Salon car no.1 (Wilhelm II.)

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Salon car no.1
Bust of Kaiser Wilhelm II in front of the saloon car No. 1
Bust of Kaiser Wilhelm II in front of the saloon car No. 1
Number: 1
Manufacturer: Left-Hofmann
Year of construction (s): 1889
Retirement: 1950
Axis formula : 3 + 3
Genre : Sdr 6 ü Berlin
Gauge : 1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Length over buffers: 17,300 mm
Width: 2,900
Service mass: 50.6 t
Brake: Westinghouse
brake suction air brake
Train heating: Hot water heating
The salon, designed by Otto Lessing .

The saloon car No. 1 served the German Kaiser Wilhelm II as a personal vehicle in his court train from 1889 .

vehicle

construction

The saloon cars that the technology-loving and travel-loving Kaiser took over from his predecessors were technically obsolete when he took office in 1888. He therefore needed new cars for his court train, including a new personal saloon car. This was already commissioned at the end of his Crown Prince's time. In order to be able to guarantee the widest possible use, the Prussian railway administration contacted most of the European railway administrations that operated standard-gauge lines in order to discuss the technical parameters for the vehicle. The car was manufactured by Linke-Hofmann in Breslau . The acquisition costs were 130,000 marks .

The vehicle was modified at least once during its service life. Since it was originally intended for Crown Prince Wilhelm, it should be able to run individually outside of a court train. So adequate space had to be provided for the companions. When the carriage was used by Wilhelm as Kaiser, it ran in the court train, which had its own carriage for the staff. As a result, one of the companion's compartments was expanded and, with the space gained, the emperor's toilet and washroom was expanded into a dressing room.

Furnishing

Interior

Lighting (detail)
Wing adjudicator's compartment with fold-out washbasin

In the last stage of expansion, around two thirds of the length of the vehicle was intended for the Kaiser himself. This personal area was divided into three rooms:

  • A representatively decorated salon with an entry room in front. The salon stretched across the width of the car. On its inner front side a door led to the emperor's bedroom, and a second to the side passage that stretched to the other end of the vehicle;
  • the relatively small bedroom had only the length of the bed and no access to the side passage;
  • a room that served as a toilet, washroom and dressing room, was larger than the bedroom and could be entered from the corridor.

This was followed - but could only be entered from the side passage:

  • A compartment for the Emperor's wing adjutant with its own washing facility;
  • a compartment for two servants with couches;
  • two “personal toilets”, one for the adjudicator and one for the servants;
  • a boiler room.

Finally, there was a second entry room. The entry areas were slightly narrower than the rest of the car, so that the doors were drawn in in relation to the rest of the car body.

The interior fittings were in the overloaded style of historicism , designed by Otto Lessing , and made extensive use of inlays and fine wood veneer .

Technical Equipment

Salon car No. 1 in the German Museum of Technology in Berlin

The car was designed with steel-reinforced wooden beams. In terms of design, the new car corresponded to the future Prussian express train car and had the typical lantern roof in its outer shape . The car was painted in a cream / blue exterior that was conspicuously used on the Prussian railways.

The special comfort of the vehicle included fold-out steps on the doors, jointless bellows, oil gas lighting (candle lighting was possible as emergency lighting) and - later installed - additional battery-powered lighting . A roof cover with a sprinkler system over the imperial rooms ensured that the car could be cooled if it had to stand in the sun for longer. The windows of the salon also had external blinds as light and heat protection. The car had a hot water heater for heating. An electric bell made it possible to ring the staff.

The front sides of the car had doors to ensure the transition to the adjacent car. The steel floor panels, the leather bellows and the corresponding fabric lining on the inside were not part of the car itself, but had to be installed when the train was formed .

In contrast to express train cars, it received three-axle bogies of the Prussian standard design. This is where the different brakes that the vehicle was equipped come into play. Only one of the brakes acted on two axles of a bogie. The car was initially equipped with a Carpenter air brake system (later replaced by a Westinghouse brake ) and a suction air brake for the Austrian railways. The fact that three-axle bogies were used not only had something to do with the weight of the car: the travel costs were often calculated based on the kilometers traveled and the number of axles.

In the emperor's toilet room and on the corresponding opposite side of the aisle there was an emergency exit - roughly in the middle of the car. These have never been used.

commitment

The first user of the car: Kaiser Wilhelm II.

The car was reserved for the emperor. The first use after the test drives took place at the beginning of August 1889 when the emperor ended his Nordlandfahrt with the new saloon car No. 1 from Wilhelmshaven to Potsdam . The home station of the car was the “Hofbahnhof”, part of the main workshop in Potsdam. There was one, and later two, “court wagon sheds” there, so that the vehicles of the court train could be parked and serviced in a weatherproof manner.

Emperor Wilhelm II traveled very often in the saloon car with his court train. 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 - provoked criticism. So, based on the beginning of the text of the first stanza of the German imperial hymn , " Heil Dir im Siegerkranz ...", the derisive version " Heil Dir im Sonderzug ..." was rumored.

