Named after the Tierpark Berlin (‘animal park’), East Berlin's zoo.
With the Zoologischer Garten in the British sector, East Berlin had no zoo of its own; on 27 August 1954 the city council decided to create one in the park of Schloss Friedrichsfelde. The Tierpark opened in 1955, and its director Heinrich Dathe soon pressed for a rapid-transit link. The U-Bahn station in front of the entrance opened on 25 June 1973.