Hindenburg Bridge

This article deals with the Hindenburg Bridge near Bingen am Rhein; For other bridges of the same name, see Hindenburg Bridge (disambiguation) .

Hindenburg Bridge Rüdesheim (Rhine) - Bingen (Rhine) formerly Bk Rochusberg
Sketch of the location from 1925
Route number (DB) :	3514
Route length:	6.7 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Legend Right stretch of the Rhine from Wiesbaden 61.30 Geisenheim ~ 62.7 Uhst cellar pit 62.8-63.7 63.47 Bk raft 65.33 Rudesheim Right Rhine route to Koblenz Bk Hindenburg Bridge 1,345 Hindenburg Bridge , Rhine Left Rhine route from Mainz 9.36 Gau-Algesheim 3.82 (see left Rhine route ) 60.55 to Büdesheim - Dromersheim ~ 3.07 Bk Rochusberg Branch line 3513 to Ockenheim to Ockenheim 152.410 Near (see Nahe Valley Railway ) ~ 6.7 Bk Sarmsheim 152.0 Bingen Central Station Left Rhine route to Koblenz Laubenheim (Nahe) (see Nahe Valley Railway ) Near (see Gau Algesheim – Bad Kreuznach ) 51.5 Bad Kreuznach ( wedge station ) Near 55.5 Bad Munster am Stein Alsenz Valley Railway to Hochspeyer Nahe Valley Railway to Saarbrücken former Glantalbahn to Homburg   ( strategic railway ) Swell:

The bridge in the 1920s

Two basalt pillars of the Hindenburg Bridge in the Rhine, the Rüdesheimer Aue on the left , the Ilmenaue on the right

The Hindenburg Bridge was a railway bridge over the Rhine between Rüdesheim am Rhein and Bingen - Kempten , named after Field Marshal General and later President Paul von Hindenburg since 1918 . The bridge, which went into operation on September 1, 1915, was destroyed in World War II and was not rebuilt afterwards.

Since 2002 the remains of the Hindenburg Bridge have formed the easternmost point of the UNESCO World Heritage Upper Middle Rhine Valley .

precursor

The forerunner was a Bingerbrück – Rüdesheim trajectory that ran from November 1861 and established the first connection between the Nassau Rheinbahn and the Rhein-Nahe-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft . This created a railway connection between the Rhine-Main area and the Saar area, which opened up a new sales area for the Saar coal in particular. The ferry was 1900 even as passenger ferry to the Prussian State Railways and the German Railway operated until 1,932th

Planning and start of construction

The Prussian Minister of Public Works Karl von Thielen spoke out in the Prussian House of Representatives in 1900 for the construction of a bridge over the Rhine near Bingen. According to investigations by the Prussian State Railways , the initially favored location near Bingerbrück was not feasible due to the flow conditions near the Binger Loch . Therefore, a location upstream on the Rhine island Rüdesheimer Aue at Rhine kilometer 525.26 was chosen for the bridge in order to cross the river, which is 900 meters wide. Debates about building a railroad bridge, road bridge, or combined bridge dragged on for over a decade; in March 1913 the Reichstag approved funds for the construction of the railway bridge. Military concerns were crucial here. As a strategic railway, the new Rhine bridge was supposed to ensure the connection from the right Rhine route to the Nahe Valley Railway and Glantal Railway and thus create another German route to the French border. The German Reich took over 75% of the costs for the bridge and access routes, the rest was borne by the participating states of Prussia and Hesse. The connecting curve from the bridge in the direction of Geisenheim and on to Wiesbaden was not subsidized, as the military transports apparently were to follow the Rhine downstream and then use the Lahn Valley Railway from Oberlahnstein . Similar railway bridges over the Rhine, built mainly for military reasons, were the Kronprinzenbrücke near Urmitz and the Ludendorff Bridge near Remagen .

Construction work on the Hindenburg Bridge began in June 1913, on November 8, 1913, the Royal Prussian and Grand Ducal Hessian Railway Directorate in Mainz announced that a construction office had been opened in Bingen and the bridge was opened on August 16, 1915. At the start of construction, numerous foreign laborers, mostly Italians, were employed. After a short break in the construction work at the beginning of the First World War , the work was continued with the use of Russian prisoners of war.

execution

The bridge crossed the Rhine over a total length of 1175 meters. It consisted of two arched bridges in the foreland and a 741 meter long steel bridge in the area of ​​the river. This consisted of two arched bridge constructions and five parallel truss girders, each with an underlying carriageway. The arch support with drawstring had each 169.4 meters unusually high for that time span , the truss had spans of even 94.2 meters and 77.0 meters four times. The 11,608 ton iron superstructures cost around 3.5 million marks. They were built by a consortium of the companies MAN-Werk Gustavsburg and Gutehoffnungshütte . The double-track bridge was a total of 12 meters wide, 7 meters of which were for the track systems. There was a walkway on either side.

