U-Bahn | Fotoeins Fotografie

Posts tagged ‘U-Bahn’

Berlin U5-Museumsinsel: Mozart, Schinkel, & Dudler

Above: Museumsinsel U-Bahn station entry-exit ‘A’. Photo, 17 May 2025 (P15).

The Berlin U-Bahn metro station Museumsinsel adjacent to the world renowned Museum Island is located on the U5 line which connects the city’s central station (Hauptbahnhof) with Alexanderplatz and the city’s eastern neighbourhoods. Construction for the station began in 2012 and lasted over 8 years. For the station interior at track level, architect Max Dudler was inspired by Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s 1815–1816 design of the stage for the Mozart opera “Die Sauberflöte” (The Magic Flute). For the appearance of the Queen of the Night, Schinkel imagined a large dome-like space like the overhead starry night sky. Over each of the two tracks in the U-Bahn station, Dudler designed a dark blue barrel-shaped vault embedded with thousands of white point-sources of light.

The fully-completed U5 extension from Hauptbahnhof to Alexanderplatz opened to the public on 4 December 2020, which at long last connected the Hauptbahnhof with Berlin’s U-Bahn city transport system. The Museumsinsel station on the U5 line opened on 9 July 2021. In addition to the city’s bus network, the station now allowed visitors to use the U-Bahn metro to reach the Museum Island complex, inscribed by UNESCO as World Heritage Site in 1999.

Artist and architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781–1841) has his “fingerprints” on many of the city’s early- to middle 19th-century architecture, including in the immediate vicinity of the station the Neue Wache (New Guard House), Schlossbrücke (Castle Bridge), Friedrichswerder Church, Bauakademie (Building Academy), and the Altes Museum (Old Museum).

( Click here for images )

25T33 Berlin’s U7: 4 stations,`80s rule, baby!

E32, B27.

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

*Station signage: U-Bahn line by number and colour, near-side train direction (to Rathaus Spandau), closest station-exits.*

Paulsternstrasse

*“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

*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.

*Fotografisch verfremdeter Halbleiterspeicher / Photographically altered semiconductor memory*.

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.

25T31 Berlin’s U3, from Wilmersdorf to Dahlem

E30, B25.

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.*

*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 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.

25T17 Among U-stations & murals

E16, B11.

I’ve long admired the street art by Hera+Akut, whose collaborative work between 2004 and 2020 was seen around the world; and now by Hera solo, whose work conveys clear messages about the universality of women’s strength and perseverance and their accomplishments. Their murals usually span the height of several storeys along the outside wall of a building (usually, an apartment building).

Today, I hopped into Berlin’s Wedding and Moabit to chase down a couple of murals, and in between, I found a representation of design variety for which Berlin’s U-Bahn stations have long been identified. Long-time residents and urban transit geeks have always known about this, but I feel the station interiors are worth showing.

*as long as you are standing, give a hand to those who have fallen. // solange du aufrecht stehst, stütze die, die Dich brauchen. In Moabit: 2018, by Herakut, Wes21, & Onur.*

*Note how the tusks extend beyond the building’s edge, and how there’s a tiny car suspended in mid-air at the end of the elephant’s trunk.*

*U6 station Wedding. Around 1200 CE, the village of Weddinge was founded by nobleman Rudolphus de Weddinge.*

*U9 terminus station Osloer Straße, also intersects with the U8 line.*

*U8 station Gesundbrunnen, which is a major suburban- & regional-rail junction, also known informally as Nordkreuz (North cross).*

*“Generation Equality” 2023 mural by Hera, for Street Art for Mankind, located in Wedding.*

*“Not caring is no option.” The protagonist is a health worker in green scrubs, her two daughters on her left shoulder.*

I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 24 May 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

Marienplatz, MVG München, U-Bahn, München, Munich, Germany, fotoeins.com

From the World Outside & Into Munich’s Metro

Above/featured: U-Bahnhof Marienplatz.

After dozens of visits since 2002 to Germany’s Munich, I’ve become familiar with the city’s transport network. For the city’s residents, the day-to-day work commute from the upside and into below can merge into a monotonous grind. The following images within five U-Bahn or metro sitations might challenge that notion with ghost-like and otherworldly appearances.

Georg-Brauchle-Ring

7am morning commute (IG)

Hauptbahnhof

Bahnland Bayern (IG)

Lehel

One foot in front of the other … (IG)

Marienplatz

U6, nach/to Klinikum Grosshadern (IG1, IG2)

Westfriedhof

Comings and goings (IG)

I made all pictures above between 22 and 24 February 2017 inclusive. Alle Fotoaufnahmen sind mit Wasserzeichen versehen worden. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins.com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-buj.