Demminer Bahnen

The Demminer Bahnen comprised an extensive network of small railways with a gauge of 750 millimeters under the umbrella of the Pomeranian State Railways . Its tracks were almost exclusively in the Demmin district, which at the time was still completely part of Western Pomerania . Hence the name Demminer Bahnen. Only a few sections of the Western Railway were in Mecklenburg territory.

prehistory

After the Berlin – Neubrandenburg – Demmin – Stralsund connection had already been operated by the Berlin Northern Railway since January 1, 1878 , towns and villages off this route also tried to get a railway connection. In what was then the district of Demmin, reliable means of transport had to be created, especially for the agricultural products of the estates and manor villages of the large landowners. In May 1893, the Lenz & Co company had started preparatory work for a small railroad project. After various investigations into the possible track width, the track width was set at 750 millimeters in February 1895, mainly in order to receive the construction cost subsidy from the provincial government.

AG Demminer Kleinbahnen Ost (DKBO)

Demmin – Jarmen / Altentreptow Landesbahn
Route network of the DKBO in orange
Route length:	63.3 km
Gauge :	750 mm ( narrow gauge )
Legend 0.0 Demmin Klbf from the train station to the Demminer Hafenbahn (three-rail track) to Metschow (DKBW) to Neubrandenburg 4.7 Gravel pit (1927) 5.1 Eugenienberg 6.4 Siedenbrünzow to Tutow 8.8 Vanselow 10.8 Schmarsow 0.0 0.7 Schmarsow soft 0.0 Tutow junction 3.5 Tutow Airfield 3.9 Heydenhof 5.8 Suddenly 7.8 Wilhelminenthal Müssentiner forest 10.2 Must be Zarrenthin gravel pit 12.4 Jarmen Jarmen sugar factory to the Greifswalder Bahnen 13.2 east 16.7 Old Tellin 17.7 Siedenbüssow 21.2 Daberkow 22.4 Hedwigshof 22.9 Pritzenow 26.0 Bartow 26.8 Wüstenberg switch 27.4 Big Below 29.7 Breest Land moat 34.7 Kölln 36.6 Wodarg 38.7 Boilerbollentin 41.0 Werder 43.2 Grischow 46.4 Grapzow 48.7 Treptower Tollense brickworks Tollense viaduct 220 m Demminer Chaussee Loickenziner way Barkower Strasse from Metschow (DKBW) 50.9 Altentreptow Landesbahn crossing DR

It all began with the establishment of Demminer Kleinbahnen AG on March 14, 1895. The construction of the railway line was entrusted to the leading small railway construction and operating company Lenz & Co. from Stettin, which also looked after the railway operations until 1910. On April 1, 1910, this task was transferred to the small railway department of the Provincial Association of the Province of Pomerania in Stettin . The initial capital was 1,532,000 Reichsmarks. Of this, 39.2 percent went to the district municipal association Demmin, 27 percent to the provincial association of Pomerania and 33.8 percent were held by Lenz & Co.

The first 23-kilometer route led from January 23, 1897 from the newly built small train station in the former district town of Demmin via Schmarsow to the east, until the town of Jarmen , which, like Demmin, is located on the Peene , was reached. From the Demmin train station site, it initially ran downhill parallel to the Demmin – Neubrandenburg standard gauge line, and then crossed under this route with a sheet metal girder bridge near the Tollense . Initially following the Tollense, up to the Siedenbrünzow station parallel to the 1935-built standard gauge line to the Tutow airfield , the small train reached the Schmarsow branch station at 10.84 km. Instead of the corrugated iron shack that is usual at the DKB stations, a three-storey reception building was located here from 1898. At the Plötz train station, the route changed direction to the north.

After driving through the Müssentiner forest and crossing the cuckoo ditch in front of Müssentin, the town of Jarmen was reached. Here it was connected to the Greifswald – Jarmen (GJK) small railway in the same gauge, with which it shared the small Jarmen railway station. The Jarmen sugar factory, the gravel pit near Zarrenthin and the Agricultural Purchasing and Sales Association (LEVV) were also connected to the small railway here. Jarmen harbor could be reached via the GJK track. A transshipment track for the Mecklenburg-Pomeranian Schmalspurbahn AG (MPSB) line to Friedland , which was planned as early as 1899 and was built with a gauge of 600 mm, could only be built in 1912 in connection with the construction of the new LEVV storage facility at the port due to the lack of interest on the part of the MPSB become.