Together with the bridge, a total of 11 kilometers of connecting lines were built as double-track main lines . In the north, two connecting curves connected the bridge to the right stretch of the Rhine. On the left bank of the Rhine, a line led south of today's Binger district of Büdesheim to Münster-Sarmsheim on the Bingerbrück – Bad Kreuznach line. Another connecting curve was connected to the Mainz – Bad Kreuznach line at Ockenheim station . The access routes on the right bank of the Rhine were assigned to the Oberlahnstein works office, those on the left bank of the Rhine were allocated to the Kreuznach works office (Bad). At the final conclusion of the work, when all access routes were completed, Kaiser Wilhelm II and Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig von Hessen awarded various medals to those involved in the construction.

During the Second World War, another connecting curve was built in 1944 as a single-track branch line from Ockenheim station directly to the left-hand Rhine route in the direction of Bingen. This connecting curve could still be used after the bridge was destroyed.

business

During the First World War, the bridge was used almost exclusively to replenish the German troops on the Western Front . In June 1918 at the latest, Kaiser Wilhelm II gave the bridge its name, Hindenburg Bridge . The Rheinbrücke block section , which included the bridge, was renamed the Hindenburgbrücke block section in October 1918 .

After the end of the war, the area on the left bank of the Rhine and the bridgehead around Wiesbaden were occupied by French troops . The occupying forces confiscated the bridge and rebuilt it so that wagons and motor vehicles could pass. In addition, military trains ran at night and, from the end of 1919, civil freight trains to a lesser extent. Since October 8, 1920, the bridge could also be used for civil German road traffic during the day. The high bridge fees led to protests from the local economy for years. At first it was between 30 marks for a motor vehicle and 2 marks for a motorcycle or a handcart.

After the end of government operations , the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (DRG) began passenger train traffic over the bridge by 1925 at the latest. The use of the trains over the bridge was so little that the Reichsbahndirektion Mainz instructed its staff to make travelers aware of this connection. Tickets that were issued via a connection with the Rhine ferry Bingen – Rüdesheim were also valid for travel by train over the Hindenburg Bridge. In 1931, Ockenheim station was manned 24 hours a day so that trains from Mainz could drive onto the bridge at any time. The Mainz relief train could now also be used on the right-hand Rhine route. In the 1938 summer timetable, eleven passenger trains ran on weekdays and 15 on Sundays, mostly on the Wiesbaden - Bad Münster am Stein route. The opening of the bridge for road traffic was revoked in August 1930 amid local protests, as the DRG saw the safety of rail traffic at risk. The newly established Rhine ferry Bingen-Rüdesheim had to take over the road traffic between the two banks of the Rhine. During the Second World War, the bridge was used to relieve parts of the two Rhine stretches.

The Hindenburgbrücke block station was initially under the control of the railway maintenance department and was assigned to Langenlonsheim station from April 1, 1933 .

destruction

Dismantling of the destroyed bridge in 1949

From August 1942 the bridge was the target of air raids several times . On January 13, 1945 the fore bridge was destroyed. The final destruction of the Hindenburg Bridge took place around March 15, 1945 by pioneers of the Wehrmacht , who wanted to hinder the advance of the American armed forces .

In the summer of 1945, the rubble of the bridge was cleared from the main shipping channel of the Rhine; In 1948 the destroyed superstructures were removed from the river and dismantled on the bank. Rebuilding the bridge was discussed until the 1950s. With the reconstruction of the Kaiserbrücke in Mainz from 1954, the Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) was not interested in another Rhine bridge. Meetings between the DB and the city of Bingen were inconclusive in 1958, as the bridge was not considered to be of military importance and the possible volume of traffic was considered too low. In 1967 a pillar of the bridge was blown up because it hindered navigation on the Rhine; In 1970 the abutments were demolished for reasons of traffic safety.

present

Pictogram Hindenburg Bridge

Ruins of the Hindenburg Bridge

Remains of the Hindenburg Bridge near Rüdesheim

The remains of the approach bridges overgrown by vegetation can be found on both sides of the Rhine, especially on the left bank of the Rhine. Parts of the railway embankments are also still there. At the eastern exit of Rüdesheim am Rhein, Bundesstraße 42 leads through the dam in one of the preserved underpass arches. Some of the basalt pillars can still be seen in the Rhine. The still preserved bridge torso is part of the route of the Rhein-Main industrial culture .

