Berlin Ostkreuz station () (literally "Berlin East Cross") is a station on the Berlin S-Bahn suburban railway and the busiest interchange station in Berlin. It is in the former East Berlin district of Friedrichshain, now part of the borough of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg. A smaller part of the station is in Rummelsburg, part of the borough of Lichtenberg. The station is a Turmbahnhof ("tower station", i.e., a two-level interchange) with the Berlin–Frankfurt (Oder) railway ("Lower Silesian–March Railway") and the Prussian Eastern Railway on the lower level and the Berlin Ringbahn on the upper level. It is used by a total of around 235,000 passengers every day on eight lines, entering or leaving.
The station was completely reconstructed from 2006 to December 2018 while operations continued. In the past it was exclusively used as a Berlin S-Bahn station, but it is now also a stopping point for regional services. This station is open 24/7.
History
A railway crossing point in the area later called Ostkreuz was created in 1871 with the commissioning of the Ringbahn, which there crossed the tracks of the Lower Silesian–March Railway (Niederschlesisch-Märkische Bahn, also called the Silesian Railway), which was opened in 1842, and the Eastern Railway, which was extended to Berlin in 1867. This crossing was supplemented by two connecting curves from the Ringbahn to the tracks towards the city in 1872. Initially, they only served freight traffic, but on 1 January 1872 passenger traffic ran from the newly built Stralau station on the south curve to the Niederschlesisch-Märkisches station (later called just the Schlesischer—"Silesian"—station, now the Ostbahnhof).
There was no station at the intersection of the lines at that time. A transfer station was instead built to the south at the junction with the connecting curve. It was initially called Niederschlesisch-Märkischer Anschluß ("Lower Silesian–March connection") and was renamed Stralau in April 1872. This provided connections between passenger trains on the connecting curve and commuter trains to and from the Silesian station.
Around 1880, the railway facilities in the area were completely rebuilt. While the Eastern Railway and the Silesian Railway formerly ran in parallel and ended at different stations, they were combined with the reconstruction of both lines east of the connecting curves to the Ringbahn. Passenger traffic of both lines ran to the Silesian station and subsequently the old terminus of the Eastern Railway, Old Ostbahnhof, served only goods traffic. Two lines connected the newly built shunting yards in Lichtenberg-Friedrichsfelde and Rummelsburg to the Ringbahn. Previously, freight trains from the lines from the east to the Ringbahn had to make an awkward reversal in the Silesian station.
During the construction of the tracks at the Silesian station, the passenger tracks running from there to the east were also rebuilt. The southern pair of tracks served traffic to the Eastern Railway and the Silesian Railway, which branched in the area where the Ringbahn crosses. The northern track pair was built in a slightly different position than the earlier connecting curves. It served only the suburban traffic and connected to the Ringbahn to the north and south. The construction of new connecting ramps in the area of the later Ostkreuz station, in a different location than the old ones, began on 1 September 1879 together with the reconstruction of the tracks in the Silesian station. During this work, passenger traffic was temporarily relocated to the old Ostbahnhof station. In July 1880, the Silesian station went back into service for passenger traffic, followed by further construction work to connect it with the new Berlin Stadtbahn. Stralau-Rummelsburg station was opened with the commissioning of this work on 7 February 1882.
Stralau-Rummelsburg station The station was named after the nearby villages of Stralau and Rummelsburg, and replaced halts on the Ringbahn at Stralau on the Ringbahn and Rummelsburg on the Silesian Railway. The station was owned jointly by the Eastern Railway, the Silesian Railway and the Ringbahn. It had a platform (later platform A) between the two connecting curves, an "intermediate" platform (in Germany, a low island platform with one platform edge and sometimes accessed by passengers across a rail track) on each of the curves connecting in opposite directions and a side and intermediate platform on the tracks of the Silesian Railway. There was no platform on the tracks of the Eastern Railway, so its trains stopped at the platforms of the Silesian Railway if necessary. There was a crossover east of the station and another crossover at the present Modersohn bridge to the west of the station. As there was no platform on the through Ringbahn tracks, no passenger trains stopped on it. The suburban trains of the Ringbahn coming from both the north and south ran via the connecting curves to Stralau-Rummelsburg station on the Stadtbahn and vice versa in the opposite direction. Stralau-Rummelsburg was also the end or starting point for some trains running on the Stadtbahn.
The later platforms B and C were opened in 1896 on the outsides of the two connecting curves and replaced the existing intermediate platforms. They were built to serve increased traffic as a result of the Great Industrial Exposition of Berlin held in Treptow in 1896.
