Michendorf – Großbeeren railway line

Michendorf – Saarmund– (Großbeeren)
Route between Michendorf and Saarmund
Route number (DB) :	6117 Michendorf – Saarmund 6126 Saarmund – Genshagener Heide 6127 Genshagener Heide – Großbeeren
Route length:	20.3 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	15 kV 16.7 Hz  ~
Legend from Bad Belzig 0.0 Michendorf to Berlin from Golm Nuthe 7.8 Saarmund 12.5 Ahrensdorf (district of Zossen) 14.2 Ludwigsfelde - Struveshof ehem. feeder line IFA -Werk 16.2 Genshagener Heide (Person bf until 2012) from Halle to Berlin-Schönefeld 20.3 Large berries to the GVZ Großbeeren and to Berlin

The Michendorf – Großbeeren railway line is an electrified main line in Brandenburg south of Berlin . It went into operation in 1926 and was initially part of the bypass line that was supposed to relieve the Berlin railway lines from freight traffic. The section between Saarmund and Genshagener Heide has been included in the Berlin outer ring since the 1950s .

course

The route begins at Michendorf station

The double-track line begins in Michendorf station and separates there from the Berlin-Blankenheimer railway in the direction of Berlin. The route runs in an easterly direction. In Saarmund, it joins the double-track line of the Berlin outer ring from Golm. Behind the Genshagener Heide train station and after the intersection with the Anhalter Bahn , the section of the bypass line , opened in 1926, separates from the outer ring and runs on a single track east of the Anhalter Bahn towards the north. The line originally joined the Anhalter Bahn at Großbeeren station. After its reconstruction in 2006, it only connects the Großbeeren freight traffic center (GVZ) and also the Teltow freight station. There is no longer a direct connection to Berlin. Since then, traffic between the Berlin outer ring and the Anhalter Bahn in the Berlin area has been routed via a new connecting curve west of the Anhalter Bahn.

As a result of the inclusion of the Saarmund - Genshagener Heide section in the outer ring, the internal route numbers change in Saarmund and Genshagener Heide, but the route is still kilometers from Michendorf to Großbeeren.

history

Planning and construction

Sections of the bypass railway already completed and further planning from 1912 for the route south of Berlin

Already at the end of the 19th century there were plans to build a bypass line around Berlin to relieve the busy routes in the city from freight traffic and for military reasons. Between 1902 and 1908 the western route of the bypass between Treuenbrietzen , Beelitz Stadt, Wildpark near Potsdam and Nauen went into operation. In 1915 another section of the bypass line between Nauen and Oranienburg, north of Berlin, followed. From the beginning there were various plans to extend the bypass in the south of Berlin. Their realization was initially prevented by the First World War . In 1923/1924 a large marshalling yard was opened in Seddin . Through him the need for the southern bypass increased again. A separate line next to the Wetzlar Railway went into operation between Seddin and Michendorf. On December 1, 1926, the bypass line from Michendorf (which had previously been connected to Seddin by a separate line next to the Wetzlarer Bahn) to the Anhalter Bahn near Großbeeren was opened.

At first it served exclusively for freight traffic. An extension of the route to the east to the Köpenick / Mahlsdorf area was planned, but was not realized due to the global economic crisis .

The Nazis projected after coming to power a large rail yard in Großbeeren. Instead of the straight line of the bypass line from Genshagener Heide, they planned the outer freight ring further north, which branched off from the Anhalter Bahn in the Teltow area . The marshalling yard and outer freight ring went into provisional operation in the early 1940s. The route of the bypass line between Michendorf and Genshagener Heide was expanded to two tracks during this time, with a depot in Genshagener Heide.

