Warnemünde – Gedser route
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The Warnemünde – Gedser trajectory was a railway ferry connection between Warnemünde ( Germany ) and Gedser ( Denmark ) from 1903 to 1995 . It was the oldest German ferry connection to Scandinavia and the first international rail ferry connection. In Germany, the route had a connection to the Lloydbahn via Rostock to Berlin , in Denmark it was connected to Copenhagen via the Nykøbing – Gedser railway.
history
Since the 1840s there has been a steamboat connection between Stettin and Copenhagen , with which u. a. Hans Christian Andersen traveled on August 2, 1844. This route was replaced in 1873 by a much shorter mail steamer connection between Rostock and Nykøbing Falster . From June 26, 1886, it was relocated to the newly created train stations along with the ferry basin from Warnemünde (today the shipyard basin) and Gedser , which shortened the ferry line by 39 km. The paddle steamers Kaiser Wilhelm and King Christian initially operated on this line .
Extensive construction work began again in Warnemünde in 1900, and a new ferry terminal was built directly at the entrance between the jetties. The city of Rostock took on the filling of the new station area, the reconstruction of the jetties, the construction of the new 1.1 kilometer long lake canal and the construction of a bridge over the old river to connect the new station with the town. The station building of the old station stood in the way of extending the route. That is why the tracks were led directly through the middle part of the building with the former reception hall, creating a kind of tunnel. The new station building was built between the new sea canal and the old river.
On September 30, 1903, in the presence of King Christian IX. of Denmark and Grand Duke Friedrich Franz IV of Mecklenburg-Schwerin opened the railway ferry connection .
From the beginning until 1945
The railways procured the ships Prinsesse Alexandrine ( DSB ) and Friedrich Franz IV. ( MFFE ), which were intended as single-track paddle wheel ferries for the transfer of passenger coaches, as well as Prins Christian (DSB) and Mecklenburg (MFFE), which were designed as double-track screw ships for the Freight traffic and operations were used in the winter months.
dan. Paddle wheel ferry Prinsesse Alexandrine
(1903–1926)
before conversion
German paddle wheel ferry Friedrich Franz IV
(1903–1925)
before conversion
The Prins Christian
(1903–1922)
before renovation
The Mecklenburg
(1903–1925)
before renovation
The Mecklenburg
(1926–1945)
after renovation
The Prins Christian
(1923–1945)
after renovation
The Schwerin
(1926–1944)
The Danmark
(1922–1943, 1947–1968)
During the First World War , the line remained in operation without restrictions, as Denmark remained a neutral state in this war .
In 1920 the Mecklenburg ships were transferred to the Deutsche Reichseisenbahnen . In 1922 the DSB put the ferry Danmark into service, which replaced the Prinsesse Alexandrine . With the Schwerin , which was put into service in 1926 , the Reichsbahn put a modern ferry into service, which was also referred to in advertising as the “White Swan of the Baltic Sea”. Spacious lounges, restaurants and a promenade deck made the journey particularly pleasant for the passengers. On this ship, it was possible for the first time to transport cars by axle (previously only rail loading). The Mecklenburg ferry was modernized, the Friedrich Franz IV decommissioned.
With the beginning of the Second World War , the Schwerin was temporarily handed over to the Navy, but soon returned to the line. During the occupation of Denmark by the Wehrmacht on April 9, 1940, parts of the first invasion troops were transferred from the Mecklenburg and the Schwerin to Gedser, with the Mecklenburg arriving as a scheduled ferry with camouflaged soldiers.
The Schwerin ferry was badly damaged by bombs in February 1944 when it was being repaired in the Rostock Neptun shipyard and was not repaired. The Danish ferry Danmark was first badly damaged by the Danish resistance in the port of Gedser in 1943 and March 1945 and then sunk.
With the occupation of Rostock and Warnemünde by Soviet troops, ferry traffic was completely stopped. The still operational steam ferry Mecklenburg was awarded as reparation to the Soviet Union and handed over to Poland by it in 1947 . In the autumn of 1945, the ship was used for the repatriation of Poland and sailed the route Lübeck - Gdansk . Under the Polish flag , she last served as Kopernik on the Swinoujscie - Ystad railway ferry until 1953.
Between the Federal Republic of Germany and Denmark, a new railway ferry from Großenbrode to Gedser was built in 1951 , which was eventually replaced by the Vogelfluglinie .
Significance for the GDR and West Berlin
The GDR , which was initially not politically recognized by Western states, regarded relations other than the diplomatic level as particularly important for the international appreciation of the state. International transport connections offered one possibility.
After the ferry traffic was resumed in 1947 by the DSB with the upscale and modernized Danmark , the Deutsche Reichsbahn tried to get its own ferry for the line. Plans to buy a ship abroad failed. Temporarily, people were transported with chartered seaside resorts of the White Fleet . Only with the commissioning of the newly built Warnemünde ferry in 1963 was the Deutsche Reichsbahn able to operate the route again on an equal footing with DSB, which started using the ferry Kong Frederik IX from 1968 . From 1987 the ferry Knudshoved also went to Warnemünde.
