered cottages to cathedral-style underground stations and ultra-modern designs. Chris Milner paid a visit to seek them out.
HOME to almost 3.6 million people, Berlin has expanded and modernised considerably since reunification in 1990. For its residents, the city’s impressive public transport system – covering rail, tram, ferries and bus – is the backbone of the day-to-day, with a comprehensive and interconnecting system operated by BVG (Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe) which was founded in 1928. The BVG network is extensive and there are many places where the S or U-Bahn connects to DB network services.
At the end of the Second World War, Berlin was split into four sectors divided between the British, American, French and Soviets – but it was the construction of the infamous Berlin Wall, completed in August 1961, that segregated around one million people in East Berlin (and what was then East Germany) under the control of the German Democratic Republic allied to the Soviet regime. Much of the city’s historical and cultural sector was in the East, and much of today’s tram network was also originally in the former East.
Its wider railway history is particularly fascinating and, while outside of the scope for this article, is worthy of deeper investigation, as there have been so many changes since the end of the Second World War. These changes are still happening too. In December 2020, a new 2.2km link between Brandenburger Tor and Alexanderplatz opened, creating a through route from Hönow in the east to Berlin Hauptbahnhof, the city’s main station.
Hauptbahnhof is an impressive modern glass, steel and concrete design, with trains running on both north-south and east-west axes, built on the site of Lehrter Bahnhof with construction beginning properly in 1995 and completion not achieved until 2006.
A city divided
The building of the Berlin Wall in 1961, which was 140km long, had a big impact on rail routes. Some routes, such as U-Bahn line U1, were forced to terminate at Schlesisches Tor because the end of the line at Warschauer Strasse – across the beautiful Oberbaumbrücke spanning the River Spree – was in East Germany. As a divided city, there were specific checkpoints for residents to pass from one sector to another.
On several U-Bahn lines, trains ran through stations in the East without stopping. At these ‘ghost’ stations, armed guards were stationed on dimly lit platforms to stop escapees boarding should the train unexpectedly stop. The guards were also present to prevent East German residents escaping using the rail tunnels. To aid them, the Communist regime used alarmlinked pressure-sensitive trip switches and even steel grilles to block lines at night, to prevent people escaping from East to West.