Hamburg Central Railway Station

I rarely have time to stroll through Hamburg Central Station, but today I not only had the time to drink a coffee, but also to take a few photos.

Hamburg Hauptbahnhof (or Hamburg Central Railway Station), is our main railway station. It opened in 1906 to replace four separate terminal stations.

The smaller stations were located around the city centre. The old stations were located only a few hundred metres away from the others:

- Berliner Bahnhof (1846), on the site of today's Deichtorhallen, to got to Berlin
- Lübecker Bahnhof (1865), to go to Lübeck
- Klosterthor Bahnhof (1866), to go to Hamburg-Altona
- Venloer Bahnhof (1872), since 1892 named "Hannoverscher Bahnhof", to cross the river Elbe

Temporary railway lines connecting the stations were built partly on squares and streets. When it was decided to erect a common station for all lines, a competition was arranged in 1900. Built between 1902 and 1906, the Hamburg Hauptbahnhof was designed by the architects Heinrich Reinhardt and Georg Süßenguth, modeled after the Galerie des machines of the World's Fair of 1889 in Paris, by Louis Béroud.

With an average of 550 000 passengers a day, it is Germany's busiest railway station and the second-busiest in Europe after the Gare du Nord in Paris.

The station is a through station with island platforms and is one of Germany's major transportation hubs, connecting long-distance Intercity Express routes to the city's U-Bahn and S-Bahn rapid transit networks.

The Wandelhalle shopping centre occupies the north side of the station building. At the moment they are renovating the upper floor of the Wandelhalle, it will take 1, 5 years and the first construction phase will be completed in August.

I like Hamburg Central Station, but only when I'm not in a hurry. 🤣Read more