The history of the Rosenstein development area

The first Stuttgart railway station was opened in 1846. It was built according to the designs of Karl von Etzel, a railway engineer and architect from Stuttgart. The tracks led from the central station on Schlossstrasse, today’s Bolzstrasse, towards Bad Cannstatt and Feuerbach – respectively along the outer edge of the Rosenstein development area (see illustration). The former track layout remains visible in the cityscape to this day. The arch of Pragfriedhof, opened in 1973, for instance results from the first ‘Gäubahn’ railway line with its first departure point on Bolzstrasse.

In the middle of the 19^th century, the administrative town Stuttgart grew rapidly. After only 20 years the Karl von Etzel railway station was too small. A new railway building was built between 1864 and 1864, also on Schlossstrasse, today’s Bolzstrasse. The archways on the classicist and neo-Renaissance façade still decorate Stuttgart’s Metropol cinema today. Again, a few decades later, around 1895, due to the continued growth of population, Stuttgart considered building housing on today’s Rosenstein development area. However, this was never realised.

Although the railway systems had been supplemented since 1868 by related facilities such as sidings and a freight depot, the space was not sufficient for the ever increasing transport needs. By the turn of the century, Stuttgart’s population had again doubled, the number of travellers even tripled. In 1907, the then King William II. decided to build a new terminus. For space reasons this terminus was to be built some 400 metres northeast of the old station on Schillerstrasse.

In 1914, the construction of the new terminus started. It was built according to the plans of Paul Bonatz and Friedrich Eugen Scholer, who won the architectural competition in 1911 from 70 designs submitted. Today’s 16-track station was completed in 1928. Surrounding green spaces and parks had to give way to the construction.

In 1994, the concept for the major project Stuttgart 21 was presented for the first time. It was planned to dismantle the above-ground tracks to create space for a new city district.

Freight transport had already been relocated to Kornwestheim in the 1980ies. As of 1998, the existing tracks were removed on the so-called A1 site and in 2001 the first new buildings for today’s Europaviertel were erected. Except for the A1 site, the State Capital Stuttgart bought all space vacated by Stuttgart 21 from the Deutsche Bahn. The aim of city is to develop a new district with the active involvement of the citizens.

In 2003, the City of Stuttgart acquired the Wagenhallen site and leased the building for cultural purposes and as storage space and workshops to Kulturbetrieb Wagenhallen GmbH & Co. KG.

The first work was carried out on the track field, representing the official start of the construction of the new underground station.

The city library on Mailänder Platz was opened. The outstanding cubic building by South Korean architect Eun Young Yi is spectacular enough from the outside, but its special spatial charm takes full effect inside. In the years following, Europaviertel was completed around the library.

Kulturbetrieb Wagenhallen closed its doors for about one and a half years as the hall was being renovated by the City of Stuttgart for some 35 million Euros. The rooms of the adjacent Kunstverein Wagenhalle were also refurbished and reopened in autumn 2020. Today, Wagenhallen is home to various cultural facilities and numerous studios of the Kunstverein [Art Association].

In 2019, the so-called Turmforum [Tower Forum], which had been showing an exhibition on the planned rail and urban development in the tower of Stuttgart Central Station since 1998, temporarily closed its doors. In May 2020, it was reopened under a new name and at a new location - directly at track 16. Since then, visitors get information about the current developments in the Infoturm Stuttgart [Info Tower Stuttgart].