Atlas Sculpture - Central Station Hamburg

After 80 years, the former landmark of Hamburg's main railway station has been returned to its original position in an elaborate restoration. The ‘Atlas Sculpture’, which stood with an identical figure on the historic axis of the concourse until the 1940s, was destroyed during the Second World War. Railway workers rescued the figures, joined them together and erected the Atlas in the former railway housing estate in Wilhelmsburg. The housing association ‘Vonovia’, the current owner of the estate, had the 2.80 m high, 270 kg sculpture restored and then returned it to Deutsche Bahn and Hamburg Central Station.

In addition to the static calculations for the installation of the ‘Atlas’ on the roof resp. the arched portal of the West Hall of Hamburg Central Station, Bollinger+Grohmann developed the supporting structure for the internal structure of the sculpture, the base construction and the exhibition concept for the ceremonial handover in the entrance hall. The substructure of the sculpture for the arched portal was designed as a steel construction with hollow sections and anchored to the existing structure.