For decades there has been repeated discussion about rebuilding the Rhine bridge as a road bridge, but without concrete results.

literature

• Heinz Schomann : Railway in Hessen . Railway history and building types 1839–1999 / Railway buildings and lines 1839–1939. In: State Office for Monument Preservation Hessen (Ed.): Cultural monuments in Hessen. Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany . Three volumes in a slipcase. tape 2.1 . Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-8062-1917-6 , p. 211 .
• Hans-Wolfgang Scharf: Railway Rhine bridges in Germany. Eisenbahn-Kurier Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau 2003, pp. 152–159. ISBN 3-88255-689-7 .

Web links

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

• The Hindenburg Bridge and its approach routes ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Nahebahn.de
• Strategic pathways

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Railway Atlas Germany . 9th edition. Schweers + Wall, Aachen 2014, ISBN 978-3-89494-145-1 .
2. ↑ Eisenbahndirektion Mainz (ed.): Official Gazette of the Royal Prussian and Grand Ducal Hessian Railway Directorate in Mainz of August 21, 1915, No. 42. Announcement No. 569, p. 275.
3. ↑ On the history of planning: Scharf, Eisenbahn-Rheinbrücken , p. 154.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Scharf, Eisenbahn-Rheinbrücken , p. 157.
5. ^ Eisenbahndirektion Mainz (ed.): Official Journal of the Royal Prussian and Grand Ducal Hessian Railway Directorate in Mainz of November 8, 1913, Nachrichten, p. 363.
6. ↑ ^{a b c d} Scharf, Eisenbahn-Rheinbrücken , p. 156.
7. ↑ Eisenbahndirektion Mainz (ed.): Official Journal of the Royal Prussian and Grand Ducal Hessian Railway Directorate in Mainz of August 30, 1915, No. 44. Announcement No. 594, p. 287.
8. ^ Eisenbahndirektion Mainz (ed.): Official Gazette of the Royal Prussian and Grand Ducal Hessian Railway Directorate in Mainz of August 24, 1918, No. 40. Nachrichten, p. 269.
9. ↑ Eisenbahndirektion Mainz (ed.): Official Journal of the Royal Prussian and Grand Ducal Hessian Railway Directorate in Mainz of June 15, 1918, No. 28. Announcement No. 451, p. 206.
10. ↑ Eisenbahndirektion Mainz (ed.): Official Gazette of the Royal Prussian and Grand Ducal Hessian Railway Directorate in Mainz of October 8, 1918, No. 49. Announcement No. 706, p. 323.
11. ↑ Prussian and Hessian Railway Directorate in Mainz (ed.): Official Gazette of the Prussian and Hessian Railway Directorate in Mainz of October 23, 1920, No. 63. Announcement No. 1027, p. 572.
12. ↑ Prussian and Hessian Railway Directorate in Mainz (ed.): Official Gazette of the Prussian and Hessian Railway Directorate in Mainz of October 23, 1920, No. 63. Announcement No. 1027, p. 572.
13. ^ Reichsbahndirektion in Mainz (ed.): Official Gazette of the Reichsbahndirektion in Mainz of January 30, 1926, No. 5. Announcement No. 84, p. 41.
14. ^ Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (Ed.): Official Gazette of the Reichsbahndirektion Mainz of February 14, 1931, No. 9. Announcement No. 136, p. 54.
15. ↑ Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (ed.): Official Gazette of the Reichsbahndirektion Mainz of January 24, 1931, No. 6. Announcement No. 67, p. 32.
16. ↑ Scharf, Eisenbahn-Rheinbrücken , p. 158.
17. ↑ Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (ed.): Official Gazette of the Reichsbahndirektion Mainz of March 25, 1933, No. 13. Announcement No. 158, p. 64.
18. ↑ Scharf, Eisenbahn-Rheinbrücken , pp. 158f.

The next bridge upstream: Schiersteiner Bridge (Mainz / Wiesbaden)

Bridges over the Rhine

The next bridge downstream: Südbrücke (Koblenz)

Coordinates: 49 ° 58 ′ 26 ″  N , 7 ° 56 ′ 32 ″  E