forgotten railway stations: Siemensbahn
Sep 17, 1980 was the day when last train ran on these rusty tracks of railway stations. And since then they are closed, prohibited to enter, surrounded by fences. They have visitors sometimes but only when somebody get curious about them or drug addicts looking for some corner.
It started when company Siemens & Halske moved to Berlin in 1897. Along with the company number of workers were increasing exponentially. In 1914, around 23,000 was the worker head count which was 55,000 by 1925. A tram link between Siemensstadt & Fürstenbrunn was not enough to handle all the load of commuters and was a huge problem for workers because only 20-25 % people were living in Siemensstadt.
So, a new s-bahn line was introduced and three stations, Wernerwerk , Siemensstadt and Gartendeld, which were covering area of industry. Dec 1929, first train ran on line and was a big relief to people.
When I read about history of there s-bahn stations, it was so fascinating to imagine how people must have enjoyed the opening of this railway line. Headcount of workers who used to commute to work was more then 50,000 by the time this railway line started.
Curiosity to see it with my eyes, how it look like now made me visit the site. Getting in was bit tricky, as after jumping the fence I did not see any way to go up to the station. It took two round under the bridge of station to see a narrow space with lots of broken glasses and which look like ending to the wall on other side. Reaching there gave next step to climb along with iron pillar. On reaching top, I was happy to know that it is favorite place for somebody. There was this heap of needles and syringes.
Once I reached on station, it was a nice feeling to see the place people used once. It was a famous station of that time. And now I was alone on the station and empty track showing way to next station. Most of the metal things were rusted but few were still painted. Not sure if it was from that time or somebody did that out of curiosity. There were graffiti everywhere which is nothing new for Berlin as it is well know for its street art. Roofs were already down partially. Some random things were laying around, seems they were left as they were when these stations were closed from use. And saw some animal remains which might be brought by birds.
I walked from Wernerwerk towards Siemensstadt and then Gartenfeld. Just before Gartenfeld station, there is a switch tower from where they used to control the train signal and do routing of trains. It was set on fire few years back and now just half burned tower is there.
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How these station reached to this state while they were a hit on opening. There were few reasons for that and World War II where it started. Company was on target during the war and was attacked. There was destruction and lose of lives including the workers at company. At some point of time they had to stop the work and so as the train service. From 1943 to 1956, the line was closed. After 1956 , it started but there was always a cold war between East and West side.
1961, the year when Berlin was established to separate both side, it made people angry and this S-bahn line was boycotted. The trains were running almost empty. In 1980, authority decided to cut off the service by half and this lead to strike by the workers at Railway. And with all these authority decided to cut off it completely. Same year a new U-bahn line (U7) started in that area and made it sure that this S-bahn line will never open again !!
