A railway crossing point in the area later called Ostkreuz was created in 1871 with the commissioning of the Ringbahn which there crossed the tracks of the Lower Silesian–Marcher Railway ("Niederschlesisch-Märkische Bahn", also called the Silesian Railway), which was opened in 1842, and the Eastern Railway, which was extended to Berlin in 1867. This crossing was supplemented by two connecting curves from the Ringbahn to the tracks towards the city in 1872. Initially, they only served freight traffic, but on 1 January 1872 passenger traffic ran from the newly built "Stralau" station on the south curve to the "Niederschlesisch-Märkisches" station (later called just the "Schlesischer"—"Silesian"—station, now the Ostbahnhof).