Hamburg Hauptbahnhof
A single steel arch, more than seventy metres wide, throws one clear span over all the platforms at once.
At a glance
Hamburg’s main station opened in 1906, designed by Heinrich Reinhardt and Georg Süßenguth. Its great hall is roofed by one enormous arch of steel and glass, springing from side to side without a column on the platforms, with two towers marking the cross-building above. It is one of the busiest stations in Germany and one of the most impressive halls of its kind.
Key facts
- Location: Hachmannplatz, central Hamburg
- Architects: Heinrich Reinhardt and Georg Süßenguth
- Opened: 1906
- Structure: a single wide steel-and-glass arched roof
- Function: central railway station
History
Hamburg replaced several scattered termini with one central station, and held a competition won by Reinhardt and Süßenguth. They roofed the tracks with a single bold span so nothing would block the view across the hall.
Opened in 1906, the station survived war damage and rebuilding to remain the hub of the city’s railways. A cross-building on a bridge over the tracks carries the concourse and the towers.
What you see
The roof is the marvel: one glazed steel arch vaulting the whole width of the tracks, so the platforms lie open under a single sky of glass. Across the middle, a raised concourse spans the trains, and two towers rise above it. The scale of the hall still stops travellers in their tracks.
Practical information
- Open: daily, as a working station
- Cost: free to enter the hall
- Best for: the great arched roof seen from the concourse bridge
- Time needed: 15–25 minutes
Getting there
The Hauptbahnhof is in the centre of Hamburg, a hub for national, regional, S-Bahn and U-Bahn services, beside the Kunsthalle and the inner-city lakes.
Nearby
- Hamburger Kunsthalle — the art museum beside the station
- Binnenalster — the inner lake, a short walk west
Sources
- Encyclopædia Britannica / Wikipedia — Hamburg Hauptbahnhof
- Deutsche Bahn — station heritage information
- Wikimedia Commons — image source and licence
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