Pritzwalk station
| Pritzwalk | |
|---|---|
 Listed station building from 1955, photo from 2012
|
|
| Data | |
| Location in the network | Crossing station |
| Design | Through station |
| Platform tracks | 4, earlier 7 |
| abbreviation | WPR |
| IBNR | 8010287 |
| Price range | 6th |
| opening | May 31, 1885 |
| location | |
| City / municipality | Pritzwalk |
| country | Brandenburg |
| Country | Germany |
| Coordinates | 53 ° 8 '46 " N , 12 ° 11' 4" E |
| Railway lines | |
|
|
| Railway stations in Brandenburg | |
The Pritzwalk station is a branch line junction in the city of the same name in Brandenburg . Its facilities were destroyed in the explosion of an ammunition train in 1945 and then rebuilt. Its new station building , built in the early 1950s, is a listed building , as is a railway water tower built in the late 1930s, the former locomotive shed of the Ostprignitzer Kreisbahnen and a memorial to the victims of the 1945 explosion.
location
The train station is in the town of Pritzwalk in the Prignitz district in the north of Brandenburg, a little south of the city center. The station is laid out in an east-west direction and thus follows the orientation of the route from Wittenberge to the Mecklenburg border at Buschhof , the first railway line to which Pritzwalk was connected. The line from Neustadt (Dosse) flows from the south on the west side of the station and leaves it again on the east side to the north. The Pritzwalk – Suckow railway line begins at the train station and initially runs parallel to the line from Wittenberge to the west, and then turns to the northwest.
history
Development into a railway junction
The Prignitz had been connected to the rail network with the Berlin – Hamburg railway line since 1846 , but the further development of the northern part of the region dragged on for a long time. In 1881 Perleberg received a rail connection from Wittenberge . To connect Pritzwalk as well, a local committee was founded under the leadership of Eugen Gans zu Putlitz , which in 1883 was able to give itself the status of a Prignitzer (stock) railway company . Construction began on August 15, 1884, and on February 10, 1885 the first freight trains ran between Perleberg and Pritzwalk. On May 31, 1885, the company started operating the line from Perleberg via Pritzwalk to Wittstock / Dosse . The company did not receive a license for the north-south route to Meyenburg and Neustadt (Dosse) because the Prussian state wanted to build it itself. On December 11, 1887, the railway line from Neustadt (Dosse) via Pritzwalk to the state border at Meyenburg was opened by the Prussian State Railways . In Meyenburg there was a connection to a further route to Mecklenburg. The State Railways subsequently also took over management of the Pritzwalk station.
In 1896 the Pritzwalk – Suckow railway followed , a small railway operated by the Ostprignitzer Kreisbahnen . In 1897, the extension of the line from Pritzwalk in Wittstock to the Mecklenburg state border at Buschhof went into operation, the trains continued there on the line of the Mecklenburg Friedrich-Wilhelm-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft to Neustrelitz . Finally, in 1909, Pritzwalk was connected to a narrow-gauge line of the Ostprignitzer Kreisbahnen from the direction of Lindenberg.
All routes that touched the station were branch lines . Accordingly, most of the passenger trains only connected the city with the junction stations in the area. Even if there were formally different routes on the state border with Mecklenburg (and for a long time different operators in the direction of Neustrelitz), the trains usually did not end there, but ran through to Neustrelitz or via Karow to Wismar or Güstrow . In the direction of Parchim there were no through trains until the 1930s, until then you had to change trains in Suckow.
In 1941, the Prignitzer Eisenbahn AG was nationalized so that the east-west route was also operated by the Deutsche Reichsbahn .
Destruction and rebuilding
The station was destroyed at the end of the Second World War. On April 15, 1945, a bomb hit an ammunition train parked in the station, which then exploded. A car flew through the air and hit a cinema opposite the train station, where the film "It began quite harmlessly" was just playing. Over 100 people were killed. Instead of the station building there was only one crater.
