Alt-Tempelhof (Berlin U-Bahn)

Alt-Tempelhof (Old Tempelhof) is a Berlin U-Bahn station on the U6. It is located under Tempelhofer Damm in the centre of the former village of Tempelhof, now a Berlin district within the borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg. The station opened on 28 February 1966.

Alt-Tempelhof U-Bahn station

Overview

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The extension of Line C of the Berlin U-Bahn (today called U6) through the centre of Tempelhof to Mariendorf was already planned before World War II, and was begun in the late 1930s. A tunnel was dug south from the turnaround at Tempelhof station almost to the location of the Alt-Tempelhof station, and a somewhat longer tunnel section was also dug further south, between today's Alt-Tempelhof and Kaiserin-Augusta-Straße stations.[1][2] However, because of World War II, postwar money problems, and a serious fire in the turnaround in August 1945 which damaged the tunnel, the work suspended in 1941 was not resumed and construction of the stations did not begin until 1961.[3] It was possible to make use of the tunnels dug some twenty years previously, but not without modifications, because the Alt-Tempelhof station had originally been planned to be further south, near the Tempelhof town hall.[1]

 
Platform

Rough construction of the Alt-Tempelhof station was finished in 1962, while the other stations of the extension to Alt-Mariendorf were not built until the following year. They were all opened at once on 28 February 1966, at which time Line C was renamed Line 6; in 1984 it became U6.[1]

The Alt-Tempelhof station was finished to a design by Bruno Grimmek, who retired soon afterwards; his successor as architect with the Berlin U-Bahn, Rainer Rümmler, assisted with this station and was responsible for the others in the line extension.[4][5] Like all the extension stations, it has a centre platform and exits at each end and is utilitarian in appearance. The Alt-Tempelhof station has grey-green tiles on the walls and brick cladding on the platform columns.[6]

The station has exits at each end and in the middle by way of a mezzanine floor. It has escalators but is yet to be equipped with a lift.[7]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Die Mariendorfer U-Bahn Archived 2010-12-29 at the Wayback Machine, Berliner Untergrundbahn.de (in German)
  2. ^ Ernst Heinrich, F. Mielke, Klaus Konrad Weber, Berlin und seine Bauten Volume 10, Part 2, p. 80 (in German)
  3. ^ Der Tempelhofer Zweig Archived 2011-01-07 at the Wayback Machine, Berliner Untergrundbahn.de (in German)
  4. ^ Robert Schwandl, Berlin U-Bahn Album, Berlin: metroPlanet, 2002, ISBN 3-936573-01-8, p. 80.
  5. ^ Berlin und seine Bauten, p. 150.
  6. ^ Schwandl
  7. ^ U-Bahnlinie U6 at Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (in German)
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Preceding station Berlin U-Bahn Following station
Tempelhof
towards Alt-Tegel
U6 Kaiserin-Augusta-Straße

52°27′57″N 13°23′08″E / 52.46583°N 13.38556°E / 52.46583; 13.38556