In 1902 the vehicle was replaced by a more modern car, which was given the designation "1A", followed in 1904 by an even more modern vehicle that has not been preserved. The older car from 1889, however, was kept ready for use as an operating reserve. It was renumbered in 1904 because the new car was named "No. 1 ”should lead. In the course of time the old car no.1 had the following designations:

place origin Generic name
1889 number 1
1904 Berlin 11
1945 T-5017
1946 10 207 Bln Sdr 6 ü Berlin

During the First World War , the car - like all of the court train - was painted green for camouflage .

Musealization

Until 1945

After the end of the monarchy, the car came on November 3, 1921 as an exhibit in the Transport and Construction Museum in Berlin , which showed it - initially in green camouflage - in the former Hamburger Bahnhof , which served as an exhibition hall . Here he received the inventory number E-0-976. In the run-up to the 100th anniversary of the railway in Germany, which was celebrated in 1935, the exterior paintwork was returned to the original cream / blue paintwork. As a museum object, the vehicle was provided with external electrical interior lighting, and damaged textiles in the interior were repaired with contemporary fabrics such as those used by the Reichsbahn at that time for the first and second class .

After Operation Gomorrah , devastating air raids on Hamburg , the Transport and Construction Museum in Berlin began relocating its most valuable holdings, including the “Kaiserwagen”. A suitable shed was found in the Zielenzig train station . On October 12, 1943, the evacuation began. For this purpose, all movable inventory that survived the war was cleared out, but was lost in the post-war period. Since the Museum no rail connection , he had been employees of the Reichsbahn with a flying track for Lehrter freight station and from there with a switch engine h and 20 km / speed limit in the state railway Potsdam towed. There he was trained for the journey to Zielenzig, where he arrived on the morning of October 30, 1943.

Again use

The last user of the car: Marshal Vasili Danilowitsch Sokolowski (1941)

The car fell into the hands of the Red Army in Zielenzig in early 1945. He received lettering in Cyrillic script . Further inscriptions indicate that the car received an examination in February 1946, i.e. it was roadworthy again, and that it was provided with an alternator for the electrical lighting. He was available to Marshal Vasily Danilowitsch Sokolowski as Supreme Chief of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany and Supreme Commander of the Group of Soviet Armed Forces in Germany until 1949. There is no concrete evidence of who actually used it.

After 1950

The following inscriptions on the car show that it was stationed in Berlin-Rummelsburg and document the ongoing investigations into the running ability until 1953, which make it likely that the vehicle will be used - at least occasionally. On August 6, 1954, an employee of the Dresden Transport Museum identified the vehicle in the Mitropa workshop in Gotha . It was reserved there for the FDJ , who was to make it available as a mobile propaganda bar. In October 1954 the Dresden Transport Museum was assigned the car. After it was not possible to renovate the car in Gotha due to a lack of funds, the museum let it be on 20/21. June 1955 from Gotha to bring him closer to his location. The exhibition in Dresden had not reopened at that time. It was parked in a locomotive shed in Coswig , where the floor covering was stolen. When this locomotive shed was to be demolished in 1967, the car was parked in Tharandt's locomotive shed , which became vacant because the Dresden – Werdau railway line had been electrified the year before and the pushing locomotives previously required for the steep ramp to the Klingenberg-Colmnitz station were withdrawn . The engine shed was structurally in poor condition, so that the wagon suffered damage from penetrating water. It was then placed in a former railcar hangar in the Dresden-Pieschen depot . Further damage was caused here due to the unsuitable indoor climate. At the end of the 1980s, the GDR traffic administration became aware of the value that the car represented. The attempt to have the car restored by the Reichsbahn repair shop in Potsdam failed due to insufficient capacity.

Today's whereabouts

So it lasted until after the reunification: On 10/11. October 1990 the car was transferred from Dresden to Potsdam. It took until 1992 for those involved, the Reichsbahn and the two museums in Dresden and Berlin, to agree on the type of renovation and the costs: The emperor's saloon car No. 1 was loaned to the German Museum of Technology Berlin by the Dresden Transport Museum Leave exhibition. Its exterior was restored in Potsdam. The interior restoration has been carried out in small steps by the German Museum of Technology in Berlin for around 20 years. The car can therefore only be viewed from the outside.

