Arnsberg Viaduct
Coordinates: 51 ° 24 ′ 13 ″ N , 8 ° 3 ′ 28 ″ E
| Arnsberg Viaduct (Schlossberg Viaduct ) |
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| use | Railway viaduct | |
| Convicted | Upper Ruhr Valley Railway | |
| Subjugated | u. a. Ruhr and Bundesstrasse 229 | |
| place | Arnsberg | |
| overall length | 114 meters | |
| start of building | 1868 | |
| location | ||
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The Arnsberg Viaduct , more rarely also called the Schlossberg Viaduct , in Arnsberg in the North Rhine-Westphalian Hochsauerland district is a bridge structure of the Upper Ruhr Valley Railway . The double-track section between Arnsberg station and Neheim-Hüsten station crosses the Ruhr with the structure erected at the end of the 1860s. It was destroyed in March 1945 shortly before the end of the Second World War (1939–1945) by Allied air raids . As early as the summer of 1945, the viaduct was poorly repaired with two iron girders. The final reconstruction, in which up to 500 workers took part, took three years. From the spring of 1948, the viaduct was again open to traffic on two tracks.
Geographical location
The viaduct stands about 800 meters (m) north-northwest of the Arnsberg city center and connects directly to the west with the 277 m long Schlossberg tunnel, which runs through the Schlossberg (approx. 256 m above sea level ). It leads over the federal road 229 (Hüstener Straße) in the east, the central Ruhr and a side street of the local road Arnsberger Burgweg and over the regional traffic Ruhr-Lippe (RLG; goods traffic only ) running to Arnsberg Süd in the west. According to a topographic map , the area below the bridge is on the eastern bank of the Ruhr at 183.77 m above sea level.
History and description
During the construction of the Upper Ruhr Valley Railway began construction in 1868 of from the bird's eye view looking slightly curved viaduct of seven massive brick arches begun. Six arches with a clear width of 12.5 m each span the Ruhr, the above-mentioned side street and the RLG route. The seventh arch with a width of 7.5 m bridges the B 229 (then Münster-Arnsberger Staatsstraße ).
Attacks on the viaduct in 1944 and 1945
In autumn 1944, the western allies decided to bomb railroad lines and waterways in the western part of the German Reich more intensively in order to destroy central infrastructure facilities. The preferred destinations included the Schildescher Viaduct on the Hamm – Minden railway line , the Altenbekener Viaduct on the Hamm – Warburg railway line and the Arnsberger Viaduct. With their destruction, the Allies hoped to permanently interrupt the two important east-west connections from Berlin via Hamm to the Ruhr area (via Magdeburg / Braunschweig / Hanover / Minden or Halle / Kassel / Warburg ). The Upper Ruhr Valley Railway played only a subordinate role, but served as an alternative route in the event of disruptions on the two main routes from Hamm to Minden or Warburg .
After the turn of the year 1944/45, as part of the Allied strategy to isolate the Ruhr area from the rest of the Reich (→ Ruhrkessel ) in Arnsberg, there were heavy air raids on the viaduct. The United States Army Air Forces launched attacks on February 9 and 28 and on March 10, 1945. Attacks by the Royal Air Force followed on March 13, 15 and 19, 1945.
The first attacks were carried out with conventional bombs. However, it turned out that these were not enough to seriously damage such a large structure. Smaller damage could be repaired relatively easily. The Royal Air Force therefore decided to attack with Tallboy bombs weighing over 5.4 tons and the recently developed Grand Slam bombs weighing over 10 tons . With a length of over 7.7 m, a diameter of 1.2 m and a weight of over 10 tons, these are the largest and heaviest bomb type used in war history. Grand Slams were first started on March 14, 1945 when the No. 617 Squadron of the Royal Air Force deployed on the Schildescher Viaduct .
