This page was updated on 18 November 2003.

1838 - POTSDAMER Bahnhof opened, for trains to Potsdam and later Magdeburg, Kassel and Frankfurt-am-Main. Rebuilt 1872. Severely damaged in World War II. Finally closed 1944.

1841 - ANHALTER Bahnhof opened, for trains to Leipzig and the provinces of Sachsen-Anhalt and Thüringen. Rebuilt 1880. Severely damaged in World War II. Main-line station finally closed 17 May 1952. Building was still standing, in ruins, in 1959. Site was cleared by 1990 except for small part of entrance portal, and is proposed for hotel development. Goods station to the south is now part of railway museum. The underground Nord-Süd S-Bahn station Anhalter Bahnhof, opened 1939, remains open.

1842 - STETTINER Bahnhof opened, for trains to Angermünde, Stettin (now Szczecin, Poland) and Danzig (now Gdansk, Poland). Stettiner Bf was first rebuilt 1872-76. A useful historical source here is Berliner Nordbahn: 125 Jahre Eisenbahn Berlin - Neustrelitz - Stralsund, by Peter Bley, published by Verlag B Neddermeyer, 2002. From the opening of the Nordbahn in 1877, trains from the Neubrandenburg direction ran via the present Gesundbrunnen station into Stettiner Bf, but the Stettiner Bahn itself did not at first run via Gesundbrunnen, its original alignment being to the north, approximately following the present Grüntaler Strasse. Further extension and rebuilding began in the 1890s. From 16 June 1892 to 1 February 1898 local Stettiner Bahn trains used a temporary passenger station within the site of the Nordbahn-Güterbahnhof (see below). From 1 May 1897 Stettiner Bahn trains were diverted on the longer alignment through Gesundbrunnen into Stettiner Bf. By 1903 the site was handling all the passenger services of both the Stettiner Bahn and the Nordbahn, and a separate Stettiner Vorortbahnhof (suburban station) had been provided on the west side of the layout. The Nord-Süd S-Bahn line opened 1936. After World War II Stettin had become Szczecin, and in 1950 the Reichsbahn renamed Stettiner Bahnhof as Nordbahnhof. However, the main-line station closed 17 May 1952. The underground Nord-Süd S-Bahn station Nordbahnhof reopened after reunification of Berlin. Most of the surface site was cleared by 1990. Part of Stettiner Vorortbahnhof building was still standing in August 2003, though the site was under active redevelopment.

1842 - FRANKFURTER Bahnhof opened, for trains to Erkner, Frankfurt-an-der-Oder and Wien. By 1867 was renamed Niederschlesische-Märkischer Bahnhof, and from 1881 to 1950 was Schlesischer Bahnhof. Became a through station in 1882 on completion of the Stadtbahn across the city on viaduct to Charlottenburg. In 1950 it was renamed Ostbahnhof. After 1951-52 it had most long-distance services to (East) Berlin, with through Korridorzüge from the West using the Stadtbahn to reach it. In 1987 it was renamed yet again as HAUPTBAHNHOF, being regarded as (East) Berlin’s main station, though other stations in the city might be regarded as having claims on the name, being for example busier and better-served by S-Bahn, U-Bahn and bus routes. In 1993 overhead electrification still stopped at the south-east end outside the train-shed roof, so arriving electric trains had to coast in, but full electrification through on to the Stadtbahn has since been completed. The station remains open but has reverted to the name Ostbahnhof.

1846 - HAMBURGER Bahnhof opened, for trains to Hagenow and Hamburg. Closed to passengers in 1884, with services diverted to Lehrter Bf. In 1992 the station building remained, in use as a museum, visible from the Stadtbahn near Lehrter Stadtbahnhof.

1851 - Line opened, mostly along the old city walls, linking Stettiner Bf, Hamburger Bf, Potsdamer Bf, Anhalter Bf and Frankfurter Bf. Closed 1871, though present U-Bahn follows part of route.

1867 - GÖRLITZER Bahnhof opened, for trains to Grunau, Cottbus, Görlitz and Wien. Badly damaged in World War II. Closed in 1951. Demolished between 1962 and 1976. During 1984-87 the site was developed as the Görlitzer Park and the Spreewald Bad. Nearby U-Bahn station remains open, still called Görlitzer Bahnhof.

