manu/mldr-zoomed-100char-total-queries-documents

chunk_id stringlengths 3 9	chunk stringlengths 1 100
121_23	The centre of the town of Falkenberg is located west of the line from Berlin and north of the line
121_24	from Halle. The original village centre and its manor was about 400 metres from the station.
121_25	History
121_26	The Berlin-Anhalt Railway Company (, BAE) opened its line from Berlin to Köthen (then spelt Cöthen)
121_27	in 1841. It planned from the beginning, an additional line that would connect Berlin with Leipzig
121_28	and Dresden. The towns of Herzberg, Uebigau and Liebenswerda were stubbornly opposed to the railway
121_29	having direct contact with their towns. So a slightly more westerly route was chosen that passed
121_30	near the small village and manor of Falkenberg. The station was initially a small halt with a
121_31	station master, a telegrapher, two signalmen and some shunters.
121_32	A railway from Falkenberg to Cottbus was opened by the Halle-Sorau-Guben Railway
121_33	(Halle-Sorau-Gubener Eisenbahn, HSGE) on 1 December 1871. At first the trains stopped in the lower
121_34	part of the old station. A line running to the west from Falkenberg via Eilenburg to Halle was
121_35	opened on 1 May 1872. In the same year the Upper Lusatian Railway Company (Oberlausitzer
121_36	Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft) began construction of its line from Kohlfurt (now Węgliniec) to Falkenberg,
121_37	which was opened on 1 June 1874. This was followed by the BAE’s extension of its line from
121_38	Wittenberg on 15 October 1875, creating connections to lines to Halle and Dessau. The BAE took over
121_39	the management on the lines of the Upper Lusatian Railway Company in 1878. The traffic on all three
121_40	lines became very active in the following years, so that Falkenberg became an important railway
121_41	junction. In 1882 a new, larger station building was built at the intersection of the upper and
121_42	lower lines. In the same year the Prussian government took over the management of the lines of the
121_43	BAE and two years later it took over the HSGE. Nevertheless, the names of the Halle-Sorauer Bahnhof
121_44	(Halle-Sorau station) for the upper level and the Berlin-Anhalter Bahnhof (Berlin-Anhalt station)
121_45	for the lower level persisted.
121_46	The then competent Staatsbahndirektion (railway division) of Erfurt combined the two workshops of
121_47	the BAE and HSGE, and from 1887 they were referred to as an operating workshop
121_48	(Betriebswerkstätte), which later developed into a locomotive depot (Bahnbetriebswerk).
121_49	Expansion after 1890
121_50	Traffic increased significantly to Falkenberg at the end of the 19th century. The three main
121_51	railway lines were doubled from 1896 to 1912 to overcome their capacity constraints. The station
121_52	facilities with the marshalling yards and workshops were extended. A new water tower was built in
121_53	1895 and another engine shed was put in operation at the lower station in 1908. The last of the
121_54	railways built to Falkenberg was opened on 15 March 1898, the private Lower Lusatian Railway to
121_55	Uckro.
121_56	In a train accident in the summer of 1934, a freight train in the lower part on station ran into
121_57	another and the vehicles pushed off the track collided with an oncoming train. One man was killed.
121_58	The Wehrmacht opened a large army airfield at Alt-Lönnewitz southwest of Falkenberg in 1936. A
121_59	connecting railway ran to it from the top station, which carried materials and airfield employees.
121_60	The station had 20 km of mainline track and 93 km of sidings with 324 points in 1939. It had 20
121_61	signal boxes and three engine sheds on the upper and lower part of the station. The exits from the
121_62	marshalling yard handled 4,000 freight wagons a day from the top part and 2,400 from the lower part
121_63	of the station. There was a siding to the airport with branches to a substation and to the
121_64	Falkenberg branch of the Torgau grain cooperative.
121_65	In World War II, construction began on a multi-track upgrade of the line toward Jüterbog, which was
121_66	not completed. Some embankments have been preserved. The work was carried out largely by the use of
121_67	forced labourers and prisoners of war.
121_68	Because of the strategic importance of the station, with its marshalling yards and the nearby
121_69	Falkenberg airfield, it was a target for several Allied bombing raids in the Second World War. The
121_70	most serious of these attacks occurred in April 1945. On 18 April, the entrance building, the
121_71	crossing structure and a number of buildings in the area were completely destroyed. After radio
121_72	reports had already announced that there would be further attacks on the day with the goal of total
