The Berlin Northern Railway () is a 223-kilometre-long
main line route, that runs from
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
via
Neustrelitz and
Neubrandenburg
Neubrandenburg (, Low German ''Niegenbramborg'', both lit. ''New Brandenburg an der Havel, Brandenburg'') is a city in the southeast of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is located on the shore of a lake called Tollensesee and forms the urban c ...
to
Stralsund
Stralsund (; Swedish language, Swedish: ''Strålsund''), officially the Hanseatic League, Hanseatic City of Stralsund (German language, German: ''Hansestadt Stralsund''), is the fifth-largest city in the northeastern German federal state of Mecklen ...
on the
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...
coast. Nowadays, long-distance and regional traffic on the Nordbahn is routed at
Hohen Neuendorf onto the Berlin Outer Ring to the Karower Kreuz and on to Berlin Main Station or Berlin-Lichtenberg.
History
Construction of the line was preceded by decades of planning from 1843 until 1870 when the newly founded ''Berlin Northern Railway Company'' (
German: ''Berliner Nord-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'') gained the concessions from the states of
Prussia
Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...
and
Mecklenburg-Strelitz. For financial reasons, the company was dissolved on 15 December 1875. The Prussian government acquired the unfinished railway and handed over further construction of it to the
Lower Silesian-Markish Railway (''Niederschlesisch-Märkische Eisenbahn'').
The opening took place in three stages:
*10 July 1877: Berlin–
Oranienburg–
Neustrelitz–
Neubrandenburg
Neubrandenburg (, Low German ''Niegenbramborg'', both lit. ''New Brandenburg an der Havel, Brandenburg'') is a city in the southeast of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is located on the shore of a lake called Tollensesee and forms the urban c ...
(134 km)
*1 December 1877: Neubrandenburg–
Demmin (42 km)
*1 January 1878: Demmin–
Stralsund
Stralsund (; Swedish language, Swedish: ''Strålsund''), officially the Hanseatic League, Hanseatic City of Stralsund (German language, German: ''Hansestadt Stralsund''), is the fifth-largest city in the northeastern German federal state of Mecklen ...
(47 km)
The construction of the Northern Railway had a significant impact on the villages to the north of Berlin that were in the catchment area of the railway line. In some cases their population multiplied in the following decades. The term Nordbahn became part of place-names (for instance,
Glienicke/Nordbahn) and newspapers used its name (''Nordbahn-Nachrichten'').

The Berlin terminus of the railway, but only for freight, was the
first freight yard at Eberswalder Straße, now the site of
Mauerpark. Passenger services began at the original ''Nordbahnhof'' (''North Station'') in
Pankow, today's
Wollankstraße station, still evident in the design of the station and its forecourt. At the end of the 19th century the terminus of the railway or passenger trains for Berlin regional services was relocated to the
Stettiner Bahnhof (''Stettin''—now
Szczecin
Szczecin ( , , ; ; ; or ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the Poland-Germany border, German border, it is a major port, seaport, the la ...
—''station''), built on
Invalidenstraße
Invalidenstraße, or Invalidenstrasse (see ß), is a street in Berlin, Germany. It runs east to west for through the districts of Mitte (locality), Mitte and Moabit. The street originally connected three important railway stations in the nort ...
; the freight remained at Eberswalder Straße.
Up to 1912 separate suburban tracks were built next to the long distance tracks between
Gesundbrunnen and
Frohnau. At the same time the line was moved to an embankment, to eliminate level crossings. In 1926, the section from Frohnau to
Borgsdorf was treated similarly.
In 1925 the suburban services were electrified on the
DC system on the section from Gesundbrunnen to
Oranienburg. The route later became part of the
Berlin S-Bahn
The Berlin S-Bahn () is a rapid transit railway system that services the reigon in and around Berlin, the capital city of Germany. It has been in operation under the name since December 1930, having been previously called the special tariff are ...
. In 1950 the ''Stettiner Bahnhof'' was renamed the ''Nordbahnhof''. Electrical operations continued until the building of the
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall (, ) was a guarded concrete Separation barrier, barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany). Construction of the B ...
on 13 August 1961, when the line between Frohnau and
Hohen Neuendorf was closed. The Berlin section of the Northern Railway had already been closed for mainline traffic to ''Nordbahnhof'' on 18 May 1952.
Immediately after the wall was built, the S-Bahn between Oranienburg and Hohen Neuendorf became an isolated operation. Subsequently, S-Bahn tracks were built and electrified along the
Berlin outer ring between Hohen Neuendorf and
Blankenburg. This line was connected in November 1961 to the main S-Bahn network. In Berlin, S-Bahn services continued to Frohnau until the handover of operating rights of the S-Bahn in West Berlin from the
East German Railways to the
BVG on 9 January 1984. Services were first closed and only resumed on 1 October 1984. Rehabilitation carried out on the S-train tracks in 1985 placed them on a track profile that would make the restoration of the old main line for long distance traffic difficult.
After the reunification, many of the smaller stops were however closed (Düsterförde (1996), Strelitz Alt (1995), Neddemin, Randow, Toitz-Rustow.
In 1992, the gap between Frohnau and Hohen Neuendorf was reopened so that continuous S-Bahn services could resume on the Northern Railway to Oranienburg.
In the long term, the recommissioning of the direct route from Berlin to Birkenwerder is planned. For this purpose, the long-distance railway tracks of the northern railway between the station Berlin-Gesundbrunnen and Birkenwerder on a length of 18.8 kilometres are to be rebuilt with two tracks with a line speed of 160 km/h, but no date has been set for this.
See also
*
Stellwerk Fichtengrund
References
*
*
External links
*
*{{cite web, url=http://www.beefland.de/berlin/fernbahnen/nordbahn/index.html , title=History of the line and stations , publisher= Berliner-Bahnen.de , access-date=30 June 2012 , language=de
Defunct railway companies of Germany
Railway lines in Berlin
Railway lines in Brandenburg
Railway lines in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
Standard-gauge railways in Germany
Railway lines opened in 1877
1877 establishments in Germany
Berlin S-Bahn
Buildings and structures in Vorpommern-Rügen
Buildings and structures in Mecklenburgische Seenplatte (district)
Buildings and structures in Oberhavel
Neubrandenburg
Transport in Prussia