Hamburg Central Station

Hamburg Central Station is one of the most important rail interfaces in Germany. Over half a million people use Deutsche Bahn’s long-distance train station every day. This makes Hamburg Central Station the busiest station in Europe after Paris-Nord. Everything about its history, present and future here.

Hamburg Central Station is an important through station in the Hanseatic city. It was built from 1904 onwards to replace the terminus stations of various railroad companies that had been scattered around the city until then. It was officially put into operation on December 6, 1906. A competition was held in 1900 to design the station. The aim was to design a prestigious building close to the center of Hamburg. The architects Heinrich Reinhardt and Georg Süßenguth from Charlottenburg won the competition. However, Kaiser Wilhelm II judged the first design to be “simply hideous”, which is why it had to be revised.

The architecture of the main station still corresponds to the revised plan today. It consists primarily of the monumental platform hall with its span of 73 meters. The hall is 150 meters long, 114 meters wide and up to 37 meters high. The entrance building is flanked by two 45-meter-high square towers. The north walkway runs right through the platform hall. The narrower south walkway runs along the southern end of the hall. The impressive hall of Hamburg Central Station is considered to be a reference to the Palais des Machines from the Paris World Exhibition of 1889, one of three machine halls made of iron and glass. The station in Hamburg is considered to be one of the first major buildings with reinforced concrete piles in northern Germany. It is deeply founded on 800 reinforced concrete piles.

During the Second World War, Hamburg Central Station was fitted with a camouflage cover from 1941. This painted wooden construction was intended to make it more difficult for bombers to find their way around. Nevertheless, it was badly damaged in November 1941 and July 1943. After the end of the war in 1945, demolition and rebuilding were discussed. However, it was decided to preserve and renovate the old station building.

In the 1970s, it was thoroughly renovated and the tunnel station for the S-Bahn was built. Some of the side extensions on the east side of the station had to make way for this. The north footbridge became the “Wandelhalle”. In 1988, a private investor was found to rebuild the hall, which had been demolished due to its age. The new Wandelhalle, designed by Horst von Bassewitz, opened on June 1, 1991. On 7,600 square meters and two floors, there are numerous stores and catering facilities. There is also office and storage space on the upper floors. The stores are not subject to statutory opening hours, but are open from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. on all seven days of the week.

As Deutsche Bahn’s busiest long-distance station, Hamburg Central Station plays an essential role in the country’s rail traffic. The central building contains 14 above-ground tracks, while the subway stations Hauptbahnhof Nord and Hauptbahnhof Süd of Hamburger Hochbahn are located in the neighboring underground. The Hamburg S-Bahn also has a platform at Hamburg Central Station. Around 800 local and long-distance trains and 1,200 S-Bahn trains arrive at the station every day. 550,000 people travel here every day.

The main station is indispensable not only for rail traffic within the city, but also for the long-distance network. It is a hub for connections to the north, for example to Kiel or Denmark, to the north-east, east, south and south-west. Since 2010, Hamburg Central Station has officially been considered an overloaded rail route. According to former Deutsche Bahn CEO Rüdiger Grube, it is the biggest “bottleneck” in the Deutsche Bahn network. With its location on the eastern edge of Hamburg’s city center, Hamburg Central Station is also an important gateway to Hamburg’s city center. It is 800 meters from the town hall. The Elbe and the Port of Hamburg are just 600 meters away. The station is located on the site of the former Hamburg city wall and the old Steintorf cemeteries. The tracks roughly follow the course of the old moat between Hamburg and the former suburb of St. Georg.

Hamburg Central Station has to deal with both traffic and passenger congestion. It would be very difficult to expand it structurally. For this reason, several platform tracks have already been equipped with so-called passenger facilities so that two short trains can stop at the same platform. The planned S-Bahn line S4 is also to run through the main station and extend the S-Bahn service, which makes further development of the station even more important. For this reason, a conversion and expansion of the Hanseatic city’s main station is planned for the coming years. The aim is to significantly increase the capacity of this important transportation hub. At the same time, Deutsche Bahn and the City of Hamburg want to preserve the listed main building, which is also very popular with the people of Hamburg.

An urban and open space planning competition was completed in December 2021. It forms the basis for the next steps. The winner of the competition was the design by bof Architekten from Hamburg in collaboration with the landscape architecture firm hutterreimann from Berlin. The design, which is accompanied by a framework plan for urban development, envisages, among other things, covering the track area in the north and an extension with a covered passageway in the west of the station. New platform entrances from the extension at the Steintorbrücke bridge are intended to relieve the south side. A covered communal route for buses and cyclists is also being planned.

By the way: you can read more about the plans for the conversion and extension from our colleagues at Garten + Landschaft.

According to bof architekten, a 37-metre-high glass roof is also to be built over the Steintorbrücke bridge to relieve the strain on Hamburg’s main station. This would offer passengers the opportunity to stroll and change trains. Regular through traffic may have to be closed for this. These plans are currently being examined. The aim is to determine whether the proposals are feasible from an architectural and traffic perspective.

A number of short-term measures have been in place since 2019 to help relieve congestion at Hamburg Central Station. These include the removal of kiosks and extensions on platforms 13/14 and direct access from the platform onto the Steintordamm bridge to relieve congestion on the south side of the station. Further proposals are currently being examined. The expansion and conversion of the main station should help to make it fit for the future for the next 100 years. The duration of the necessary construction work is currently estimated to be at least 10 years, although there is still no concrete information on financing. Total costs of several billion euros and a start of construction in 2028 are currently planned.

Read more: Hamburg’s Speicherstadt, which is within walking distance of the main railway station, is one of the most important sights in the Hanseatic city. Read more about the UNESCO World Heritage Site here.