German naval railways

As a Marine Rail railway lines are designated by the Imperial Navy , the German Navy and the German Navy created or operated. These were almost exclusively laid in standard gauge so that the railway material and vehicles of the Prussian State Railroad and Deutsche Reichsbahn could also be used.

Marine railways in Rüstringen

Wilhelmshaven

The Wilhelmshaven naval shipyard in the Rüstringen region had its own railway operations since 1870, with a track network most recently around 200 kilometers long. In 1941, the naval railway received approval for passenger traffic to Sande and the northern districts of Wilhelmshaven ( Altengroden , Fedderwardergroden and Voslapp ). Five locomotives and a total of 37 passenger cars were procured, with which up to 30,000 people were transported to their workplaces on the shipyard site and back home every day.

The naval railway was spun off from the rest of the shipyard organization early on and was thus spared dismantling. At that time, about 600 people were employed by the naval railway. At first it was operated after the end of the war on the orders of the Allied military authorities and finally placed under the trust of the administrative office for imperial and state assets in Hanover .

Since regular operation of the Wilhelmshaven-Rüstringer tram had become impossible due to the severe war damage , the naval railway remained the only means of public transport, apart from a few bus routes. In November 1949, the previous naval railway, which was now looked after by the Deutsche Reichsbahn, was renamed the Wilhelmshaven suburban railway and received the status of a small railway .

Marine Railway Hohenkirchen – Schillig

Marine Railway Hohenkirchen – Schillig
Route length:	12 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Legend Railway line Jever – Harle from (Sande–) Jever 0.0 Hohenkirchen after Harle 4.3 Wiarden 6.8 Imperial Court 8.3 Horumersiel to the meadow battery 10.7 Schillig to the positions (batteries)

The Hohenkirchen – Schillig marine railway was located in today's municipality of Wangerland and connected the districts of Hohenkirchen , Horumersiel and Schillig . The standard-gauge line was opened in February 1915, and it was closed on April 28, 1949.

In 1914, the navy had several gun emplacements in Schillig to protect the jade entrance and the Wilhelmshaven naval port . In order to be able to reach these better, a rail connection to the next Hohenkirchen station was built on the Jever – Harle railway line . Since the Grand Ducal Oldenburg State Railways (GOE) had no interest in the operation, the railway was operated as a private connection to the navy, briefly under the management of GOE, and later with its own vehicles. After the end of the war, the line was preserved, but the locomotives were withdrawn and individual transports for target practice were taken over by horses.

From 1935 the line was under the control of the Deutsche Reichsbahn and was opened to public transport. However, there was no scheduled traffic, but there were special trains to Horumersiel and Schillig . In the Second World War , the railway was again used exclusively for military purposes. In 1946 a Kleinbahn Hohenkirchen – Schillig GmbH was founded. The connection was leased by the tax authorities and resources were taken over. A considerable amount of passenger and freight traffic was carried out up until the currency reform. After the only locomotive had to be parked damaged on February 27, 1949 and operations had to be terminated, the line was shut down on April 28 of the same year, the remaining operating resources were auctioned and the line dismantled. In 2008 there are almost no traces of the railway line left. Remnants of rails are said to be still 200 m east of Hof Immerwarfen near Wiarden ; At the Kronenburg courtyard there, the old railway line can be seen in the street and meadow.

Marine railways in Cuxhaven

In Cuxhaven there is now a naval railway only as a street name. The road runs where the naval railway line was previously. This branched off from the Bremerhaven – Cuxhaven railway line and led from the port towards the Nordholz naval air base .

The Cuxhaven tram was subject to the "condition that operations had to be stopped immediately as soon as the navy announced its own use."

Marine Railway Farge – Schwanewede

From the remains of the Lower Weser train the Marine Railway was Farge - Schwanewede as a standard gauge light railway track rails for the construction of the of the mid-1930s WiFo - tank farm in the Farger Heide were laid. These were retained when on September 1, 1938, freight traffic south of Sandstedt was also suspended and the line to Farge was dismantled. A few kilometers of track remained passable only north of Farge and were later used by the Bundeswehr as a connecting line to the Farge-Vegesack Railway .

For the construction of the naval depot and from 1943 for the construction of the Valentin submarine bunker in Rekum , new sections of the route were laid, known as the naval railway . The main route to Schwanewede still exists (except for the last two kilometers), but is impassable and is to be auctioned in March 2016.

Another branch of this naval railway was built especially for deportation trains to the Farge concentration camp and the labor education camp in the immediate vicinity as well as several prisoner of war and forced labor camps. The branches to the bunker and to the Farge concentration camp were dismantled after 1945.

At the naval community camp, which was used as a naval hospital from 1945 to 1947 and as the Evangelical Hospital Neuenkirchen from 1947 to 1962 , there was a separate train station on a branch line of this naval railway, the building of which was demolished by the Bundeswehr in the 1970s. The siding is still there and is overgrown with grass.

The terminus of the main line led to the Ostarbeiterslager Ostlandstrasse in Schwanewede.