121_73	destruction of the Falkenberg railway junction, bomb raids were primarily carried out on the lower
121_74	station and a number of buildings were destroyed, including the locomotive depot.
121_75	After the Second World War
121_76	A few days after the war, Soviet troops under station commander Braschenko began rebuilding the
121_77	strategic rail facilities on 15 May 1945. In the following months, the railway lines out of
121_78	Falkenberg were gradually returned to operation, at first provisionally. All tracks were usable
121_79	again in 1948.
121_80	In GDR times, the station was expanded and included 160 km of railway tracks and 377 sets of
121_81	points. In addition to the north-eastern connecting curve from the lower to the upper station,
121_82	which had existing since the 19th century, a connecting curve was built south-east of the crossing,
121_83	allowing direct trips from the west to the lower station, allowing operations to Elsterwerda
121_84	without having to reverse in the upper yard. The locomotive depot became one of the largest in East
121_85	Germany with about 500 employees. About 5,000 freight wagons left Falkenberg each day in the 1970s
121_86	and 1980s.
121_87	The station was also important for national defence. Freight tracks were temporarily provided with
121_88	platforms for travelling Soviet soldiers so that they could use the washing facilities. A new
121_89	restaurant building was opened for Mitropa in 1972.
121_90	The first electrically powered passenger train reached Falkenberg from the direction of Wittenberg
121_91	on 27 September 1986 and the electrification went into operation towards Riesa on 13 December 1986.
121_92	Electrification was extended towards Ruhland in October 1987. The other three main railway branches
121_93	towards Jüterbog,Torgau and Finsterwalde were electrified in 1989.
121_94	The importance of the station for freight fell substantially after 1990 due to the decline in
121_95	industrial production in the region and the modal shift to road transport. The fleet in the depot
121_96	was increasingly reduced after 1991 and the Wittenberg depot was closed in 1994. In 1998, the
121_97	depot’s work was transferred to the Leipzig-Engelsdorf depot and a little later the station was
121_98	converted into a purely passenger operation without responsibility for any rollingstock.
121_99	In 2010 and 2011, the passenger platforms were built in the upper part of the station and the
121_100	railway facilities were transformed. The former Mitropa building was completely rebuilt. The upper
121_101	railway yard was taken over in 2011 by BLG AutoRail, which uses it as a "hub for car transportation
121_102	by rail".
121_103	Environment
121_104	The town of Falkenberg has been decisively shaped by the railways. In the first years, the station
121_105	of Falkenberg was only a minor station as the town had developed very little at this time.
121_106	Immediately prior to the construction of the railway, Falkenberg had 350 inhabitants, while it had
121_107	405 at the time of the opening of the east-west line. With the construction of the east–west line
121_108	and the later line from Wittenberg to Kohlfurt Falkenberg, it became a railway junction and the
121_109	village grew considerably. A number of railway workers settled in the city. The area between the
121_110	railway station and the old town centre was gradually built up. The post office was opened next to
121_111	the entrance building in 1888.
121_112	At the end of the 19th century, the expanding railway tracks were more and more of a hindrance to
121_113	road traffic. An overpass was built over the tracks in 1896 to replace the level crossing at
121_114	Uebigauer Straße north of the platforms of the lower station.
121_115	From 1897, a cooperative built, with the help of a loan, tenement-like houses in several streets
121_116	west of the station; these included stables, a little garden land and community laundry rooms. This
121_117	area is now a heritage-listed area as the Eisenbahnersiedlung Falkenberg (Falkenberg railway
121_118	settlement). In 1912, the manor came into the possession of the municipality, allowing new
121_119	construction areas to be identified, mainly east of the railway. In the 1920s, more apartments were
121_120	built and by 1925 Falkenberg had become the largest town in the former district of Liebenswerda
121_121	with 4,850 inhabitants.
121_122	In 1962, the town, then having about 7,000 inhabitants, received a charter declaring it a town. The

121_23

The centre of the town of Falkenberg is located west of the line from Berlin and north of the line

121_24

from Halle. The original village centre and its manor was about 400 metres from the station.

