1972 Bau der Stuttgarter S-Bahn. Bauarbeiten vor dem Hauptbahnhof

Construction work in front of Stuttgart's main train station; the S-Bahn (suburban train) is being partially underground. As a Super 8mm filmmaker, I wanted to document this construction site that ran across the main station. On September 16, 1972, I was there, rang the bell at a high-rise building, was allowed up onto the roof, and was able to film from above. Then I continued filming across the entire construction site down to a depth of almost 10 meters. "Stuttgart – the city between holes and graves" "From the Facebook page of the Stuttgart Album" On July 2, 1962, the city began excavating its underground network. On that day, the first spade for the tunnel network broke ground at Charlottenplatz. It was a major undertaking – despite the massive construction project, traffic congestion on the surrounding streets was to be avoided. In 1966, the maiden voyage between Holzstraße and the State Theater was celebrated. It was to be the beginning of the great digging underground. On July 5, 1971, the then Federal Minister of Transport, Georg Leber, sounded the air horn to officially launch the construction of the S-Bahn (suburban railway). Stuttgart became a labyrinth of tunnels and earned the less-than-flattering nickname "City of Holes and Graves." The big yellow trams also disappeared from Schlossplatz (Palace Square). These were the legendary GT 4 trams. Unforgettable were the red folding seats and the yellow button at the exits, above which was the white text on a gray background: "Please press button to exit." Nostalgic Memories Forty-two years ago, a new chapter in the city's history began: On November 16, 1978, the last tram ran across Schlossplatz. After that, travel continued underground. Nostalgic Memories The idyllic scenes in the old photos, showing the tram still near the Königsbau (King's Building), prompted wistful comments on the Stuttgart Album Facebook page. "Back then, you saw more than just tunnel walls on those rides," wrote Marion Schmidt. But what would it be like if pedestrians, cars, and trams had to share Königstraße today? It would be a struggle—a fight for survival. Up to 10,000 pedestrians are counted in the pedestrian zone every hour. It wouldn't be possible to banish them all to the side of the street. Ramp at the level of today's Dandelion Fountain The lower Königstraße was already free of trams in 1976, two years before the underground Schlossplatz station opened on November 20, 1978, with the opening of the Arnulf-Klett-Passage. "There was a ramp at the level of today's Dandelion Fountain," recalls Harald Frank. In 1979, the upper Königstraße also became a pedestrian zone. Looking at the old photos in the Stuttgart Album, Marcel Zügel is pleased by "the great Eszet advertisement on the Marquardt Building." Looking back, he wonders "that nothing happened with so many trams and cars." But back then people were probably more "cautious".