literature

  • Gerhard Arndt: The saloon car in the GDR's hiding place . In: Alfred Gottwaldt : The court train Sr. Majesty of the German Emperor, King of Prussia . Modellisenbahner Verlag. [O. J., ca. 1992], pp. 88-91.
  • Büte: Sr. Majesty of the German Emperor, King of Prussia . In: Zeitschrift für Bauwesen , May 1890. (Here quoted from the partial reproduction in Alfred Gottwaldt: Der Hofzug Sr. Majestät des Deutschen Kaisers, König von Preußen . Modelleisenbahner Verlag. [ Undated , approx. 1992], p. 16ff .).
  • Paul Dost: The red carpet. History of State Trains and Salon Cars. Stuttgart 1965, pp. 141ff.
  • Alfred Gottwaldt : In search of the lost court carriage . In: Ders .: Der Hofzug Sr. Majesty of the German Emperor, King of Prussia . Modellisenbahner Verlag. [O. J., ca. 1992], pp. 84-87.
  • Alfred Gottwaldt: The court train Sr. Majesty of the German Emperor, King of Prussia . Modellisenbahner Verlag. [O. J., approx. 1992]
  • Alfred Gottwaldt: A court carriage in the transport and construction museum . In: Ders .: Der Hofzug Sr. Majesty of the German Emperor, King of Prussia . Modellisenbahner Verlag. [O. J., ca. 1992], pp. 76-79.
  • Alfred Gottwaldt: Marshal Sokolowski and the German Kaiserwagen . In: Ders .: Der Hofzug Sr. Majesty of the German Emperor, King of Prussia . Modellisenbahner Verlag. [O. J., ca. 1992], pp. 76-79.
  • Jörg Kuhn: Kaiserwagen and art history today . In: Alfred Gottwaldt : The court train Sr. Majesty of the German Emperor, King of Prussia . Modellisenbahner Verlag. [O. J., ca. 1992], pp. 92-104.
  • Magistrate of the City of Potsdam (Ed.): Catalog: European Salon Car Exhibition from 22. – 23. May 1993 on the premises of Raw Potsdam . Potsdam 1993.
  • Uwe Nussbaum: Railway models. Treasures from the Transport and Construction Museum = Berlin contributions to the history of technology and industrial culture. Series of publications by the German Museum of Technology Berlin 17. Berlin 1998.
  • Helmut Schroeter: The court train of the last German emperor. In: Lok-Magazin. Issue 9 (1964), p. 37ff.

Web links

Coat of arms on the car
Commons : Hofzug Kaiser Wilhelm II.  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ In the case of the saloon cars built for Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1902 and 1904, models on a 1: 1 scale were initially built, which the Kaiser inspected and based on which he was able to approve construction. The craftsmen were able to test the functionality of the interior fittings on the model. "Money and time played no role." (Contemporary witness report in: Schroeter, p. 45f).
  2. ↑ See: Nussbaum, p. 35; this was probably not a number under which the car was operated, but referred to it as a loot , " т рофей" (trophy), (see: Gottwaldt: Marschall Sokolowski , p. 81.)
  3. ↑ Not to be confused with the saloon car of the Reich Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, which was previously sold under the same number . See also: Salon car 10207 .
  4. ↑ That meant: special car - six-axle - closed transitions (see: Gottwaldt: Marschall Sokolowski , p. 83).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Büte, p. 16
  2. ↑ Note on Büte, p. 23.
  3. ↑ Büte, plate between p. 18 u. 19, p. 19.
  4. ↑ Kuhn.
  5. ↑ a b c Büte, p. 17
  6. ↑ a b Büte, p. 19
  7. ↑ Büte, p. 18; Schroeter, p. 43.
  8. ↑ Büte, p. 18.
  9. ↑ Catalog, p. 5.
  10. ↑ Büte, p. 18.
  11. ↑ Catalog, p. 5.
  12. ↑ 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.
  13. ↑ Büte, p. 23.
  14. ↑ http://www.eisenbahnstiftung.de/images/bildergalerie/13445.jpg
  15. ^ Dost, p. 147.
  16. ^ Bettina Vaupel: Very Highest Railway. From imperial train stations, princely rooms and saloon cars . In: Monuments 23rd year (2013) No. 3, p. 13.
  17. ↑ Catalog, p. 4.
  18. ↑ Gottwaldt: Der Hofzug , p. 30.
  19. ↑ a b Gottwaldt: Ein Hofwagen , p. 76
  20. ↑ Gottwaldt: Ein Hofwagen , p. 78f.
  21. ↑ Gottwaldt: Ein Hofwagen , pp. 76–78.
  22. ↑ a b Gottwaldt: Ein Hofwagen , p. 79
  23. ↑ Gottwaldt: Ein Hofwagen , p. 78f.
  24. ↑ Nussbaum, p. 34.
  25. ↑ Gottwaldt: Ein Hofwagen , p. 78.
  26. ↑ Nussbaum, p. 35.
  27. ↑ Gottwaldt: Marschall Sokolowski , p. 81.
  28. ^ Gottwaldt: Marschall Sokolowski , p. 82.
  29. ↑ Gottwaldt: On the search , p. 84.
  30. ↑ Gottwaldt: Marschall Sokolowski , p. 83.
  31. ↑ Gottwaldt: Marschall Sokolowski , p. 83; Gottwaldt: In Search , p. 85.
  32. ↑ Arndt, p. 88.
  33. ↑ Arndt, p. 89.
  34. ↑ Arndt, p. 89f.
  35. ↑ a b Arndt, p. 90
  36. ↑ a b Arndt, p. 91
  37. ↑ Gottwaldt: On the search , p. 86.