Railway accident in Erfurt-Bischleben

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Salvage work on the seventh car

In the railway accident at Erfurt-Bischleben on June 11, 1981, the express train D 1453 from Düsseldorf to Karl-Marx-Stadt derailed due to a track distortion . 14 travelers died, 102 were injured, some of them seriously.

Starting position

The D 1453 was a so-called interzonal train between the Federal Republic of Germany and the former German Democratic Republic (GDR). He was traveling from Düsseldorf Hbf via Bebra and Erfurt to Karl-Marx-Stadt Hbf . It consisted of the diesel locomotive 132 009 from the Eisenach depot and ten passenger coaches . In train many DDR traveled retirees who returned from a visit to the Federal Republic. At about 4:20 p.m. he passed the Erfurt-Bischleben train station with the maximum speed permitted there of 120 km / h.

June 11, 1981 was a hot summer day. The temperature was 30 ° C.

the accident

Working on the seventh car

Due to the heat there was great tension on the rails and probably because of poor quality track construction work in the Erfurt-Bischleben station, as a result of which there was apparently a warped track in track 1 at the height of the reception building . However, the destruction of the superstructure by the accident destroyed all traces, so that this could no longer be proven.

The train approached the track fault at almost 120 km / h, the engine driver recognized it and triggered an emergency brake . But that was too late to prevent the accident. The first wagons remained connected to the locomotive . The clutch broke between the third and fourth passenger cars , and the fourth and fifth cars fell down the embankment. The following wagons derailed, but remained in the gravel , whereby the seventh wagon collided head-on with a signal box and was half destroyed.

consequences

NVA tanks pull destroyed passenger coaches from the scene of the accident
Cars 4 and 5 of the D 1453 are burned on site

Numerous helpers were quickly on the spot and took care of the injured. It was not uncommon for the nurses and doctors to receive bundled D-Mark bills when they cut the seriously injured from their clothes. Some of the retirees who returned from their visit to the West are said to have worn up to four jackets on top of each other, gifts from relatives in the West who were supposed to avoid customs control at the border . Transport Minister Otto Arndt arrived at the scene of the accident that evening. The next morning, armored recovery vehicles of the National People's Army and the Soviet Army pulled the wrecked wagons out of the track area. One day after the accident, the track was cleared. In addition to the 14 dead and more than 100 injured, there was property damage of more than 1.16 million marks .

Investigations that had been initiated against responsible employees of the Deutsche Reichsbahn were discontinued by the Erfurt public prosecutor's office , as the destruction at the scene of the accident could no longer clearly identify the cause of the track warping. There was also an interest on the part of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in making the incident forgotten as quickly as possible, since an international train was affected and the accident could be damaging to the reputation of the GDR.

After the accident, the rumor arose in the GDR that the track warpage was caused by military vehicles that were supposed to have illegally crossed the tracks at the train station in Erfurt-Bischleben. However, this is contradicted by the fact that the track warpage was at the height of the reception building.

Two days later, on June 13, 1981, the central celebration of the Day of the Railway Worker (Day of the Transport Workers) took place. Another railway accident occurred that morning in which two freight trains collided head-on between Bad Blankenburg and Saalfeld . Two deaths and high property damage were the result. The two accidents made the transport minister doubt whether he should really honor Herbert Marktscheffel, the president of the Reichsbahndirektion Erfurt , as a well-deserved railroad worker at the celebration. However, both accidents had no personal consequences for the president.

literature

  • Peter Kentner: Medical and social consequences of the railway accident near Erfurt-Bischleben on June 11, 1981 . 1984.
  • Hans-Joachim Ritzau, Jürgen Höstel: The catastrophe scenes of the present = railway accidents in Germany Vol. 2. Pürgen 1983. ISBN 3-921304-50-4 , p. 185.

Web links

Commons : Erfurt-Bischleben railway accident  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ritzau.
  2. ↑ grief; according to Dürlich: 16:55.
  3. ↑ a b grief.
  4. ↑ a b c Dürlich.
  5. ^ So: Kentner; Ritzau: 120 km / h.
  6. ↑ Erich Preuß: "Tragischer Errtum", p. 118 f

Coordinates: 50 ° 56 ′ 2.9 ″  N , 10 ° 59 ′ 19.1 ″  E