Hamburg Hauptbahnhof

Hamburg Hauptbahnhof
Inside the station hall
Operations
Category	1
Type	Bf
Platforms in use	8 main line, 4 S-Bahn, 8 U-Bahn (6 in usage)
Daily entry/exit	450,000[1]
DS100 code	AH
Station code	2514
Construction and location
Opened	1906
Location	Hamburg
State	Hamburg
Country	Germany
Local authority	Hamburg-Mitte
Home page	www.bahnhof.de
53°33′10″N 10°00′23″E / 53.55278°N 10.00639°E / 53.55278; 10.00639Coordinates: 53°33′10″N 10°00′23″E / 53.55278°N 10.00639°E / 53.55278; 10.00639
Hachmannplatz 16, 20099 Hamburg
Route information
Preceding station   Deutsche Bahn   Following station Hamburg Dammtor towards Hamburg-Altona ICE 20 Hannover Hbf towards Basel SBB ICE 22 Hannover Hbf towards Stuttgart Hbf ICE 25 Hamburg-Harburg towards Munich Hbf ICE 28 Ludwigslust towards Munich Hbf Schwerin Hbf towards Ostseebad Binz IC 26 Stralsund-Karlsruhe Hamburg-Harburg towards Karlsruhe Hbf Hamburg-Bergedorf towards Ostseebad Binz or Greifswald IC/EC 30 Hamburg-Harburg towards Stuttgart Hbf Terminus RE 1 Hamburg-Bergedorf toward Rostock Hbf Preceding station   Hamburg S-Bahn   Following station Jungfernstieg toward Wedel S1 Berliner Tor toward Poppenbüttel or Hamburg Airport (Flughafen) Dammtor toward Blankenese S11 Berliner Tor toward Poppenbüttel Jungfernstieg toward Altona S2 Berliner Tor toward Bergedorf Dammtor toward Elbgaustrasse S21 Berliner Tor toward Aümuhle Jungfernstieg toward Pinneberg S3 Hammerbrook toward Stade Dammtor toward Altona S31 Hammerbrook toward Neugraben Preceding station   AKN Eisenbahn   Following station Dammtor toward Neumünster A1 Terminus Berlin–Hamburg railway Hanover–Hamburg railway Wanne-Eickel–Hamburg railway Lower Elbe Railway Lübeck–Hamburg railway Hamburg-Altona link line
List of railway stations in Hamburg

Hamburg Hauptbahnhof is the main railway station for the German city of Hamburg.^[2] It was opened in 1906 to replace 4 terminal stations. Hamburg Hauptbahnhof is operated by DB Station&Service. With an average of 450,000 passengers a day, the station is the busiest in Germany and after the Gare du Nord in Paris, the second busiest in Europe.^[3]

The station is a through station with island platforms and is a major transportation hub, connecting long distance trains, like the some Intercity-Express lines, to the underground rail network of the Hamburg U-Bahn and S-Bahn. It is situated in the city centre, in the Hamburg-Mitte borough. A part of the building is a shopping centre.

History

Before today's central station was opened, Hamburg had several smaller stations located around the city centre. The first railway line (between Hamburg and Bergedorf) was opened on 5 May 1842, coincidentally the same day the "great fire" (in German Der große Brand) ruined most of the historic city centre. The stations were (each of them only a few hundred metres away from the others):

Stations of Hamburg in 1880:
blue = Berlin Station
green = Klostert(h)or Station
pink = Lübeck Station
red = Venlo(-Hamburg) Station

• Berliner Bahnhof (1846), located at the place where the Deichtorhallen can be found today, on the right bank of the Elbe river; terminus of the line to Berlin
• Lübecker Bahnhof (1865), terminus of the line to Lübeck
• Klosterthor Bahnhof (1866), eastern terminus of the Hamburg-Altona link line
• Venloer Bahnhof (1872), since 1892 named "Hannoverscher Bahnhof", on the line across river Elbe, in Harburg split in the lines to Venlo and to Hanover

1870s: passenger train on the communication line to Venloer Bahnhof in the street in front of Berliner Bahnhof

The communication lines between the stations partly were built in squares and streets, provisionally. After the decision to create a common station for all lines, a competition was arranged in 1900. Built from 1902 to 1906, the Hamburg Hauptbahnhof was designed by the architects Heinrich Reinhardt and Georg Süßenguth, modeled after the Galerie des machines by Louis Béroud of the World's Fair of 1889 in Paris.^[4] The German emperor William II declared the first draft as "simply horrible",^{[citation needed]} but the second draft was eventually constructed. The emperor personally changed the Art Nouveau style elements into Neo-Renaissance, giving the station a fortification like character.^[5] The station was opened for visiting on 4 December 1906, the first train arrived the next day, and scheduled trains started on 6 December 1906.^[4]

During the Second World War on 9 November 1941, the station was hit seriously by Allied bombing. Several areas needed to be rebuilt completely, like the baggage check and the eastern ticket counters. One of the clock towers was destroyed in 1943.^[4]

From 1985 to 1991 the station was renovated.^[4]

Hauptbahnhof Nord
Station statistics
Address	Hamburg, Germany
Line(s)
Platforms	2 island platforms
Tracks	2
Other information
Opened	1968
Services
Preceding station   Hamburg U-Bahn   Following station Jungfernstieg toward Niendorf Nord U2 Berliner Tor toward Mümmelmannsberg Jungfernstieg toward HafenCity Universität U4 Berliner Tor toward Billstedt

