Leipzig Post Station
The Postbahnhof Leipzig was from 1912 to 1994 a major hub of the Central German railway mail traffic .
On the history of the Saxon railway postal system
As early as 1841, part of the existing postal traffic between Leipzig and Dresden had been handled on the Leipzig-Dresden railway line that had opened two years earlier . The Saxon Post Office Directorate opened a railway post office across from what was then Dresden's train station .
In the early years of the Saxon rail mail traffic, the mail that had already been processed was transported in ordinary railroad cars and accompanied by a post office official. Considerations of loading stagecoaches on rail platform wagons and thus ensuring faster transport proved to be unfeasible. It was not until around 1850 that the idea of attaching wagons specially designed for the purpose of transporting mail, in which the postal service was to be carried out during the journey, came to fruition. In 1851 the first rail mail cars were used on the Leipzig – Hof route. By 1867, the Royal Saxon Post had 25 rail mail cars made, which ran particularly smoothly, had good ventilation, suspension and lighting, even when stationary.
Requirement of a new building and construction planning
At the beginning of the 20th century it became clear that the old Leipzig rail post systems were less and less able to cope with the steadily increasing mail traffic. Therefore it was decided to build a new, central post station and railway post office. An area north of the Leipzig-Dresden railway line on the southern Schönefelder Flur was chosen as the location , on which fields and meadows as well as the "Bad Rohrteich" operated in Schmalbruch pond until 1906 were located.
The pond was filled in, the fields and meadows reshaped to a total of 58,000 m². The construction costs, including the purchase of the land, amounted to 5 million gold marks .
From 1912 until today
On February 1, 1912, almost three years before the Leipzig Central Station went into operation, the Leipzig Post Station went into operation. The main building is 200 m long; the covered area of the whole facility is 16,000 m². The eight-aisled hall of the building designed as a terminus station spanned 29 tracks with 16 platforms. It could hold up to 90 rail mail cars , making it the largest rail mail system of its time. For the creation of the comb-shaped fanned out track network, extensive landfills had to be carried out. Two signal boxes were built for the Postbahnhof, which were named R18 and W19 after the Second World War. Both were maintained by the responsible railway administration. Signal box 19 was manned by postal workers, even though it was involved in train journeys through the traffic tunnels. The Postbahnhof had its own water and power supply, for which a motor power plant equipped with two 120 hp and one 250 hp diesel engine was built.
In 1913, 10.4 million outgoing and 4.8 million incoming parcels were handled in the Leipzig Post Station. In addition there were 36 million units in through traffic. The rail mail wagons were transferred by the shunting locomotives of the main station, in some cases also by the train locomotives . In order to be able to bring wagons to and from the Prussian west side of the main station without having to cross almost all of the main tracks, the postal administration ordered the construction of traffic tunnels I and II . In 1929, rail mail vans ran on the routes Leipzig - Bad Lausick - Geithain - Chemnitz, Leipzig - Bebra - Kassel, Leipzig - Erfurt - Eisenach - Frankfurt am Main, Leipzig - Döbeln - Dresden, Leipzig - Eilenburg, Leipzig - Wurzen - Riesa - Dresden, Leipzig - Gera - Saalfeld - Bamberg and Leipzig - Hof - Marktredwitz.
In the course of time, the Postbahnhof was constantly expanded and technically improved. In 1936, a large extension was completed on Rohrteichstrasse, which was able to meet the operational requirements until it was closed in 1994. The office was called "Postamt 18" at Deutsche Post . With the conversion of the Deutsche Bundespost into the Deutsche Post AG , the latter ceased the rail post in the entire federal territory and shifted the postal transport to the road and in the air. Parts of the tasks assigned to the Leipzig rail post office have since been taken over by the Radefeld freight center.
The listed buildings of the Leipzig Postbahnhof have been empty since then. It has been owned by the CG Group since 2014 . A football stadium for Inter Leipzig with 3000 seats is being built and the previous training facilities are being repaired. Halls for production and storage are also being built.
literature
- Wolfram Sturm: Leipzig Railway Center. History from the beginning to the present. Pro Leipzig, Leipzig 2003, ISBN 3-9807201-9-5
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ After 20 years of vacancy: Investor buys the Postbahnhof in Leipzig-Schönefeld. Retrieved March 16, 2019 .
- ↑ Information on the website of the CG Group , accessed on October 14, 2019
Coordinates: 51 ° 21 ′ 7.4 " N , 12 ° 23 ′ 52.1" E