Ratzeburg small train

Altitude and Site plan (1902)

Route length:

18.3 km

		from Büchen
	0.0	Ratzeburg country
		to Lübeck
	2.0	St. Georgsberg
		Ratzeburg Lake
	2.7	Ratzeburg city
		Ratzeburg Lake
	5.2	Dermin
		to the Schaalsee Canal
	6.6	Ziethen
	10.5	Chausseehaus Mustin
	11.8	Mustin
	15.4	Great Thurow
	18.3	Klein Thurow

The Ratzeburger Kleinbahn AG was founded on January 7, 1903 by the Prussian state, the Duchy of Lauenburg , the Lauenburg Regional Association and the city of Ratzeburg . It operated the Ratzeburg (country) - Klein Thurow railway with the Dermin - Schaalseekanal port branch.

history

Arrival of the first train

Ratzeburger Kleinbahn-AG share of more than 1,000 marks on June 30, 1908

Small train under the overpass

Train in the foxwood

Train station from the lakeshore

Station after completion of the extensions

With great displeasure, the population of Ratzeburg accepted the opening of the line between Lübeck and Büchen over 50 years earlier, as the Ratzeburg train station was a good three kilometers, which was about half an hour's walk, from the center of the city. The hope that the Lübeck-Büchener Eisenbahn would build a branch line into the city turned out to be deceptive.

Only then did the city succeed in winning a small railway construction company called Lenz & Co. for the project. She had already built and put into operation small railways in many places . Early 1902, the construction of the started roadbed of Hagenow-Oldesloer track branching off track.

At that time, the railroad was already assured of its profitability due to heavy tourist traffic and it was expected that a connection in Gadebusch to the Reichsbahn line Schwerin – Rehna would be available . However, this never came about.

On June 27, 1903, the Ratzeburger Kleinbahn AG opened a three-kilometer standard-gauge line from the state train station in Ratzeburg (Land) to the city of Ratzeburg. This was built on a dam through the Ratzeburg lake . For its completion, the Altona operations department headed by the government master builder Frank and including the railway administration of the Ratzeburger Kleinbahn , which the railway administrator v. Marth was responsible.

After crossing the tracks of the Hagenow-Oldesloer Bahn one came to the Kleinbahn.

On the eight-minute walk to the city station, after the first bend, the overpass to Einhaus came , then the train drove through the forest ravine of the Fuchsholz, located on the domain of the Neu-Vorwerk community , and then descended to the lake on a slope of up to 1/45. After a short stop in St. Georgsberg, today a district of Ratzeburg, the train crossed the dam on the way to Ratzeburg and stepped over the demolition to the edge of the Küchensee , in order to finally reach the city station below the premises of the joint stock brewery. There was a landing stage near the train station, from where regular motorboats left for Waldesruh, Farchau, the Weinberg or the Schützenhof.

In the first full month of operation of the small railway, it carried 10,989 people and a total of 1,500,000 kilos with 150 wagon loads. The income thus significantly exceeded the amounts forecast in the budget.

In March 1906, construction work began on a 16-kilometer extension from Ratzeburg City via Ziethen and Mustin to Klein Thurow , then the easternmost place in the Duchy of Lauenburg, which has been in Mecklenburg since 1945 . In order to be able to continue the railway line from the city station in a southerly direction, a several hundred meter long dam was built in the middle of the Küchensee, which is still there today and has since divided the water into the large and the small Küchensee ; it is still called “Kleinbahndamm” to this day. On June 30, 1908, the line was ceremoniously opened. In 1910, a branch line from Dermin to the Schaalsee Canal Harbor was added, which was almost three kilometers long and initially only served freight traffic. However, three pairs of passenger trains are also listed in the 1927 Reich Course Book. A total of eleven pairs of trains ran between the city and the state train station.

The operator of this 21-kilometer-long small train, which drove four kilometers through the state of Mecklenburg-Strelitz near Ziethen , was the Altona operations department of Lenz & Co. from Berlin. She had three steam locomotives, six passenger cars, two pack wagons and eighteen freight cars at her disposal.

The decline in traffic at the end of the 1920s led to the conversion of passenger transport to buses on October 8, 1933 . Since March 11, 1935, the Ratzeburger Kraftverkehrs-GmbH, in which the city of Ratzeburg and the Duchy of Lauenburg were involved, operated a city line with four buses from the Reichsbahnhof to the city and another from Ratzeburg to Gadebusch in Mecklenburg. Freight traffic by rail continued until March 31, 1934. Then the company dissolved; the small railway was completely dismantled.

In the former reception building of the Ratzeburg Stadt train station there is now a restaurant and offices.

Küchensee (2019/20)
Small train route with the former route starting from the train station at the bottom right on today's green area
Small railway embankment through the Küchensee
Former city station 2020, view from the lake side

literature

The small train from Ratzeburg train station to the city of Ratzeburg. In: Vaterstadtische Blätter ; Vol. 1902, No. 23, edition of June 15, 1902, pp. 179–180.
The Ratzeburger Kleinbahn. An excursion in Lübeck's beautiful surroundings. In: Vaterstadtische Blätter ; Born in 1903, No. 34, edition of 23 August 1903 pp. 265–270.
Gerd Wolff: German small and private railways, part 1 Schleswig-Holstein . Gifhorn 1972

Web links

Commons : Ratzeburger Kleinbahn - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Remarks

^ The small train from the Ratzeburg train station to the city of Ratzeburg. In: Vaterstadtische Blätter ; Vol. 1902, No. 23, edition of June 15, 1902, p. 179.
^ The Ratzeburg small train. An excursion in Lübeck's beautiful surroundings. In Papal Papers ; Born 1903, No. 34, edition of 23 August 1903, p. 268
↑ The demolition is a street at the end of the Lüneburg dam on the island side . It is reminiscent of the fortress that was demolished there around 1816.
^ The Ratzeburg small train. An excursion in Lübeck's beautiful surroundings. In Papal Papers ; Born 1903, No. 34, edition of 23 August 1903, p. 265
^ The Ratzeburg small train. An excursion in Lübeck's beautiful surroundings. In Papal Papers ; Born 1903, No. 34, edition of 23 August 1903, p. 267

[1] The small train from the Ratzeburg train station to the city of Ratzeburg. In: Vaterstadtische Blätter ; Vol. 1902, No. 23, edition of June 15, 1902, p. 179.

[2] The Ratzeburg small train. An excursion in Lübeck's beautiful surroundings. In Papal Papers ; Born 1903, No. 34, edition of 23 August 1903, p. 268

[3] The demolition is a street at the end of the Lüneburg dam on the island side . It is reminiscent of the fortress that was demolished there around 1816.

[4] The Ratzeburg small train. An excursion in Lübeck's beautiful surroundings. In Papal Papers ; Born 1903, No. 34, edition of 23 August 1903, p. 265

[5] The Ratzeburg small train. An excursion in Lübeck's beautiful surroundings. In Papal Papers ; Born 1903, No. 34, edition of 23 August 1903, p. 267