Germany‘s first underground railway opens in Berlin

At the end of the 19th century, Berlin already had an overground railway linking up points around its circumference and a further line running through its centre. In 1896, the decision was taken to build an underground railway to serve the needs of the two million Berliners. Despite this innovative move, the city authorities feared that too much tunnelling could undermine the new sewers and so decided that the first section should be built as an elevated railway. Whilst the part of the line running from Stralauer Tor at Oberbaumbrücke to Gleisdreieck and on to Zoologischer Garten would be in daylight, only the sections from Gleisdreieck to Potsdamer Platz and that east of Zoologischer Garten would disappear into a tunnel.

The inaugural ride on this new railway was taken by a group of the great and the good on 15 February 1902. With the line open to the general public weeks later, work continued to extend it in both directions. Berlin was the seventh city in the world to have an underground railway (the first was built in London in 1863).