The station opened on 14 May 1906 under the name
Bismarckstraße in the course of the first western extension of the 1902
Stammstrecke route, which originally ran from Warschauer Brücke (now
Warschauer Straße) to Knie (now
Ernst-Reuter-Platz). At the same time, the Wilhelmplatz (now
Richard-Wagner-Platz) station was put in operation as the western terminus. The architect
Alfred Grenander had designed Germany's first U-Bahn station with four tracks, in consideration of the future branch-off to Reichskanzlerplatz (now
Theodor-Heuss-Platz) in
Westend that went into service on 29 March 1908. The station was renamed
Städtische Oper on 1 August 1929,
Deutsches Opernhaus on 16 August 1934, and received its current name on 22 September 1961. Service between this station and Richard-Wagner-Platz (now on the
U7) ceased on 1 May 1970, leaving the two central tracks unused, however the tunnel remains and is used for maintenance service between the U2 and U7 lines. U7 service to the new
Bismarckstraße station began on 28 April 1978 On 8 July 2000, during the
Love Parade, a fire broke out at Deutsche Oper, injuring 21, destroying an U-Bahn train and severely damaging the station. As the only exits were at the western end of the platforms, passengers had to flee in the tunnel. As a result, the
BVG decided to build a new eastern exit and reopened the station on 1 September 2000 in a renovated 1906 condition. The walls are furnished with tiles designed by
José de Guimarães, a gift from the
Portuguese ambassador in Berlin. The station is featured in
Rammstein's 2004 music video for
Mein Teil and also in the movie
Run Lola Run by
Tom Tykwer. == References ==