“ The High Command of the Navy (OKM) instructed the construction management to build the necessary outdoor facilities in coordination with Wifo. Both tank farms were able to use the oil pier on the Weser together. A third extinguishing bridge was to be built on the pier for the Navy, including a pumping station. However, this project was no longer completed. From the track of the decommissioned Niederweserbahn, from Farge-Ost to Bremerhaven-Wulsdorf, the new naval railway branched off in Rekum with a line to Schwanewede. Personnel and material transport for the construction site could now also be handled via this connection. "

There was another branch line for the Schwanewede-Heidkamp OT camp , which was used by the US military from 1945 and was later expanded into a Bundeswehr barracks .

Marine railways on North Sea islands

Borkum

The Borkumer Marinebahn was an extension of the network of the Borkumer Kleinbahn after Kaiser Wilhelm II had granted the island of Borkum the status of a sea ​​fortress in 1902 . The main line of the Borkumer Kleinbahn was expanded to double tracks, not least because of the transport of building materials. In 1938 there were around 45 kilometers of track on Borkum after the Navy had built the Ostland Railway and numerous siding . The Ostlandbahn connected the place Borkum with various fortifications.

Norderney

Norderneyer Marine Railway
Route length:	? km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Route and stations
Legend Norderney harbor Battery fishing port Festungsschirrhof (Stelldichein train station) Battery Hamburg depot Battery low Battery dovetief Battery Bremen Battery White Dune

Station rendezvous formerly the fortress shipyard of the naval railway on Norderney

At the beginning of the First World War, Norderney was the only one of the larger East Frisian Islands to not have an island railway for passenger and freight traffic. After 1888 some companies and private entrepreneurs tried to get a permit to build a steam train or an electric tram. However, all requests were denied by the government agencies.

After the beginning of the war in 1914, the entire island was expanded into a strong sea fortress. Large amounts of building material had to be transported into the dunes for the construction of the military installations. Therefore, in 1915, the Imperial Naval Headquarters decided to build an island railway, which was laid in standard gauge east of the town towards the east of the island, so that the railway material and vehicles of the Prussian State Railway could also be used.

After the end of the First World War in 1918, the artillery positions, the sea air base at today's port and the naval railway were spared from disarmament regulations. The gun emplacements in the dunes of the island were used by the Reichswehr for target practice, the naval railway continued to transport material, ammunition and soldiers.

The armament of the Wehrmacht by the National Socialists after 1935 also led to an extensive expansion of the entire military facilities on Norderney at the beginning of the Second World War. The expansion of the facilities in the middle and east of the island initially required the island railway to be expanded, and at the same time several workshops and buildings were added to the Festungsschirrhof . Instead of one, there were now three steam locomotives and two motor locomotives on the island, and there were also several motor trolleys for transporting crews. The driving operation took place without signaling and train notification procedures only after registering with the head of the driving service by telephone. In the event of encounters on the open road, one of the vehicles had to move back into the next switch.

After the end of the war in 1945, the railway system was primarily used to transport the military systems and their facilities that had been dismantled on the island. In autumn 1946, the British military government left the entire railway material to the Reich Railway Directorate in Münster . The railway material consisted of a total of 20,000 meters of rails, 15,000 wooden sleepers, ten right-hand turnouts, six left-hand turnouts, fourteen stake cars, twelve O-cars, four equipment cars, two diesel locomotives, a steam locomotive and a track car.

In 1947 plans were developed to operate a tram. The municipality and the Norderney spa administration were not interested in taking over the tracks. Much of the rails and vehicles were transported to the mainland in the spring of 1947, while many sleepers were used by the islanders as heating material. Only the Stelldichein station, which was built in 1917 and belongs to the expanded Schirrhof fortress and which was the local stop for passenger traffic to and from the fortress, remained of the military railway . This is located at today's intersection of Birkenweg and Richthofenstraße next to the Cumberland monument .

Wangerooge

→ Main article : Wangerooger Inselbahn

The navy used the existing lines of the meter-gauge island railway since 1899. This was regulated by a contract on shunting traffic between the Grand Ducal Oldenburg Railway Directorate and the Imperial Shipyard in Wilhelmshaven. The navy also had more than a dozen connections to its own positions and had also opened the route to the west on July 20, 1900 itself in order to be able to reach the positions there. In 1912 a separate pier was even built in the mudflats. The Navy had several locomotives and draisines stationed on Wangerooge for their traffic. A trolley and a locomotive from it came to the Spiekeroog Island Railway after 1945 , where they initiated the motorization of the railway.

Heligoland

On Helgoland , the Helgoland marine port construction authority operated its own small-gauge, meter-gauge railway during the two world wars for the construction and supply of the naval bases, but this was finally abandoned in 1945.

Naval railways in Schleswig-Holstein

Danish charity

The Gettorf – Stohl railway served to operate the military installations on this peninsula.

Kiel

There were naval railway systems in Kiel at the port construction management in Kiel Heikendorf , the Imperial Mine Depot Kiel Friedrichsort , the Imperial Torpedo Workshop Kiel Friedrichsort and the Kiel Navy Shipyard . In 1939 the Kiel port railway and the Howaldtswerke were taken over by the navy. The Howaldtswerke shipyard has since been referred to as a shipyard and the port railway became a naval railway. Even the Seefliegerhorst Kiel Holtenau , the service distress squadron Kiel Holtenau and the Marine Depot Kiel Schusterkrug were supplied by their own sidings.