From Schmarsow at the same time the second section continued, first parallel to the Tollense in a south-easterly direction. From Siedenbüssow it ran in an easterly direction, crossing Reichsstraße 96 at Hedwigshof, to Pritzenow and then swung back to the southwest. The station in Bartow , with a connection to the local dairy, was the largest intermediate station on the route. The valley of the Great Landgrave was crossed at Breest .

The section between Grapzow and Treptow an der Tollense was the most expensive and demanding. In order to avoid steep inclines to the Tollensetal, deep cuts in the terrain were necessary. The last two kilometers the route ran on a six to eight meter high dam, which was interrupted by bridges over the Tollense and three roads. Particularly noteworthy is the Tollense Viaduct, which, with its 220 meter long steel construction, was the longest bridge structure of all Pomeranian small railways.

After a journey of 40 kilometers, the Stralsund – Neubrandenburg state railway was reached in Treptow on the Tollense. When the line was opened, the section between Schmarsow and Grapzow was only permitted for limited public freight traffic. Here passenger traffic was only started on June 5, 1897 to Treptow.

In 1935 the DKBO transported 63,333 people and 115,348 tons of goods.

vehicles

Vehicles before 1949

Type / series	Company number		design type	Construction year	comment
	DKBO	Pomeranian State Railways
Lenz type m	1 m -5 m	206-209	B n2t	1896-1897	2 m 1947 rebuilding with parts of 1 m and 4 m , redrawn in 1949 as 99 4601; 3 m retired in 1935, 5 m as reparation payment to the Soviet Union
Lenz type or similar	6 o	223	C n2t	1899	1945 as a reparation payment to the Soviet Union
Lenz type nn	11 nn	246	B'B n4vt	1909
Lenz type M	51 M.	251	D n2t	1914	1945 as a reparation payment to the Soviet Union
Lenz type Dh	52 Dh	261	Dh2t	1912	Formerly Bleckeder Kleinbahn No. 5, from 1922 Schlawer Bahnen No. 8, from 1935 with DKBO

AG Demminer Kleinbahnen West (DKBW)

Demmin – Stavenhagen Klbf – Bredenfelde
Route network of the DKBW in light green
Route length:	50.6 km
Gauge :	750 mm ( narrow gauge )
Legend 0.0 Demmin Kleinbahnhof Demminer Hafenbahn to Schmarsow DKBO Tollense 4.8 Lindenfelde 7.5 Lindenhof 9.8 Pentz 10.7 Metschow to Altentreptow (see below) 13.1 Borrentine 15.2 Gnevezov 16.6 Wolkwitz 19.1 Old Sommersdorf 20.8 New Sommersdorf 23.4 Grief 25.1 Grammentin Forst 27.4 Wüstgrabow Mecklenburg-Strelitz Güstrow – Neubrandenburg 30.4 0 Stavenhagen connecting station 31.2 1.2 Stavenhagen small train station 3.1 New courtyard 5.1 Pribbenow 6.3 Rottmannshagen switch to Prussia 8.1 Rottmannshagen to Prussia 9.3 Zettemin to Prussia 10.8 Zettemin connection to Prussia 12.2 Rützenfelde to Prussia Kittendorfer Peene 14.0 Clausdorf 15.4 Central courtyard 17.2 Kittendorf 19.8 New Bredenfelde 20.4 Groß Varchow connection 20.6 Bredenfelde
Metschow – Altentreptow state railway
Route length:	42.1 km
Gauge :	750 mm ( narrow gauge )
Legend 0.0 Metschow to Stavenhagen 1.9 Schwichtenberg 2.7 Schwichtenberg connection 4.8 Hohenbollentin Dig 7.3 Gehmkow 9.5 Body 10.6 Sarov 14.4 Altenhagen 15.7 Neuenhagen 19.0 Tützpatz 21.2 Shosov 24.6 Japzow 26.4 Wildberg connection 28.2 Wildberg 29.2 Mop house 31.0 Volkov 33.0 Rottenhof 35.8 Small tea life 37.7 Thalberg Stavenhagener Chaussee Stralsund – Neubrandenburg Barkower Strasse from Schmarsow DKBO 42.1 Altentreptow Landesbahn

