Built between the years 1914 and 1927 according to designs by Paul Bonatz, the railway station lent the city a new and contemporary face. With its distinctive facade of shell limestone shaped into rectangular blocks and its 58-metre tower, today the station building lends a classical ambience to the city centre. The strict, clear-cut contours of the mighty natural stone structure preside over the beginning of Stuttgart's pedestrianized main shopping artery, the Königstraße. The swampy nature of the terrain meant that the building had to be constructed on 3000 oak struts.

Stuttgart Railway Station. Photo: Stuttgart Marketing

After the war, the main train station, which served as a model for many technical buildings of the modern architectural era, was linked underneath the Arnulf-Klett-Platz - a square named after the Mayor who served the city from 1945 to 1974 - to an underground and high-speed city train terminal. This underground complex also houses the Klett-Passage shopping mall.

Four storeys of the station's large tower with its rotating Mercedes star have been given over to the TurmForum Stuttgart 21 exhibition, which deals with the Stuttgart - Ulm railway project. The project promises to afford the metropolitan region of Stuttgart significant opportunities for development. The main focus of the scheme is for conversion of the existing head station into an underground transit station. This will permit the existing surface-laid railway tracks in Stuttgart's city centre to be dismantled and cleared. The 100 hectare site which will be vacated offers outstanding opportunities for urban development: The future Europaviertel district will be given over to commercial, residential and retail use. The new library will provide the central focal point of the new city district.

The railway station tower by night. Photo: Stuttgart Marketing