Geheimnisvolle Orte - Der Ostbahnhof (WT)

More than one and a half centuries of history are hidden behind the walls of the „Silesian", the East Station Berlin. The documentary travels through the history of the giant railway complex and reveals it’s historic, political, cultural, secret service-kept, sociologial, criminological and further secrets.

The construction in 1842 – a political and economic development project of the state. Demanded by both the prussian military and the heavy industry. Only the prussian aristocracy isn’t too sure about it. Up high on a horse? Yes! Iron horses? No way! Nonetheless the trainstation gets build. In open field at first, with time a veritable station district develops, a real slum with misery, murder and manslaughter. The silesian train station turns into the center of the European East West connection, is endpoint or stopover for idea transfer and connecting link of empires, until everything changes after 1918 and then even more dramatically after 1945. Station and surrounding area are subject to loads of changes throighout the decades: from pronce’s station to the GDR’s governmental and later on central station. Today hip clubs and start ups border the train station, but glancing from Warschauer Street towards the sunset one can still imagine the significance Berlin’s East Station once held…