Summer 1963 Deutsche Reichsbahn (East Germany) Timetable

[StephenHunter]

https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/document/cia-rdp82-00038r001500030001-3

Yes, this is from the CIA website. They've got a good array of Soviet bloc stuff on there, which is the sort of thing that an intelligence agency would be interested in.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

It looks surprisingly commonplace, with hotel adverts and cartoons etc.
Even an advert for Lufthansa.
Good coverage of CS, PL, HU and all the through trains beyond.
I still have the DR regional timetable for the Erfurt area from a trip I did in 1977, but this adds a lot of detail to that.
1963 must have been about the most closed period to travel to/within the DDR, just after the wall went up, and with very few trains from the west.
Thanks for posting.

 

[StephenHunter]

It looks surprisingly commonplace, with hotel adverts and cartoons etc.
Even an advert for Lufthansa.

That's actually the short-lived East German airline Deutsche Lufthansa.

The FRG and the GDR were not on full speaking terms at this point (nor was the FRG in diplomatic relations with Czechoslovakia), but the three operators kept running their through trains with little real issue it seems.

 

[Groningen]

Sanitized?! What is secret about a timetable?

It is nice to see traveltimes from the past with now.

Warsaw - Paris: past 26,5 hours (via Aachen) / present 14,5 hours (via Frankfurt)
Berlin - Budapest (3 hours faster)
Berlin - Wien (3,5 hours faster)
Berlin - Erfurt (3 hours faster)
Berlin - Rostock (1,5 hours faster with RE 11 more stops)
Berlin - Dresden (55 minutes faster)
Berlin - Stralsund (2 hours faster with RE 15 more stops)
Dresden - Erfurt (5 hours faster)
Dresden - Leipzig (1 hour faster)

Some lines may not exist anymore! 189 G (Triptis - Lobenstein). Still possible, but running via Saalfeld. Direct after new and old line splits in Triptis.

 

[U-Bahnfreund]

More old timetables available online (which also have a better quality):

http://timetableworld.com
> Great Britain
>> LMS - June 1947
>> LNER - June 1947
>> BR Scottish Region - May 1948
>> BR Western Region - May 1949
>> BR Southern Region - September 1950
>> BR London Midland Region - September 1962
>> BR Western Region - 1965
>> Network Rail - Dec 2007
> USA
>> Official Guide to the Railways - August 1952
> Germany
>> (Kursbuch Westdeutschland - June 1944) -- see also below
>> Kursbuch Nordwestdeutschland [Deutsche Bundesbahn] - May 1962
>> Kursbuch Winter 1990/91 [Deutsche Reichsbahn]

http://www.deutsches-kursbuch.de
> Hendschels Telegraph - May 1914
> Deutsches Kursbuch Sommer 1939
> Deutsches Kursbuch Sommer 1941
> Deutsches Kursbuch Winter 1941/42
> Jahresfahrplan 1942/43
> Jahresfahrplan 1943
> Winterausgabe 1943/44
> (Jahresfahrplan 1944/45) -- see also below

http://pkjs.de/bahn/Kursbuch1944/Kursbuchtitel.html
> Very easy readable and comprehensive version of the 1944/1945 timetable, incl. war-occupied territories and those lost after WW2.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

http://pkjs.de/bahn/Kursbuch1944/Kursbuchtitel.html
> Very easy readable and comprehensive version of the 1944/1945 timetable, incl. war-occupied territories and those lost after WW2.

Table 170e of this helpfully shows the train service on the branch through Colditz in Saxony.
Probably not easily available to castle inmates though.
Seriously, the railway must have been in chaos with the collapse of the civil administration, the bombing and invasion of the allies, and floods of refugees.
Meanwhile, the timetable, as a document, in terms of font and presentation, is recognisably the same as recent DB Kursbuchs.

 

[U-Bahnfreund]

Seriously, the railway must have been in chaos with the collapse of the civil administration, the bombing and invasion of the allies, and floods of refugees.

In some tables, you can see the consequences of the war (apart from the many military trains). In table 232a, it says "Connection by tram between Hagen and Herdecke", that was because the viaduct over the Ruhr in Herdecke had been severely damaged after the Allies destroyed the Möhne dam. Or, in the "Allgemeine Bestimmungen für Reisende", the first line reads "For the length of the war, private persons do not have the entitlement to travel."

 

[matt_world2004]

Didnt the GDR rail operator also operate the west berlin metro? Albeit as a seperate service to the east berlin one.

 

[Groningen]

Yes indeed. However many West Berliners boycotted the S-Bahn. I had the privilege to visit Berlin in the 80's and never was war so close as there. The icing on the cake was a visit to Steinstücken. Part of West Berlin it had a road and the rest was the wall. I had even a picture made throught a hole in the Wall.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Didnt the GDR rail operator also operate the west berlin metro? Albeit as a seperate service to the east berlin one.

DR operated the S-Bahn (in two separate halves after 1961) until 1984 when the western section was sold/ transferred to West Berlin city (BVG) operation.
After reunification, the S-Bahn networks were reintegrated and operated jointly by BVG/DR until 1994 when DR merged with DB.
At this point the S-Bahn returned to railway operation, with the new DB forming a subsidiary to operate it.
The U-Bahn underground railway is operated by the city authority BVG (BVB in the East until reunification).

 

[Adlington]

Sanitized?! What is secret about a timetable?

