Leipzig Central Train Station (Germany)
Photo of Ramez - 2017
This time the Railway Heritage World Blog received some photos and critics from Ramez Dwihe, a Syrian computer scientist who is developing his Masters at Évora University in Portugal.
Ramez took us to Leipzig, where is located the biggest railway terminal of Europe!
History
This railway station has an interesting history, filled by architecture competitions. In 1906 there was a competition to choose the “Passenger Railway Station with Terminal”. The office founded by the architects William Lossow and Max Hans Kühne won. The construction started in 1909 and its inauguration was in 1915.
This building took place of four other railway station , it became the biggest railway terminal of Europe since then. It had 26 tracks and 5 outer platforms. It is not that weird to face this size when in fact the building was a kind of two stations buildings. Yes, one side of the railway station (tracks 1-13) belonged to Prussian, while the other half (tracks 14-26) belonged to Saxonian. All the infrastructure was built in double!
During the World War II a bomb destroyed one of the entrance halls. Its reconstruction was made between 1954 and 1962. Due to the devaluation of the transportation of people by train, the building was remodeled during the 1990s.
If you did not get amazed by this infrastructure, take a look in this sequence of images! CLICK HERE!
Photo of Ramez - 2017
The Building and the City
As it could be seen, this railway station, due to its size and urban weight, could not be taken for granted over the years. In 1994 the HPP Hentrich-Petsohnigg & Partner GmbH +Co. KG won the architectural competition stations reconfiguration.
Their project was implemented in 1997, based on the construction of a big commercial center of three floors and the preservation of 24 of its tracks. In 2013, it was inaugurated another new part, the Leipzig City Tunnel, making the railway station become part of the urban transportation, the Bahn Mitteldeutschland (S-Bahn).
The railway station preserves the bust of Frederich List, a German economist who defended the railway extension.
Photo of Ramez - 2017
Final Considerations
Photo of Ramez - 2017
As a common visitor, Ramez told us that the building is huge and very beautiful. He was impressed by the trains speed. We told him all this history and he said that in fact, when he got into the station, he could not distinguish the new construction from the old one, everything seems to be new, because it is very well conserved; he could only be sure about the metro station, because it seems brand new with its common and clean architecture.
