Bretten – Kürnbach railway line
| Bretten – Kürnbach | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Route length: | 15.6 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Maximum slope : | 25 ‰ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minimum radius : | 180 m | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Bretten – Kürnbach railway is an unfinished, 15.6 km long railway line in Kraichgau in northern Baden-Württemberg . Construction began in 1919 and work was stopped in 1923 due to inflation . A few relics of the route torso still exist today, including the station building in Knittlingen .
history
History and planning
Already during the planning of the Westbahn as the first railway connection between Württemberg and Baden , the Württemberg side was considering a route through the Zabergäu and via Bretten , as this would have led traffic as far as possible over Württemberg territory. After long negotiations, the two states agreed on a route to the south via Mühlacker- Bretten for the Western Railway, which was opened in 1853 . In 1880 Heilbronn received a direct rail connection to the Upper Rhine through the Kraichgau Railway , and this made Bretten in Baden a railway junction . From 1896 to 1901, Württemberg finally opened up the Zabergäu using the Zabergäubahn , a 750-millimeter narrow-gauge railway .
The location in the shade between these three routes prompted the Württemberg towns in Kraichgau to petition for an extension of the Zabergäubahn beyond Leonbronn , for example via Maulbronn to Mühlacker or via Sternenfels , Derdingen and Knittlingen to Bretten. The Königlich Württembergische Staats-Eisenbahnen (KWStE) then carried out investigations and came to the conclusion that, due to the unfavorable topographical conditions at the western end of the Zabergäus, a continuation of the Zabergäubahn was not feasible from an economic point of view, and instead suggested a branch line from Bretten to Derdingen in front. In 1899, Württemberg stipulated by law that a private railway from Bretten to Derdingen could be licensed . However, despite guaranteed state subsidies, no company could be found for this.
In 1901, a railway committee was set up in Bretten with the participation of the Württemberg Kraichgau communities for a railway line from Bretten via Derdingen and Sternenfels to Kürnbach in Baden with a possible gap in the Zabergäubahn. With this project, the committee was heard by both the Baden and Württemberg governments. Since the route was to run over the Württemberg area to a large extent, the KWStE took over the route investigations for the entire route. The building worthiness of a line from Bretten via Knittlingen, Großvillars and Derdingen to Kürnbach was determined. The Baden section of the route was determined to be 3.3 km, the Wuerttemberg section of 10.5 km. The starting point for the route was a new junction to be created on the Kraichgaubahn approximately at the height of today's “Bretten Schulzentrum” stop.
Lengthy negotiations between Baden and Württemberg now stood in the way of building the line: Since the construction of the Bretten – Kürnbach line was negotiated together with the politically difficult gap closure of the Murg Valley Railway between Raumünzach and Klosterreichenbach , a state treaty was ratified on December 12, 1908 as well as a subsequent contract from December 15, 1910 to June 18, 1912. In addition, a Württemberg law of August 25, 1909 and a law of June 4, 1912 from Baden established the construction of the route. The contract stipulated that the two routes were to be completed by June 1920.
construction
Since Baden and Württemberg had contractually agreed that the line should go into operation in the same period as the gap closure in the Murg Valley, and the work there had been estimated to be significantly higher, the construction work for the Bretten – Kürnbach line was no longer before the excavation of the First World War tackled. After the end of the war, the Knittlingen – Großvillars section was tendered as the first construction lot as part of emergency work in May 1919 , but now with a revised route. In November 1919, 200 workers were involved in the construction, the following year construction work continued up to the state border towards Kürnbach.
When the Deutsche Reichsbahn was founded on April 1, 1920, it took on the obligation to bring the new construction projects of the state railways to a conclusion that had not yet been completed . On December 4, 1920, the Reich Ministry of Transport approved the construction of a railway embankment in Bretten parallel to the Kraichgaubahn, as the route to Kürnbach now begins at the train station in Bretten according to the new planning , approximately at the level of today's stop “Bretten Stadtmitte” in a northern arc Descend the Weißach valley and pass under the Kraichgaubahn in the area of the Rehhütte.
Due to the insolvency of the contracted construction company, construction work for the Knittlingen – Großvillars section initially came to a standstill. Otherwise, no significant construction progress could be recorded: in 1921 the construction of the reception building in Knittlingen was awarded, and in 1922 three bridges between Bretten and the state border in the direction of Knittlingen and the Rehhütte stop were built. In 1923 the work was completely stopped as a result of hyperinflation . At this point in time, the route from Bretten to Großvillars was completed up to the superstructure , and in the further course to Derdingen the route was partially laid.