1867 - OSTBAHNHOF (or KÜSTRINER Bahnhof) opened, for trains to Küstrin (now Kostrzyn, Poland), Bromberg (now Bydgoszcz, Poland) and Danzig (now Gdansk, Poland). Closed to passengers c.1882, with services diverted to Schlesischer Bahnhof [Hbf]. By 1930 the building, in Küstrinplatz, was in use as a theatre. Site was redeveloped c.1973 for Neues Deutschland office-block.

1871 - LEHRTER Bahnhof opened, for trains to Stendal, Lehrte, Hannover and Köln. Separate goods station on W side. Closed to passengers 17 May 1952, with remaining services diverted to the Stadtbahn. Lehrter Stadtbahnhof on the viaduct above is served by S-Bahn trains. Site was cleared 1958-59, but lay close to East/West Berlin boundary and remained undeveloped. Still in 1993 a large open area on north bank of river Spree. Plans, first mooted in 1910 and revived in 1993, are now being progressed for a new central station for Berlin, on the Stadtbahn and accessible directly from north and south, with target-date for full opening in 2006.

1871 - Berlin Innenring east side (Moabit - Tempelhof - Schöneberg) opened. (Moabit is near present U-Bahn Putlitzstrasse station.)

1875 - DRESDENER Bahnhof opened, for trains to Dresden, Praha and Wien. Located just south of present Gleisdreieck U-Bahn station, it was closed c.1887. Main-line passenger services were diverted to Anhalter Bf and some local ones to Potsdamer Ring Bahnhof. In 1913 the Dresdener Bf building became the Postbahnhof, handling mail traffic. Also in 1875 the nearby Militärbahnhof opened, for military trains in the Dresden direction. Located south of Yorckstrasse, though inside the Innenring, it was still open in 1910, but had closed by 1929.

1877 - Nordbahn opened, for trains to Neubrandenburg and Stralsund. Passenger services originally terminated at Gesundbrunnen but were diverted to Stettiner Bf (see above). The original Nordbahn goods station, Nordbahnhof-Güterbahnhof, was briefly in passenger use (1892-98; see above). It survived World War II and when the Stettiner Bf was renamed Nordbahnhof in 1950, it too was renamed to avoid confusion and became Güterbahnhof Eberswalder Strasse, remaining in use until 1985. Eberswalder Strasse goods station was just inside west Berlin, but an exchange of land between west and east on 1 July 1988 led to a strip 50m wide and 1200m long adjacent to Schwedter Strasse being handed over to the Deutsche Demokratische Republik, who built a new section of the infamous Wall along the site in early 1989. This proved rather a short-lived investment!

1877 - Berlin Innenring west side (Moabit - Wilmersdorf - Schöneberg) opened.

1882 - The cross-city Stadtbahn (Charlottenburg - Schlesischer Bf [now Ostbf] on 12.145km of viaduct), was completed, the northern pair of lines (now the local, 3rd-rail, S-Bahn) in February 1882, the southern (now the long-distance Fernbahn) in May 1882. The Fernbahn tracks between Zoologischer Garten (‘Zoo’) and Ostbf were closed 1994-97 for remodelling and overhead electrification.

1891 - Two supplementary terminal stations, POTSDAMER RING Bahnhof and WANNSEE Bahnhof, opened on the east and west sides respectively of the main-line Potsdamer Bf (thereafter sometimes termed Potsdamer Fernbahnhof to distinguish its main-line status), and were used by local services on the Innenring and to Wannsee respectively. A link was built from the approach to the Dresdener Bf before its closure to enable S-Bahn trains from the Zossen direction to divert into Potsdamer Ring Bf. Wannsee Bf closed after completion of the Nord-Süd S-Bahn line, on 6 November 1939, according to Bahnknoten Berlin, by Bernd Kuhlmann, published by Gesellschaft für Verkehrspolitik und Eisenbahnwesen, 2000. The same source quotes Potsdamer Ring Bf as closing 3 August 1944, though another source suggests it closed around November 1943. Perhaps the earlier date is that of the last train before bomb damage prevented further use, and the 1944 date was that of formal closure. In July 1945, when the Nord-Süd S-Bahn was flooded in the closing days of World War II, Potsdamer Ring Bf temporarily reopened, but it finally closed 27 July 1946.

1896 - WRIEZENER Bahnhof opened, immediately east of Schlesischer Bf [now Ostbf] on the north side. It may have been built to assist in accommodating traffic diverted from the original Ostbahnhof, and was presumably used by trains to Wriezen. Closed by 1950, but reopening for commuters was considered in the 1990s. A nearby street named Am Wriezener Bahnhof is on the 1987 street map, as is the adjacent Wriezener Güterbahnhof.