S-Bahn-Symbole

Potsdamer Platz's ww2 S-Bahn sign

Photo: still from film, Collection Library of Congress NARA

Walking around the modern buildings at Potsdamer Platz and the immensity of the Sony Center in Berlin, few visitors notice a display case placed a few steps from the access hall of the underground station. Inside the glass façade, an old metal signal stands alone: the white S on a green background, saved from the 1939-1945 period as a reminder of the air bombings and war’s destruction in the city.

This vintage “S” is the S-Bahn Berlin icon trademark —which this year 2024 celebrates its 100th anniversary— and the keyvisual logo of the brand image of this blog also.

The surviving S-Bahn signal from 1945, pictured with the ubiquitous glass reflections from the display case in which is exhibited at DB’s Potsdamer Platz building. Photo by the author, 2018

This wartime signal is on display at the ground floor of the BahnTower next to the Sony Center. The glass 26-story, 103-metre skyscraper was built in the years 1998-2000, today home of the Deutsche Bahn AG’s headquarters (DB), the new railway corporation founded in 1994. Don’t know the exact date it was placed here but if I remember well during my first visit in 2004 it was already there, so most probably it was when DB established their home at Potsdamer Platz (some other vintage signs are preserved at the Berliner S-Bahn Museum in Berlin too.) During my last visit in August 2024, the framed old S-Bahn sign, placed a few metres away from the remains of Hotel Esplanade’s Kaisersaal (a survivor of the air raids and the 1945-battle too) was not accessible, surrounded by wooden walls and building works. Potsdamer Platz, the only place in Berlin which was supposed to be rebuilt and finished, right now is a construction site, yes, again. [EDITED March 2025: the sign is already free to visit it again.]

Taken just before the war, this colourised photo shows a street scene at the famous Berliner square. The modernist building Columbushaus (destroyed in November 1943) can be seen as background. Photo: The-Life-in-the-Reich Berlin

I took these pictures of the partly damaged S-Bahn sign in August 2018, safeguarded inside the building’s glass at Potsdamer Platz.

Photo by the author, 2018

Photo by the author, 2018

Today, the framed 1945 S-Bahn sign next to the Sony Center is not accessible, surrounded by wooden walls and building works. Photo by the author, 2024

Grün-weiße Symbol
A few years ago, the S-Bahn Museum was finally able to determine the origin of the white S on a green circle background: graphic artist Fritz Rosen created the iconic logo in 1929 at request of DR (receiving 800 Reichsmark as payment) and it was officially introduced in December 1930. Some say that the S stands for „Stadtbahn“, others refer to „Schnellbahn“ (fast train) but whatever the meaning was, it became the trademark of the railway’s urban traffic throughout Germany and an iconic logo.

According to TypeOff (an interesting blog about Design research and history), in 1935 the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft created a new lettering for use on all train stations signs in blackletter “German” style, in line with the National Socialist Germany principles. Its origin may come from the Element typeface, very similar in her Bold style. This lettering, which included the street-signals and the station’s platform walls, can be found at Nordbahnhof, Oranienburger Str, Brandenburger Tor, Potsdamer Platz or Anhalter Bahnhof stops among others.

Image of the exhibited vintage S-Bahn sign as seen in 2012. Close study of the image reveals wartime damage including one missing “P” letter. Photo by the author, 2012

Leipziger Platz in 1939, the recently built Potsdamer Platz S-Bahn entrances seen before the war’s destruction. Note the twin Potsdamer Tor house gates at right and the Mitteleuropaeische Reisebuero building in the background. Photo: © Historische Sammlung der DB AG, Max Krajewsky

S-Bahnhof Potsdamer Platz
The North-South S-Bahn tunnel was built in 1934-36 (already planned by the Weimar Republic) and the Nazi government expanded it in 1936 with this second underground link that included Potsdamer Platz-Anhalter Bhf-Yorckstraße. It was opened in April 1939, a few months before the outbreak of the war. Each of the nine exits of the station was marked by an S-Bahn pylon, as other stations in this route. Following wartime blackout policies, in 1940 the city’s S-Bahn poles and exit stairs were marked with white paint as were curbs and street signs.

