Stuttgart Central Station

Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof
Terminal station
Station building (2004)
Location	Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg Germany
Coordinates	48°47′02″N 9°10′54″E / 48.78389°N 9.18167°E / 48.78389; 9.18167
Platforms	22(16 above ground terminal, 2 S-Bahn, 4 U-Bahn)
Construction
Architect	Paul Bonatz and Friedrich Eugen Scholer
Other information
Station code	n/a
DS100 code	TS
Category	1
Website	www.bahnhof.de
History
Opened	23 October 1922; 94 years ago (1922-10-23)
Electrified	15 May 1933; 83 years ago (1933-05-15)
Traffic
Passengers	220,000 daily

Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof is the primary railway station in the city of Stuttgart, the state capital of Baden-Württemberg, in southwestern Germany. It is the largest regional and long-distance railway station in Stuttgart, the main node of the Stuttgart S-Bahn network, and, together with the station at Charlottenplatz, it is the main node of the Stuttgart Stadtbahn.

Located at the northeastern end of the Königstraße, the main pedestrian zone of the city centre, the main line station is a terminus, whilst the subterranean S-Bahn and Stadtbahn stations are through-stations. The station is well known for its 12-storey tower with a large, rotating and illuminated Mercedes-Benz star insignia on top; the tower and station building are city landmarks.

Plans for the controversial Stuttgart 21 project to convert the main line terminus station into an underground through station include the demolition of the side wings of the building, together with the elimination of the platforms, tracks, and apron of the terminus station. The planned underground through station is configured at a 90 degree angle to the present station. Construction is scheduled from 2010 to 2019.

In November 2009, preservationists of the International Council on Monuments and Sites nominated the building for inclusion in UNESCO’s World Cultural Heritage list, an occasion that opponents of the Stuttgart 21 project picked to urge the city and Deutsche Bahn to stop the project which implies demolition of parts of the complex designed by Paul Bonatz.

The station building was constructed using reinforced concrete, which was then covered with roughly hewn shell limestone ashlar, sourced from the area around Crailsheim. The station tower is 56 metres (184 ft) high, with a rotating Mercedes-Benz star, measuring 5 metres (16 ft) in radius, on the visitor's terrace on the 9th level, right above the Bistro21. Also on the tower is a clock, whose radius measures 5.5 metres (18 ft). Inside the tower is the TurmForum Stuttgart 21, which provides information and media to do with the Stuttgart 21 project.