This object shows an epoch-making technological leap forward. Where a fireman used to shovel coal and a train driver had to operate many levers to control the locomotive, since the introduction of electric train operation, a push of a button is enough. The driving key is used to set the acceleration and direction of travel. By pressing down the driving switch button, contacts close, the motors are powered, and the train starts moving. All S-Bahn-trains since the 1920s have had this convenient, physically easy-to-use technology. Some also call it the "dead man's button". But that is more the subsequently built-in SiFa-safety driving circuit (“Sicherheitsfahrschaltung”). It must be pressed regularly - with the left thumb of the hand resting on the controller - and released occasionally, otherwise the train will be forced to brake. The right hand is on the driver's brake valve. With this technology, safe driving is possible with only one person in the driver's cab. Modern trains also have these facilities, even if they look different today. With this model - around 50 years old – driving, using the SiFa and braking can still be practiced.

Today anyone can enter any platform without being checked. It was different for many decades. If you wanted to take a train, you bought a ticket (usually) at the counter, if you just wanted to go to the platform, e.g. to pick up friends, you bought a platform ticket. The card was checked at the barrier and punched/cancelled with pliers. When leaving the platform, the card was handed in at the barrier. This was done in small houses, usually occupied by two people - called "tubs" by the railway workers because of their layout. Bars and signs pointed the way to the entrance and exit. Later, ticket sales and controls were often combined in one step, which is why so-called “passimeter houses” were created, especially in West Berlin. The last closures in Berlin were at the Zoo long-distance station until the mid-1980s

While in the FRG and in West-Berlin uniforms have often been replaced by more civilian-style clothing for the staff since the 1970s, the GDR remained a uniformed state to the end. Railway workers wore a military-style uniform with insignia indicating their rank (epaulettes) and branch (color of the piping). This uniform was similar to the DR-uniform of 1937 – without the Nazi eagle, of course. The name of the railway also remained the same: Deutsche Reichsbahn. The cockade on the cap had changed: black, red and gold -just like in the west and different from other uniforms in the GDR, where the state coat of arms of the GDR was worn. The comparison between the uniform of the GDR-transport police (left) and a member of the DR-railway police in West-Berlin makes the difference clear.

https://s-bahn-museum.de/ausstellungen/fundst%C3%BCcke Fahrkarten rot und schwarz Das Tarifsystem der Berliner S-Bahn füllt ein ganzes Buch. Es wurde über die Jahrzehnte entwickelt und immer wieder verändert. Über viele Jahrzehnte – nämlich von 1944 bis 1991 weitgehend konstant, war das entfernungsabhängige System der Preisstufen. Eine Einzigartigkeit wird durch diese zwei Fahrkarten symbolisiert: die „klassische“ Druckfarbe für die Beschriftung war schwarz, bei z.T. wechselnden Fahrkartenformaten und –farben. Nach der Spaltung Berlins 1948/49 und dem Entstehen zweier deutscher Staaten, sah sich die DR mit zwei Währungen, zunächst DM (West) und DM (Ost) genannt, konfrontiert. Sie änderte die Farbe der Beschriftung der Fahrkarten, die für DM (West) ausgegeben wurden (aber weiterhin im ganzen S-Bahn-Bereich galten). Sie wurden seitdem (bis zur Abgabe der S-Bahn an den Senat am 8./9. Januar 1984) in rot bedruckt und waren so – z.B. bei Kontrollen an der Sperre – leicht von den östlichen Karten (weiterhin schwarz) zu unterscheiden. Anders im sonstigen politischen Alltag also, war West-Berlin „rot“… Tickets in red and black ink The tariff system of the Berlin S-Bahn fills a whole book. It has been developed and modified over the decades. The distance-dependent system of price levels was largely constant for many decades, namely from 1944 to 1991. A uniqueness is symbolized by these two tickets: the "classic" printing color for the lettering was black, with sometimes changing ticket formats and colors. After the division of Berlin in 1948/49 and the emergence of two German states, the DR was confronted with two currencies, initially called DM (West) and DM (East). It changed the color of the lettering on the tickets that were issued for DM (West) (but were still valid throughout the whole S-Bahn area). Since then (until the S-Bahn was handed over to the Senate on January 8/9, 1984) they were printed in red and were thus easy to distinguish from the eastern cards (still black) - e.g. when checking at the barrier. So unlike everyday political life, West Berlin was “red”…