Potsdamer Platz’s new station exits seen in 1939, looking into today’s Ebertstraße. In the background can be seen the Palast-Hotel (Mitteleuropäisches Reisebüro) at right, with Columbushaus building at left. Part of the New Reich Chancellery at Voßstr is also visible. Photo: picture-alliance

A German soldier going down the stairs to the S-Bahn station at Potsdamer Platz, 1939. Photo: df_ktgrf_0004602

Once described as the “most heavily bombed square in Europe”, Potsdamer Platz was badly hit during the 22-26 November 1943 RAF attacks, and during the June 21, 1944 and February 26, 1945, American air raids, a prominent target due to its proximity to the adjacent railway station and the Reich’s Chancellery complex at Voßstr, just one block away. The train service finally stopped in late April 1945 among fierce street-fighting (there is no power supply due to lack of coal).

Close examination of all known pictures taken in the aftermath of the war reveals that of the nine original “S” signs placed at Potsdamer Platz, at least six of them survived the battle with more or less damage.

22/23 November 1943: Haus Vaterland in flames following the heavy night raid by British RAF bombers. This dramatic picture is framed by the silhouette of the S-Bahn sign seen at extreme left, in this case the one located next to the railway station (Potsdamer Bhf -at right). Photo: Ullstein bild/ Archiv Golejewski_1010590618

These two opposite views of the northern part of Potsdamer Platz taken in early 1945 (by Arthur Grimm before the Soviet assault on the city) show bombing damage and debris, with two of the S-Bahn signs barely intact which could confirm us that the damage taken by those (seen on later pictures) came from artillery shells and subsequent street fighting with the Red Army, not from the 1944-45 air raids. Photo: ullstein bild

Photo: ullstein bild

Taken from Potsdamer Platz Nr 3 in early 1945, this picture shows the burnt-out facade of the Columbushaus and two of the S signal poles, still intact. Note at left the sandbags over the entrance railing for bomb splinters protection. Photo: ullstein bild_1010590626

View of the totally devastated Potsdamer Platz in the aftermath of the fierce battle, looking up north into former Hermann-Göring-Straße and Voßstraße, May 3, 1945. Three S-Bahn sign posts can be seen with the Columbushaus as background. Note the smashed ”S” sign and the group of Soviet soldiers gathering around the underground entrance. Photo by Elizaveta Mikulina MAMM/MDF

Leipziger Platz with the damaged Wertheim Kaufhaus as background, pictured on that same day following the conquest of the German capital by Red Army troops. We can see one of the S-Bahn entrances badly damaged (at left). Photo by Elizaveta Mikulina MAM/MMDF

A British soldier took this picture on July 7, 1945, with one of the entrances surrounded by battle wrecks —including an old Flak 8,8cm anti-tank gun and a Kübelwagen— and debris left behind. Notice the burn-out Columbushaus behind. Photo © IWM (BU 8688)

Close view of the same bullet riddle and torn S-Bahn sign at Leipziger Platz-Potsdamer Platz, July 1945. The destroyed facade seen behind belongs to the Mitteleuropäisches Reisebüro building, former Palast-Hotel. Photo: akg-images AKG55475

Ruined Haus Vaterland (designed in 1912 by Franz Heinrich Schwechten) seen some months after the end of the war, fall 1945. Note that both the U-Bahn lettering and the twin Potsdamer Ringbahnhof S-Bahn signs (at right) are missing, lost during the battle. Photo: ebay auction

Potsdamer Platz has changed a lot since the end of World War II. Already an irregular square in plan, this aerial picture helps us to create a visual guide to point every former building and the original nine S-Bahn exits located there during the war years. It was taken by an British PR aircraft on September 6, 1943, two months before the November RAF heavy air raids which left in ruins this popular place in Berlin. Photo: NCAP E/0138/ BerlinBombenkrieg

Divided Berlin: devastation around
By war’s end Potsdamer Platz was border of three of the newly born occupation sectors (British and US at West side—Soviet at East). In 1945 the square became the perfect place for Berliners’ Black Market in those days, with daily police raids, mobs and riots with occupation troops. The S-Bahn service wasn’t reopened until 1946-47 but a few months later the city division made that trains didn’t stop here anymore: Potsdamer Platz station would be closed for nearly 30 years, reopening in March 1992.

