U-Bahnhof Rosenthaler Platz

One of the first ghost stations to reopen after the Wall fell, on 22 December 1989, with a provisional border checkpoint hastily set up on the platform. When workers first entered, they found 1961-era advertisements still on the walls, unchanged for 28 years.

The speed of Rosenthaler Platz’s reopening, just six weeks after the wall was breached, reflected the overwhelming public demand for reconnected transit. A provisional border checkpoint was hastily assembled on the platform, with passport controls allowing East Berliners to exit at a station that had been sealed for 28 years.

When maintenance workers first entered the sealed station, they discovered 1961-era advertising posters still on the walls, unchanged for nearly three decades. These discoveries of unchanged interiors became one of the most memorable images of the ghost stations, a vivid reminder of how abruptly the wall had cut through Berlin’s everyday infrastructure.

 Show me on the map

Gallery