Note: Since this happened in the DDR (Eastern Germany) it is difficult to get precise information, leading to some bits not being as precise as they would be otherwise.
Background
Langenweddingen is a town of 1961 people (as of December 2019) in the eastern-German federal state of Saxony-Anhalt (“Sachsen-Anhalt”) on the territory of the former DDR/GDR (Eastern Germany/German Democratic Republic). Located 11km/6.8mi south-southwest of Magdeburg and 55km/34mi east of Wernigerode (both distances measured in linear distance) the town is attached to the nearby Autobahn 7 for road traffic and has a train stop (a small train station) on the Magdeburg-Thale railway, a non-electrified largely single-track mainline connecting Magdeburg in the north with Thale (pronounced like “Taale”, German doesn’t have a special “Th”-pronunciation) to the southwest. Built in the 1870s railway is now nearly exclusively used for slow regional trains, having been downgraded several times in it’s history. As it was the norm at the time there was a telephone line running along the tracks, which would slightly sag in the summer heat.
The vehicles involved
Driving from north to south was a tanker truck of unknown make/model, carrying almost 15000l/4000 US liquid gallons of Ligroin (a clear, nearly odorless petroleum-based highly flammable liquid sometimes called “Leichtbenzin”/”Light fuel”) for a rubber factory in Ballenstedt 40km/25mi (linear distance) south of Langenweddingen.
Coming in the opposite direction was a trailer-bus (also called an articulated bus), a semi-truck pulling a bus-trailer with a driver and 34 passengers.
Lastly there was P852, a passenger train travelling from Magdeburg to Thale pulled by DR (East-Germany’s national railway) Series 22 number 022. The Series 22 was introduced as a conversion of the old Series 39 (the Prussian P10) which had been in service since 1922. Producing more power than the Series 39 the DR used the locomotives from 1958 onward mostly passenger traffic, including heavy express trains. Weighting 107.5 tons (including water and coal) at 23.7m/77ft long the locomotives had an output of 1240kw/1670hp, enough to reach 110kph/68mph.
The train consisted of a baggage car, a set of 4 bilevel passenger cars, another baggage car and a last set of 4 bilevel passenger cars. The bilevel cars had been introduced into service in 1952 as type DB13 in 4-car units, offering space for up to 906 people (standing and seating combined) at 73m/240ft long. A defining feature were shared doors above shared so called Jacobs bogies between the cars (similar to what the French TGV uses today) extending interior space while cutting down on the weight.
The Accident
On the 6th of July at around 7:55am P852 is approaching Langenweddingen station from the east, travelling at approximately 85kph/53mph. On board the train were 540 passengers including 50 children in the chartered first passenger car, travelling to a holiday camp in the Harz mountains organized by their parents’ employer. Holiday camps like these, organized by the companies employing the parents were a common thing in the DDR, allowing the parents to stay at work during the time. The locomotive is staffed with a driver and a stoker, both are experienced at their job. At the same time a tanker truck from the oil-company Minol is approaching the level crossing on the eastern end of the station, headed southbound with a load of 15000l/4000 US gallons (reportedly, 12000l/3170 US gallons is also possible judging from common trucks’ capacity) highly flammable Ligroin for a nearby factory. Due to the angle between the road and tracks of approximately 50° and thick vegetation in the area the truck driver cannot see the tracks to the east of the station. Coming in the opposite direction, having a marginally better view of the tracks, is a trailer-bus with 35 people on board.
Seeing the train approach the dispatcher in the local signalbox orders the barriers to be closed. The crossing guard starts turning the crank to lower the barriers, but one has gotten caught on the sagging telephone lines running elevated alongside the tracks. This is a known issue, and the crossing guard routinely starts to repeatedly raise and lower the barrier a short distance trying to get it untangled. However, this time he is unsuccessful. This all happened in clear view of the dispatcher, who did not think to turn the signal red.
The truck driver, who had slowed down when the barriers started to lower, accelerates again. It can only be assumed that he believed the barriers had started to lower erroneously. Spotting the approaching bus and realizing the danger of the situation the dispatcher runs to his window and manages to signal the bus driver with a red flag, stopping the bus a few meters short of the crossing. The tanker truck, however, is in a blind spot and doesn’t stop. Another train is waiting at the station for P852 to pass, when it’s driver realizes what is about to unfold he uses the horn to morse the “immediate stop”-signal, a row of 3 short tones. The signal gets drowned out by the noise of the steam engine. At this point, the collision is unavoidable. The train is approximately 30m/98ft from the crossing when the driver sees the truck crossing into his path. An emergency stop is initiated, but fruitless.
At 8am the locomotive strikes the truck with it’s forward right corner, destroying it on impact. The driver is thrown from the cabin on impact, he dies when he hits the ground alongside the tracks. The trailer swings around and hits the side of the train, breaking several windows. The impact cracks the tank open, the cargo spills onto the train and into the interior. The Ligroin momentarily ignites, turning the forward car into a giant, occupied fireball.
