Königliche Eisenbahndirektion Berlin, Administrative building in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, Germany
The former Royal Railway Directorate Berlin is a historicist administrative building at Schöneberger Ufer 1–3, designed by Armin Wegner and built from 1892 to 1895 in the forms of German Neorenaissance. The free-standing structure faces the Landwehrkanal and the Schöneberger Hafen, and its restrained brick facades were chosen for cost reasons.
Built from 1892 to 1895 to plans by railway building inspector Armin Wegner, the building consolidated the Royal Railway Directorate Berlin, which had grown out of the Niederschlesisch-Märkische Railway acquired in 1852 and managed the city railway, ring railway and all Berlin stations. In February 1895, just before the move-in, Minister Karl von Thielen reorganised the Prussian State Railways into 20 directorates, and the Berlin directorate was set up for about 600 officials and staff. On 1 April 1920 it passed to the Reichsbahn as the Reichsbahndirektion Berlin.
The building represents how railways became central to Germany's economy and growth during the late 1800s. It shows the importance that Berlin placed on transportation infrastructure as the capital expanded.
The building currently serves as the headquarters for the Federal Police Directorate 11 and is not open to the public. However, its noteworthy architecture can be easily viewed and appreciated from the street outside.
Because the site lay in West Berlin but belonged to the East-run Deutsche Reichsbahn, the building was an extraterritorial enclave where Soviet and American occupiers and the West Berlin police clashed after the war. From 1958 it housed a polyclinic for West Berlin Reichsbahn staff, a use that eased tensions.
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