Spittelmarkt is a

Berlin U-Bahn The Berlin U-Bahn (; short for , "underground railway") is a rapid transit system in Berlin, the capital and largest city of Germany, and a major part of the city's public transport system. Together with the S-Bahn, a network of suburban train li ...

station on line U2, located in Mitte at the eastern end of

Leipziger Straße Leipziger Straße is a major thoroughfare in the central Mitte (locality), Mitte district of Berlin, capital of Germany. It runs from Leipziger Platz, an octagonal square adjacent to Potsdamer Platz in the west, to Spittelmarkt (Berlin U-Bahn), S ...

History

The station was opened on 1 October 1908, and was then the terminus of Berlin's second U-Bahn line, connecting it with

Potsdamer Platz Potsdamer Platz (, ''Potsdam Square'') is a public square and traffic intersection in the center of Berlin, Germany, lying about south of the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag (German Parliament Building), and close to the southeast corn ...

on the initial ''Stammstrecke'' route. It is named after the ''Spittelmarkt'' square, former site of the Saint Gertrude hospital established about 1400. The name ''Spittelmarkt'' is formed from a contraction of "hospital" (as also in Spitalfields, London) and the German word for "market". The station, designed by

Alfred Grenander Alfred Frederik Elias Grenander (26 June 1863 – 14 March 1931) was a Swedish architect, who became one of the most prominent engineers during the first building period of the Berlin U-Bahn network in the early twentieth century. Biography Gr ...

, was lavishly erected right beneath the banks of the

Spree Spree may refer to: Geography * Spree (river), river in Germany Film and television * ''The Spree'', a 1998 American television film directed by Tommy Lee Wallace * ''Spree'' (film), a 2020 American film starring Joe Keery * "Spree" (''Numbers' ...

river, with daylight windows above the water's surface. Spittelmarkt became a through station with the extension of the line to Alexanderplatz on 1 July 1913. In 1940 the windows were walled up as an air raid precaution. There was a direct bomb hit on the platform area on 3 February 1945. It was only by chance that the northern station wall was not destroyed. Since this wall is also the sea wall of the Spree, the inner-city tunnel system would have been flooded and would have disrupted the underground traffic in the long term. In 1990, a major accident occurred when a train crashed into another stopped train. Fourteen people were injured. Spilled oil had covered the tracks, preventing the train from braking. J. Meyer-Kronthaler: Berlins U-Bahnhöfe. be.bra Verlag (1996) The station did not reopen until extensive reconstruction works started in 2003.

References

External links

{{BU-BahnStations U2 (Berlin U-Bahn) stations Buildings and structures in Mitte Railway stations in Germany opened in 1908