From the former Brandsbek station (today Felde stop on the Kiel – Rendsburg railway line ), the Kriegsmarinewerft operated a route to the Groß-Nordsee tank farm on Lake Flemhuder See

Naval Arsenal Kiel

The naval arsenal on the east bank of the Kiel Fjord also had its own connecting railway, the Ostuferbahn .

Oppendorf settlement

Marinebahn Oppendorfer switch

Connecting tracks

the Kiel – Schönberger Railway , including in Fiefbergen , Stakendorf and to Laboe.

Laboe

In the Laboe marine ammunition depot, the navy operated a light railway from 1958 to 1996, which was mainly used for transporting ammunition .

Brunsbüttelkoog

The marine coal depot at Brunsbüttelkoog had its own locomotives and an independent route network.

Eckernförde

At least a rail connection from Altenhofer station from the disposal torpedo experimental station Eckernförde (from 1934: Factory TVA Eckernförde-South ) in Eckernförder district Sandkrug approximately from 1915 to 1945. In Redigieranweisung "torpedo firing range, shed on the beach and port web does not enter in to be published Cards" on a preliminary draft for a revision of the Eckernförde measurement table around 1920, the route remained unpublished. The siding was mainly used to transport coal for the company's own coal-fired power station.

Naval Railway Museums

A naval railway museum is being built in Bad Bramstedt . It contains a collection of naval railway equipment: 21 locomotives and 180 wagons are distributed across several depots. In Bad Bramstedt alone, there are seven locomotives and 80 wagons on the moor processing site on Oskar-Alexander-Strasse.

Since December 2009, the Aeronauticum Naval Aviation Museum has had an exhibition section on the history of the naval railway with two main exhibits, a freight wagon and a "naval locomotive".

literature

• Documentation and learning location Baracke Wilhelmine (ed.), Peter-Michael Meiners (author): The Marinebahn Farge – Rekum – Neuenkirchen / Schwanewede (=  handout for those interested in history , No. 2). Documentation and learning location Baracke Wilhelmine, Schwanewede-Neuenkirchen 2012 (content: history of the Farge – Schwanewede naval railway ; with explanations of terms and background information).

Web links

Commons : Marinebahn Farge-Schwanewede  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• The naval railway on Norderney 1915-1947

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gerd Wolff: German small and private railways. Volume 9: Lower Saxony 1 . Eisenbahn-Kurier, Freiburg 2005, ISBN 3-88255-668-4 , p. 145 .
2. ↑ Marine Railway construction area
3. ↑ see also: Aeronauticum and Cuxhaven-Nordholz Airport
4. ^ Roland Ahrendt: The Brief History of the Cuxhaven Tram ( Memento from September 29, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
5. ^ [1] Article in the Weser-Kurier about the auction of the route.
6. ↑ New topographies of a place of remembrance - "Bunker Valentin" (PDF; 3.4 MiB)
7. ↑ The memorial in front of the Valentin bunker is on a branch line of the naval railway that is no longer in use . It depicts the slave laborers who suffered and died while building the bunker.
8. ↑ Information on the various camps in Bremen-Farge and Schwanewede on relict.com
9. ↑ Site plan
10. ↑ Information board at the Stelldichein train station
11. ↑ Martin Kaule: Nordseeküste 1933 - 1945 , p. 9 limited preview in the Google book search, accessed on March 8, 2017.
12. ^ The railroad in Schleswig-Holstein: Marinehafenbauamt Helgoland. Private website ( memento of July 8, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ).
13. ^ Railways on the island of Helgoland. Niederelbebahn ( memento from September 5, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ).
14. ^ Marine railways in Kiel ( Memento from July 22, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
15. ↑ The Kriegsmarinewerft is a short-term company structure that has not grown: KMW was created on April 1, 1939 by merging the Kiel operations of Howaldtswerke AG with the existing Kriegsmarine Arsenal in Kiel. Since the merger was obviously not profitable, the High Command of the Navy sold the Howaldtswerke (Kiel) on July 1, 1943 to the Howaldtswerke (Hamburg).
16. ↑ Hinrich Dürkop: The former marine oil plants at Schafstedt 1939-1945 , published in "Dithmarschen", magazine for state care, issue 2/1993 p. 40, Publishing House Boyens and Co. Stadt Heide
17. ↑ Expert opinion of the Federal Institute for Hydrology  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
18. ^ Ostuferbahn Kiel ( Memento from July 20, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
19. ^ Route Kiel Süd-Schönberger Strand ( Memento from February 8, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
20. ↑ Wolfgang Nolle: From the torpedo shooting range Eckernförde to WTD 71. In: Jann-Markus Witt: Eckernförde - history of a port and naval city. Convent-Verlag, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 3-934613-96-9 , page 82
21. ↑ Marine Railway Museum Bad Bramstedt
22. ↑ Permanent exhibition outside area ( Memento from December 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive )