Ruins in the middle of Berlin: how the railway station turned into a city park

For more than a hundred years, the Anhalt station has been one of Berlin's most important transport hubs. The first train departed from it in 1841. The building, built of metal and glass, was huge, designed for 40 thousand passengers. In the waiting rooms, paved with marble and decorated with statues, thousands of people daily waited for their departure to Frankfurt, Leipzig, Munich and other German cities.

However, Hitler dreamed of making Berlin a world capital and wanted to rebuild other transport hubs that would be larger than the Anhalt station. Well, he planned to turn the station itself into a public pool as unnecessary. Fortunately, Hitler's plans were not destined to materialize.

During World War II, the Anhalt railway station was partially destroyed. The entire infrastructure suffered, the railways were paralyzed for a long time. When the war ended, the Anhalt railway station found itself in West Berlin, having lost its former significance, the German Democratic Republic restored railway communication, bypassing old sections. Nature very quickly took its toll: the abandoned territory was overgrown with grass, and trees appeared next to the rusted rails. But they were not in a hurry to demolish the building: this was done only in 1960, and that part of the facade was intentionally left.

And today, a reminder of the largest station is located in the center of Berlin. Only now, these ruins are not surrounded by railways, but by hotels, supermarkets and office buildings. And not far from it - a real oasis in the heart of the metropolis, which resembles the jungle. Mushrooms, ferns, trees grow here, and in the 1990s these territories were officially turned into the Natur-Park Südgelände city park. Among this forest, today you can see that old life of the railway station: kilometers of rails, light poles and an old steel tower, soaring 50 meters above the ground.

Watch the video: World War II: The Blitz on Berlin - Full Documentary (May 2024).