Dark chapter of the GDR: Trebbin train accident now revealed!

Dark chapter of the GDR: Trebbin train accident now revealed!

A dark chapter in the history of the GDR, which remained hidden for decades, is now coming to light. On March 1, 1962, a devastating train accident occurred near Trebbin that was never made public. Over 60 years later, MDR television reports on this tragedy, which took place during the Cold War, when the Soviet army had a prominent presence in Germany. A recent article by coolis.de illuminates the dark backgrounds and provides insights into the dramatic events.

The region around Jüterbog was one of the most heavily used military areas in Germany during the Cold War. On the day of the accident, a large-scale maneuver with around 40,000 Soviet soldiers took place. A tank battalion from the 248th Rifle Regiment was on its way back to the barracks in Potsdam. The tanks were loaded onto a special train, while the soldiers had to travel standing in wooden wagons. On the evening of the accident, disaster struck when a fully occupied Deutsche Reichsbahn express train raced at 120 km/h towards the outdated special train, which was only traveling at 60 km/h.

The accident and its consequences

One cause of the accident was the unexplained detachment of a tank's turret lock, causing its gun barrel to swing to the side. The gun barrel first hit the express train's steam locomotive, tearing off the water pump and then causing a direct impact on one of the carriages, killing a passenger. And it didn't stop with this one sacrifice: loud wikipedia.org Eyewitnesses reported up to 90 soldiers killed outright, although the official figures were heavily concealed.

The chaos at the scene of the accident was catastrophic. Firefighters had massive difficulties reaching the more than 100 injured people because they were held up by Russian guards. Many of the Soviet soldiers were trapped and urgently needed help. The supply options were severely limited, for example when Ursula Köhler, a nursing student, helped in the Luckenwalde Clinic while many soldiers were lying on mattresses in the hallway - beds were simply not available.

A secretly managed trauma

The cause of the accident, which was related to the soldiers' suspected "exercise" during the journey, was never fully investigated. Until the final withdrawal of Soviet forces from Germany in 1994, the disaster remained largely undiscussed and the victims were forgotten. The incident is one of the many examples of the lack of transparency about military incidents in the GDR. Loud frwiki.wiki This incident is one of the most serious rail accidents in Germany.

The shocking details of this disaster are not only a cry of remembrance of lives lost, but also a powerful reminder of the importance of coming to terms with the stories of the past. Because as the gaps in supply and the cover-up of this disaster show, shadows of history still remain today.