The development of the eastern district area also aroused interest in new railway lines in the western part. There had already been plans before the turn of the century, but Lenz & Co. had only found the route in the eastern section to be worth building. The reason was the large estates on the eastern route, while the western part was characterized by numerous smaller farms. The Stavenhagener Zuckerfabrik was particularly interested, as it sought to better utilize its capacities through a larger catchment area for the purchase of sugar beet. In 1909 Lenz & Co. presented their first projects. On April 2, 1912, the AG Demminer Kleinbahnen West (DKBW) was founded with a capital of 2,758,000 Reichsmarks and the line opened on July 1, 1913, while the older company as AG Demminer Kleinbahnen Ost (DKBO) began on January 29, 1913 traded.

In both stock corporations, the Demmin district took over about half of the shares, while the Prussian state and the province of Pomerania shared the rest. However, the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin also had a 6.5 percent stake in DKBW , because the railway also traveled through its territory.

The route of the younger company began in the former district town of Demmin and led back in a wide arc to Treptow / Altentreptow on the state railway. In the Metschow station - near the Kummerower See - a branch branched off to the south, crossed the state railway Neubrandenburg – Güstrow on Mecklenburg territory near the Reuterstadt Stavenhagen and finally reached - after passing through the Prussian community Zettemin - the end point Bredenfelde in the Grand Duchy.

Starting from the small train station in Demmin, the route first had to cross the Tollense on a sheet metal girder bridge and its lowland on a nearly two-kilometer-long dam. At Lindenfelde she reached Reichsstrasse 194 to Stavenhagen. At first running parallel to the street, it reached Metschow, the largest train station on the route. There was a station building and a locomotive shed here. From Metschow, the Stavenhagen route first went to Borrentin, where the local dairy had a siding. From Wolkwitz the route ran in a westerly direction and then swiveled back to the south at Alt Sommersdorf.

At Wüstgrabow the border to Mecklenburg-Schwerin was crossed. In the Stavenhagener Oberholz the route of the Mecklenburg Friedrich Franz Railway was crossed by a sheet metal girder bridge. A few kilometers further on, the Stavenhagen connecting station , via which the sugar factory was also connected, was reached. From here it went on to the Stavenhagen Landesbahn station , whose two-story station building was the largest in the entire route network. The originally planned local traffic between the two Stavenhagen train stations was stopped just a few months after the start of operations due to low utilization.

From Stavenhagen in a south-westerly direction, the small railway crossed the Prussian enclave of Zettemin. The railway line crossed the Kittendorfer Peene between Rützenfelde and Clausdorf . Reichsstrasse 194 was reached again at Mittelhof. At Kittendorf it continued in an easterly direction to the Bredenfelde terminus. An originally planned extension of the route to Waren was not implemented.

The Treptower route led from Metschow first in a south-easterly direction to Schwichtenberg. Behind the Bollentin train station, the journey continued in a north-easterly direction. Before Gehmkow the Augraben was crossed, behind it it ran in a southerly direction to Sarow parallel to the road Demmin – Tbodin – Treptow. From Wildberg to Klein Teetzleben the journey led east. After a swivel to the north at the Thalberg loading point, the Stavenhagener Chaussee had to be crossed with a bridge before Treptow. A second bridge ran over the standard gauge line Stralsund – Neubrandenburg, and before the entrance to the station there was a third bridge over Barkower Strasse.

The DKBW network was also laid out on the 750 millimeter track and covered a total of 94 kilometers. Together with the port railway Demmin , a coherent small railway network of almost 160 kilometers served to develop the agricultural area in Western Pomerania. Operations began on July 1, 1913 and were run by the small railroad department of the Provincial Association of the Province of Pomerania in Stettin.