121_25

History

121_26

The Berlin-Anhalt Railway Company (, BAE) opened its line from Berlin to Köthen (then spelt Cöthen)

121_27

in 1841. It planned from the beginning, an additional line that would connect Berlin with Leipzig

121_28

and Dresden. The towns of Herzberg, Uebigau and Liebenswerda were stubbornly opposed to the railway

121_29

having direct contact with their towns. So a slightly more westerly route was chosen that passed

121_30

near the small village and manor of Falkenberg. The station was initially a small halt with a

121_31

station master, a telegrapher, two signalmen and some shunters.

121_32

A railway from Falkenberg to Cottbus was opened by the Halle-Sorau-Guben Railway

121_33

(Halle-Sorau-Gubener Eisenbahn, HSGE) on 1 December 1871. At first the trains stopped in the lower

121_34

part of the old station. A line running to the west from Falkenberg via Eilenburg to Halle was

121_35

opened on 1 May 1872. In the same year the Upper Lusatian Railway Company (Oberlausitzer

121_36

Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft) began construction of its line from Kohlfurt (now Węgliniec) to Falkenberg,

121_37

which was opened on 1 June 1874. This was followed by the BAE’s extension of its line from

121_38

Wittenberg on 15 October 1875, creating connections to lines to Halle and Dessau. The BAE took over

121_39

the management on the lines of the Upper Lusatian Railway Company in 1878. The traffic on all three

121_40

lines became very active in the following years, so that Falkenberg became an important railway

121_41

junction. In 1882 a new, larger station building was built at the intersection of the upper and

121_42

lower lines. In the same year the Prussian government took over the management of the lines of the

121_43

BAE and two years later it took over the HSGE. Nevertheless, the names of the Halle-Sorauer Bahnhof

121_44

(Halle-Sorau station) for the upper level and the Berlin-Anhalter Bahnhof (Berlin-Anhalt station)

121_45

for the lower level persisted.

121_46

The then competent Staatsbahndirektion (railway division) of Erfurt combined the two workshops of

121_47

the BAE and HSGE, and from 1887 they were referred to as an operating workshop

121_48

(Betriebswerkstätte), which later developed into a locomotive depot (Bahnbetriebswerk).

121_49

Expansion after 1890

121_50

Traffic increased significantly to Falkenberg at the end of the 19th century. The three main

121_51

railway lines were doubled from 1896 to 1912 to overcome their capacity constraints. The station

121_52

facilities with the marshalling yards and workshops were extended. A new water tower was built in

121_53

1895 and another engine shed was put in operation at the lower station in 1908. The last of the

121_54

railways built to Falkenberg was opened on 15 March 1898, the private Lower Lusatian Railway to

121_55

Uckro.

121_56

In a train accident in the summer of 1934, a freight train in the lower part on station ran into

121_57

another and the vehicles pushed off the track collided with an oncoming train. One man was killed.

121_58

The Wehrmacht opened a large army airfield at Alt-Lönnewitz southwest of Falkenberg in 1936. A

121_59

connecting railway ran to it from the top station, which carried materials and airfield employees.

121_60

The station had 20 km of mainline track and 93 km of sidings with 324 points in 1939. It had 20

121_61

signal boxes and three engine sheds on the upper and lower part of the station. The exits from the

121_62

marshalling yard handled 4,000 freight wagons a day from the top part and 2,400 from the lower part

121_63

of the station. There was a siding to the airport with branches to a substation and to the

121_64

Falkenberg branch of the Torgau grain cooperative.

121_65

In World War II, construction began on a multi-track upgrade of the line toward Jüterbog, which was

121_66

not completed. Some embankments have been preserved. The work was carried out largely by the use of

121_67

forced labourers and prisoners of war.