After the Second World War

The bypass line from Michendorf and the outer ring from Potsdam come together at Saarmund train station

Soon after the Second World War - with the emergence of the division of Germany and Berlin - the Soviet occupying power and the GDR, which was founded in 1949, needed efficient bypass routes around West Berlin . The outer freight ring , which partly ran over West Berlin territory, was not suitable for this. Several connecting routes around Berlin were built in the late 1940s and early 1950s, but were not very efficient and sometimes too far away from Berlin. The first section of the Berlin outer ring was the section to the east in Genshagener Heide in the direction of Schönefeld and Grünauer Kreuz, which was connected to the marshalling yard in Seddin via the existing route. As the last construction phase of the outer ring, the section between Golm and Saarmund went into operation at the end of the 1950s, so that the former Saarmund - Großbeeren section of the bypass was included in the outer ring. The section between Michendorf and Saarmund remained particularly important for the connection to the Seddin marshalling yard .

As early as the early 1950s, operations on the long-distance tracks of the Anhalter Bahn between Teltow and West Berlin had ceased. For freight transport, however, the connection from Genshagener Heide to Großbeeren to connect a number of freight transport customers in the Teltow area was still important.

In 1982 the line was electrified. This connected the line in the direction of Halle and Leipzig with the Seddin marshalling yard; further electrification in the following years connected the most important routes in Berlin and in the north of the GDR.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall , a number of direct connections to West Berlin were reopened. The direct route between Michendorf and Berlin-Wannsee was already in operation for freight traffic. The Anhalter Bahn went back into operation in the Berlin area in 2006 together with the new Berlin Central Station . At the same time, the confluence of the bypass line at Großbeeren station was redesigned and a new connecting curve was built west of the old line.

traffic

Large berries. In the foreground the bypass, in the background the Anhalter Bahn

The route initially served exclusively for freight traffic. At the end of the 1930s, there was briefly company passenger traffic for the armaments plant of Daimler-Benz Motoren GmbH in the Genshagener Heide area . In the mid-1950s, passenger traffic began on the route. Initially, some express and express trains ran from the eastern part of Berlin in the direction of Dessau , there were also passenger trains on the section from Genshagener Heide to Michendorf, some further in the direction of Belzig . From time to time, the section from Genshagener Heide to Großbeeren and on to Teltow was also served by a few rush hour trains, which on the one hand opened up the Ludwigsfelde automobile plant near Genshagener Heide train station and on the other hand offered connections to Berlin. With the completion of the Berlin outer ring, the passenger trains were led in the direction of Potsdam instead of Michendorf . They had a connection to Michendorf at Bergholz station . Some express trains from Berlin to Dessau remained on the section between Saarmund and Michendorf.

After German reunification , the trains in the direction of Dessau took the direct route from Berlin-Wannsee again . The section between Saarmund and Genshagener Heide was served by the RB 22 line, which continued to connect Potsdam with Berlin-Schönefeld on the outer ring. From 1998 to 2011 the line was run via Michendorf, so that in these years the section from Michendorf to Genshagener Heide had passenger traffic again. Since the end of 2011, the line has been running again from Potsdam to Saarmund directly via the outer ring. For one year, some trains from Berlin to Belzig that had been diverted due to construction work remained on the section, since December 2012 only the section from Saarmund to Genshagener Heide has been served by passenger traffic.

In freight transport, the route is important for connecting the Seddin marshalling yard and for bypassing downtown Berlin for trains from southern and western Germany to the east. Since freight traffic continues to predominantly bypass the inner part of Berlin, the reopening of the connections to West Berlin did not change the importance of the route for freight traffic. However, compared to the situation in the GDR, the volume of goods on the railways decreased overall.

Web links

Commons : Michendorf – Großbeeren railway line  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bernd Kuhlmann, Bahnknoten Berlin, The development of the Berlin railway network since 1838 , Verlag GVE, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-89218-099-7 , p. 40.
2. ^ Map of the Reichsbahndirektion Berlin, 1943
3. ↑ Peter Bley, Railways on the Teltow Verlag Bernd Neddemeyer, 2008, ISBN 978-3-933254-92-4 , pp. 67-69