Court train of Kaiser Wilhelm II.

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Kaiser Wilhelm II's court procession at the inauguration of the Kaiserbrücke in Mainz in 1904

The Court train Kaiser Wilhelm II. Served the German Kaiser Wilhelm II. As a well-used land transport during his reign (1888-1918).

Previous train

Salon car of the first Prussian court train, used here by Nāser ad-Din Shah during a visit to the Krupp works in Essen in 1889

The railway companies organized under private law , which established the first railway lines in Prussia in the 19th century , kept saloon cars that were rented or made available as required, also for the needs of the Prussian court. In contrast to many other states, however, the Prussian court procured its own saloon cars from 1857 independently of the railway administrations, which were then used as a court train . These were two- and three-axle vehicles that were procured in the years up to 1886. The vehicles correspond in their technical equipment and the construction of the latest standard for passenger cars of long distance and were partly with bellows equipped as a transition between the cars. The cars were painted maroon. From the 1880s onwards, the older of these wagons no longer met the modified technical agreements of the Association of German Railway Administrations for traffic outside Prussia or were no longer allowed to be used in fast-moving trains.

Court train of Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Kaiser Wilhelm II's court procession in St. Pilt in Alsace in front of the Hohkönigsburg , which was renovated on behalf of the emperor.

vehicles

Salon car 1 for Kaiser Wilhelm II.
Salon car 1 - interior designed by Otto Lessing .
Salon car 1 for Kaiser Wilhelm II.

For the emperor, who was known to be fond of traveling, and because of the need to have technically modern vehicles for the court train that were also allowed to travel on non-Prussian routes, the construction of new cars for the court train began in 1889. These were manufactured by Linke-Hofmann in Breslau . For the saloon car of the emperor and that of the empress, models on a scale of 1: 1 were first built in the main workshop in Potsdam , which they inspected before they were released for construction and on which the craftsmen could test the interior fittings for functionality and appearance. "Money and time didn't matter."

In terms of design, these new wagons were based on the Prussian express train wagons of the time and their external appearance showed the typical lantern roof . The wagons were made of a mixed wood-steel construction with steel-reinforced wooden beams. They were equipped with Westinghouse as well as suction air and Henry brakes . The cars had foldable steps on the doors, jointless bellows, gas incandescent lights and additional battery-powered lighting. The cars were connected internally through a telephone system. In contrast to express train wagons, some of them had instead of two-axle three-axle bogies of the Prussian standard design and a striking beige / blue exterior paintwork. The interior was in the overloaded style of historicism and designed by Otto Lessing .

Between 1889 and 1917 a total of 30 cars were built for the court train. These were in addition to the two imperial saloon car, one each for use by the Emperor and Empress Augusta Victoria was reserved for another saloon car, Gefolgewagen , kitchen and dining cars , vans , and 1917, when the last vehicle, a telegraph cars . During the 30-year reign of Wilhelm II, both the Kaiser and the Empress received newer vehicles, the Kaiser in 1889, 1902 and 1904. The car from 1889 ran until 1904 as car no. 1 of the Prussian State Railways .

In addition, there were other saloon cars that were not part of the court train, such as the saloon car of Crown Prince Wilhelm of Prussia (built in 1905) - today used as a seminar room in the Deutsche Bahn management academy (DB Akademie GmbH) in the Kaiserbahnhof Potsdam - or two saloon cars of Prince Heinrich of Prussia , who were stationed in Kiel .

The train's home station, the “Hofbahnhof”, was the main workshop in Potsdam. There was one, later two “courtyard wagon sheds” there, so that the vehicles could be parked and serviced in a weatherproof manner.

Use in the monarchy

The court train was used at least 500 times for Kaiser Wilhelm II. This frequent use and the constant travels of the emperor - he spent at least nine months of the year outside his royal cities of Berlin and Potsdam - also attracted criticism. So, based on the beginning of the text of the first stanza of the German imperial hymn , the derisive version " Heil Dir im Sonderzug ..." was rumored.

Beyond the emperor's travels, the train was z. B. also used for separate trips of the empress. The court train operated according to its own operating rules, the “Regulations for Traveling Highest and Highest Gentlemen”, most recently on April 1, 1907. For safety reasons, a baggage car was always used as a crumple zone in the event of a rear-end collision between the locomotive and the train .

