Berlin Ostkreuz station () (literally "Berlin East Cross") is a station on the Berlin S-Bahn suburban railway and the busiest interchange station in Berlin. It is in the former East Berlin district of Friedrichshain, now part of the borough of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg. A smaller part of the station is in Rummelsburg, part of the borough of Lichtenberg. The station is a Turmbahnhof ("tower station", i.e., a two-level interchange) with the Berlin–Frankfurt (Oder) railway ("Lower Silesian–March Railway") and the Prussian Eastern Railway on the lower level and the Berlin Ringbahn on the upper level. It is used by a total of around 235,000 passengers every day on eight lines, entering or leaving.
The station was completely reconstructed from 2006 to December 2018 while operations continued. In the past it was exclusively used as a Berlin S-Bahn station, but it is now also a stopping point for regional services.
History
A railway crossing point in the area later called Ostkreuz was created in 1871 with the commissioning of the Ringbahn, which there crossed the tracks of the Lower Silesian–March Railway (Niederschlesisch-Märkische Bahn, also called the Silesian Railway), which was opened in 1842, and the Eastern Railway, which was extended to Berlin in 1867. This crossing was supplemented by two connecting curves from the Ringbahn to the tracks towards the city in 1872. Initially, they only served freight traffic, but on 1 January 1872 passenger traffic ran from the newly built Stralau station on the south curve to the Niederschlesisch-Märkisches station (later called just the Schlesischer—"Silesian"—station, now the Ostbahnhof).
There was no station at the intersection of the lines at that time. A transfer station was instead built to the south at the junction with the connecting curve. It was initially called Niederschlesisch-Märkischer Anschluß ("Lower Silesian–March connection") and was renamed Stralau in April 1872. This provided connections between passenger trains on the connecting curve and commuter trains to and from the Silesian station.
Around 1880, the railway facilities in the area were completely rebuilt. While the Eastern Railway and the Silesian Railway formerly ran in parallel and ended at different stations, they were combined with the reconstruction of both lines east of the connecting curves to the Ringbahn. Passenger traffic of both lines ran to the Silesian station and subsequently the old terminus of the Eastern Railway, Old Ostbahnhof, served only goods traffic. Two lines connected the newly built shunting yards in Lichtenberg-Friedrichsfelde and Rummelsburg to the Ringbahn. Previously, freight trains from the lines from the east to the Ringbahn had to make an awkward reversal in the Silesian station.
During the construction of the tracks at the Silesian station, the passenger tracks running from there to the east were also rebuilt. The southern pair of tracks served traffic to the Eastern Railway and the Silesian Railway, which branched in the area where the Ringbahn crosses. The northern track pair was built in a slightly different position than the earlier connecting curves. It served only the suburban traffic and connected to the Ringbahn to the north and south. The construction of new connecting ramps in the area of the later Ostkreuz station, in a different location than the old ones, began on 1 September 1879 together with the reconstruction of the tracks in the Silesian station. During this work, passenger traffic was temporarily relocated to the old Ostbahnhof station. In July 1880, the Silesian station went back into service for passenger traffic, followed by further construction work to connect it with the new Berlin Stadtbahn. Stralau-Rummelsburg station was opened with the commissioning of this work on 7 February 1882.