Kottbusser Tor (Berlin U-Bahn)



Kottbusser Tor is a Berlin U-Bahn station located on lines U1, U3, and U8. Many Berliners use the affectionate term Kotti (see Berlin dialect).

It is located in central Kreuzberg. The area has a bad reputation for the relatively high, mainly drug-related crime rate, instances of which have recently become quite rare in most other parts of the district. The original Kottbusser Tor was a southern city gate of Berlin; the road through the gate led via the Neukölln suburb to the town of Cottbus.

Trivia - K and missing h (Cotbusser Thor) rely to a language reform at begin of 20th century. See e.g., Stralauer T(h)or, or Cölln and Neukölln.

History
The station on the first U-Bahn line from Potsdamer Platz to Stralauer Tor was opened on 18 February 1902 on a viaduct above Skalitzer Straße. When the U8 was built in 1926, a new two-level station was constructed 100 m westwards to allow both lines to meet in one location, and the original station was demolished.

It was directly hit on 26 February 1945.