Helmetalbahn

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Osterhagen – Nordhausen
Route of the Helmetalbahn
Route length: approx. 24 km
Gauge : 1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Route - straight ahead
South Harz line from Northeim
   
Osterhagen
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0.0 Branch of the valley track
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approx. 0.8 Arch bridge Steingraben
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South Harz line to Nordhausen
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Connecting track to the Tettenborn camp
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approx. 2.0 Connecting track between valley and mountain side
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Lower Saxony / Thuringia
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approx. 5.2
   
about 6.5 Mackenrode
   
approx. 12.2 Viaduct Pützlingen over the helmets
   
approx. 14.9 Gunzerode
   
Haferbach
   
approx. 20.7 Hesserode
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approx. 22.8 Route from Hann. Münden
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approx. 23.1 Helmets
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approx. 23.6
   
South Harz line from Northeim
Station, station
approx. 25.4 Nordhausen (to the Harz narrow-gauge railway )
Route - straight ahead
Route to Halle

The Helmetalbahn from Osterhagen to Nordhausen was a double-track bypass railway for the southern Harz line built by concentration camp inmates in 1944/45 . With the exception of small remaining work, it was initially completed on a single track, but was no longer operational when the war ended in May 1945. Due to its location on the border of the zone , the tracks of the Helmetalbahn were completely dismantled by 1947.

prehistory

Initial plans for a railway line south of the Harz in the second half of the 19th century through the Kingdom of Hanover and Prussia already envisaged a route along the Helmetal . But the objection of Braunschweig and the more industrial places around Wieda, Walkenried and Ellrich led to a more northerly, closer to the Harz route of the section of the Südharzbahn, opened on August 1, 1869, between the stations Nordhausen and Herzberg am Harz .

Further attempts around 1900 to better develop the upper Helmetal also failed.

On 17./18. In August 1943, British bombers destroyed parts of the Peenemünde Army Research Center , where various rockets ( V1 and V2 ) were developed and manufactured. After the bombing, the rocket production by Mittelwerk GmbH was to be continued underground . The Kohnstein near Nordhausen, where some tunnels were already available, was selected for this. For this purpose, the Dora labor camp was founded on August 28, 1943, which operated as an independent Mittelbau concentration camp from October 1944 and formed an extensive camp complex with numerous satellite camps.

The southern Harz line between Walkenried and Nordhausen, which in the last years of the war was one of the busiest connections in Germany, was soon overwhelmed by the increased traffic. With the help of a bypass, the (civil and supraregional) traffic should avoid the production site and the concentration camp. The plans for the new line to be built, the Helmetalbahn, were based on existing designs from the construction period of the southern Harz line, because originally it was supposed to lead through the Helmetal.

construction

execution

In 1944, the planning was completed to such an extent that construction work on the double-track Osterhagen-Nordhausen railway could begin.

First, in the summer of 1944, additional (construction) sub-camps of the Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp (including the Osterhagen and Nüxei camps) were established. Two SS construction brigades that were supposed to carry out the construction were also relocated from the Ruhr area to the southern Harz.

Preparatory work began in May 1944; the real estate necessary for the construction was expropriated . The landowners were only guaranteed financial compensation after the victorious end of the war. Initially, only one track was laid on the planned two-lane route. The rail material required for this (including sidings, around 50 kilometers of track had already been laid in the spring of 1945) was largely obtained by dismantling other lines; other procurement options were no longer available in the last two years of the war. Because of the double track, the line between Osterhagen and Mackenrode should have run on two routes (one “valley side” and one “mountain side”).

The construction was carried out at a fast pace with very simple means (for details see working conditions ). The 22 km long new line was planned to be completed in the summer of 1945, but all work was stopped in March 1945 with the advance of the Allied forces. Until then, only the valley section between Osterhagen and Mackenrode had been built; on the section Mackenrode – Nordhausen the line was already laid out with two lanes. Only minor remaining work and some bridge construction should have been carried out before the opening in summer 1945.

Nevertheless, the construction of the railway line could almost be achieved in a logistical feat in the short time of nine months with the exploitation of numerous prisoners.

working conditions

The conditions of the prisoners who were forced to build, around 2,600 in total, were extremely poor. In addition to the catastrophic conditions in the numerous sub-camps around Nordhausen, which had been built for the construction of the line, only a few machines were available. Only a few field railways, two locomotives and four steam excavators were available. However, these could often not be used due to a lack of coal.

The extensive earthworks were carried out almost exclusively with wheelbarrows and shovels. The embankments and forest clearings required for the construction were done by hand.

Victim

Dead prisoners after the liberation of a camp in the Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp complex

No exact figures are available for the number of victims. For example, between the summer of 1944 and the end of the war in May 1945, around half of the concentration camp inmates in the 3rd SS construction brigade lost their lives. This also includes the victims who remained lying on the death marches across the Harz while fleeing from the Allies in spring 1945 and were shot.

About 2,600 concentration camp prisoners were directly or indirectly involved in the construction (e.g. for supply) (other sources speak of at least 3,000 people). Almost half of them died during the construction of the Helmetalbahn, were shot on the death marches or starved to death. Numerous other concentration camp prisoners were burned alive on April 13, 1945 in the massacre in the Isenschnibber field barn in Gardelegen by the guards, members of the SS and the Wehrmacht , the Reich Labor Service , the Volkssturm and other local groups of perpetrators.

Use and dismantling

Although most of the line was completed in the spring of 1945, no train ever ran on it. The end of the war and the subsequent location in the border area between the British and Soviet occupation zones prevented completion. Profitable operation would also have been almost impossible due to the existing southern Harz line, not even ten kilometers to the north. In 1946/47 the already completed tracks were dismantled. The camps built for the construction were also demolished after the war. To this day, only the numerous railway embankments and bridge abutments are evidence of the railway line, which was built with a high toll in blood.

Routing

The route was planned to be two-track, but part of the route ran on two separate routes (the valley track and the mountain track ). This complex route was due to the height difference of 138 meters that the route had to overcome over a length of 22 kilometers. In particular, the Osterhagen-Mackenrode section with its separate route had a steep gradient.

Valley track

The valley track left the route of the Südharzbahn shortly after the Osterhagen station, crossed the Steingraben on an arched bridge and met the connecting track to the mountain side / camp Tettenborn at about kilometer two. From about 5.1 km, both the mountain and valley tracks then used the same route.

Mountain track

The mountain track used in the opposite direction, on the other hand, or so it was planned, followed the southern Harz line for a further kilometer, then ran first to the north and after a curve crossed under the southern Harz railway. Shortly afterwards, the line met the connecting track to the Tettenborn camp on the valley side. Then the mountain track slowly approached the valley track again before the two ran parallel to each other again in front of the Mackenrode station.

Because of the looped track layout, the mountain track was a few kilometers longer; but this was intended so that the locomotives could pull heavier trains due to the lower gradient.

After Mackenrode station, the train continued along the Ichte - and Helmetal to Nordhausen. There she first crossed the Halle – Hann railway line. Münden and was then introduced into Nordhausen station parallel to it.

Memorials

After the Second World War, railway construction and the associated sacrifices initially seemed to have been forgotten. Only after 1990 did the history of the Helmetalbahn slowly come to terms with. In 1995 a memorial stone for the victims of the concentration camp was finally erected on the site of the former Mackenrode camp. Two more finally followed in 1999 in Nüxei and Osterhagen.

literature

Web links

Commons : Helmetalbahn  - collection of images, videos and audio files