Photo by Henry Burroughs/AP 4808190260

Once a busy and traffic jammed area, by 1950-60 the square, now physically divided by barbed wire, armed guards and walled up, had become mostly an open space, empty, with most pre-war buildings being demolished except for the large train station and the ghostly Haus Vaterland whose ruins remained a few years more (1976). If you look closely at 1950s pictures, some of the “S” signs seem to have been replaced by metal discs. On the contrary, if you look at 1970 and 80s photos the underground entrances are still there (closed, of course) but the circled S signs are missing, just the poles remained.

Ernst Hahn took this picture of a policeman checking the papers of a man sitting on his suitcase in 1951 next to the S-Bahn entrance. The square became the perfect place for Berliners’ Black Market in those days. Photo: ullstein bild/ Archiv Hahn/ Weissberg

With the city divided in two in 1948, Potsdamer Platz became a new border between ruined buildings, policemen and warning signs as seen here from the East sector just before the Wall rising, 1960. Notice at extreme right the empty space left by the demolished railway station. Photo: Stadtmuseum Berlin SM 2014-1995,11

With the 1990 Reunification and the DDR-GDR collapse, life came back to Potsdamer Platz. The square suffered a huge redevelopment and much of the surrounding area became the most modern part of the city. The S-Bahn and subway entrances were refurbished and reopened and new “S” signs, reminiscent of those built in the 1930s but in modern style were installed on each output, as well as two new built entrance halls in the middle of the newly born square.

The Iron Curtain: one of the western Potsdamer Platz underground entrances during the Cold War, circa 1961. Note the missing circle-S on top of the pole, the early-style wall and the barbed wire. Photo: Central Press Images

Same spot seen in colour film in 1965. Photo: Stadtmuseum Berlin SM 2013-2890,141

Europe’s biggest construction site: When the underground station was reopened (both S- and U-Bahn) in 1992, temporary new signs were placed at the outputs. Here, the Ebertstraße-Voßstr. entrance seen in January 1993. Photo by @PETERSHAGEN/ Flickr

Today, green S-Bahn “S” signs in Berlin look like those in the 1930s, with a reminiscence of the original typography but in modern style and materials. Photo by the author, 2018

This 1945-relic, probably one of the few surviving items from the original Potsdamer Platz, have been witness of the terrific air raids, the bloody battle between the Potsdamer King Tiger and Soviet tanks in May 1945, the end of the Third Reich, the June 1953 uprising, the wall construction in 1961, the no man’s land and finally, the Fall of the Wall and reunification in 1989-90. A true reminder of Berlin’s convulsed 20th century.

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Bibliography and Sources:

• Berliner S-Bahn Museum. 100 Jahre Berliner S-Bahn. [Accessed October 2024]

• Ebling, Hermann. Berlin um 1950: Fotografien von Ernst Hahn. Edition Friedenauer Brücke, 2013

• Hailstone, Allan. Berlin in the Cold War: 1959 to 1966. Amberley Publishing, 2017

• Landesarchiv Berlin: LAB, A Rep. 001-02, Nr. 701, Bl. 176; LAB, A Rep. 001-02, Nr. 702, Bl. 99 ff.; s. a. LAB, A Rep. 005-07, Nr. 559, o. Bl.); LAB, A Rep. 001-02, Nr. 703, Bl. 31 ff

• Moorhouse, Roger. Berlin at war. Life and death in Hitler’s capital, 1939-45. Vintage Books, 2011

• Potsdamer Platz. S-Bahnhof Potsdamer Platz. [Accessed October 2024]

• SSB Berlin. Geschichte und Geschichten rund um die Berliner S-Bahn. Potsdamer Platz. [Accessed October 2024]

• TypeOff. Blackletter signage in the Berlin S-Bahn. [Accessed October 2024]

• Wildt, Michael and Kreutzmueller, Christoph. Berlin 1933-1945 - Stadt und Gesellschaft im Nationalsozialismus. Siedler Verlag, 2013

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