The station building was fairly small in size and inconveniently located some distance from the Berlin city centre, south of the Landwehrkanal. The surrounding area in the Tempelhofer Vorstadt quarter was largely dominated by railway infrastructure. Close by were the approach tracks of the larger Anhalter Bahnhof and Potsdamer Bahnhof, and their associated goods stations and locomotive depots.
History
As a passenger terminus, the Dresdner Bahnhof was inaugurated with the opening of the Berlin–Dresden railway line on 17 June 1875. Trains ran to the Berliner Bahnhof in Dresden's Friedrichstadt quarter, about in the south, with through coaches to Prague and Vienna. Only a provisional half-timbered station building had been erected so far; plans for a large entrance hall were never carried out. The Dresdner Bahnhof was already closed on 15 October 1882. Following the recent rebuilding of both the Anhalter and Potsdamer passenger termini to cope with rapidly increasing traffic, all services were transferred from the Dresdner Bahnhof to these two other stations, the Anhalter Bahnhof receiving the lion's share. It took on all long-distance services, and it was largely through this that it became known as Berlin's "Gateway to the South," its trains ultimately reaching Rome, Naples and Athens. The Potsdamer Bahnhof inherited mainly short-haul and suburban traffic. After standing apparently unused for more than 30 years, in 1913 the Dresdner Bahnhof was incorporated into a much larger facility - the Postbahnhof, dedicated to the handling of mail. By then there were even more rails in the immediate vicinity following the arrival of the U-Bahn. Its original route, opened in stages during 1902, comprised a through section from Warschauer Brücke to Knie, with a triangular junction between Möckernbrücke and Bülowstraße giving access to Potsdamer Platz. This triangle of lines gave its name to the area, and also to the station constructed there. Following an accident on 26 September 1908, in which two trains collided on the triangle, killing 18 people and injuring 21 others, the layout was reorganised in 1912 into what can be seen today, with two lines crossing one over the other at right angles, and a split-level station with platforms on both lines. The Dresdner Bahnhof, and the Postbahnhof of which it became part, lay in the south-east quadrant, right in the angle between the two lines. In this guise it lasted for eight more decades, finally closing in 1997. In the photograph on the top, taken in October 2005, the bridge carries U-Bahn lines 1 and 3. A train crossing it from left to right will run into Gleisdreieck station just seconds later. Just beyond the bridge, the Dresdner Bahnhof is the mainly red brick building on the left, while the Postbahnhof is straight ahead. Both are nowadays used for concerts, parties, exhibitions and cultural events.
