Beloved West Berlin Landmark Begins Rapid Decline

At first glance, it looks like the normal hustle and bustle around Berlin's classic upmarket shopping street, the Kurfürstendamm, in the western part of the city. Crowds move among bus stops, shops, a cinema, fast food restaurants across the street from Zoo Station (Bahnhof Zoologischer Garten) or to the erotic museum.

But come closer to the station and one can see that the busy street scene has been slightly deceptive. The vendor who once hawked crepes here is gone. The sausage stand has pulled up stakes and the baked goods seller has left as well. Only the Asian food stand remains.

Perhaps even more surprising is the absence of the usual array of beggars and drunks that have hung around the station since most people can remember. Even the punks sitting on the ground with their spiky, dyed hair and leather jackets, once a fixture, have moved on.

"It isn't that easy to see the difference at first," said Olaf Kehrein who commutes into Berlin from his home in the surrounding state of Brandenburg. "But it just doesn't feel the same."

Marginalized

As Berlin planners envisioned, travelers now catch high-speed trains to Germany's main cities and beyond from the new central station. So these days, a glance at the Zoo Station schedule shows trains only to nearby smaller cities such as Cottbus, Magdeburg or Frankfurt an der Oder.

And it shows.

The station's ticket office, once marked by lines and chatter, has become a lonely place. A few people mill about the main halls, but there is nothing like the teeming crowds that passed through here only a month ago. The coffee stands, the food market, even the chain stores, such as Tie Rack and The Body Shop, are empty at rush hour.

"We don't have much to do," admits one employee at a shop. "I fear for my job."

While merchants near the station report little drop in business so far, inside, a few stands have closed up shop. Most others are holding on. But Zoo Station just doesn't have the foot traffic of other regional stations such as the Friedrichstrasse Station in the central Mitte district. City officials expect more businesses to depart in the future.

"We'll see after the World Cup is over," said Monika Thiemen, the district's mayor. "But it already isn't looking good."

A legend

Zoo Station first opened in 1882 as part of the city's light-rail system. Soon after, national and international trains began to stop there, and at the turn of the century, Berlin's first subway line, the U2, started rumbling under the station.

During World War II, the station was heavily damaged. Ten years passed before it began handling train and subway traffic again. After the Berlin Wall went up in 1961, dividing the city, the station's prominence grew -- and it became a symbol of sorts, finding a lasting place in the hearts of West Berliners and becoming familiar to people around the world.

Then, it served as the west's main station and Berlin's link with West Germany. And since the center of pre-war Berlin was now behind the Wall, the neighborhood around Zoo Station became the focal point of West Berlin. Shops and restaurants thrived on the Kurfürstendamm shopping street nearby. That boulevard's famous Kaufhaus des Westens, or KdW department store, and the Europa Center shopping complex became beloved landmarks.

Young people used the station as a meeting place; some came there to deal drugs or engage in prostitution. It was the gateway for western tourists visiting the divided city, and a must-see for those arriving by air. The station was immortalized many times by musicians, artists and directors as the station served as a backdrop in movies, travelogues and in songs by the rock band U2 and singer Nina Hagen.

"It is just eerie now," said longtime Berlin resident David Ronhoff of the near-empty station, as he picked up a coffee. "It feels as if something good has come to an end."

Still fighting

Since Germany's rail system, Deutsche Bahn, announced plans to end stops of high-speed and international trains at Zoo Station last year, the community has been up in arms, staging protests, writing letters and pressuring politicians.

While Zoo Station still carries symbolic power and historical weight, nostalgia is not behind the fight to save it, says Mayor Thiemen. She and other local groups say the fact that trains from the new central station still run through the station but don't stop deprives people who live in the area of a convenient travel hub. She and her allies are planning more demonstrations, lobbying and other attempts to save the station after the World Cup is over in July.

"It makes no sense that they can't stop for a few minutes, and in doing so, give this part of the city access and keep businesses alive," she said. "We want Deutsche Bahn to rethink this but so far they are opposed."

"This is not an east-west thing or a West Berlin thing or even against the new train station," she added. "It is about keeping a part of our city vibrant and convenient."

On with the new

Across the city, in the once-barren area, a shiny, gigantic station -- and the largest in Europe -- is bustling with travelers and shoppers. Berlin Hauptbahnhof is the last of the big construction projects of the city's post-unification phase -- and, many hope, the start of a new chapter for a city which has seen lower population growth than once expected and thus far failed to emerge from its financial doldrums.

"We had big dreams after the Berlin Wall fell," said Michael Baufeld, a spokesman for the station project. "And with this station, we are hoping to make them more of a reality."

And in that reality, city officials say, Zoo Station isn't expected to play a major role.