Riding towards the back of the first 4-car set is Mister Bodewell, then 17 years old. When he sees the front of the train go up in flames he jumps out and lands on the beginning platform, surviving with injuries. The stoker manages to unhook the locomotive from the burning train, avoiding a secondary explosion. Burning Ligroin spills out along the track, all the way to the station building. The steam-based heating of the cars is damaged, high-pressure steam carries the liquid even further. Inside the forward cars, the air is most literally on fire. Lacking a locomotive, severely damaged and on fire the train cars roll to a stop in Langenweddingen station, the locomotive stops a few hundred meters further down the tracks. Mister Bodewell remembers hearing screams from inside the train, then spotting a slightly-open door on one of the forward cars. He rips it open, braving the insane heat from the flames (800–1000°C/1500–1830°F). Grabbing a hand extended to him he pulls a mother and her young child from the fiery wreckage, recalling “the child was burning all over”. Using his shirt he extinguishes the flames on the child before turning to try and save more survivors. In his memory most people at the station wasted precious seconds, being understandably shocked by the unfolding inferno. An exemption is Mister Moritz, the headmaster of a school a few towns away. He survives the accident and re-enters the train several times to rescue survivors. 12 students survive thanks to him, he himself succumbs to his injuries from the fire the next day. The clock on the station building, which burns out, stops at 8:06am.
According to official reports the disaster claims 94 lives, including 44 of the children in the first passenger car. At least 50 people survive with severe injuries (exact numbers are impossible to come by). People on site that day say 140–150 victims is closer to the truth. Either way, 12 victims end up buried in a mass grave, they can not be identified/distinguished.
Aftermath
10–15 minutes after the accident Langenweddingen’s volunteer fire department reaches the scene, it takes until 8:32am for the first firefighters to arrive. Lacking hydrants they have to establish a water supply from a nearby pond. They cannot approach the cars due to the extreme heat, first attempts to extinguish the fire fail when the water evaporates with a bang the moment it touches the hot metal of the train cars. Witnesses say some parts of the burning cars were so hot that the metal glowed red and orange. By that time a whole different kind of responders have reached the scene. Officers from the Stasi (“Ministerium für Staatssicherheit/Ministry for State Security”), the DDR’s not very secret secret police/intelligence agency. They’re not there to help anyone, they’re there to make sure the image of the country takes the least damage possible. They talk to most responders and some survivors, lining up an official version of the events. Their report with the full truth disappears into the archives, classified and never to be seen again.
Around 10am the fire is extinguished, a little later the first responders can enter the train relatively safely and extract survivors and victims. Many of the dead are unrecognizable, some get identified by their teeth, one child is identified by her sister by the remains of a shoe. The forward baggage car is reduced to a pile of splinters and debris, the forward 3 cars are burned out. Two of them even end up completely without paint. The station, auxiliary buildings and platform are damaged beyond saving and get torn down.
Walter Ulbricht, chairman of the central committee of the DDR, releases a written statement, expressing his grief but also making sure to point out how the socialist community is strong enough to recover from any loss and pain. The public is presented with the dispatcher and crossing guard as scapegoats, both go to jail for five years each. Condolence-letters came from half the world, even the Pope sent a telegram from the Vatican to the DDR. The families of the dead get compensated with a few hundred marks each. The site is quickly cleaned up, officially the dispatcher and the crossing guard negligently didn’t communicate right. The known problem with the telephone lines, outdated technology on the road and the tracks, all that gets dropped under the table, doesn’t fit the official narrative.
The victims are buried on the 11th of July, with state honors usually reserved for high-ranking politicians. Flags all over the country are flown at half-mast, every casket is lined up next to a soldier standing guard. Some witnesses say a few of the caskets were probably empty, or at least not necessarily with the victim in it they were supposed to hold. Of course the SED, the ruling parties, has 6 delegates front and center. The traffic minister, health minister and secretary of state are sent to the funeral. Almost all victims are put to rest at Magdeburg’s western cemetery, only one girl is buried at Langenweddingen, her hometown.
6 months after the accident a new transport policy for dangerous goods is implemented, and changes to the operation of level crossings are made. Barriers have to be closed longer before a train approaches. Trains also cannot receive a green signal before the barriers are definitely down. Regardless, buses and trucks with dangerous cargo have to stop even if the barriers are open and ensure that the tracks are safe to cross. Mister Moritz is posthumously awarded the Fatherland’s Order of Merit in silver. The school he worked at (now an elementary school) and the town’s Red Cross Station are named after him. Mister Bodewell recovers from his injuries, a few months after the fire he is invited to a gala dinner for the responders, where he is awarded the same medal. He recalls having a really hard time during the dinner, as, apparently, barely anyone there had anything to do with the rescue/recovery.
Langenweddingen station is rebuilt as a simple single story flat roof building, which (although closed down) is still there today.
The locomotive is repaired, returned to the specification of a Series 39. Numbered 39 1022 it continues service until the 11th of December 1972, when it is retired and eventually scrapped. Today only 2 Series 39 remain. The bilevel cars were outdated by the time of the accident, while the development went over several more generations until today and modern bilevel cars are essential in regional traffic the model used back then is still in use (although modernized) by the CFR, the Romanian national railway.
At the site a small memorial, consisting of an engraved rock on a brick pedestal, serves as the official memorial. A lot of the older people in the area still know what happened that day, it made the tiny town famous in all the wrong ways.
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