Altenbeken Viaduct
Coordinates: 51 ° 45 ′ 45 " N , 8 ° 55 ′ 32" E
| Altenbeken Viaduct | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Official name | Large Altenbeken viaduct | |
| use | Hamm – Warburg railway line | |
| Crossing of | Beketal | |
| place | Altenbeken North Rhine-Westphalia | |
| construction | Arch bridge | |
| overall length | 482 m | |
| Number of openings | 24 arches | |
| Pillar spacing | 15.69 m | |
| Arrow height | 8.47 m | |
| Pillar strength | 2.82 m to 5.65 m | |
| building-costs | 573,000 thalers | |
| start of building | July 8, 1851 | |
| completion | July 13, 1853 | |
| opening | July 21, 1853 | |
| Technical overhead line | Th. Weishaupt | |
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The Altenbekener Viadukt , also known as the Bekeviadukt or Großer Viadukt Altenbeken , is a bridge structure in the North Rhine-Westphalian district of Paderborn . The viaduct spans the Beketal west of Altenbeken with 24 arches on the double- track Hamm – Warburg railway in front of the Egge Mountains . The 482 m long vault bridge is Europe's longest limestone bridge .
The structure erected in the 1850s is one of the oldest witnesses to the history of the railroad in Germany . As a symbol of Altenbeken, it is shown in a stylized form in the municipality's coat of arms .
The viaduct was destroyed in the Second World War by Allied air raids in November 1944 and was only rebuilt in its present form in autumn 1950.
history
The up to 35 m high viaduct was built by the Royal Westphalian Railway Company from 1851 and inaugurated on July 21, 1853 by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV . From him comes the saying: "I thought I was going to find a golden bridge because so many thalers were used up" .
Viaduct, train station , depot and the Rehberg tunnel through the Egge Mountains were the origins of the development of the village of Altenbeken into a community that owes its current size almost exclusively to the railway (see also: Railway settlement ).
During the Second World War , the Altenbeken Viaduct was, according to the Western Allies, one of the two most important German railway bridges alongside the Schildescher Viaduct near Bielefeld on the Hamm – Minden railway line. They hoped that their destruction would have a decisive effect on the war. For defense, the Wehrmacht stationed the 2nd battery of Flaka Division 943 on the viaduct from September 1943 to January 1944.
From autumn 1944, traffic routes in the western part of the German Reich were increasingly attacked in order to prevent the vital energy supply from coal and thus break the backbone of the German war economy . In addition to the Schildescher and Altenbeken Viaducts, the Arnsberg Viaduct on the Upper Ruhr Valley Railway was one of the preferred destinations. With their destruction, the Allies hoped to permanently interrupt the two important east-west connections from Berlin via Hamm to the Ruhr area (via Magdeburg / Braunschweig / Hanover / Minden or Halle / Kassel / Warburg ). The Upper Ruhr Valley Railway played only a subordinate role, but served as an alternative route in the event of disruptions on the two main routes from Hamm to Minden or Warburg .
The first air attack by the United States Army Air Forces on November 26, 1944 , which culminated in the largest air battle of the Second World War, interrupted the important railway line. Afterwards, passengers had to climb down and up again using a provisional staircase with 120 steps in order to continue on another train. Freight traffic was diverted via the Detmold-Herford-Bielefeld route. After a temporary restoration in February 1945, it was destroyed again. In May 1946, a makeshift connection made the building accessible again at 20 km / h.
It was not until October 2, 1950 - almost six years after the first destruction - that the viaduct could be put into operation again in its old form. The reconstruction of the viaduct took into account the historical shape of the bridge, which is still in its old form. However, the keystones of the viaduct could not be used again. After they had been erected as a memorial in Adenauerstraße for a long time , they were integrated into the newly built viewing platform directly on the viaduct in July 2009.
In mid-2019, the upper viewing platform was rebuilt on the occasion of the “Vivat Viadukt” viaduct festival. What is new is a blue sign with the words Altenbeken . In addition, a better view of the viaduct is now possible because all the bushes have been removed. In addition, garbage cans have been set up.
Viaduct Festival
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Altenbeken celebrated the 150th anniversary of the viaduct from 11 to 21 July 2003 under the name “Vivat Viadukt”. Over 40,000 visitors came to Altenbeken. Because the festival was so successful, it was decided to hold it every two years from now on as a city and train station festival. The Viaduktfest also includes a viaduct run through the town and a plastic duck race on the Beke (Lippe) . Celebrities such as Urban Priol , Hennes Bender , Götz Alsmann , Ingo Oschmann and Guildo Horn accompanied the viaduct festivals with cultural events. The festival takes place at the beginning of July in odd years and shows, among other things, railway vehicles that come to Altenbeken from all over Germany. However, they could not arrive at Vivat Viadukt 2013 due to the renovation of the Rehberg tunnel. For the first time, the festival did not take place at the train station, but at the Eggelandhalle.
Small viaduct
About three kilometers southwest of the large viaduct is the Dune Viaduct in the direction of Paderborn above the Dune Valley, commonly known as the "small viaduct".
An accurate model of the Dune Valley Viaduct shows the model federal railway on a scale of 1 to 87. The basis of the 2.55 meter long model are original plans from the 19th century. All the stones of the 2.55 meter long model were individually drawn and milled or 3D printed and the 11 ‰ gradient and the war-related damage were taken into account. Like the original, the model is not straight, but shows opposite short curves when entering and exiting the eleven-arch bridge.
literature
- Josef Högemann, Peter Kristandt: The railway in Altenbeken. 150 years! Altenbeken railway viaduct. Vivat Viaduct. Georgsmarienhütte 2003, ISBN 3-935645-17-1 .
- Friedhelm Golücke : The collapse of Germany is a transport issue? The Altenbekener railway viaduct in the bombing war of 1944/45. History Association at the University of GH-Paderborn, 1993, ISBN 3-923621-85-X .
- Rudolf Koch: Altenbeken and the viaduct in a hail of bombs , Altenbeken 2010.
- Rolf Ertmer , Michael Meinhold: MIBA REPORT 15; Back then in Altenbeken . MIBA Verlag, Nuremberg 1985.
Web links
- Viaduct page within the Altenbekener Eisenbahnfreunde website
- Vivat Viaduct
- Pictures of the viaduct in the picture archive of the LWL media center for Westphalia
Individual evidence
- ↑ TV report Vivat Viadukt - 150 years of Altenbeken railway viaduct in SWR on December 5, 2010 at 3:30 a.m.
- ^ Announcement Altenbekener Viadukt turns 150 . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , issue 4/2003, ISSN 1421-2811 , p. 149.
- ↑ Neue Westfälische : Qualmer are welcome in the Egge (July 9, 2013), accessed: July 11, 2013
- ↑ Neue Westfälische : Altenbekener Viadukt on a scale of 1 to 87 (November 16, 2018), accessed: November 27, 2018