Neanderthal station

Neanderthal
Through station
General information
Location	Mettmann, North Rhine-Westphalia Germany
Coordinates	51°13′40″N 6°57′11″E / 51.2279°N 6.9531°E / 51.2279; 6.9531
Line(s)	Düsseldorf–Mettmann S28
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	n/a
DS100 code	KNEA [1]
Fare zone	VRR: 540 and 640[2]
History
Opened	15 September 1879 [3]
Services
Preceding station Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn Following station Erkrath Nord towards Kaarster See S28 Mettmann Zentrum towards Wuppertal Hbf
Location Neanderthal Location in North Rhine-Westphalia Show map of North Rhine-Westphalia Neanderthal Location in Germany Show map of Germany Neanderthal Location in Europe Show map of Europe

Neanderthal station is a Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn station in the town of Mettmann in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It was opened on 15 September 1879. It is located in the Neandertal (Neander Valley), which prior to the German spelling reform of 1901 was spelled as Neanderthal.

The reason why the outdated spelling of the station was not updated is not clear. In German, even the spelling of the Neanderthal man (whose fossils were first found in the area) has been updated to Neandertaler from the outdated Neanderthaler. The nearby Neanderthal Museum and the municipality of Mettmann have adopted the policy that all names referring to the prehistoric humans have the "h", so they in fact use the spelling Neanderthaler for the species, which is not done anywhere else anymore in German-speaking areas, but even they do not spell the valley in the outdated way anymore (except seemingly in the name of the museum, which is in fact English, not German). The municipality claims that the German rail authority would not change the spelling because of the proximity of the museum.^[4]