Berlin Anhalter Bahnhof - The Site Today

The Site Today

Today the S-Bahn station remains the only one open at the location, and still defiantly called "Anhalter Bahnhof" although it is over half a century since the great terminus aboveground closed. As for the terminus itself, today the centre portion of the facade still looks out over Askanischer Platz, having been restored several times since the demolition of the rest of the building. At the top, Ludwig Brunow's Day and Night sculptures, somewhat the worse for wear, still sat on either side of the now empty clock space until the most recent restoration of the structure in 2003-2004, but to avoid further corrosion they have now been replaced by copies (the originals can be seen in the German Museum of Technology, close by on the south bank of the Landwehr Canal). The photograph on the right shows the facade remnant in 2005. The oddly-shaped white building faintly visible in the distance on the right is the Tempodrom, a major new concert and event venue.

Close by stands a memorial display board honouring the Berlin Jews taken from here and elsewhere to their deaths by the Nazis during World War II.

The original "Day and Night" sculptures from the facade, photographed in 2003 in their new home, the German Museum of Technology. Day is on the right, gazing into the distance, while Night, on the left, is looking away.

This view shows the rear of the facade remnant in 2005. In the left background is Europahaus, an office block dating from the early 1930s, while in the right background is the 18-storey Excelsiorhaus, on the site of the former hotel. It is not known whether the underground tunnel that once linked the station with the hotel still exists. In the foreground is a large new synthetic playing surface for sports where the train shed once stood. Immediately south, directly behind the photographer, is the Tempodrom.

The Tempodrom, a major new concert and event venue opened on 8 December 2001, extends across the site of the terminus just south of the train shed's former location. Its innovative futuristic roof rises to a height of 37.5 m.

Further south still, extending down to the Landwehr Canal, is an area of woodland, recently tidied up and new paths laid, but amongst the trees and undergrowth, several crumbling sections of platforms are still clearly visible.

This location appeared on many picture postcards in the early years of the 20th century, and in some ways it has not significantly changed since then. The red-painted bridge side-on to the camera is a recent construction for pedestrians and cyclists, approximating in appearance the railway bridge which once crossed at the same spot. The main arch was once the centre span of three of a much older structure located elsewhere in the city - the Marschallbrücke, built by Eduard Albert Paul Gottheiner in 1881-82, which carried Luisenstraße over the River Spree just to the east of the Reichstag. Concerns about its condition, coupled with the need to provide greater clearance for vessels on the river, brought about the replacement of the centre and south spans with one long new span in 1997-99, after which the old centre span was re-erected here as shown, as part of this new bridge designed by Benedict Toon and opened in February 2001. Just beyond it is where the S-Bahn North-South Link runs beneath the canal, and it was here that SS troops blew up the bulkheads in the last days of World War 2, deliberately flooding the tunnel in the hope of slowing the Soviet advance. The Anhalter Bahnhof stood out of the picture to the right (north). The buildings in the left background, on the south bank of the canal, house the German Museum of Technology. The other bridge, the higher one crossing the canal at a sharp angle, carries a section of U-Bahn line between Gleisdreieck and Möckernbrücke stations. Out of the picture to the left are surviving parts of the Anhalter Güterbahnhof (Goods Station).