The Angermünde–Stralsund railway is a major railway in the north-eastern German states of Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, which is part of the long-distance line from Berlin to Rügen. The line is one of the oldest lines in Western Pomerania and was built and operated by the Berlin-Stettin Railway Company (Berlin-Stettiner Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft) from 1863.
Route The line start at Angermünde station, where the line branches off to the north from the main line of the Berlin–Szczecin railway. It first runs along the Uckermark lakes and the adjoining Uecker river through Prenzlau to Pasewalk. The border between Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is about 1800 metres north of Nechlin station. The line swings to the north northwest to Pasewalk and runs on a mostly straight course through the foothills of Ueckermünder Heide. In Ferdinandshof the line runs for a few hundred metres through an extension of the Friedländer Große Wiese (a largely drained bog). It passes through Ducherow, which until 1945 was the start of a branch line to Heringsdorf, and continues to Anklam. About five kilometres before Anklam station the line turns more to the northwest. The line runs through Züssow to Greifswald. The last section of the line to Stralsund runs at a distance of about five kilometres from the coast. Before Stralsund the line turns back to the north and ends at Stralsund Hauptbahnhof in the suburb of Tribseer.
Since parts of the line crosses boggy terrain and several small and medium-sized rivers, several bridges and culverts are necessary. Major bridges include the crossing of the Ryck at Greifswald and the Zarow in Ferdinandshof. The Anklam railway bridge, a bascule bridge over the Peene, however, is most elaborate engineering structure on the line.
In addition, the line crosses in its course several main roads and autobahns, including the A 20 autobahn, which crosses the line on the Uecker Viaduct. Federal highway B 109 runs between Prenzlau and Greifswald largely parallel to the line and crosses it six times.
History
The first plans to build a branch line towards Pomerania arose with the development of plans for the Berlin–Szczecin railway in 1837. The city of Prenzlau approached the planning committee for the Berlin-Stettin Railway Company (BStE) to ask it to build the line to Stettin (now Szczecin) as close as possible to Prenzlau. The Prussian inspector of road building, Friedrich Neuhaus investigated the various route alternatives and favoured a route via Prenzlau. Two years later, Prenzlau sent a deputation to offer a grant equivalent to 30,000–50,000 marks to sway the committee accordingly. Furthermore, it presented the benefits of a northern alignment via Prenzlau rather than a direct connection. These were mainly flatter terrain for the construction of the railway and the connection of the centre of Uckermark to the railway network.
The committee agreed that the line could run two kilometres from Prenzlau. A branch-line would provide a direct link. A later extension to the Pomeranian port cities was also considered. A discussion with these cities had already taken place, but the BStE demanded the financial participation of Prenzlaus and the port cities, before they would build such a line. Since Prenzlau refused to invest in the line, the BStE decided to build its main line along the southern route. The Prenzlau magistrate, however, succeeded in having a station established at Passow and a highway constructed between the two towns, which at least guarantee the first connection to the line from 1843.
In subsequent years, Prenzlau continued to campaign for a connection and hoped for the support of the Pomeranian port cities, especially in 1842 when plans surfaced for a direct connection from Berlin to Stralsund via Neustrelitz. As it was predicted that only one railway would be built initially, this created rivalry between the supporters of both routes. The Pomeranian cities, however, saw an advantage in the route designated as the Northern Railway running through Mecklenburg-Strelitz.
Although the Northern Railway, ran through a more sparsely populated area, the line was licensed by Prussian King Friedrich William IV, as a state railway, on 18 June 1853. His ministers did not support the construction of a state railway, causing the king to change his mind the same year on 16 November 1853, when he agreed to the construction of three lines in Western Pomerania between Passow and Greifswald, Züssow and Wolgast and Pasewalk and Szczecin. The decision to build an extension from Greifswald to Stralsund followed later. Construction and management of all three routes was undertaken by the BStE.
In the following years up to the start of construction, however, the beginning and end of the line not yet been determined exactly. Angermünde and Passow were considered for the start of the line, as one city was closer to Berlin and the other was closer to Szczecin. Meanwhile, the option of starting the line in Pasewalk and running on the branch line between Pasewalk and Szczecin was considered. Eventually, in 1860, Angermünde was selected for the start of the line.
The original preference for the end of the line was Greifswald. Only after the approval of the Prussian War Ministry—Stralsund was a fortress at the time—and that of the Vorpommern communal parliament was the line able to continue to Stralsund.
After the final contract was signed on 26 February 1861, actual construction began at several places on 1 August 1861. Preliminary work had already been undertaken in 1859. The line was built as a single track with the track formation prepared for a second track. Eight optical telegraph towers per Prussian mile (7,532.5 metres) and a continuous double telegraph line were installed parallel to the line. Stations buildings were built in a neoclassical style and provided where necessary with a carriage shed. As carriages were partly manoeuvred with horses, some of these carriage shed also had their own stables. Engine shed were also established at the larger stations in Prenzlau and Pasewalk and in Anklam and Greifswald connections were built to ports.