Imperial special train with a military protection car during the First World War , Sibiu

During the First World War , the court train operated - in a different composition than in peacetime - under the name "Zug der OHL" ( Supreme Army Command ). The train was painted green for camouflage . The Kaiser used it for the last time on German soil for his trip from Kassel via Paderborn and Essen (where he spoke to workers from Friedrich Krupp AG ) to Spa . On the night of November 9th to 10th, 1918, he stayed on the train in Spa and went into exile on November 10th, 1918 in the Netherlands . They sent the train , which had meanwhile been parked in Rotterdam , back to Potsdam in March 1919.

Later use

From 1920 the remaining older, three-axle wagons were sold to the scrapping company Erich at the end in Berlin-Weißensee , which they partially scrapped and partially sold to private railways that used them as railway service vehicles . Some of the others were also converted into state railroad service vehicles and seven of the follower cars were sold to Mitropa in 1921 , which had them converted into sleeping and dining cars in their Gotha repair shop and used them in luxury trains from 1922 : the Scandinavia-Switzerland Express between Sassnitz and Basel , the day luxury train L 198/191 Munich-Holland-London-Express between Munich and Hook of Holland and the L 111/112 Berlin-London-Express between Berlin and Hook of Holland from 1924. One of the in Munich- Holland-London-Express came to the Westfälische Landes-Eisenbahn in 1938 and was used there in regular traffic. Other court train cars continued to run for a few years on the trains FD 23/24 and FD 25/26 between Berlin and Hamburg.

Today's whereabouts

Trivia

Märklin has been offering model railroad cars for the court train since around 1902 . Rock & Graner may also have produced models of the court train.

literature

  • Peter Bock, Alfred Gottwaldt : Government trains. Salon cars, imperial train stations and state trips in Germany . Munich 2006, ISBN 3-7654-7070-8
  • Paul Dost: The red carpet. History of State Trains and Salon Cars. Stuttgart 1965, pp. 141ff.
  • Dieter Eckert: The imperial court train as a branch line attraction - Wilhelm II with entourage in Schlitz . In: Oberhessische Vertriebsbetriebe AG (OVAG) (Ed.): Connection to the wide world: On the changeful development of the railway in Oberhessen , Friedberg 2014 (2015), ISBN 978-3-9815015-5-1 , pp. 344f.
  • Alfred Gottwaldt: The court train sr. Majesty of the German Emperor, King of Prussia . Modellisenbahner Verlag. [O. J., approx. 1992]
  • Magistrate of the City of Potsdam [Hrsg.]: Catalog . European saloon car exhibition from 22. – 23. May 1993 on the premises of Raw Potsdam . Potsdam 1993.
  • Helmut Schroeter: The court train of the last German emperor. In: Lok-Magazin. Issue 9 (1964), p. 37ff [with floor plans of the cars].

Web links

Commons : Hofzug Kaiser Wilhelm II.  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bock, p. 14f.
  2. ↑ Contemporary witness report in: Schroeter, pp. 45f (46).
  3. ↑ Schroeter, p. 43.
  4. ^ Bettina Vaupel: Very Highest Railway. From imperial train stations, princely rooms and saloon cars . In: Monumente 23rd vol. (2013) No. 3, pp. 9–17 (14).
  5. ↑ Catalog, p. 4ff, No. 1 .; Helmut Schroeter: The imperial saloon car as a highlight of the Berlin Transport and Construction Museum . In: Lok-Magazin 1988, No. 150, p. 219ff.
  6. ↑ Catalog, p. 8f, no.1a.
  7. ↑ Catalog, p. 4.
  8. ↑ NN: Terminal Kaiserbahnhof . In: DB Welt 9/2014, p. 16.
  9. ↑ http://www.eisenbahnstiftung.de/images/bildergalerie/13445.jpg
  10. ^ Dost, p. 147.
  11. ^ Bettina Vaupel: Very Highest Railway. From imperial train stations, princely rooms and saloon cars . In: Monuments 23rd year (2013) No. 3, p. 13.
  12. ↑ Dost, p. 146.
  13. ↑ Bock, p. 69.
  14. ↑ Rolf Löttgers: saloon car on Westfälisch . In: Railway history. 46, p. 4ff (7).
  15. ↑ F. Stöckl, C. Jeanmaire: Comfort on rails. Basel 1970, p. 96 f.
  16. ↑ On the history of the vehicle: Bock, p. 71.
  17. ↑ Bock, p. 73.
  18. ↑ Catalog, pp. 10f, No. 2.
  19. ^ Kurt Harrer: Imperial Court Trains from Märklin . In: Gottwaldt, p. 36f.
  20. ^ Kurt Harrer: Imperial Court Trains from Märklin . In: Gottwaldt, p. 37.