Heidelberger Platz

Posted bySarahPosted inArchitecture, Art, History, PhotographyTags:, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

 

I´m planning a new series for my blog: train stations of Berlin!

There are many, as you will see, beautifully restored train stations that look very different from the modern ones, giving us a sense of what it felt like to enter the train over a hundred years ago.

Today, I´m showing you photographs I´ve taken last week from the underground station “Heidelberger Platz” that´s situated in Wilmersdorf.

 

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Entering the underground station of Heidelberger Platz, Berlin (Heidelberger Platz, Sept. 2017, edited with Snapseed)

 

The train station was designed by Wilhelm Leitgebel and  has been opened in 1913, one year before the First World War began.

 

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Catching the Train (Vestibule and platform, Heidelberger Platz, Sept. 2017, edited with Snapseed)

 

During my studies I used to change here daily from the above ground train station of  Heidelberger Platz to this underground station to catch the train bringing me to my destination Dahlem Dorf where the Free University of Berlin is situated.

 

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Stone Pillar with Freemasonry sign (Heidelberger Platz, Sept. 2017, edited with Snapseed)

 

And although I did notice the train station´s splendor, it was only in passing. I never really took the time to appreciate and explore it like I did now.

 

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Archway (leading to the platform at Heidelberger Platz, Sept. 2017, edited with Snapseed) 

 

Now it´s time to deal with these lapses of the past!

And I hope you will join me on my discovery tour!

Published by Sarah

Artist & Illustrator

76 thoughts on “Heidelberger Platz”

  1. Hi Sarah, I just commented on your recent post and wanted to see your first of this series. These are amazing photos, and I love the old architecture and the fact that you didn’t choose color for your photos. The black and white and sepia tones are more time-honored and authentic for your purpose. Just wonderful, and I look forward to more…sending lots of love and hugs 💓💓

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    1. Thanks so much, Lauren! I´m a huge fan of monochrome photography and find it extremely helpful to accentuate especially architecture. Also there´s something so romantic about sepia that I can´t help but edit my pictures this way 😉 I can be quite old fashioned when I´m not sitting at a laptop 😉 LOL! Have a lovely week! Lots of love and hugs! ❤ xoxoxo

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  2. Pingback: Train Stations of Berlin: Hermannplatz | Art Expedition

  3. We rode trains and subways for the entire year in Berlin where I was a Fulbright teacher. We lived in the former East in Prenzlauer Berg district. Also rode the S-Bahn into the former East Berlin where I entered. It was not the usual Checkpoint Charlie entrance most Americans used. So much history to experience. Thanks for today’s visit. I enjoyed it.

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    1. It´s great that you´ve got know the public transportation system in Berlin in your time here. Many who can prefer to take the car but I think there´s much to be discovered riding all those trains. There´s a lot of history in those train stations and I hope my posts will do them justice. 🙂

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  5. Looking forward to ur series ! Isn’t it interesting how we see beauty in things we missed previously – and glad you thought of this blog post series – I look forward to seeing more of Berlin’s rich structures ☺️

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  7. These are great photos, Sarah. You are so fortunate to have such beautiful and elegant train stations. I wish I had such lovely architecture to enjoy where I am. This will be a terrific series, can’t wait to see more photos!

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    1. Thanks so much, Lana! 😀
      Well, admittedly not all train stations look as spectacular as this one here… maybe I should have picked a different one to open this series! 😉 Haha!
      Have a very lovely day! Much love to you! xxx

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    1. Thank you so much, Inese! I share the same soft spot 😉 And there´s always so much so see, not only architecture but people too, though it´s sometimes tricky to photograph them without them noticing 😉
      Have a very lovely week! xxxxxxxxxx

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  11. I want to visit Berlin – well, actually you 😉 – next year…planning to go by plane, but these beautiful photo’s might change my travelling plans…
    I especially love the gate at the first photo.

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  13. This is a great idea, Sarah!! Almost unbeliveable how grand and very special many train stations are with stunning atmosphere and so many photo options. Have fun! When you have finished with Berlin, travel the world in search for history, beautiness and surprise us❣️
    Hugs. x

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    1. Thanks so much, Dina! 😀 I get dizzy just imagining what you could do photographing this station! 😉
      I also look forward to discover all these train stations, and as you said: when I´m through with Berlin then the world will be my playground! 😉 😀
      Wish you a very beautiful and creative Sunday! xoxo ❤ 🙂

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  14. These are beautiful images Sarah. I love the way you have used sepia and b&w to really focus on the elegance and details. I’m looking forward to your series. I love train stations. For me, living in a country that only has about four old railway stations, it’s so exciting to see station architecture in other places.

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    1. Thank you very much, Su! 🙂 Yes, I remember you telling me that there´s not much to see railroad wise in NZ which really is sad. But all those glorious nature make more than up for it, believe – much more stunning and beautiful in my mind than any old station even if it´s a masterpiece of architecture 😉

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      1. NZ used to have both. It’s one of the saddest things that in the 19th century we built an amazing rail network — complete with grand stations in the four main cities. Then cars came along and now rail is neglected and underfunded. There is some rail tourism, a couple of long-distance passenger services and a bit of freight. Commuter rail is ok in Wellington and coming back in Auckland. Sigh.
        It’s still worth taking a train trip from Auckland to Wellington at least once (despite the uncomfortable seats), because the scenery is amazing. I made the trip once in my teens when they had sleeping cars and a restaurant. Tres cool, but long gone.

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      2. I hope that with the whole Slow-movement (slow food etc.), things like travel by train will be fashionable once again, so that they will have to invest a bit into the whole network and station system. Looking out of a train window is something so precious – you can´t very well enjoy this when you´re driving and there´s not much to see when you´re flying except during take-off and landing.

