Named after the Stresow, a part of Spandau on the east bank of the Havel.
The name Stresow is said to mean ‘secured river crossing’ in Slavic: here an old trade route crossed the Havel. The station opened in 1846 as Spandau’s stop on the Berlin–Hamburg railway, east of the river because the fortress town was subject to military building restrictions. Until 1997 it was called Berlin-Spandau; the S-Bahn station Stresow opened in 1998. The 1846 station building survives.