Meißen station is the largest railway station in the town of
Meißen in the German state of
Saxony. The station was opened in 1860 in the district of Cölln. Its entrance building, which was built in 1928, is a heritage-listed building and along with the
Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof
Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof (; en, Stuttgart central station) is the primary railway station in the city of Stuttgart, the state capital of Baden-Württemberg, in southwestern Germany. It is the largest regional and long-distance railway station in ...
it is considered an architecturally significant transport complex of the
interwar period
In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the World War I, First World War to the beginning of the World War II, Second World War. The in ...
.
After the ending of long-distance traffic in the 1960s, the station is now a station of the
Dresden S-Bahn with only regional significance.
History
During the planning phase of
Leipzig–Dresden railway, the
Leipzig–Dresden Railway Company
The Leipzig–Dresden Railway Company (german: Leipzig-Dresdner Eisenbahn-Compagnie or LDE) was a private railway company in the Kingdom of Saxony, now a part of Germany. Amongst other things, it operated the route between Leipzig and Dresden, ope ...
(''Leipzig-Dresdner Eisenbahn-Compagnie''), considered a route passing through Meissen, but, in 1835, it selected a route running further north via
Riesa because of the more favourable topography. It proposed to connect the then important town of Meissen with a branch line. This meant that in 1839 the citizenry of Meissen needed to travel to
Priestewitz station
Priestewitz station is on the Leipzig–Dresden railway and the Großenhain–Priestewitz railway, which branches off it. The station is in the town of Priestewitz in the German state of Saxony.
History
Priestewitz station was opened on 9 April ...
or Oberau station at the end of
Oberau Tunnel to board trains, although from 1842 they could use
Niederau station, which was around seven kilometres away. Two decades later, on 9 July 1860,
the first sod was turned for the construction of the
Coswig–Meißen branch line. The company opened it for passenger operations on 1 December 1860.
At first, three pairs of trains a day ran from Meissen station to
Dresden Leipziger Bahnhof
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...
(the company's station in Dresden). The trains on this 23 km long route stopped at Neusörnewitz,
Coswig,
Kötzschenbroda,
Weintraube and
Radebeul, taking 45 minutes.
The
Borsdorf–Coswig railway was completed with the commissioning of the
Nossen–Meissen section on 22 December 1868; the line now connected with the Leipzig–Dresden railway in both
Borsdorf
Borsdorf is a municipality in the Leipzig district in Saxony, Germany.
Geography
Modern Borsdorf municipality consists of three historical villages: Borsdorf (originally the smallest among the three, serving as a toll station at the historical ma ...
and Coswig. Meissen station was thus converted from a terminus into a through station and direct connections to Leipzig were now possible. Due to the unfavorable topography, this line never achieved the importance of the flatter line via
Riesa; nevertheless, for a long time express trains also ran via Meissen.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Meissen station was rebuilt several times and extended so that it was barely able to cope with the sharp increase in traffic. The platform facilities and the entrance buildings were therefore rebuilt after the First World War to plans by the architect and professor of architecture
Wilhelm Kreis
Wilhelm Kreis (17 March 1873 – 13 August 1955) was a prominent German architect and professor of architecture, active through four political systems in German history: the Wilhelmine era, the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich, and the founda ...
and the municipal planner Mirus. The new facilities were inaugurated on 15 December 1928.
The operation of long-distance services via Meissen ended in 1965. Finally, the last long-distance services on the line were a pair of Warsaw–Leipzig expresses.
Electric operations in Meissen began on 18 December 1970 and Meissen was included in the network of newly created
Dresden S-Bahn in September 1973. In preparation, the second track between Coswig and Meissen, which thad been dismantled for
war reparations to the
Soviet Union, was restored.
On 31 January 2000,
Deutsche Bahn
The (; abbreviated as DB or DB AG) is the national railway company of Germany. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). The Federal Republic of Germany is its single shareholder.
describes itself as the se ...
discontinued freight operations to Meissen.
In 2010, Deutsche Bahn renovated the station building. This included better insulation of the facade, new windows and upgrading of the waiting and transit areas. The majority of the investment of the €1.6 million came from the Federal Government’s economic stimulus program. For cost reasons, Deutsche Bahn concentrated on the rehabilitation of the original tile base of
Meissen porcelain and the installation of a new lighting.
A renovation of platforms was done in 2012-2014 as part of the upgrade of the S-Bahn line to Meissen, which is due to be completed in 2016. Most of 2013 the station was served by the S-Bahn from Dresden which did not continue to Meißen Triebischtal, though. Rail services towards Leipzig had been suspended in 2013 due to the simultaneous renovation of the bridge over the Elbe.
Meissen station is served by
S-Bahn line S1 services on the Meißen-Triebischtal–Dresden–
Bad Schandau (–
Schöna) route at 30-minute intervals. Until 14 December 2015 it had also been served by
RB 110 services on the Leipzig–Meissen route every two hours.
Description of buildings
Station of 1860
Although the station was originally the terminus of a branch line, the
Renaissance Revival entrance building was built next to the track, so that the planned continuation of the line over the Elbe towards
Triebischtal
Triebischtal is a former municipality in the Meißen (district), district of Meißen, in Saxony, Germany. Since 1 July 2012, it is part of the municipality Klipphausen.
References
Former municipalities in Saxony
Meissen (district)
{{M ...
could be carried out without major structural alterations. In the entrance building there were a ticket and baggage counter, service rooms, a waiting room with a restaurant and a tavern for servants (''Hausknechttrinkstube'') and—due to the unheated carriages—hot water bottles for rental in winter. In addition to the entrance building, the station included at its opening a small carriage shed, a watering point and a goods shed. At its head there was a
turntable to allow the reversal of locomotives and carriages.
The turntable survived the station's conversion into a through station until 1910.
Station of 1928
The entrance building is characterised as a functionally structured cubic building mass with gridded windows. The
cornice
In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...
strip of
Rochlitzer porphyry contrasts starkly with its big, bright walls. With its asymmetric structure, the spacious lobby stands out as the dominant structure. It includes the services necessary for passengers who use a pedestrian subway to reach the elevated platforms.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meissen station
Railway stations in Saxony
Railway stations in Germany opened in 1860
station
Station may refer to:
Agriculture
* Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production
* Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle
** Cattle statio ...
Dresden S-Bahn stations