Only the first page ("cover note") is sanitized. I guess the original contains some information about the source (agent/place/time) which is still confidential.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

The maps in the 1944 Kursbuch show that electrification was relatively limited, on the following routes:

- Magdeburg-Leipzig-Jena-Nuremburg-Augsburg-Munich (note - wires did not reach Berlin)
- Munich to Regensburg/Attnang-Puchheim/Innsbruck (via both Garmisch and Rosenheim) and Brenner to Italy
- Munich-Salzburg-Tauern route but stopped short of Villach
- Munich-Ulm-Stuttgart
- Salzburg-Innsbruck (via both Rosenheim and Kitzbuhel)-Feldkirch-Lindau

So concentrated in Bavaria and Austria, with Austria surprisingly advanced.
The routes in what became East Germany had only recently been completed, but immediately after the war the Soviets dismantled the electrification (and singled much of the track) for reparations.
It took until the 1980s for the DDR to reinstate the routes and wires.
I remember travelling up the Saale valley in 1979 with sawn-off mast bases as part of the scenery.
Once at the BRD (Bavaria) border at Probsztella, the wires reappeared, as the western allies did not implement the reparations plan.

 

[StephenHunter]

Only the first page ("cover note") is sanitized. I guess the original contains some information about the source (agent/place/time) which is still confidential.

Yep, considering that there is also a 1954 'working timetable' in the archive, I can see why.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Having had a look at the electrification history of Germany/Austria, some interesting facts emerged:
- the first electrified line in Germany was the Murnau-Oberammergau line in Bavaria, in 1905 (5kV 16⅔ Hz AC, later converted to the standard 15kV)
- Munich-Garmisch-Mittenwald-Innsbruck was planned for electrification by 1914, but completion was delayed until 1925
- Munich-Salzburg/Kufstein followed in 1928 and Munich-Augsburg-Ulm-Stuttgart in 1933

Austria made a strategic decision to electrify its main lines after WW1, because its coal reserves were by then largely in Czechoslovakia.
They started in the west, with the Arlberg route in 1924-25, and the Brenner in 1929-34. Routes to Innsbruck were electrified by 1930, and the Tauern route by 1935.
Work on the Westbahn from Salzburg to Attnang-Puchheim was complete by 1941, but Vienna was not reached until 1952.

Meanwhile back in Germany, there were experiments with electric traction between Leipzig and Dessau before WW1, but services to Halle started in 1922 and to Magdeburg in 1934.
The railway wanted to begin with electrifying around Trier (Mosel) or Altona-Kiel (Hamburg), but the army insisted they start near the coalfields around Leipzig for strategic reasons.
Apparently the Dessau route was electrified 3 times: pre-WW1; in the 1920s after the equipment had been taken for war use; and again in the 1960s to restore the route after Soviet reparations.
The link between Leipzig and Munich via Jena, Nuremburg and Augsburg was completed 1935-39.
It's curious there was no pre-WW2 electrification in the Rhine-Ruhr industrial area, which was generally wired in the late 50s and 60s.
However, it is where much of Germany's coal reserves are located.
There was also 3rd rail electrification in this period for the localised Hamburg (from 1907) and Berlin (from 1924) S-Bahn systems.

Berlin was not connected electrically to the west German network until the modernisation/rebuilding of the 4 main lines to the west following reunification.
The Frankfurt route via Erfurt and the Munich route via Jena were wired in 1995, with the Hanover (Lehrte) and Hamburg lines following in 1997.
The Munich route via Jena has just been replaced by the high-speed NBS via Erfurt.

 

[Senex]

Berlin was not connected electrically to the west German network until the modernisation/rebuilding of the 4 main lines to the west following reunification.
The Frankfurt route via Erfurt and the Munich route via Jena were wired in 1995, with the Hanover (Lehrte) and Hamburg lines following in 1997.
The Munich route via Jena has just been replaced by the high-speed NBS via Erfurt.

ICEs reached Berlin Lichtenberg over the southern section of the BAR from 25 May 1993. The route used was from Helmstedt to Magdeburg and thence Biederitz, the north curve at Güterglück, the Kanonenbahn as far as Michendorf, and on to the BAR at Saarmund. The service moved over to the Berlin-Potsdam-Magdeburger Bahn through Brandenburg as soon as modernisation and electrification was completed.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

ICEs reached Berlin Lichtenberg over the southern section of the BAR from 25 May 1993. The route used was from Helmstedt to Magdeburg and thence Biederitz, the north curve at Güterglück, the Kanonenbahn as far as Michendorf, and on to the BAR at Saarmund. The service moved over to the Berlin-Potsdam-Magdeburger Bahn through Brandenburg as soon as modernisation and electrification was completed.

Ah, so an indirect electrified route was established while the rebuilding of the more direct Lehrte line was in progress.
Some of the Kanonenbahn route used is now closed, according to the Schweers map (Güterglück-Wiesenburg).

 

[Senex]

Ah, so an indirect electrified route was established while the rebuilding of the more direct Lehrte line was in progress.
Some of the Kanonenbahn route used is now closed, according to the Schweers map (Güterglück-Wiesenburg).

Yes, it was a case of several stages. The above route was a provisional solution because it was what could be got into use as fast as possible (as soon as the electrification and upgrading of Helmstedt-Marienborn-Magdeburg was complete). The second stage was only a few weeks later in 1993, when trains were able to start using the direct route from Michendorf to Wannsee, Charlottenburg, and the Stadtbahn. The third stage was the move to the BPM main line, and the final stage was the opening of the Neubau/Ausbau of the Lehrter Bahn in September 1998 (in heavily despecced form and with the curious solution to the problem of the Großtrappengebiet where the two tracks through the area are technically the tracks of the Stammbahn, not of the Schnellfahrstrecke, and are limited to 200 km/h).

 

[StephenHunter]

The original route for the Cologne-Berlin trains was Helmstedt-Marienborn, but today the ICE services go via Oebisfelde and Stendal.