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Potsdam Pirschheide railway station

Potsdam Pirschheide
Deutsche Bahn
Bpdp-bu.jpg
The low level in 2005
Location Drewitz, Potsdam, Brandenburg
Germany
Coordinates 52°22′22″N 13°0′40″E / 52.37278°N 13.01111°E / 52.37278; 13.01111Coordinates: 52°22′22″N 13°0′40″E / 52.37278°N 13.01111°E / 52.37278; 13.01111
Line(s)
Platforms 1 (formerly 6)
Construction
Architect Wolfgang Dreßler, Walter Mempel
Other information
Station code 5011
DS100 code BPDP
IBNR 8010279
Category 6
Website www.bahnhof.de
History
Opened 18 January 1958
Closed 28 May 1999 (upper station)
Previous names
  • Potsdam Süd (1958–1961)
  • Potsdam Hauptbahnhof (1961–1993)
Traffic
Passengers 500/day

Potsdam Pirschheide station is a station on the Berlin outer ring. It was opened in 1958 as Potsdam Süd (south) station and was called Potsdam Hauptbahnhof (main station) from 1961 to 1993. In this period it was the most important station on the outer ring after Berlin Schönefeld Flughafen station.

Although the station is far from the centre of Potsdam on the Pirschheide (Pirsch heath) to the southwest of the town, in its heyday as the main station it had substantial passenger traffic and often reached its capacity limit. With the reunification, however, the station rapidly lost importance and was almost completely closed except for a single platform in the lower part of the station. It is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 6 station.

As a result of the four-power status of the former capital of Germany and the deepening division of Berlin and Germany, the operation of railway traffic in and around West Berlin became complicated for Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR), which now operated railways in East Germany (GDR). To solve this problem, it was planned to build a bypass that would connect the northwest, west and southwest of the Berlin region to the reorganised capital of the GDR, East Berlin, bypassing West Berlin. By 1954, large parts of the new outer ring were completed and on 30 September 1956, the last section of the ring between Golm and Saarmund, including the crossing of the Templiner See (lake), on the outskirts of Potsdam was taken into operation.

The station at the intersection of the Berlin outer ring with the Jüterbog–Nauen railway (which connected Potsdam Stadt—now Potsdam Hauptbahnhof—via Seddin freight yard and Seddin to Michendorf) was built in 1956/57 and officially inaugurated on 18 January 1958 as Potsdam Süd (south). It is on the Pirsch heath, about 0.8 km from the southern end of the Potsdam built-up area and about 3 km from the city centre.


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