In 1935 the DKBW transported 59,510 people and 85,328 tons of goods.

vehicles

Vehicles before 1949

Type / series	Company number		design type	Construction year	comment
	DKBW	Pomeranian State Railways
Lenz type nn	101 nn -103 nn	247-249	B'B n4vt	1912
Lenz type m	111 m -113 m	205, 210, 211	B n2t	1912	113 m sold to Rügen Kleinbahn (9 m ) in 1932
Lenz type M	151 M- 153 M	252-254	D n2t	1912, 1914	153 M acquired from GJK (10 M ) in 1931

Demminer Bahnen

After the western small railway line opened in the summer of 1913 - in addition to the already existing eastern railway line - they were colloquially referred to as "Eastern Railway" and "Western Railway". During this time, the small railways were very popular and used extensively.

During the First World War, the two Demminer Bahnen had to provide the army administration with four locomotives and 75 open wagons in order to prevent confiscation. The vehicles used as army field railways to supply supplies at the front were completely returned after the end of the war. An additional payment of compensation was not enough to cover the repair costs.

On September 22nd, 1919, the Association of Western Pomerania Kleinbahnen GmbH, based in Stettin (sometimes also in Stralsund), took over the management of both Demminer Kleinbahn companies. In 1922, a cooperation between the three railways in the Greifswald district and the two Demmin railways was agreed. In Jarmen, a joint central workshop with engine sheds was established for the five railways operating in this area by 1924. The wagons could now run in the whole area of ​​influence. On April 1, 1937, the Pomeranian regional railway management took over the management of both Demmin small railway companies. The Reich Ministry of Transport and especially the Nazi Gauleiter and Upper President of Pomerania, Franz Schwede- Coburg, had restrictively enforced the concentration of the operational management of all 22 Pomeranian small railways. These were incorporated into the newly founded Pomeranian State Railways on January 1, 1940 , and DKBO and DKBW were called "Demminer Bahnen". With retroactive effect to January 1, the previous small railway companies were nationalized on June 10, 1940. By law, the stock corporations were dissolved without compensation. The property, at the Demminer Bahnen 713,800 Reichsmarks, fell to the state.

The high hopes that had been placed in the railways could not be fulfilled in the war and interwar period that began soon after they were built. After the end of the war, the Soviet occupying power ordered the complete dismantling of the entire narrow-gauge network and its transport to the Soviet Union as reparations at the end of May 1945 . However, the small railways were hardly usable there. The German vehicles mostly did not correspond to the route parameters of the public narrow-gauge railways common there. After only a few decades, the two Demminer small railways came to an abrupt end.

Nevertheless, the administration of the (remaining) Pomeranian state railways and then all nationalized private railways of the state of Mecklenburg were moved to Demmin. The narrow and standard gauge port railway (2 km) in Demmin was operated from November 3, 1899 until May 27, 1995. The planned reconstruction of the Demmin – Jarmen line only came about on the Schmarsow – Jarmen section, which was separated from the rest of the Reichsbahn network. Here, from June 22, 1949 to October 15, 1958, island operations were carried out on the 600 mm gauge of the Mecklenburg-Pomerania Narrow Gauge Railway (MPSB) .

In Stavenhagen , around 50 m of the old narrow-gauge track are located near the former small train station on Malchiner Strasse. Some time ago, a memorial for the small train was erected here. Otherwise you will only find a few old bridges (e.g. at Gehmkow) and heaped up railway embankments, some of which are being used as cycle paths. In Demmin and Schmarsow, the former station buildings have been preserved as residential buildings.

literature

• Walter Bauchspies, Torsten Berg: The Demminer Kleinbahnen - history of two narrow-gauge Lenz railways. EK-Verlag 2004, ISBN 3-88255-693-5 .
• Klaus Kieper, Reiner Preuß: Narrow Gauge Railway Archive. transpress VEB publishing house for transport, Berlin 1980 (also as: Klaus Kieper, Reiner Preuß: Narrow gauge between the Baltic Sea and the Ore Mountains. Alba book publishing, Düsseldorf 1980, ISBN 3-87094-069-7 ).