In West Berlin and still hemmed in by the surrounding Berlin Wall, new residential developments established to the city’s northwest, and by the late-1970s many recognized the great need to extend the underground lines to service the new residents. The U7 line in the northwest extended to Rohrdamm by 1980; and by 1984, the section from Rohrdamm to Rathaus Spandau officially opened for public service.
Are these designs a sign of the times (i.e., the 1970s and 1980s)? What more can I say: I’m a product of the `70s and `80s, and these patterns and colours seem “natural” to this greying traveller. 🫶🏽
Close-up of the U7 track map in Spandau, by Christian Stade on www.gleisplanweb.de (CC BY-NC-SA). I’ve highlighted in blue the stations featured here in alphabetical order: Halemweg, Paulsternstrasse, Rohrdamm, Siemensdamm.
Halemweg
U7 station Halemweg, track level. The station opened for public service on 1 October 1980. (Now technically, Halemweg is in Charlottenburg-Nord, but close enough.)
Halemweg: how orange is now?
Station signage: U-Bahn line by number and colour, near-side train direction (to Rathaus Spandau), closest station-exits.
Paulsternstrasse
U7 station Paulsternstrasse, track level. The station opened for public service on 1 October 1984.
“Look at the stars, look how they shine for you …”
Station signage: U-Bahn line by number and colour, near-side train direction (to Rathaus Spandau), closest station-exit and additional transport connection.
U7 train departing Paulsternstrasse for Rudow.
Rohrdamm
U7 station Rohrdamm, track level. The station opened for public service on 1 October 1980.
Station signage: U-Bahn line by number and colour, near-side train direction (to Rudow), closest station-exits and other transport connections.
U7 train departing Rohrdamm for Rathaus Spandau.
Siemensdamm
Erste elektrische Lokomotive der Welt auf der Gewerbeausstellung in Berlin, 1879 / The world’s first electric locomotive at the 1879 trade fair in Berlin: oh look, it’s Berlin company Siemens & Halske in the picture.
U7 station Siemensdamm, track level. The station opened for public service on 1 October 1980. The Siemens family and business(es) have had a massive impact on the engineering and economic development of Berlin and Germany.
I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 9 June 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.
My first visit to Berlin took place in 2002, when I lived and worked in Heidelberg. In many returns through the years since, I’ll usually pass by grand Brandenburger Tor, feeling like the first time. But in the last two visits in 2017 and 2021, I didn’t give the Gate or much thought. But this is 2025.
Afternoon light through variable cloud cover. Victoria and the Quadriga on top of the gate are facing away, to the east. The former East Berlin TV tower’s “disco ball” is visible at left.Behind me is…
…”The Crier” (or shouter) by German sculptor Gerhard Marcks, placed here in May 1989 in what was West Berlin. The shouts are directed towards former East Berlin.
Platz des 18. März (March 18th Plaza), facing east. Through the gate on the other side is…
…Pariser Platz, seen here facing west.
There’s Victoria and the Quadriga, which Napoleon took back with him to France, when the French had one-upped the Prussians. The French lost and eventually left, and the Quadriga returned to Berlin.
Late-spring can bring occasional (thunder-) showers, preceded typically by dark swaths of low menacing clouds. But I also wanted to use this to comment about the alarming rise of the far-right in regional and national politics.
Time to head underground for the trains there.
S-Bahn station Brandenburger Tor, for the north-south S-Bahn lines. The name of the station used to be Unter den Linden (in the Fraktur font) which has been reassigned further east to the recently opened U-Bahn station-exchange for lines U5 and U6. Below the “now and then” signageis an aerial nighttime shot of Brandenburg Gate.
I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 8 June 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.
One-third of the 2025 travel summer is complete; 30 days done in Europe’s Schengen Zone, 60 more to go.
What is now the U3 line through southwest Berlin began life as an “brand new extension of transport service” into a growing part of the capital city in the early 20th-century. These are 5 to highlight here.
Heidelberger Platz, 1883.
Podbielskiallee, 1913.
Dahlem-Dorf, 1913.
Freie Universität (Thielplatz), 1913.
Krumme Lanke, 1929.
I’m learning about Alfred Grenander’s architectural fingerprints in Berlin, particularly with the U-Bahn stations which remain today.
Track level, U3 station Heidelberger Platz.