The Arnsberg Viaduct was attacked for the first time on March 15 with the two heavy types of bombs without success. It was not until the attack on March 19 that six Grand Slam and 12 Tallboy bombs destroyed two arches and one pillar of the viaduct. In his daily air defense report of March 19, the district president of Arnsberg reported: “20 fortress bombs of 10 tons each, 5 of them duds. 3 wounded, 2 missing. 100 houses slightly damaged. Hit the Reichsbahn Viaduct. 1 pillar and 2 arches collapsed. Hit and mostly buried on the west side of the tunnel. Railway embankment damaged. "
In the reports of the US Strategic Bombing Survey (USSBS; inventory of the strategic bombing) of October 10, 1945 under the item Railway Viaduct at Arnsberg Germany 1818 bombs in seven attacks on the viaduct are mentioned. A total of 140 people died in these air strikes.
During the attack on February 9, Arnsberg's old town and the surrounding area were hit alongside the viaduct. Even bunker ceilings were broken through. 80 civilians died. Some coffins were placed in the yard in front of the Landsberger Hof . A speaker from the NSDAP swore bloody revenge on the enemy. Some of the bereaved had to wait days for the simplest coffins. The dead were buried in mass graves. In the attack on February 28, Arnsberg station and the surrounding area were badly hit and three railway workers were killed. On March 10, many bombs hit the southern part of Arnsberg during the attack on the viaduct. Seven people died on March 13 when the area around the station was hit again by bombs. On March 15, a bomb hit the Schlossberg tunnel and 28 people, mostly soldiers, were killed. After the viaduct was destroyed, the Royal Air Force dropped leaflets . It described the Grand Slam bomb as the largest in the world. A picture of the attack in the leaflet (same as in the article) had the caption "The Arnsberg Viaduct after it was attacked on March 19, 1945 with 200 quintals. The bomb craters are 37 meters in diameter and more than 11 meters deep." The many bomb craters turned the area around the viaduct into a lunar landscape. The viaduct was initially repaired temporarily. The heavily devastated embankment at the viaduct was refilled with loads from many wagons. In addition to gravel, rubble from structures destroyed by bombs was used.
The Arnsberg civil engineer Dipl.-Ing. Heinz J. Kolitsch, who was in charge of the construction work, remembered that three shifts were worked day and night until the giant hoppers were completely filled. There was a special permit from the occupation authorities for the nighttime lighting of the construction site. The work inside the tunnel took place in full operation from 1945 to 1948. When a train approached, the workers had to leave the tunnel at short notice in order to continue working immediately. Since there was hardly any work material available, the carpenters erected a 25 m high slewing crane from 30 meter long logs. During the entire construction period, according to Kolitsch, there were three extreme floods in the Ruhr. But the crane and scaffolding for the new pillar held up.
See also
literature
- Alfred Bruns: The Upper Ruhr Valley Railway , in Die Eisenbahn im Sauerland , Schmallenberg, 1989, p. 149
- Werner Bühner: Bombs on Arnsberg 1940-1945, chronicle of the air raids in pictures and eyewitness reports , Arnsberg, 1995
- Fritz Schumacher: Home under bombs - The Arnsberg district in World War II , Gebrüder Zimmermann Verlag, Balve, 1969
- Dr. Jürgen Funke: 500 people worked on the reconstruction of the Arnsberg Viaduct, in: Heimatblätter des Arnsberger Heimatbund, issue 39, Arnsberg, 2018
- Heinz J. Kolitsch: Destruction and Reconstruction, p. 193 ff., In: After the zero hour. 1945 - 1955, citizens report from Arnsberg's districts. Published by: City of Arnsberg, VHS history workshop, Arnsberg, 1996
Web links
- Film footage of the bridge bombing , video excerpt from the documentary: "The Ruhrkesselschlacht 1945"
- Film recordings from the bridge bombing , Movietone News: "The 10 TONNER (0: 48-1: 45)"
Individual evidence
- ↑ Topographical Information Management, Cologne District Government, Department GEObasis NRW ( Notes )
- ↑ Achim Gieseke: Muffrika is razed to the ground . Westfalenpost dated June 21, 2014.
- ^ Fritz Schumacher: Home under bombs - The Arnsberg district in World War II , Balve, 1969, pp. 40–48