The Wittenberge–Buchholz railway or Wittenberge–Buchholz branch (german: Bahnstrecke Wittenberge-Buchholz or ''Wittenberge-Buchholzer Zweigbahn'') was licensed to, planned and built by the Berlin-Hamburg Railway Company (BHE) and opened in 1874 as an additional link between the cities of

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

and Bremen in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It ran through

Wittenberge Wittenberge () is a town of eighteen thousand people on the middle Elbe in the district of Prignitz, Brandenburg, Germany. Geography Wittenberge is situated at the right (north-eastern) bank of the middle Elbe at its confluence with the Stepe ...

Dömitz Dömitz () is a municipality in the Ludwigslust-Parchim district, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. It is situated on the right bank of the Elbe, 25 km southwest of Ludwigslust, and 37 km northwest of Wittenberge Wittenberg ...

, Dannenberg,

Lüneburg Lüneburg (officially the ''Hanseatic City of Lüneburg'', German: ''Hansestadt Lüneburg'', , Low German ''Lümborg'', Latin ''Luneburgum'' or ''Lunaburgum'', Old High German ''Luneburc'', Old Saxon ''Hliuni'', Polabian ''Glain''), also called ...

and Buchholz and was originally to have been extended to

Bremerhaven Bremerhaven (, , Low German: ''Bremerhoben'') is a city at the seaport of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms a semi-enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the Riv ...

. The single-tracked main line ran through the present-day states of

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an area of 29,480 sq ...

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (MV; ; nds, Mäkelborg-Vörpommern), also known by its anglicized name Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania, is a state in the north-east of Germany. Of the country's sixteen states, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern ranks 14th in po ...

and

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

. With the destruction of the bridge over the Elbe at Dömitz at the end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

and the subsequent

division of Germany Division or divider may refer to: Mathematics * Division (mathematics), the inverse of multiplication * Division algorithm, a method for computing the result of mathematical division Military * Division (military), a formation typically consisti ...

it suddenly lost its importance and, as a result, was partially closed. Today two sections of the line are still open: the longer one of the two between Dannenberg and Lüneburg in the

Wendland The Wendland is a region in Germany on the borders of the present states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. Its heart is the Hanoverian Wendland in the county of Lüchow-Dannenberg in Lower Saxony. In ...

is known today as the Wendland Railway (''Wendlandbahn''); whilst western end of the shorter section from Buchholz to Jesteburg merges into the line to the

Maschen Marshalling Yard Maschen Marshalling Yard (german: Maschen Rangierbahnhof, abbreviated to ''Maschen Rbf'' or ''AM'' in the official railway directory) near Maschen south of Hamburg on the Hanover–Hamburg railway in Germany is the largest marshalling yard in Eur ...

. The freight carried on the line includes the transport of nuclear waste containers with radioactive waste to a terminal at the end of the track one kilometre east of the Dannenberg Ost station, where it is off loaded for further transport by road to a nuclear waste storage facility. This was subject to blockading by

anti-nuclear The anti-nuclear movement is a social movement that opposes various nuclear technologies. Some direct action groups, environmental movements, and professional organisations have identified themselves with the movement at the local, nationa ...

activists in November 2010.

Literature

* Dietmar Ramuschkat, „Berlin–Bremen via Wittenberge–Lüneburg–Buchholz. Eine Eisenbahnlinie entsteht“, videel, Niebüll 2002, * Wolfgang Fiegenbaum, Wolfgang Klee, „Abschied from der Schiene, Stillgelegte railways im Personenverkehr Deutschlands 1980–1985“, Motorbuch (S. 22ff), Stuttgart 1988, * „Eisenbahnatlas Deutschland“, Ausgabe 2007/2008, Verlag Schweers + Wall GmbH, 6. Auflage (April 2007),

External links

Dömitz Railway Bridge
at www.lostplaces.de

at www.spurkranz.de {{DEFAULTSORT:Wittenberge-Buchholz railway Railway lines in Brandenburg Railway lines in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Railway lines in Lower Saxony Prignitz Lüchow-Dannenberg Lüneburg Heath Lüneburg (district) Harburg (district) Railway lines opened in 1874