After the Second World War, the reconstruction of the facilities began. While the Pritzwalk directly touching routes were hardly affected by the reparations payments to the Soviet Union, the subsequent route from Suckow to Parchim was dismantled in 1947. The former circular lines were taken over by the Deutsche Reichsbahn . The new, representative reception building was opened in 1955.
The train station 1950–1990
The importance of the station for freight traffic grew. The reason was that the main railway lines in the region were only single-tracked due to reparations payments or, like the line from Neustrelitz to Rostock, had been completely dismantled. As a result, a number of heavy through freight trains took the route via Pritzwalk.
On the other hand, the range of passenger transport remained moderate on all routes touching the Pritzwalk. In 1960, around five pairs of trains drove in all six directions from Pritzwalk a day. At times in the summer season up to the beginning of the 1980s, a pair of express trains ran to Güstrow and Rostock. The traffic on the narrow-gauge railway ended in 1969, then the line was dismantled. From Mesendorf, about ten kilometers south of Pritzwalk, to Lindenberg, the line was rebuilt as a museum railway after 2000. Traffic ended in 1980 between Putlitz, Porep and Suckow. In 1990 eight pairs of trains went from Pritzwalk to Neustadt (Dosse) on weekdays, five to Putlitz, nine to Wittstock, six to Meyenburg and seven to Perleberg, and a little less on the weekend.
Development after 1990
After the reunification in the GDR, both the supply and the demand situation changed. In the 1990s, the passenger transport service was synchronized on all routes, so that initially a two-hour service was offered in all directions. In 1994, the expansion of the connection from Wittenberge via Pritzwalk, Neuruppin, Velten to Hennigsdorf was decided as part of the Prignitz-Express project and started in 1997. This was partly at the expense of other routes. In 1998, traffic between Wittstock and Mirow was discontinued, and the connections in the direction of Meyenburg, Neustadt and Putlitz were also seen as threatened with discontinuation. To save these routes, the Prignitzer Eisenbahn GmbH (PEG) was founded in 1996 and initially took over the traffic in the direction of Putlitz, in 1998 also in the direction of Neustadt (Dosse) and Meyenburg-Güstrow. Later the PEG also took over the infrastructure of these routes. The infrastructure division of the PEG was handed over to the RegioInfra Nordost (RiN) in 2013 ; the east-west route and thus most of Pritzwalk station will continue to be operated by DB Netz .
Traffic north of Meyenburg was canceled in 2000 by the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . In 2006, traffic in the direction of Putlitz was canceled by the state of Brandenburg. From 2007 to 2016 the Putlitz-Pritzwalker Eisenbahnförderverein e. V. from funds for bus traffic, a trunk offer for train traffic on this route with five pairs of trains, Monday to Friday. In 2012, traffic in the direction of Neustadt (Dosse) and Meyenburg was heavily thinned out. Between Pritzwalk and Kyritz there are only two train pairs (three on the weekend) and five (three on the weekend) train pairs a day to Meyenburg. The transport operator is the Potsdam Railway Company , founded by former PEG employees , whose passenger transport division was spun off in 2014 under the name of Hanseatische Eisenbahn GmbH. The RE 6 line operated by DB Regio Nordost runs from Wittenberge via Pritzwalk, Wittstock, Neuruppin , Hennigsdorf , Berlin-Spandau to Berlin-Gesundbrunnen every hour.
Investments
Reception building
.jpg)
The reception building, opened in 1955, is a 17- axis , two-story (sometimes three-story) plastered brick building. It was not built on the site of the destroyed building, but to the north of it at a clear distance from the track system. In the central part there is a reception hall with a monumental gallery "made of pillars and railings" on the street side. The building was acquired by the city of Pritzwalk in 2012 and renovated by 2014. Part of it is used by the police, there is also a sales point for the Hanseatic Railway and rooms in the building that are used by a model railway association.
