Winter night at Berlin Central Station by Silva Wischeropp

Berlin Hauptbahnhof, colloquially known as Berlin Central Station, is the most important passenger railway station in Berlin and the largest tower station in Europe. With 329,000 travellers and visitors every day, it is the fourth busiest long-distance railway station in Germany after Hamburg, Frankfurt (Main) and Munich.

The junction station with 14 platform tracks is a transfer point between long-distance passenger services (Intercity-Express, Intercity/EuroCity, ÖBB Nightjet, Flixtrain) and local passenger services (S-Bahn, Regionalbahn, Regional-Express). Around 1300 long-distance and local trains stop at the station every day.

The underground station of the same name provides a connection to the U5 line of the Berlin underground. Further public transport connections are available in front of the station with the inner-city bus service (including metro and night buses) and the BVG tram (lines M5, M8 and M10).

The striking building was designed by the architect Meinhard von Gerkan. Together with the station, a new north-south railway line through the Nord-Süd-Fernbahn tunnel was put into operation on 28 May 2006, realising a complete conversion and reorganisation of rail passenger transport in Berlin through the so-called "mushroom concept".

The Lehrter railway station, built in 1868, opened in 1871 and closed in 1951, and the Lehrter city railway station from 1882 to 2002 already stood on the site north of the Spreebogen.