Railway accident near Markdorf

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More than 100 people were killed in the train accident near Markdorf.

In the railway accident at Mark village on December 22, 1939, met freight train and a fully loaded passenger train on the Lake Constance Belt Railway at Mark village within the boundaries of today Friedrichshafen belonging to local Lipbach together.

Starting position

route

The Bodenseegürtelbahn is single-track and runs on the north shore of Lake Constance . There was heavy fog there that evening . The personnel situation on the route was tense due to the Second World War . So the only people on the had interlocking of the train station Markdorf an additional 500 meters away bounded railway crossing mitbedienen without remote control. To do this, he rode a bicycle there, lowered the barriers, waited for the train to pass, lifted the barriers again, rode the bike back and was only available again in the signal box - and all that when it was darkened .

Markdorf station

In Station Markdorf a set of rules was observed and the handling of them contributed to the accident at: All trains running special trains were once their traffic was announced, entered into a memorandum book. All entries for the day in question were then to be transferred to a notice board in the station office by the officer on duty at midnight. Darkening was arranged across the empire, the Markdorf station, including the platform , was not illuminated.

Passenger train going west

The passenger train was a special train from Oberstdorf to Müllheim and traveling west. It was called P Kar 21154 and operated on a timetable that was available to a passenger train in peacetime, but which now only operated "on request", but rarely in practice. For this on-demand traffic, however, the route - including the required train crossing in Markdorf - was left in the timetable. Already announced for the day before, the special train was running late because the number of available cars was too short. This was also announced to the stations along the route. The train was supported by a locomotive of the series 57 pulled that drove a top speed of 60 km / h. It was followed by eleven through cars and four boxcars for luggage. 700 passengers, residents of Weil am Rhein and the surrounding area, who had been evacuated from the French border into the Allgäu since September 3, 1939 due to the Second World War , traveled by train back to their places of residence, after almost no fighting at the end of 1939 Border had taken place.

Freight train going east

The daily running coal train Dg 7953 drove east on the same route and had Lindau as its destination. It was also pulled by a class 57 steam locomotive . A train safety officer on board had to be in the brakeman's cab of the last car. When passing through a train station, he had to make eye contact with the supervisor , to greet by laying hands on his hat during the day and by lifting the signal lamp at night. Since it was cold, the train safety officer, with the permission of the train driver, got into the baggage car that was running right behind the locomotive to warm himself. The trains should have crossed in Markdorf as planned. According to local regulations, the freight train should have stopped in Markdorf in any case, even if the exit signal showed "Drive free", and had to wait for the departure order from the dispatcher .

Both trains were also subject to the blackout regulations, which means that they had no headlights , but instead of the "peace-like" lighting only narrow slits of light on the lamps.

accident

Markdorf station

Memorial stone for the railway accident in Lipbach

On December 21, 1939, shortly before 8 p.m., the deputy station manager received the telegram that announced that the P Kar 21154 would operate the following day. He didn't write that down in the notebook. His boss, who took over from him on the day shift on December 22, 1939, did not notice this mistake either. His deputy took over from him around 7:00 p.m. Apparently he had forgotten the special train. That is why he did not inform the other employees, point attendants and signal box either. Interrupted during typing, he accepted the freight train from Bermatingen - Ahausen station at 10:06 p.m. and at 10:07 p.m. set the exit signal from Markdorf station to "free travel" without first offering the freight train to Kluftern station and waiting for acceptance there. This was possible because there was no section block . The deputy station manager had a blackout at the crucial moment , was concentrated on his typing and had simply forgotten the oncoming passenger train.

Kluftern station

At 10:12 p.m. the special train was offered to Kluftern station from Fischbach and the dispatcher accepted it. At 10:14 p.m. the dispatcher in Kluftern tried in vain to reach his colleague in Markdorf to offer him the train - no one answered the phone there. He then relied on the timetable and the planned intersection of the trains in Markdorf and let the passenger train on the route without first making sure in Markdorf that the section leading to there was free. Then he tried again to reach the Markdorf train station. But since the dispatcher from there tried to call Kluftern to offer the freight train at the same time, no connection was established. Thereupon the dispatcher Kluftern sent a bell signaling a train to Markdorf station.