121_68

Because of the strategic importance of the station, with its marshalling yards and the nearby

121_69

Falkenberg airfield, it was a target for several Allied bombing raids in the Second World War. The

121_70

most serious of these attacks occurred in April 1945. On 18 April, the entrance building, the

121_71

crossing structure and a number of buildings in the area were completely destroyed. After radio

121_72

reports had already announced that there would be further attacks on the day with the goal of total

121_73

destruction of the Falkenberg railway junction, bomb raids were primarily carried out on the lower

121_74

station and a number of buildings were destroyed, including the locomotive depot.

121_75

After the Second World War

121_76

A few days after the war, Soviet troops under station commander Braschenko began rebuilding the

121_77

strategic rail facilities on 15 May 1945. In the following months, the railway lines out of

121_78

Falkenberg were gradually returned to operation, at first provisionally. All tracks were usable

121_79

again in 1948.

121_80

In GDR times, the station was expanded and included 160 km of railway tracks and 377 sets of

121_81

points. In addition to the north-eastern connecting curve from the lower to the upper station,

121_82

which had existing since the 19th century, a connecting curve was built south-east of the crossing,

121_83

allowing direct trips from the west to the lower station, allowing operations to Elsterwerda

121_84

without having to reverse in the upper yard. The locomotive depot became one of the largest in East

121_85

Germany with about 500 employees. About 5,000 freight wagons left Falkenberg each day in the 1970s

121_86

and 1980s.

121_87

The station was also important for national defence. Freight tracks were temporarily provided with

121_88

platforms for travelling Soviet soldiers so that they could use the washing facilities. A new

121_89

restaurant building was opened for Mitropa in 1972.

121_90

The first electrically powered passenger train reached Falkenberg from the direction of Wittenberg

121_91

on 27 September 1986 and the electrification went into operation towards Riesa on 13 December 1986.

121_92

Electrification was extended towards Ruhland in October 1987. The other three main railway branches

121_93

towards Jüterbog,Torgau and Finsterwalde were electrified in 1989.

121_94

The importance of the station for freight fell substantially after 1990 due to the decline in

121_95

industrial production in the region and the modal shift to road transport. The fleet in the depot

121_96

was increasingly reduced after 1991 and the Wittenberg depot was closed in 1994. In 1998, the

121_97

depot’s work was transferred to the Leipzig-Engelsdorf depot and a little later the station was

121_98

converted into a purely passenger operation without responsibility for any rollingstock.

121_99

In 2010 and 2011, the passenger platforms were built in the upper part of the station and the

121_100

railway facilities were transformed. The former Mitropa building was completely rebuilt. The upper

121_101

railway yard was taken over in 2011 by BLG AutoRail, which uses it as a "hub for car transportation

121_102

by rail".

121_103

Environment

121_104

The town of Falkenberg has been decisively shaped by the railways. In the first years, the station

121_105

of Falkenberg was only a minor station as the town had developed very little at this time.

121_106

Immediately prior to the construction of the railway, Falkenberg had 350 inhabitants, while it had

121_107

405 at the time of the opening of the east-west line. With the construction of the east–west line

121_108

and the later line from Wittenberg to Kohlfurt Falkenberg, it became a railway junction and the

121_109

village grew considerably. A number of railway workers settled in the city. The area between the

121_110

railway station and the old town centre was gradually built up. The post office was opened next to

121_111

the entrance building in 1888.

121_112

At the end of the 19th century, the expanding railway tracks were more and more of a hindrance to

121_113

road traffic. An overpass was built over the tracks in 1896 to replace the level crossing at

121_114

Uebigauer Straße north of the platforms of the lower station.

121_115

From 1897, a cooperative built, with the help of a loan, tenement-like houses in several streets

121_116

west of the station; these included stables, a little garden land and community laundry rooms. This

121_117

area is now a heritage-listed area as the Eisenbahnersiedlung Falkenberg (Falkenberg railway

121_118

settlement). In 1912, the manor came into the possession of the municipality, allowing new

121_119

construction areas to be identified, mainly east of the railway. In the 1920s, more apartments were

121_120

built and by 1925 Falkenberg had become the largest town in the former district of Liebenswerda

121_121

with 4,850 inhabitants.

121_122

In 1962, the town, then having about 7,000 inhabitants, received a charter declaring it a town. The