The construction of the line itself proved to be mostly straightforward as the line ran mainly over flat terrain. However, bogs had to be drained to prevent the tracks subsiding. The biggest technical hurdle was the construction of river crossings over the Uecker north of Prenzlau, the Zarow in Ferdinandshof, the Peene at Anklam and the Ryck in Greifswald. In the last two swing bridges were used in order not to hinder shipping traffic on the rivers. The construction of these bridges, however, caused the planned opening date to slide, so that initially only the Angermünde–Anklam section was opened on 16 March 1863. The Prussian Minister of Commerce. Von Itzenplitz ordered a temporary stop to construction of the Greifswald–Stralsund section of the line in order that the exact location of Stralsund station could be clarified.Dieter Grusenick, Erich Morlok, Horst Regling. p. 28f. After the selection of a site in Tribseer, a suburb to be west of the old town, work recommenced.
The first special train carrying the Prussian King William I ran on 26 October 1863.Dieter Grusenick, Erich Morlok, Horst Regling. p. 20 The first official passenger and goods trains ran on 1 November 1863. At the same time a branch line from Züssow to Wolgast was also opened. The stage coach postal services was closed in parallel with the opening of the railway.
Operations in the early years In the first years there were seven pairs of trains each day between Berlin, Angermünde and Stralsund. Of these, four pairs were pure passenger trains, one pair was a pure freight train and two pairs were mixed trains. The planned top speed was 75 km/h for express trains, 56 km/h for ordinary passenger trains and 35 km/h for freight trains.Dieter Grusenick, Erich Morlok, Horst Regling. p. 59 Running times were about four hours.
In the early years, trains to Stralsund and Szczecin ran together to Angermünde, where they were uncoupled. As passenger traffic grew more strongly than was initially expected, the BStE began to run separate trains on these routes a few years later. The opening of the Ducherow–Swinoujsciein line in 1876 enabled a continuous connection to Usedom and the opening in 1883 of the Altefähr–Bergen line—with trains carried by ferry between Stralsund and Altefähr—further increased the number of services. In 1891 the latter line was extended to Sassnitz, which from 1897 was served by a mail steamer service towards Trelleborg. In 1909 this was replaced by a train ferry, the Königslinie ("Royal Line"). Simultaneously with the establishment of the train ferry, a pair of night trains was also established between Berlin and Stockholm.
The entire route was operated by the BStE until 1879, when it was nationalised and became the Königliche Direktion der Berlin-Stettiner Eisenbahn (Royal Directorate of the Berlin-Szczecin railway), one of the Prussian state railways. From 1895 it was called the Königliche Eisenbahn-Direktion Stettin ("Royal Railway Directorate Szczecin", Stettin KED).
As the condition of the line could no longer handle the ever-increasing traffic, Stralsund station was rebuilt in 1905 and the track was duplicated in 1907 and 1908. At the same time the Peene bridge in Anklam was replaced, with the old rolling bascule bridge replaced by two bascule bridges with a span of 32 metres.
In parallel, there was increasing freight traffic on the line, partly as a result of the connection of agricultural and light railways to it, such as the Mecklenburg-Pomeranian Narrow Gauge Railway. The main commodities were agricultural products such as potatoes, sugar beet or cereals.
Inter-war period In 1920, the state railways were combined in the newly founded Deutsche Reichsbahn. Nevertheless, state railway locomotives were used exclusively almost during the following 20 years.
The construction of the Rügen embankment in 1936 involved some reconstruction of the Angermünde–Stralsund line. In Stralsund, a new signal box was built, the tracks of Stralsund freight yard were extended and a single-track curve, the so-called "Berlin curve", was built to the Angermünde–Stralsund line, so that the reversal in Stralsund station could be avoided, especially for freight trains. At the same time the line was upgraded to allow higher speeds. The speed limit was raised from 100 km/h along the entire route to 120 km/h on the Angermünde–Ducherow section (and continuing on the branch to Heringsdorf) and 110 km/h on the Ducherow–Stralsund section.Dieter Grusenick, Erich Morlok, Horst Regling. p. 93
The increased line speeds reduced journey time. In 1939, the fastest train on the Berlin–Stralsund route took about three hours and ten minutesDieter Grusenick, Erich Morlok, Horst Regling. p. 97—a Regional-Express took about the same time in 2007. This increased patronage and Deutsche Reichsbahn had to increase services continuously. The pre-war peak in traffic was reached in 1939 with up to eight pairs of passenger trains daily.
Deutsche Reichsbahn after 1945