Passage of the freight train in Markdorf

It was not until the bell signal that the dispatcher in Markdorf remembered the special train. He ran onto the darkened platform, but the freight train's locomotive had already passed the station building . He had neither a lighted command staff nor a hand lantern, nor even his whistle to hand. Contrary to the regulations, the train did not stop, nobody on the train noticed it and the train safety officer, who was supposed to be in the last car, was in the baggage car at the front of the train. The dispatcher ran back to his office and tried to reach the signal box so that a stop signal could be given from there. But that failed, because the employee was waiting at the barrier for the freight train to pass. The dispatcher then tried again to reach Kluftern station. The connection was now established immediately - but too late: the special train had already passed through Kluftern station.

Accident

The two trains drove towards each other on a straight 2.5 km long. Since there was thick fog and the two locomotives only had a reduced, poorly recognizable peak signal due to the darkening, the locomotive drivers did not see each other or only at the last moment: While the freight train did not brake at all, the locomotive driver of the passenger train had to brake at the last moment triggered. At 10:19 p.m. the trains collided head-on and unbraked at a distance of 43,190 kilometers at a speed of 60 km / h each. The locomotives stopped without overturning. The first two passenger cars were completely destroyed, the tender of the passenger train reared up on impact and then fell back onto the first car. Two other passenger cars were badly damaged. The freight train's baggage car and the first 15 open coal cars piled up in a heap of rubble.

consequences

The accident claimed 101 lives and 47 injured. 98 fatalities come from the Markgräflerland , Binzen , Egringen , Fischingen , Haltingen , Weil am Rhein and Welmlingen .

The coffins were set up on the market square in Markdorf on Christmas Day, and with the participation of the highest party and armed forces representatives , including Gauleiter and Reich Governor Robert Wagner , the dead were bid farewell. They were then taken back to their homeland on a special train .

The District Court of Constance condemned on July 3, 1940 dispatcher of Kluftern to twelve months in prison , his Markdorfer colleague, who was condemned as a major offender, was given three years in prison.

On December 22, 1989, a memorial stone was unveiled in Lipbach to commemorate the accident.

Railway accident in Genthin on the same day

Also on December 22, 1939, the Genthin railway accident occurred in which one express train crashed into another, killing at least 185 people and injuring many more.

literature

  • Bernd Caesar: Klufterner Hefte No. 4: 100 years of the railway and inn at the train station in Kluftern . Working group Heimatgeschichte Kluftern eV, Kluftern 2001.
  • Fritz Maier: Friedrichshafen. Homeland book . Vol. 2. Friedrichshafen 1994, p. 311 ff.
  • Hans Joachim Ritzau: Shadow of the railway history . Vol. 1. 2. Ed. 1994., p. 286 ff.
  • Hans Joachim Ritzau: From Siegelsdorf to Aitrang. The railway disaster as a symptom - a study of the history of traffic . Landsberg 1972.
  • City of Weil am Rhein (ed.): The memorials of the railway accident near Markdorf, December 22, 1939: To commemorate the 50th anniversary on December 22, 1989 . Weil am Rhein 1989.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ritzau: Von Siegelsdorf , p. 76.
  2. ^ Ritzau: Von Siegelsdorf , p. 74.
  3. ^ Ritzau: Von Siegelsdorf , p. 74.
  4. ↑ Ritzau: Von Siegelsdorf , p. 77.
  5. ^ Ritzau: Von Siegelsdorf , p. 74.
  6. ^ Ritzau: Von Siegelsdorf , p. 73.
  7. ^ Ritzau: Von Siegelsdorf , p. 73.
  8. ↑ Ritzau: Von Siegelsdorf , p. 75.
  9. ↑ Ritzau: Von Siegelsdorf , p. 75.
  10. ^ Ritzau: Von Siegelsdorf , p. 76.
  11. ↑ Ritzau: Von Siegelsdorf , p. 78.
  12. ↑ For the details cf. also: Accident on Bürgerwiki Friedrichshafen .
  13. ^ Ritzau: Von Siegelsdorf , p. 74.
  14. ↑ Ritzau: Von Siegelsdorf , p. 77.
  15. ↑ 106 dead after Caesar.
  16. ↑ Background information, see: Weblinks.
  17. ↑ Ritzau: Von Siegelsdorf , p. 78.

Coordinates: 47 ° 41 ′ 59.4 "  N , 9 ° 24 ′ 11.1"  E