Approved in 1846, but then only used as a temporary solution: the Ministry of the Interior had approved a station building. However, due to financial constraints the construction works were interrupted in 1848. A warehouse cabin initially replaced the planned building. It was only 7 years later that a completely new design was developed. At the end of 1854, the new building was finally opened.
Friedrich Bürklein, the architect of the railway construction commission, worked on a strictly symmetrical design: two equally long side wings flank the three-storey centre building which is almost square-shaped. On the ground floor, waiting rooms and the ‘Billet- und Postexpeditionslokal’ (ticket and post office) were located. The district inspector lived on the 1st floor and the ‘Expeditor’ (stationmaster) on the 2nd floor.
During station redevelopment in 1892, the rail operator extended the building: the gable walls of the side wings were demolished stone by stone. After extending the walls, the gable was painstakingly reconstructed – an early form of recycling and an ‘architectural’ approach to historic building conservation.
An informative exhibition on the Frankenwald and Schiefe Ebene has been housed here since 1994.
