Berlin U-Bahn U2 Ride - Alexanderplatz to Klosterstraße | Germany | 10/11/24

Riding the Berlin U-Bahn U2 from Alexanderplatz to Klosterstraße. Germany | 10/11/24
Berlin Alexanderplatz is a German railway station in the Mitte district of Berlin's city centre. It is one of the busiest transport hubs in the Berlin area. The station takes its name from its location on Alexanderplatz, near the Fernsehturm and the World Clock.
Overview
Like other long-distance stations, Alexanderplatz is also a shopping centre for selling merchandise to travellers. Due to its importance and central location, it is a site where tourists regularly change. Alexanderplatz thereby became the second major hub of the Berlin U-Bahn network, behind Nollendorfplatz station.
Four Regional-Express and Regionalbahn lines, as well as S-Bahn lines S3, S5, S7, and S9, call at the overground station. The adjacent underground station is one of the largest on the Berlin U-Bahn network, with lines U2, U5, and U8 stopping there. The station is also served by four tram lines, as well as four bus lines during the day and many night bus lines.
History
Alexanderplatz station opened on 7 February 1882 on the Berlin Stadtbahn viaduct from Charlottenburg to Ostbahnhof (then named Schlesischer Bahnhof). In 1926, the station hall, spanning two platforms with four tracks, was rebuilt in its present plain style. Heavily damaged in World War II, train service at the station resumed on 4 November 1945, while the reconstruction of the hall continued until 1951.
The first station of the present U-Bahn line U2, designed by Alfred Grenander, entered service on 1 July 1913; the station was then the eastern terminus of Berlin's second line from Potsdamer Platz via Spittelmarkt. The platforms of lines U8 and U5 opened on 18 April 1930 and 21 December 1930 respectively, also built according to Grenander's conception, but in a distinct Modern style. The U2 station was also renovated after the Alexanderplatz fire in 1972.
The eastern entrances were destroyed on 15 March 1945.
The U2 station was renovated between January and March 2001. The U5 station was renovated between February 2003 and September 2004; it was the western terminus of the line from 1930 to December 2020, when it was extended to Berlin Hauptbahnhof.
Klosterstraße is a Berlin U-Bahn station located on the U2 in the centrally located Mitte district. The eponymous street is named after the Graues Kloster, a medieval Franciscan abbey, which later housed the Berlinisches Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster.
History
The station opened on 1 July 1913 in the course of the eastern continuation of Berlin's second U-Bahn line from Spittelmarkt to Alexanderplatz. Architect Alfred Grenander planned a station featuring three tracks serving a branch-off toward eastbound Große Frankfurter Straße that was never built and in 1930 was replaced by the U5 line. Today the broad platform between the two tracks with its asymmetric row of pillars is evidence of the original intention.
The station was added in 1975 to the Berlin District Monument List. Between 1984 and 1986, the Karl-Marx-Stadt housing construction complex carried out a complex renovation in preparation for the 750th anniversary of Berlin in 1987. This substantial damage, which was still from war days, eliminated and transformed the station into an "experiential" museum. The billboards, which were not needed in GDR times, provided space for a total of 22 enamel panels from the Schilderwerk Beutha, which depict the development of Berlin's public transport system on the basis of the respective vehicles. In addition, the front part of the railcar 12 of the Schoeneberg Underground from 1910 was restored to its original state and placed in November 1985 at the northern end of the platform between the two stairs. The car was previously used for transfer trips (car number 710 008 formerly 359) between the two East Berlin subway lines, was retired in 1982 after an accident and should symbolize in its current position the entrance of a small profile train coming from the Frankfurter Allee. In 2020 a lift was scheduled to be installed at the northern end of the platform, leaving the future of the car uncertain. However, as of 2024 the car remains in the station and has been resituated at the southern end of the platform.
U2 is a line of the Berlin U-Bahn. The U2 line starts at Pankow S-Bahn station, runs through the eastern city centre (Alexanderplatz) to Potsdamer Platz, the western city centre (Wittenbergplatz, Zoologischer Garten, Theodor-Heuss Platz) and finally to the Ruhleben terminal station.
The U2 has 29 stations and a length of 20.7 kilometers (12.9 mi). Together with the U1, U3, and U4 lines, it was part of the early Berlin U-Bahn network built before 1914. The line between Potsdamer Platz and Zoologischer Garten was the western section of the "stem line" (Stammstrecke), Berlin's first U-Bahn line opened in 1902.