Prinzenstraße (Berlin U-Bahn)

Metro Station Prince Street is a station on the U1 line of the Berlin U -Bahn in the district of Kreuzberg in the district of Friedrichshain- Kreuzberg. The spa located on a viaduct railway station lies parallel to Gitschiner road that Prince street passes below the railway station on the eastern side. The subway station was put into operation on 18 February 1902 relating to the opening of the first electric elevated and subway between Stralauer Gate and Potsdamer Platz. He is guided in station list BVG under the symbol Pr and is 896 meters from the subway station Kottbusser Tor and 1014 meters from the Hallesches Tor Underground Station. The two side platforms of the station, are both 3.1 meters wide and 120.7 meters long. The station has only one elevator, traveling East. The station takes its name from the transverse road, which was named after the then Prince William, the future Kaiser Wilhelm I.

History

Planning and construction

The groundbreaking ceremony for the new range of electric elevated and subway took place on September 10, 1896 in Gitschiner road. The construction of the railway stations of the so-called " eastern section " of the new elevated train between Warsaw Bridge and Moeckernbruecke was almost completely according to the plans of 1891. Siemens & Halske, the exporting construction company, the stations had run standardized so that today it is hardly possible for the individual station designs individual engineers and architects attributable. The standard type corresponded in their original form particularly the stations Stralauer gate, Görlitz Station, Kottbusser Tor, Prince Street and Moeckernbruecke. According to the taste of the audience consisted mainly of these a slight hall construction from glass and metal, which completely stored on the superstructure of the corresponding metal viaduct. On Prince Street Station, which was north of the former gasworks English, but there were - even if the station was built, even in the standard version - individual problems. The Gitschiner road was not wide enough to accommodate the page to access and stairs building, direct departures to the road such as Goerlitzer Train station were also not possible, at least on the north side. Therefore, the Siemens'sche design office decided to install the connection in the house Gitschiner 71, as in other cities, such as London, quite common. On the southern side there was more space available, so Paul Wittig had built a historicizing access buildings of brick, the plan shape corresponding to a triangle. On the side of the gas works, the building received a gable front in the Renaissance style and a high, curved roof. However, the access stairs themselves occupied only a small part of the building, the other part of the ground floor leased the elevated railway company to catering establishments - Bohle Heintzenberg refers to this as " a welcome additional source of income ."

After long delays due to the construction of the underground rail line at Zoological Garden, the original route was finished after about 5 ½ - year construction period, so that on 15 February 1902, the so-called "Minister ride " on the track Potsdamer Platz - Zoological Garden - Stralauer Thor - could take place Potsdamer Platz. On February 18, opened in 1902, the elevated train newly founded company that operates the high - and subway of Berlin, officially the first section of the Berlin U -Bahn between Stralauer Thor and Potsdamer Platz, so went the Prince Street station in operation.

Between the Wars

Due to increased passenger numbers decided the elevated railway company, in the Berlin transport company ( BVG) rose shortly afterwards, in 1929 to extend the two side platforms from 88.4 to 120.7 meters. The elevated railway was now not only as initially become an attraction for Foreign and other onlookers who took advantage of the Berlin stretches of high - and subway also more and more for their daily commute, etc.

During the Second World War, the station suffered heavy destruction, so that the operation had to be suspended on April 22, 1945. Impacts are for the 28-29. January 1944 and February 3, 1945 recorded. On June 11, 1945, the SNB was able to record a first provisional operating on the high rail route between Prince Street on Kottbusser Gate to Silesian Gate, this extended the BVG on October 14 in both directions to Hallesches Tor and Warschauer Brücke. It was only on April 27, 1947, the entire route between Uhland Street and Warsaw Bridge was open to traffic again. The heavily damaged elevated train approaches have been 1950/1951 restored in highly simplified, unadorned form.

New Arrivals

Nevertheless changed in the following decades, little at the station itself, if at all changed the line guides and indications.

Between 1982 and 1984, however, the SNB had rebuilt completely the northern access. Designed by Wolf -Rüdiger Borchardt silver construction holds up today not only the stone and escalators to the platform on, but also a regional signal box for the elevated train and a car park. The costs, amounted to about 6.7 million marks (now around 5.902 million euros ).

The same architect also took only slightly later, between 1989 and 1991, the construction of the Südzuganges. The glass -to-metal construction in a postmodern form - this is a reconciliation be made ​​to the railway station - includes an elevator and two escalators and cost a total of 7.2 million marks, planned originally 6.5 million marks. A renovation of existing building would have cost more than nine million marks by the way. On the top floor of the building access an "open gallery " for Kreuzberg artist should arise, but this was not realized. Earlier, the Kreuzberg District Commission had ruled against a reorganization of the old building from the 1950s, as the buildings would have been floundering and this would not correspond to the "high comfort requirements " of the BVG passengers. The completed on 17 December 1991 Construction Ivo Kohler referred to as " no use ," he would be only in the area around Jan Gympel criticized the access building as a " walk- pigeon "; However, Rainer Stache dubbed this in the Berliner Morgenpost as the " Crystal Palace".

Since already the neighboring station Kottbusser Tor has an elevator - the door should Hallesches station until 2013 also get a - the Prince Street station will probably get no further lifts. The addition of the visually impaired was performed between 2000 and 2002.

A remains largely intact in detail at the Prince Street station is the porcelain frog, probably sooner sat on one of the destination indicator. Today is the beginning of the northern platform. The frog is wearing a small, gold-colored crown and sitting on a large porcelain ball - the frog turns known by the Grimm fairytale into a prince.

Connection

At the metro station is a transfer possibility of the U1 line to bus line 140 of the Berlin Transport Authority.