Hauptbahnhof Süd
Station statistics
Address	Hamburg, Germany
Line(s)
Platforms	2 island platforms
Tracks	2
Other information
Opened	1912
Services
Preceding station   Hamburg U-Bahn   Following station Steinstraße toward Norderstedt Mitte U1 Lohmühlenstraße toward Großhandorf or Ohlstedt Mönckebergstraße toward Barmbek U3 Berliner Tor toward Wandsbek-Gartenstadt

Facilities

Hamburg Hauptbahnhof is 206 m (676 ft) long, 135 m (443 ft) wide, and 37 m (121 ft) high. It has 8,200 m² (88,000 sq ft) rentable area and 27,810 m² (299,300 sq ft) in total. The clock towers at the station building are 45 m (148 ft), and the clocks have a diameter of 2.2 m (7 ft 3 in). Adjoining the station building, the track hall is constructed of iron and glass and spans the main line platforms and two S-Bahn tracks. The platforms are reached from two bridges on street level, one at each end of the track hall, from the northern bridge on stairs and by lifts, from the southern bridge by escalators. Two other S-Bahn tracks and the subway tracks are in a connected tunnel system.

The Wandelhalle (Promenade Hall) in the station building is a small shopping centre with extended opening hours. It was built in 1991 during the renewal of the beam construction. It is located on the northern bridge and includes restaurants, flower shops, kiosks, a pharmacy, service centres and more. The upper floor also has a gallery surrounding the hall.^[4]

Since 2008, in an effort to disperse drug dealers and users from the area, Deutsche Bahn has been playing classical music like Vivaldi's The Four Seasons. According to the German newspaper Hamburger Abendblatt it is a success.^[6]

Services

Trains

In 2008, 720 regional and long distance trains, and 982 S-Bahn trains served the station per day. There were 6 platforms for the main lines.

Long distance

Hamburg Hauptbahnhof is one of the largest stations in northern Germany and connects Denmark with central Europe. There are permanent InterCityExpress lines to Berlin, Frankfurt (Main), continuing to Stuttgart and Munich, and Bremen, continuing to the Ruhr Area and Cologne. To the north ICE trains connect Hamburg with Aarhus and Copenhagen in Denmark and Kiel in Schleswig-Holstein.^[7] There are also several InterCity- and EuroCity- passenger train connections.^[8] The station is a hub for international travel, and most passengers to or from Scandinavia must change in Hamburg.

The following lines connect to the station:

• Berlin–Hamburg railway
• Hanover–Hamburg railway
• Wanne-Eickel–Hamburg railway (to Bremen and the Ruhr)
• Lower Elbe Railway
• Lübeck–Hamburg railway
• Hamburg-Altona link line (connecting to Hamburg-Altona–Kiel railway)

Regional trains

There are numerous RegionalExpress and RegionalBahn services to Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Bremen.

Rapid transit

Beside the inter-urban rail services, the Hauptbahnhof is also the central intersection for two of the three rapid transport systems in the city: the Hamburg S-Bahn (suburban railway) and the Hamburg U-Bahn (underground network).^[9]

The S-Bahn platforms are located inside the station itself (platforms 3 and 4, going eastwards to Barmbek, Harburg and Bergedorf) and in a separate tunnel, adjacent to the station building (platforms 1 and 2, going westwards to Altona, Wedel and Eidelstedt).

The U-Bahn is split in two stations: Hauptbahnhof Süd (south) and serving the lines U1 and U3. This part of the station had been included in the 1900 planning for the new station (the construction for the subway started in 1906, the "ring" was opened in 1911). Until 1960, this station was simply called Hauptbahnhof without any suffix. From the beginning until the end of 1943, there were two lines: the original Ring and the southeastern branch line leading to Rothenburgsort which tracks has been destroyed due to World War II and never been rebuilt.

The station Hauptbahnhof Nord (north) serves the line U2, but only using the two middle tunnels (out of four). The two outer tunnels were built in advance for a future line U4 (which has never been constructed) and are currently used for a visual arts installation.

Neighbourhood

The station is located in the city centre in the Hamburg-Mitte borough. Directly nearby are the Deutsches Schauspielhaus theatre in the St. Georg quarter, a state owned theatre, the Kunsthalle Hamburg, an art gallery, and the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg,^[10] a museum for applied arts. The Hamburg Rathaus is down the shopping street Mönckebergstraße.

See also

• Hamburger Verkehrsverbund Public transport association in Hamburg
• Hamburger Hochbahn Operator of the Hamburg U-Bahn (Underground)
• S-Bahn Hamburg Operator of the Hamburg S-Bahn (Suburban Train)

References

Notes

Further reading

• Hoyer, Hermann; Lawrenz, Dierk; Wiesmüller, Benno (2006). Hamburg Hauptbahnhof: 1906 - 2006 - 100 Jahre Zentrum der Stadt [Hamburg Hauptbahnhof: 1906 - 2006 - 100 Years Centre of the City]. Freiburg i.B.: EK-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-88255-721-3.  (German)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Hamburg Hauptbahnhof (category)

• "Current departure time in Hamburg Hbf". Deutsche Bahn. Retrieved 27 December 2013. 
• Hamburg Central Station at Structurae
• (German) DB station information
• (German) shopping center Wandelhalle Hamburg Hauptbahnhof