Images of Heidelberg appear in alcoves throughout the station. The image at centre is…
…a well-known and well-photographed motif: “view of Heidelberg from Philosophers’ Path”. I have fond memories of living there from 2001 to 2003.
U3 station Podbielskiallee.
The top of the weather vane says “1913”, and inside the white-U are 3 fish. The name appears in the German Fraktur font.
U3 station Dahlem-Dorf with its famous thatched roof.
Interior, U3 station Dahlem-Dorf.
Interior from street-level down to track-level, U3 station Dahlem-Dorf.
U3 station Freie Universität, originally called Thielplatz: entrance building.
U3 terminus (for now) Krumme Lanke, track-level.
In front of Krumme Lanke station at street level is an open plaza named after Alfred Grenander, who designed in 1929 this very modern-looking entry building for the station.
“Alfred Grenander (1863-1931), Swedish architect who designed around 70 stations for the Berlin elevated and underground railway from 1902 to 1931, as well as the entrance building at Krumme Lanke station.” This sign appears just outside Krumme Lanke station and next to Fischerhüttenstrasse.
U3 line map, from Krumme Lanke station (via QR by BVG). Intersections with U-Bahn and S-Bahn are shown, as well as travel times to other stations on the U3 line. In full operation, a complete one-way trip to Warschauer Straße is 40 minutes.
Except for the very final image (Perlschnur), I made all other images above with an iPhone15 on 7 June 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.
With today come and gone, I’ve completed one-half of my time in Berlin; I have 24 days remaining in the German capital.
I discovered a little cork figure one fine morning next to a memorial in commemoration of a workers’ rebellion. Later that afternoon, I found another “Korkmännchen” (little cork-figure) near Anhalter Bahnhof.
There are hundreds of these little corkers throughout the city; the estimate may be closer to a thousand. Since about 2009, a yoga-trainer, Josef Foos, made little cork figures often in yoga poses and placed them on various street signs in Berlin. For their poses, the figures are also called Street-Yogis.
Naturally, it’s always worth paying attention at a crosswalk next to a busy intersection. There’s potential payoff on the extra in Berlin.
At the plaza of the people’s uprising in 1953.
Content, at the corner of Leipziger Straße & Wilhelmstraße.
Dark clouds hang over Askanischer Platz.
In silhouette.
There’s one corker of a symphony out there somewhere …
I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 5 June 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.
When David Bowie’s name is called, Berlin is rarely far behind.
Hansa-Tonstudios (Hansa Studios) is located on quiet Köthener Strasse, not far from Potsdamer Platz (U-Bahn, S-Bahn). In front, a glowing black and white picture of Bowie appears in the window. The studios are still a working facility and not open to the public; there’s an extra sign in the window to sign up for public tours.
Hansa is where Bowie recorded his Berlin trilogy of albums: “Low”, “Heroes”, and “Lodger.” Other notable artists and bands to record at Hansa include: Iggy Pop, Depeche Mode, U2, R.E.M., Herbert Grönemeyer.
Just south of U7 station Kleistpark is Hauptstrasse 155 in Schöneberg, where a memorial plaque commemorates the two years Bowie lived in this very same building from 1976 to 1978. One of his neighbours was Iggy Pop. It all seems very modest, but the decorative elements above and below the plaque make it certain we’re referring to the ultimate Spaceman.
Street entrance to Hansa Studios (and the Meistersaal).
The working studios are not open to the public; access only via guided tours.
Building entrance (left) to Hauptstraße 155, in Schöneberg, just south of U7 station Kleistpark.
Berlin memorial plaque: In diesem Haus wohnte von 1976 bis 1978 David Bowie (8 Jan 1947 – 10 Jan 2016). In dieser Zeit entstanden die Alben “Low”, “Heroes”, and “Lodger”. Sie gingen als Berliner Trilogie in die Musikgeschichte ein. (David Bowie lived in this building from 1976 to 1978. During this time, he created the albums “Low,” “Heroes,” & “Lodger”, known as the Berlin Trilogy.
“We can be heroes, just for one day.”
Extra decorative elements above and below the plaque.
By actual turns, my big goal today was a return to C/O Berlin, where on this 2025 visit I learned about German artist Julian Rosefeldt in his exhibition “Nothing Is Original”. I’m now a little obsessed with finding and watching in full his 2015 piece “Manifesto”, featuring the great Australian Cate Blanchett in multiple roles reciting various (artists’) manifestos.
I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 5 June 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.
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