Offenburg repair shop
The Offenburg repair shop was a railway workshop in Offenburg that was built from 1906 to 1909 and was in operation until 1992. It was near the Offenburg freight station. It replaced the locomotive and wagon workshop from 1844 at the passenger station along Rammersweierstrasse, for which there was no possibility of expansion, and the workshop facility built in 1891, which consisted of two 4-tier rectangular halls connected by a transfer table.
business
Construction of the new workshop facility from 1906
Due to the dynamic development of rail traffic, but also the increasing importance of Offenburg as a railway junction since the Black Forest Railway went into operation, the old system from the 19th century opposite the passenger station no longer met the requirements of the beginning of the 20th century. This was established by the Grand Ducal Railway Construction Inspectorate in a report from 1904. Around 1900, every train in Offenburg had locomotives and personnel changes, and well over 100 steam locomotives had their home station in Offenburg. Therefore, from 1906 onwards, extensive new facilities were built north-east of the old site, west of Rammersweierstrasse, the largest of which were the two execution halls (locomotive assembly hall I and tender assembly hall, locomotive assembly hall II was not built until 1925). In the summer of 1909, the old workshop building opposite the passenger station was demolished, while the newly built repair shop began operations on April 1, 1909.
French occupation 1923/24
The Kehl bridgehead, which was also occupied as part of the Rhineland occupation in 1923/24, also included the area of the city of Offenburg, where not only the Badische Hauptbahn was interrupted, but also the operation of the repair shop was shut down by the French occupation, also by means of reprisals against employees.
Steam locomotive repair
In the 1920s, through efforts to rationalize the Reichsbahn, the AW Offenburg specializes in the repair of steam locomotives. Locomotive repair hall II was built in 1925 and, with dimensions of 171.5 × 30 meters, represented the third significant individual building of the Aw. As early as 1932, 458 people were employed in what was then the Reichsbahnausbesserungswerk (RAW). The RAW Karlsruhe-Durlach was subordinated to the RAW Offenburg as a training department. When the Stuttgart workshop district (GDW) was re-established in 1936, the Stuttgart repair shop was placed under the control of the Stuttgart workshop. In its heyday (1952) 1,372 workers were employed here. A total of more than 20,000 steam locomotives had been repaired by 1972, in 1952 alone there were 490 locomotives.
Many locomotives and service vehicles were exhibited for the centenary in 1984.
After the scheduled maintenance of the steam locomotive, some steam locomotives such as the 50 622 and the historic " Adler " of the DB Museum were refurbished in 1984 for the anniversary celebration of 150 years of the German Railways .
The time after the steam locomotive repair
The increasing loss of importance of steam traction due to the advancing electrification of lines of the Deutsche Bundesbahn since the end of the 1950s was reflected in the order situation for the Aw Offenburg, so that one had to develop other business areas within the railways. A specialization in the construction of heavy-duty rail cranes, snow clearing vehicles and other railway service vehicles as well as steel structures for train stations emerged. Large parts of the roofing of the train station in Mannheim and the canopy of the main train station in Munich were created .
Buildings and facilities
Architectural style
The most famous buildings were built between 1906 and 1909. These buildings were built in the Wilhelminian style and are characteristic of the cathedral-like industrial architecture of that time. Both large execution halls had glass roofs so that the buildings were illuminated by daylight.
Damage from air raids in the First and Second World Wars
The buildings of the Aw were damaged by air raids in both world wars.
First World War
During the course of the First World War, the repair shop was the target of strategic bomb attacks by the Entente air forces, which were still in their infancy. The first attack on the railway facilities took place on August 23, 1915. In the last year of the war, 1918, especially July 1918, the attacks by the Independent Force reached their peak. On July 11, 1918, the aviators of the 55th Squadron scored a direct hit on the power station, which had been commissioned in 1904. On July 22, 1918, the station building was badly hit by bombs from the 99th Squadron, as was the repair shop. The Offenburg railway facilities, and thus also the Offenburg repair shop, were among the first targets to be attacked from the air far behind a military front on the ground.
Second World War
During the Second World War, the facilities were repeatedly the target of air raids, the heaviest of which were carried out on September 6, 1943 and on November 27, 1944 by the USAAF. After the most severe attack in November 1944, the destruction within the Reichsbahn repair shop (RAW) was classified as follows: 90% boiler house and electricity plant, 100% tender workshop in the southern part, 100% in the south-eastern part of the Lokrichthalle and 30% boiler smithy. On April 14, 1945, the RAW was shut down due to the effects of the war and the previous evacuation.
