Steinebrück (Eifel)

Steinebrück is a place in the Eifel, which is divided into two halves by the German - Belgian border. Steinebrück lies on both sides of the Our , which flows through the town from east to west. The course of the river marks the state border in this section. The northern part of Steinebrück belongs to the Belgian municipality of Sankt Vith and thus to the German-speaking community . Eight residents live on the Belgian side (data as of December 31, 2015). The southern part of Steinebrück belongs to the German municipality of Winterspelt in Rhineland-Palatinate . 33 inhabitants live on the German side (information as of June 1, 2013) (see also list of divided places ) .

geography

Ourtalbrücke at Steinebrück

Steinebrück is located in the Ourtal, around seven kilometers southeast of Sankt Vith and around five kilometers northwest of Winterspelt. The Ourtal is spanned immediately west of Steinebrück by the Ourtalbrücke on Europastraße 42 ( A60 / A27 ).

history

The place has a long history as a traffic route over the Our, here an old road crossed as a "feeder" to the Roman road Reims - Cologne . In 1855 the eponymous stone bridge over the Our was built. Another bridge followed in 1888, over which the Westeifelbahn crossed the river and connected Gerolstein with Sankt Vith; Steinebrück received a train station north of the Our.

The German-Belgian border has separated both sides since the end of the First World War . Steinebrück thus became a border town and the train station, which was now in Belgium, became a border station. For the residents on the German side (also in the neighboring villages Ihr, Elcherath and Urb) this became a problem because they had been using the Steinebrück train station until then. Despite international negotiations, no solution was found: Ultimately, in 1930, the German railway set up an additional stop in yours. After the Second World War there was no longer any cross-border passenger traffic. Trains only ran between Lommersweiler and Steinebrück from 1949 to 1952, when the station was closed. Today the railway line to Prüm has been expanded as a cross-border cycle path and is connected to the RAVEL cycle path network in East Belgium.

Until the completion of the autobahn in 1984, Steinebrück was still of some importance as a border crossing for road traffic. The old bridge was then only used for local border traffic.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ residents of the community of ST. VITH per location. (PDF) (No longer available online.) City of St. Vith, December 31, 2015, archived from the original on February 12, 2016 ; accessed on February 12, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ^ Verbandsgemeinde Prüm: Information about Winterspelt
3. ↑ Information about Steinebrück on zvs.be  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed March 16, 2014  

Web links

• Table sheet 5703 Bleialf from 1893 at the University of Greifswald
• Eifel-Ardennes cycle path at adfc.de

Coordinates: 50 ° 14 '15 "  N , 6 ° 11' 2.4"  E