Berlin Dresdner Bahnhof

Berlin Dresdner Bahnhof
The Dresdner Bf. and Postbahnhof in October 2005
Location	Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, Berlin, Berlin Germany

Coordinates: 52°29′56″N 13°22′31″E / 52.4989°N 13.3752°E / 52.4989; 13.3752

The Dresdner Bahnhof was a short-lived passenger railway terminus in Berlin, Germany, opened on 17 June 1875 and handling train services to and from Dresden (over the so-called "Dresdner course"), Prague and Vienna.

It was fairly small in size and inconveniently located some distance from the centre of the city, south of the Landwehrkanal, in an area largely dominated by railway infrastructure. Close by were the approach tracks of the Anhalter Bahnhof and Potsdamer Bahnhof, and their associated goods stations and locomotive depots.

As a passenger terminus, the Dresdner Bahnhof was closed on 15 October 1882. Following the recent rebuilding of both the Anhalter and Potsdamer passenger termini to cope with rapidly increasing traffic, all services were transferred from the Dresdner Bahnhof to these two other stations, the Anhalter Bahnhof receiving the lion's share. It took on all long-distance services, and it was largely through this that it became known as Berlin's "Gateway to the South," its trains ultimately reaching Rome, Naples and Athens. The Potsdamer Bahnhof inherited mainly short-haul and suburban traffic.

After standing apparently unused for more than 30 years, in 1913 the Dresdner Bahnhof was incorporated into a much larger facility - the Postbahnhof, dedicated to the handling of mail. By then there were even more rails in the immediate vicinity following the arrival of the U-Bahn. Its original route, opened in stages during 1902, comprised a through section from Warschauer Brücke to Knie, with a triangular junction between Möckernbrücke and Bülowstraße giving access to Potsdamer Platz. This triangle of lines gave its name to the area (Gleisdreieck, literally meaning "railway triangle"), and also to the station constructed there. Following an accident on 26 September 1908, in which two trains collided on the triangle, killing 18 people and injuring 21 others, the layout was reorganised in 1912 into what can be seen today, with two lines crossing one over the other at right angles, and a split-level station with platforms on both lines. The Dresdner Bahnhof, and the Postbahnhof of which it became part, lay in the south-east quadrant, right in the angle between the two lines. In this guise it lasted for eight more decades, finally closing in 1997.