COMMENTS TO MY PAGE "ART POSTCARDS WITH A RAILWAY MOTIVE"

Magdeburg Hauptbahnhof

Magdeburg Hauptbahnhof (German for Magdeburg Central Station) is the main railway station in the city of Magdeburg in the northern part of the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. The current main station is built on the site of the western side of the former Magdeburg Fortress. Several competing railway companies had built lines to Magdeburg between 1839 and 1849, each with their own stations. They were built on the west bank of the Elbe river, on reclaimed land. With the increasing industrialisation and growing importance of Magdeburg, the need for space at stations grew. Both the city of Magdeburg and various railway companies conducted lengthy negotiations with the military with the objective of buying the grounds of the disused fortress. In 1870, the main railway companies reached an agreement to buy the 33 hectares of the fortifications from the state of Prussia. The foundation stone for the new Magdeburg station was laid in 1870. The companies involved were the Berlin-Potsdam-Magdeburg Railway, the Magdeburg-Halberstadt Railway, both of which had been strongly affected by the confined spaces of the stations on the banks of the Elbe, and lastly, the Magdeburg-Leipzig Railway which was less troubled by its existing infrastructure. The companies built two entrance buildings. The Magdeburg-Leipzig Railway constructed the eastern entrance building in the style of a Tuscan palace between 1872 and 1882. Its cladding consists of sandstone obtained from Königslutter. The western entrance building was built by the Berlin-Potsdam-Magdeburg Railway and was shared with the Magdeburg-Halberstadt Railway. In contrast to the eastern building, Nebra sandstone was used for the north facade of the western building, its walls were made of bricks faced with stone. Both buildings were of equal length and connected with each other by separate tunnels for passengers and baggage. The official opening took place in 1873. Construction works continued until 1893. In addition to the passenger station there were also extensive freight facilities. The central station was subject of heavy bombing during World War II. In 1945 the station was hit in a severe air raid on the city. The western station building was completely destroyed and never rebuilt, while the eastern entrance building was heavily damaged and the platform halls were partially collapsed. The tracks were littered with bomb craters and the signal boxes were partially destroyed by the bombing. In 1974, the Magdeburg S-Bahn was established. After German reunification in 1992, platforms were lengthened to allow Intercity-Express operation. In 2003, the pedestrian tunnel was extended to connect the various platforms to an entrance on the western side of the station. The station was modernised again between 2008 and 2015.

June 15th,  2025

 

 
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.