Network map (“spider’s web”) Notices in trains or at stations with overviews of the routes were already common before the First World War. These plans were based on geographical conditions. With the network plan – also known as the “web spider” – from 1930, graphic abstraction made its way into the Berlin S-Bahn: lines were straightened out, the ring became a ring (instead of the previous “dog’s head”). The network structure was thus easier to grasp and the arrangement of the inscriptions was simplified. The Berlin S-Bahn, with its comprehensive range of routes, was one of the pioneers of modern information graphics and could compete with Harry Beck's famous London subway map. Over the decades there have been repeated changes up to the present day. "Graphic fashions", route expansion and renaming, but also the consequences of the political division were reflected in the design of the map. The spider’s webs were and are far more than just an overview of the routes and lines on offer - they are also a reflection of contemporary history. Today, the S-Bahn-, U-Bahn- and regional train lines are peacefully combined in the network map of the ABC fare zone.

For a long time it was a secret by whom and under what circumstances the S-Bahn-sign, officially introduced on December 1, 1930, was created. In January 2021, Mathias Hiller from the Berlin S-Bahn-Museum was able to determine the background. In 1929, the DR commissioned the well-known graphic artist Fritz Rosen to develop a catchy sign for Berlin's "city, ring and suburban traffic". After lengthy discussions and trials, Rosen designed the white S on a green background, which is still used today. Its meaning is now also clear: "Stadtbahn". The sign (in a varied round form) became the trademark of city and suburban rail services throughout Germany and is now also used in other countries in a different form and colour.

The Berlin S-Bahn: that is commuting to work on workdays, that is shopping, going to the cinema or to the Müggelsee to relax on a weekend. Of course, the S-Bahn also has its “highlights”. For example, a soccer match at the Olympic Stadium, the horses trot in Karlshorst or hundreds of thousands of young people from all over the world meeting on Alexanderplatz in 1973 for the World Youth Festival. Then there are special timetables and special trains and a lot of work for railway staff. Today there still is a special station at the Olympic Stadium; it was originally laid out before the First World War and was expanded for the 1936 Olympics and was then called "Reichssportfeld". The signs were later painted over with "Olympiastadion" and hung until the 1990s. When dismantling, the shrapnels that had punched holes in the metal during WW II fell down...

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, enormous structural and financial efforts were made to restore the S-Bahn- and regional train network, which had been neglected due to division, partial closure and investment backlog, and to develop it into an attractive alternative to the daily road traffic. In early 1990, a very first and more symbolic step was the introduction of a local rail service between Wannsee station in Berlin (West) and Potsdam-Griebnitzsee with double-decker trains on the long-distance tracks. Service opened on January 22, 1990. Initially, even the personal documents were still checked in these early days. The large green sign adorned the inaugural locomotive and hung in the Griebnitzsee S-Bahn-station for a long time, later in the neighbouring S-Bahn museum. Electric S-Bahn-service Berlin and Potsdam was restored on April 1, 1992.

An efficient, safe and dense train service is only possible with a purpose-designed signal system. The electrification of the Berlin city-, ring- and suburban railways in the 1920s also brought extensive changes in this sector. The old, hand-operated semaphore signals had become obsolete, at least in the heavily trafficked inner-city sections. An automatic line block controlled by the trains themselves with a close signal sequence was introduced. The electrically illuminated and operated daylight signals represent a connection between the main signal and the announcement of the next following signal (distant signal). A train sequence of up to 90 seconds became now possible. These signals (“Sv-signals”) were technically varied depending on the specific location in the network and were set up in two designs (“Stadtbahn”-design with individual screens and the more modern “Ringbahn”-design with changing screens). If the signal indicates a stop, a release lever on the train touches the stop on the route of the signal and triggers emergency braking a passing-by train.. Modern "Ks-signals" and electromagnetic fuses ("balises") have meanwhile replaced the old designs.

The „Kelle” , “trowel” (or officially “Befehlsstab” or “command baton”) was used to issue the departure order to the train staff. Even if it has largely disappeared today, it is used on special occasion, preferably by politicians to open new or reconstructed lines. These two ones represent important political moments in S-Bahn-history. The right one is signed by the then West-Berlin mayor Richard von Weizsäcker on the occasion of the takeover of the S-Bahn from the East-German DR in 1984 .His successor Eberhard Diepgen signed the left “Kelle” after the reopening of the “Wannseebahn” (S 1) on the February 1st 1985.