Legend to the site plan Aw Offenburg 1952
| No. in the map | Facility | No. in the map | Facility |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joinery | 16 | Oil storage |
| 2 | Used material store | 17th | Iron bearings |
| 3 | Screw preparation | 18th | Pipe storage |
| 4th | Fire extinguishing tool shed | 19th | Heating station |
| 5 | Wrought | 20th | Acetylene gas system |
| 6th | Tender assembly hall | 21st | Furnishing hall / fire brick store |
| 7th | Swap stock | 22nd | Locomotive repair hall II |
| 8th | Administration building | 23 | Transformer room |
| 9 | Mechanical workshop / turning shop | 24 | Spare parts warehouse |
| 10 | - | 25th | Timber warehouse |
| 11 | Locomotive repair hall I | 26th | Boiler house / welding school |
| 12 | Tool store | A. | Transfer platform 24 t / 13.5 m |
| 13 | Pipe cleaning drum | B. | Transfer platform 175 t / 16 m |
| 14th | Material store | C. | Transfer platform 175 t / 16 m |
| 15th | Sandblast cleaning | - | - |
Industrial wasteland
When it closed in 1992, the Aw became an industrial wasteland. Discussions at the municipal level about using the properties for other purposes were unsuccessful. Lokrichthalle II was demolished as early as 1996/1997. In 1998 the Offenburg town council decided that the remaining halls should be demolished for the construction of a new penal institution. However, after the location of the new prison was relocated to the airfield , it became apparent that the city administration was only interested in the areas for commercial use, but not in maintaining the Aw buildings. In 2000, the Baden-Württemberg State Monuments Office classified the halls as a cultural monument worth preserving.
South facade of the northern engine hall in 1994
Old boiler house in 2007 before the general renovation began
Gatehouse 2007
Arson and demolition
As early as June 11, 2002, a fire broke out in the former materials warehouse on the now largely left to its own devices. A second fire on the night of June 22nd to 23rd, 2002 destroyed the large tender hall. The fire, nourished by 35,000 tires stored there, developed such heat that the beams of the steel roof structure could not withstand the heat. The Aw lost one of its defining buildings in the fire, which was also caused by arson. As a result, most of the buildings in the Offenburg repair shop were almost completely demolished by 2004 and the extensive track systems were removed, so that today only a few buildings testify to the once extensive system.
Fire in the tender assembly hall on June 23, 2002 from the north
Fire in the tender assembly hall on June 23, 2002 from the south
Tender assembly hall after the major fire
Destroyed windows after the major fire
Land use today
The area became an industrial and commercial area. Among other things, the letter center 77 of the Deutsche Post AG and the Burda company with a new printing plant settled directly on the site , as well as some smaller companies, some of them still in the old outbuildings. The site is still subject to continuous development in 2018, including the settlement of the Kronenbrauerei with the Baden brewery in the northern area of the site. The company Kesselhaus-Digitales Marketing is based in the old boiler house, which has been renovated in a very appealing way and modern extensions have been added. The result of this refurbishment gives a vivid impression of the character of the original Wilhelminian style buildings, which were often found in the early days. The name of the road that opens up the former Aw site and runs in a north-south direction is reminiscent of the once important railway system.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.bahnstatistik.de/Aw/Aw_O.htm
- ^ Rieckhoff, Alexander: The steam locomotive clinic. Living and working in the Offenburg repair shop, Offenburg, 2nd edition 2003, ISBN 3-922663-77-X , p. 20.
- ^ Rieckhoff, Alexander: The steam locomotive clinic. Living and working in the Offenburg repair shop, Offenburg, 2nd edition 2003, ISBN 3-922663-77-X , p. 32.
- ↑ http://epoche2.modellbahnfrokler.de/dd/e2d_3702.html read on May 29, 2020
- ↑ http://www.bahnstatistik.de/AnschriftAwRaw.htm read on August 15, 2013
- ↑ http://www.bahnstatistik.de/Dirktionen/BD_Stuttgart.htm read out on August 15, 2013
- ↑ http://www.eaw-offenburg.schiene-regional.de/aw_frs3.htm read on August 14, 2013
- ↑ http://www.eaw-offenburg.schiene-regional.de/aw010705.htm read out on February 15, 2020
- ↑ See u. a. Pattinson, LA: History of 99 Squadron, Cambridge 1920, esp. P. 25ff.
- ^ Peter Nath: Air war operations against the city of Offenburg in the First and Second World War. In: The Ortenau. 1990, pp. 574-659.
- ^ Rieckhoff, Alexander: The steam locomotive clinic. Living and working in the Offenburg repair shop, Offenburg, 2nd edition 2003, ISBN 3-922663-77-X , pp. 68f.
- ↑ https://www.bo.de/lokales/offenburg/brand-koennte-ein-signal-sein
- ↑ https://www.bo.de/lokales/offenburg/skandaloes-und-fahrlaessig
- ↑ https://www.offenburg.de/html/ehemaliges_ausbesserungswerk.html
- ↑ https://www.bo.de/lokales/offenburg/ab-samstag-fliesst-im-brauwerk-baden-das-bier
- ↑ https://www.kesselhaus.com/
Coordinates: 48 ° 28 ′ 55.4 " N , 7 ° 57 ′ 11.8" E