The Leipzig-Dresden railway line through time

The physical division of Germany that took place in the years following 1945, split apart the rail network, and many lines ended at the new border that was created between East and West Germany. This was particularly visible in Berlin, which was a divided city. Nature did the rest and the ends of the lines became nothing more than wild life sanctuaries. The two networks grew to serve different territorial purposes. Saxony's rail network was refocussed towards the east and the Eastern European countries now part of the Soviet economic system. Most of the factory equipment from the industries of Saxony was shipped east along the Leipzig -Dresden rail line to be relocated in the Soviet Union.

During the forty years of existence of the DDR, little or no investment was put into the Leipzig - Dresden line. The line was eventually re-electrified but the infrastructure tended to remain the same as pre-war. There was a gradual rebuilding of the track in the fifties and the railway was very important for the moving of building material to assist in the rebuilding of towns. Many stations were little changed from the thirties and a massive labour force continued to run the system, unlike in the West, where computers and other modern machinery took over. The entire area between Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz became a vast industrial complex, with the railway line being the main communication artery. The pollution was intense and the landscape was scarred by open-cast mines and chimneys belching out toxic fumes. The railway moved large quantities of steel out of the vast steel works at Riesa and slow moving goods trains were a familiar sight on the Leipzig - Dresden railway line.

The Saxons and the rest of East Germany did not experience the increase in living standards that their neighbours in West Germany were enjoying. For many the line for Leipzig to Dresden was their only means of transport as a car was far beyond their income. Passenger travel was cheap, but the conditions for the travellers were little changed since the 1920s'.

"... it counted next to the Dresden - Berlin and the Berlin -Erfurt routes as the most densely used by trains carrying steel, coal, scrap and gravel."

The Leipzig - Dresden line was used extensively in 1956 and 1968 to move Russian troops stationed in East Germany, to Hungary and Czechoslovakia to put down anti-Communist uprisings. The line was fully engaged in moving thousands of troops down the line to Prague, 120 kilometres from Dresden. The armies of the Warsaw Pact countries invaded Czechoslovakia and troops forcibly ended the brief 'Prague Spring'. A century earlier Prussian troops had journeyed through Prague to war with the Austrians in the pursuit of supremacy for the Prussian state over the Austrian Empire! Again the Leipzig - Dresden line was turned over to military traffic.

The East German Secret Police, the Stasi, reinvoked memories of the past, by using Leipzig station and its extensive sidings as a holding area for political prisoners. Trains arrived weekly with political detainees for interrogation and transhipment to Bautzen, 50 kilometres from Dresden. These trains of detainees were seen almost every week in Leipzig station by railway workers. This movement of prisoners was part of the massive campaign of political repression that the East German state employed to keep itself in power. The offices of the state railway in Berlin were in the same building complex as the secret police and control of the Leipzig -Dresden line was firmly in control of the Berlin authorities.