In August 1924, the Reichsbahndirektion Karlsruhe unsuccessfully requested a grant of 2 million marks from the neighboring communities for the extension of the line . The construction project was mentioned once more in the "Compilation of the railroad structures applied for for a Reichsbahnbauprogramm 1927", whereby the railway should now have been implemented as a 750-millimeter narrow-gauge railway for economic reasons and in favor of a possible extension to Leonbronn.
In 1933, the Reich Ministry of Transport allowed the municipality of Derdingen to build over the designated station area, as the railway could no longer be operated profitably due to the emerging motor vehicle traffic.
In 1942, the section of the route that had been tackled was still listed as "under construction" on the TK25 topographic map .
In December 1958, the technical relief organization blew up the bridge over Wetterkreuzstrasse in Knittlingen as part of an emergency exercise.
course
According to the original plan from 1909, the line was to branch off the Kraichgaubahn at the Rehhütte and immediately afterwards cross the Bretten – Knittlingen road, today's federal road 35 , by means of a bridge. Shortly thereafter, the Rehhütte stop was planned, after which the Württemberg area would have been reached. On the right slope of the Weißach the line would now have climbed to the train station in Knittlingen. The ascent to Großvillars was to be mastered by means of several tight curves, the local train station was planned to be south of the village. The route would then have been led around the town to the east in a large arc, and then approached along the Oberderdingen road. Derdinger Bahnhof was planned to be west of Oberderdingen and south of Unterderdingen. Then the route should cross the ridge between the Kraich and the Humsterbach in a cut and switch back to the Baden area. In a curve that swept to the north, Kürnbach was to be reached, where the train station south of the village was planned in such a way that both Sternenfels would have been easily accessible and a later continuation to Leonbronn or Mühlbach would have been possible.
The route, which was tackled from 1919 to 1923, largely deviated from the plan of 1909. Starting from the train station in Bretten, the route initially ran parallel to the Kraichgaubahn, before descending to Weißach after about one kilometer and following it to the left, crossing under the Kraichgaubahn at what is now the school center. The “Rehhütte” stop was located here. The route now gained height on a dam to first cross the Weißach and immediately afterwards the road to Knittlingen. After Knittlingen, the route now ran west past Großvillars. Along the Welschen Graben, the route now ran above the east portal of the Wilfenberg tunnel of the Mannheim – Stuttgart high-speed line , built in the 1980s, down to Oberderdingen, where it was led past the town in a north-facing arc to the west.
Relics
There are only a few remains of the route today. These include the approximately 200 m long and up to 10 m high embankment, which in Bretten connects to the southwest of the sports grounds on the Weißach and under which the water is passed by means of a culvert. The dam ends directly at Bundesstrasse 35.
Another striking remnant is the reception building at Bahnhofstrasse 38 in Knittlingen, which is one of the few stations in Germany where a train has never stopped. Today the building is privately owned. The station name "Knittlingen" was written on its side of the track for decades. The goods shed , which was also built in the early 1920s, no longer exists today.
Further remnants of the route can hardly be made out in nature: To the east of the train station in Knittlingen, Uhlandstrasse runs with its northward curve along the former route planum. The cut under the L554 Knittlingen – Großvillars has meanwhile been filled. From here to Großvillars, the embankment can still be recognized by the course of field paths and rows of trees. A memorial stone to the west of the town reminds of the route.
literature
- Hans-Wolfgang Scharf: The railway in Kraichgau. Railway history between the Rhine and Neckar . EK-Verlag, Freiburg (Breisgau) 2006, ISBN 3-88255-769-9 , p. 205-209 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Compilation of the railroad structures applied for in a Reichsbahnbuilding program in 1927 . In: Negotiations of the Reichstag . tape 420 , no. 3847 , December 7, 1927, Appendix 1, p. 118 ( reichstagsprotlog.de ).
- ↑ a b c Hansjörg Ebert: Zabergäubahn to Bretten: Renaissance for a 100-year-old railway line? In: Baden's latest news . January 20, 2020 ( https://bnn.de/kraichgau/bretten/renaissance-fuer-eine-100-jahre-alte-bahntrasse at bnn.de).
- ^ Reichsamt für Landesaufnahme: Topographical Map 1: 25000, sheet 6918 "Bretten" . Collection of the Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University.
- ↑ a b c d e Marc-André Schygulla: Bretten. North Baden. Dynamic changes in traffic routes using the example of Bretten. 3. An unfinished one and its relics. In: verkehrsrelüste.de: Decommissioned railways and their relics. Retrieved May 24, 2021 .