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No other station in Berlin
has changed its name as often as this one. Get this: it started life in
1842 as the Frankfurter Bahnhof (because it was the western most
station on the line to Frankfurt ad der Oder), then it was renamed the
Schlesischer Bahnhof in 1881 and the Ostbahnhof in 1950.
East Berlin
Main Station
In 1987, East Germany rechristened it Hauptbahnhof (Main Station), despite its relatively modest levels of
traffic, and after the fall of the wall it was finally renamed
Ostbahnhof again in 1987.
Location
As the name
suggests (East Station), Ostbahnhof is on the eastern side of Berlin. It's
in an area called Friedrichshain, a mile or two from more central locations like
Alexanderplatz and 'Mitte'.
Local transport
Metro (S-Bahn) lines S3,
S5, S7 and S9 all run through
Ostbahnhof station. You can also get to the underground (U-Bahn) by
going one stop on the metro to Warschauer Strasse
(lines U1, U15 and
U12) or two stops in the other direction to Alexanderplatz
(U2, U5,
U8). Click here for directions from Ostbahnhof to the
Olympic Stadium.
Local
sights
Not a lot. This is a pretty grim part of former East
Berlin, although money and modernisation is gradually creeping east. The
East Side Gallery, one of the few remaining sections of The
Wall is not far away. Named after the mural painting on it, this piece of
the wall is fast deteriorating, and locals fear it may soon be lost
forever.
Map - Area
around Ostbahnhof
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| Berlin Ostbahnhof by night |
Mainline Services
Today
numerous mailine services run to and from Ostbahnhof. These include direct
trains to/from 9 other World Cup venues as follows:
- Frankfurt am Main
(Frankfurt, Basel or Zurich trains), c. 4 hrs 15 mins
- Hamburg (Hamburg,
Flensburg, Westerland, Kiel or Aarhus trains), c. 2 hrs 40 mins
- Dortmund (Cologne, Dusseldorf or Cologne/Bonn airport trains),
c. 3 hrs 30 mins
- Cologne, c. 4 hrs 30
mins
- Hanover (Amsterdam,
Bad Bentheim, Frankfurt, Cologne/Bonn airport, Bonn or Cologne main station
trains), c. 1 hrs 45 mins
- Leipzig, c. 1 hr 30
mins
- Munich, c. 6 hrs 35
mins
- Nuremberg, (Munich
trains), c. 4 hrs 50 mins
- Stuttgart, c. 5 hrs
15 mins
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