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      3. I agree about train travel. I really miss the UK for that. Even commuting was quite enjoyable because (as long as I actually got a seat) I could read and think and enjoy the view. 🙂 There is a movement here to expand the rail network. It would be great if that happens.

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  15. I love old train stations, and these photos are wonderful. We have a beautiful old station here in St. Louis, which sat in decay for a number of years until they finally restored it. I’m so glad they did…it’s gorgeous!

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  17. Sarah, this will be a terrific series of posts and I look forward to them! 😃 Often we rush past all the glorious architecture around us, particularly at busy stations and this one is well worth stopping to savour! Just beautiful, the grand arches framing everything in sight. I remember arriving late at night as a student at Leipzig station and I was just floored by the grandeur and size. Dropping suitcase to the platform, I just stood and spun around gazing up at the ceiling, across to all the platforms – I’d never seen anything like it…I was to discover Europe is amazing with its wonderful stations!

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    1. Thanks so much for your wonderful comment, Annika! 😀
      Oh, yes, the Leipzig station is stunning, I can very well imagine how you must have felt when you saw it 🙂 I always feel the same when arriving to any of the many marvelous stations here in Europe – all this grandeur and splendor! Makes one feel small in comparison but also in awe for the abilities of humankind to create beauty, doesn’t it?
      Wish you a very lovely Sunday! xo

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  18. Oh, how I am going to love this series, Sarah. I had no idea there were many train stations in Berlin. The art in architecture is breathtaking and beautiful, because it is on a grand scale. This post alone speaks to that. Thank you!

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    1. Thank you so much for your lovely comment, Jennie! 🙂
      Oh yes, there are a lot of train stations in Berlin – we have a very well developed public transport system that started over a hundred years ago and all of the early stations are still in use, though not all of them look as beautiful as this one 😉
      Wish you a beautiful weekend!

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  20. This is a wonderful idea for a new series, Sarah! I like how you chose B&W and sepia for the images to make them more vintage looking. The architecture of this particular station is divine! ❤

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    1. Thanks so much for your lovely comment, Christy! 😀
      I´m a sucker for monochrome photography, especially when it comes to architecture, so expect to get drowned in these kind of images in the next weeks 😉 LOL!
      Have a very beautiful autumn weekend! Here it smells wonderfully of all those leaves gently drifting on the ground, and I´m snuggled up in wooly jumpers already! xoxo ❤

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  21. Such great photos, Sarah, and they are indeed wonderfully restored! Beautiful ornate architecture. An interesting series you have chosen to share… looking forward to more… Keep warm and take care. 😃 ☕ ❤

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    1. Thanks so much, Iris! 😀 My heart always sings when beautiful architecture can be saved instead of being replaced with something new. 🙂
      Have a very lovely spring weekend! Hope the sun shines, birds are singing and joy fills your heart! ❤ xoxo

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      1. To tell the truth I live outside of Paris and I don’t go there often, but I know most of them don’t look good and they smell awful, except the Louvre Rivoli station, and maybe others but I am not an expert !!

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  24. I think it interesting that “Heidelberger Platz” is not in Heidelberg. But the architectural detail is stunning. They don’t make them like that anymore. I miss the detailed, artistic work. Cost prohibitive these days. Looking at things with fresh eyes is always good. I notice more when I am walking than driving or riding. We all tend to rush through life. I’ll look forward to your leisurely stroll through more train stations.

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    1. Thank you, Marlene! 🙂
      I totally agree: they really don´t make them like that anymore. Glass and steel are the main building materials everywhere, which of course can be quite appealing too, but there´s something to stone masonry that makes it so special, especially those wonderful details.

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  27. Oh how I will love this series! I am an absolute sucker for train stations. In fact, when I was in Moscow I think I spent more time underground than over on account of the stunning Metro stations. Grenoble Gare is modern so I probably won’t be trying to compete!! Your pictures of the detail at Heidelberger Platz are simply wonderful xxxx

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    1. Thanks so much, Fiona! 😀 I´m also an absolute sucker for train stations and the train stations in Moscow are standing on top of my secret “stations-I-have-to-see” list! 😉
      I´ve been doing a paper on Penn Station in New York once, which was one breathtaking jewel of train station architecture and had been demolished in the 1960s, I think, to make way for more modern utilities. Always makes me so sad and angry… I think that´s one of the reasons why I will try to photograph as many stations as I can here in Berlin because you never know what those idiots, eh, I mean politicians ;), come up with next…
      Hope you have a lovely day! Here it´s nightmarish! There´s quite the storm outside! Best to stay inside where it´s warm and cosy, drink tea and eat cake 😉 xxxxxxxxxx

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      1. Change for change sake makes me seethe. So many beautiful buildings demolished to make way for ‘progress’. I have seen pictures of the original Penn Station and it was a disastrous decision to get rid of it. I’m so happy that you are a station girl too. I was brought up in a village that boasts an Isambard Kingdom Brunel station as do most of the stops on the way to his jewel, Paddington. I think it probably infected my spirit a little. The weather here is hot (high twenties C) and cloudless. My neighbors upstairs have got a posse of children playing in the garden which is wonderful. We are in profiter du soliel mode for sure … tomorrow it’s supposed to be miserable! But as you rightly point out that means tea and cake and nice snuggly jumpers! Xxxxxxxxxx

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      2. Ahh, Paddington – what a beautiful jewel of station architecture indeed! I love it! 😀
        So lovely to have discovered yet another thing we both like!! 😉
        Here it´s still awful weather although the storm thankfully has left us. And I was true to my word and baked a cake after my grandmother´s recipe: a wonderful torta di nocciola! 🙂
        Have a very lovely evening and a stunning weekend! xxxxxxxxxxxxx

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