First major reconstruction
At the beginning of the 20th century, the station and the railway facilities adjoining to the east were rebuilt because the at-grade junctions of the Eastern Railway and the Silesian Railway at the station had become an obstacle to the growing traffic. East of the station, the tracks for the long-distance lines were separated from the suburban lines and elevated on both lines. The Eastern Railway received two suburban tracks and a goods track to their north, while the long-distance traffic of the Eastern Railway ran over the VnK line to join the Silesian Railway further east. On the Silesian Railway the suburban tracks were separated from the long-distance tracks. The suburban tracks of the Stadtbahn were connected with those of Eastern Railway and the Silesian Railway in Stralau-Rummelsburg station. The associated platforms were put in operation on 1 October 1903 (Eastern Railway, platform D) and 18 April 1903 (Silesian Railway, platform E). The new platform F on the Ringbahn on the upper level of the station went into operation on 1 May 1903. At the same time, platform D also received a new entrance building on the west side of the platform giving access to the upper-level platforms A, B and C. Since the reconstruction, suburban trains have run directly from the Eastern Railway and the Silesian Railway to the suburban tracks of the Stadtbahn and the suburban tracks of the Ringbahn have run through the upper platform of the station.
The design of the core of the station remained essentially unchanged for more than a century. Some alterations took place from 1923 to designs by Richard Brademann. A pedestrian bridge was built over platforms D and E with exits to Hauptstraße and Sonntagstraße and ticket offices at each end.
Electrical operations gradually commenced on all suburban lines in 1928 and 1929, and they were rebranded as the Berlin S-Bahn in 1930. A rectification plant was built on the Markgrafendamm south of the station. The platforms were raised to a height of 96 centimetres.
Ostkreuz station after 1933
On 15 March 1933, the station was renamed Ostkreuz, following the renaming of Westkreuz a few years earlier. According to the Germania plan of the Nazis for the reconstruction of Berlin as capital of the Third Reich, a major station would have been built at Ostkreuz as the Ostbahnhof (east station). The planned nine mainline platforms would have been east of the Ringbahn. The S-Bahn services would have used three low-level platforms instead of two platforms and another new platform was intended as a replacement for platform A on the connecting curve from the city to the southern Ringbahn.
In the Second World War, the station area was severely damaged by bombing. Nevertheless, from June 1945, operation gradually resumed. The southern Ringbahn curve was out of service from February/March 1945 and was only usable again from August 1946. The two S-Bahn tracks of the Silesian Railway were dismantled for war reparations, so with the reconstruction of the S-Bahn line (initially as a single track) in January 1948, trains stopped at a temporary platform on the mainline tracks.
With the division of Berlin, the traffic importance of the station grew because a number of through connections had become unavailable since, at the latest, the construction of the Berlin Wall. In addition, new large residential areas were developed in the east of the city, especially in the 1970s and 1980s, which were accessible by the S-Bahn.
The outer platforms on the northern and southern connecting curve to the Ringbahn were closed in 1966 due to structural defects and were later demolished. Scheduled passenger services on the northern Ringbahn curve ended in 1994. The northern curve was occasionally used for stock transfers and excursions until May 2006. The tracks were then removed gradually during the reconstruction of the station.
Rebuilding the station East German plans
The station was greatly in need of renovation for decades and was not capable of handling peak hour traffic, partly due to its narrow stairs. For a long time there were proposals to restructure it in order to make the stairs and passages more usable. In the mid-1950s, the Berliner Zeitung surveyed its readers for ideas to improve the situation. As a result, Deutsche Reichsbahn announced in early 1956 that the stairs from the Ringbahn platform to the low-level platform D would be widened by . However, a complete renovation of the station would be necessary after this "small solution" was carried out. Planning for more extensive remodelling continued. In 1957, the construction of a second Ringbahn platform west of the existing platform to relieve congestion was considered. In 1959, it was announced that the reconstruction of the station would begin in 1962 or 1963., quoted in This would involve the construction of a -wide tunnel below the lower platforms to connect with both the station's entrance hall and the broad steps down from the lower platforms. Provision was made for the construction of escalators. The work was expected to cost 7.5 million marks. In 1986, Erich Honecker announced the beginning of the "complex reconstruction" of the Ostkreuz S-Bahn junction for the period up to 1990.
The Reichsbahn ultimately failed to implement this scheme because of its complexity and high cost. No major changes occurred at the station for decades and it was referred to ironically as Rostkreuz ("rust cross"). It is now partially protected as a monument, so that the redevelopment of the station complex in the 21st century required compromises to preserve the historic buildings.
Planning 2008–18
Concrete plans for rebuilding Ostkreuz station were included in a project for "improving the Berlin railway node" after German reunification. Thus project, which aimed to improve the performance of the networks of the long-distance, regional and S-Bahn railways in Berlin and to improve urban transport significantly, was classified in the federal railway development act (Bundesschienenwegeausbaugesetz) as an "absolute priority". On 30 October 2006, the Federal Railway Authority gave planning approval for the first stage of the project. On 19 September 2012, planning approval was issued for the second stage, which mainly comprised improvements to the railway infrastructure along Hauptstraße to Schlichtallee including the southern overpass over Karlshorster Straße.