The Reichsbahn endeavored to provide high-quality rolling stock for the connection, so in the 1960s the express multiple unit VT 18.16 drove on this route for the Neptune train from 1964 onwards .
Up until the political change in the GDR, the Copenhagen - Warnemünde - Berlin rail link was seen as important for traffic between Scandinavia and the GDR as well as to and from West Berlin , but in recent years it was more for political reasons. There were two pairs of express trains a day (day train Neptun , night train Ostsee-Express ) to Berlin Stadtbahn . After the construction of the Berlin Wall (from 1962), the trains started at the Zoo station and stopped at Friedrichstrasse and Ostbahnhof (Berlin Hauptbahnhof from 1987 to 1998). There, on locomotive-hauled trains, wagons for domestic traffic were delivered , which ran to Rostock main station and could also be used by GDR travelers. The international wagons were, at least temporarily, locked and without transition to the rest of the train. This and the meticulous controls of the GDR border guards and the GDR customs meant that the trains were not very popular with the Scandinavians. At the end of the 1980s, only one to three express train carriages were hauled over the ferry for the Neptun and the Ostsee-Express , which were provided alternately by DR and DSB.
After the reunification in the GDR
The opening of the borders of the GDR brought the railway ferry connection yet another upswing. The rush of travelers meant that up to eight passenger coaches had to be transported per ferry trip. At the same time, the number of cars to be transferred rose sharply. The ships on the line were not designed for this onslaught. While the express train cars could still be put on and taken off without any problems, the sharp increase in the number of cars and trucks was difficult to manage. Neither the Warnemünde nor the Kong Frederik IX had separate car decks. In order to be able to fully utilize the capacity, cars, trucks and articulated lorries often had to be laboriously and time-consuming to maneuver into the wagon deck. Access to the handling facilities from the A 19 motorway to Warnemünde was only possible through the Rostock city center, which is often affected by traffic jams. Later, the number of rail travelers declined more and more because the train connection was slow and old material was used - on the Danish side, the Berlin Express ran as a local train to and from Copenhagen. The car had become the preferred mode of transport here too. A car-friendly ferry connection was created in 1992 by converting the ferry bridge in Gedser to mooring with the stern, at Warnemünde by reactivating the welded tailgate. In the course of the privatization, the newly founded Deutsche Fährgesellschaft Ostsee (DFO) took over operations on the German side on April 1, 1993 , and DSB Rederi A / S on the Danish side in 1995 . On September 25, 1995, traffic between Warnemünde and Gedser was stopped. The Warnemünde ferry was sold to Italy.
An additional car ferry from Rostock's overseas port to Gedser went into operation as early as 1990. DSB also joined this line in 1994.
For rail travelers from Berlin to Copenhagen, travel times have increased significantly since the Warnemünde ferry station was closed. As alternative routes there are still trips via Hamburg, the seasonal night train pair Berlin - Malmö via the Königslinie ( Sassnitz ) or the long-distance buses Berlin - Copenhagen. The direct train from Berlin to Copenhagen via Vogelfluglinie without changing trains in Hamburg (ICE from 1997) was discontinued in December 2015.
Rail travelers from Rostock Hbf or Nykøbing-Bhf can take buses to the ferry terminals in Rostock or Gedser.
2010 until today
In November 2010 the Rostock housing company WIRO acquired the site of the disused ferry port in Warnemünde from the shipping company Scandlines. The costs for the 67 hectare area on the Mittelmole station peninsula were around 14.1 million euros. Currently, the area is primarily used as a parking lot by the municipal housing company. The original traffic function between the train station and the former ferry port is to be finally replaced by the construction of a new residential area (approx. 300 apartments). The planning for this began in 2012.
On the basis of a non-public report on the stability of the ferry basins, the WIRO, as the new owner, decided, for economic reasons, to completely fill the ferry basins and to demolish the quayside and jetty fingers of the historic ferry system. The citizens' initiative “Alter Fährhafen Warnemünde”, founded at the beginning of 2014, was committed to maintaining it with the Conexeum concept . This provided for the preservation and revitalization of the former ferry port area through a tourist use concept for locals and guests. The demolition work commissioned by WIRO was completed in December 2014. Since June 2015, two display boards at the northern end of the filled ferry basin along a circular route have been reminding of the oldest German ferry connection to Scandinavia and the first international rail ferry connection.
See also
- Rostock-Gedser crossing - proposed bridge / tunnel crossing
literature
- Horst-Dieter Förster, Reinhard Kramer: Building bridges across the Baltic Sea. The Rostock – Gedser ferry connection. Redieck & Schade, Rostock 2003, ISBN 3-934116-28-0 .
- Lothar Schultz: The Lloyd Railway: Neustrelitz-Rostock-Warnemünde , VBN Verlag B. Neddermeyer, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-941712-08-9
Web links
- Scandlines shipping company
- Warnemünde ferry
- Idea concept Conexeum
- WIRO Wohnen in Rostock Wohnungsgesellschaft mbh
Individual evidence
- ^ Hans Christian Andersen
- ^ Goodbye direct train Berlin – Copenhagen. In: Signal , 1/2016, p. 28, online .