Tempelhof Marshalling Yard (1891/1931)

From Train Station to Urban Wilderness – This marshalling yard was built to support the Anhalter Bahnhof freight depot at the end of the 19th century. It was then regularly expanded. At its most active, 130 freight trains were assembled and disassembled there each day. All that now remains of the yard’s massive locomotive depot are the engine shed and the 50-meter-high water tower. The yard was closed in 1952 by the East German State Railway, after which it was reclaimed by nature. In the early 1980s, a citizens’ initiative blocked the building of a new freight depot, instead proposing the area become a park. In 1993, the last train passed through the largely overgrown site.