Berlin Potsdamer Bahnhof - The U-Bahn

The U-Bahn

The U-Bahn, or Untergrundbahn (Underground Railway), was a major revolution in Berlin’s public transport, and the forerunner of similar systems now seen in several German cities. The underground sections alternated with sections elevated above ground on viaducts – hence the alternative name Hochbahn (literally High Railway). The first line ran from Stralauer Tor to Potsdamer Platz. Begun on 10 September 1896 and opened on 18 February 1902, the actual Potsdamer Platz station was rather poorly sited. Though it was reached via an entrance right outside the main-line terminus, people then had to walk about 200 m along an underground passage beneath the appropriately named Bahnstraße (Railway Street).

Later that year the system was developed into a through line running from Warschauer Brücke to Knie, which actually placed Potsdamer Platz on a branch accessed via a triangle of lines (Gleisdreieck) between Möckernbrücke and Bülowstraße stations. The first Potsdamer Platz U-Bahn station saw use for just over five and a half years, until its inconvenient site, and the desire to reach other parts of the city, enabled it to be superseded by a better sited new station on an extension of the line to Spittelmarkt. The new station opened first, on 29 September 1907, and the rest of the extension to Spittelmarkt on 1 October 1908 (evidence of the original station's site can still be seen in the tunnel, from passing trains). As the new station lay mostly beneath the adjoining Leipziger Platz, this is was the station was initially called, renamed Potsdamer Platz on 29 January 1923.

The station was one of a number designed by the Swedish architect Alfred Frederik Elias Grenander (1863–1931). From a technical point of view its construction was something of a challenge, as above ground the Hotel Furstenhof was being rebuilt at the same time. The U-Bahn line extension and new station ran right through the hotel's basement, cutting it in half. Contrary to several sources the hotel did not however enjoy a separate entrance directly from the station. The enormous Wertheim Department Store in nearby Leipziger Straße did enjoy such an entrance, as in later years did the Hotel Excelsior from the Anhalter Bahnhof.