Platforms and tracks
.jpg)
Originally, the station had a house platform (track 1) and two central platforms with a total of five platform edges (track 2/3 and 4/5), which were connected with a pedestrian tunnel. There is also a separate platform (1Pu) on a head track west of the main platform for the trains to Putlitz, as well as some sidings for the small trains. The narrow-gauge railway systems were also located in this area a little north of the Putlitz track. To the south of the platform tracks there are still tracks for through freight traffic that were built in GDR times. Connecting tracks from the direction of Wittenberge and Karow cross the entry tracks from the direction of Neustadt or Wittstock to the passenger platforms.
The southern central platform went out of service and was removed. In 2014/15, the remaining platforms were renovated and rebuilt a bit away from the connecting tunnel. The wooden platform roofing of the central platform has been removed, the roofing is only left on the house platform.
Water tower
The water tower is on the south side of the track system. It was created in the late 1930s and is a tower with seven floors, over which the gabled roof are two attic, where the found open at the top water tank. There were living rooms on the floors below. The tower has been empty since the 1990s.
According to the monument, the tower is “a particularly characteristic and significant example of National Socialist architecture”. This applies to the material, reinforced concrete , as well as the "clunky, durability and absolute claim to power expressing design language", including the "exits that look like driver's balconies". The "bunker-like design" would be close to the military architecture of that time.
Engine shed
The listed locomotive shed of the Ostprignitzer Kreisbahnen is on the western edge of the station area on Hagenstrasse. It is a single-storey plastered half-timbered building from 1909 and included a blacksmith's workshop and a water station .
environment
The local bus station is in front of the train station. The forecourt is to be redesigned by March 2020. Five bus stops, 48 bicycle parking spaces and 23 car parking spaces as well as green spaces are planned, and the station entrances are to be renewed. The costs are estimated at 1.3 million euros, of which the European Regional Development Fund is contributing around 970,000 euros.
Due to the destruction of the area in 1945, most of the residential developments in the vicinity of the station date from the post-war period. In a green area north of the train station, a memorial stone, which is also on the list of monuments today, was erected for the victims of the explosion in 1945.
Transport links
The station is served by local trains from DB Regio and the Hanseatic Railway .
In the 2019 timetable, the following lines stop at the station:
| line | Line course | Cycle (min) | EVU |
|---|---|---|---|
| RE 6 | Wittenberge - Perleberg - Pritzwalk - Wittstock - Neuruppin - Hennigsdorf - Berlin-Spandau - Berlin Gesundbrunnen | 60 min | DB Regio Nordost |
| RB 73 | Pritzwalk - Kyritz - Neustadt (Dosse) | Single trains (Mon-Fri) 240 min (Sat-Sun) |
Hanseatic Railway |
| RB 74 | (Pritzwalk West -) Pritzwalk - Bruges (Prignitz) - Meyenburg | 120/180 min (Mon-Fri) 240 min (Sat-Sun) |
Hanseatic Railway |
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Erich Preuß: Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , Archives of German Small and Private Railways . Transpress, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-344-70906-2 , pp. 85-87.
- ↑ Information board in the train station.
- ^ Erich Preuß: Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , Archives of German Small and Private Railways . Transpress, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-344-70906-2 , pp. 91-92.
- ↑ Entry on the reception building in the monument database of the State of Brandenburg
- ↑ Central area Pritzwalk - Wittstock / Dosse. In: staedtebaufoerderung.info. Federal Institute for Building, Urban and Spatial Research (BBSR) at the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning (BBR), March 2017, accessed on July 18, 2018 .
- ^ Entry on the water tower in the monument database of the State of Brandenburg.
- ^ Landesgeschichtliche Vereinigung für die Mark Brandenburg (Ed.), Yearbook for Brandenburg State History 2009, p. 162
- ↑ Railway stations in Berlin and Brandenburg . In: Bahn-Report . No. 6 , 2019, pp. 39 .