POINT OF INTEREST

Bahnhof

Am Bundesbahnhof 5, 24937 Flensburg

In the 1920s, trains were the fastest means of transport in Schleswig-Holstein and Denmark. Prior to and during the plebiscite in 1920, trains and railway stations (together with steamers) played a key role in mobilising and transporting the voters to the ballot boxes.

German voters were transported in special trains to Flensburg through the railway station in Flensburg-Weiche[1][2] in an attempt to influence the outcome of the vote. The Danes came in passenger steamers[3]. The wagons had slogans on them. Originally conceived as a hub for the flow of goods in Schleswig, the Weiche marshalling yard lost large parts of its catchment area to Denmark as a result of the vote in the northern part of Schleswig. It was expanded to become the border railway station[4]. From then on, Flensburg was a border town and the German Empire tried to breathe new life into the city. As well as subsidising shipbuilding by FSG (Flensburger Schiffbaugesellschaft), it also supported the construction of the free port (1923), stadium (1927), radio station (1928) and a railway station. Ahead of the referendum, Prussia had promised in May 1919 to pay for the costs of building the new railway station, which had been approved in 1911, including a connection to the western coast[5]. However, it was not until after World War I that construction was completed and the station opened in 1927 despite inflation. Flensburg’s first railway station was situated in the heart of the city and was officially opened on 25 October 1854 in the presence of Denmark’s King Frederik VII[6] as an “English railway station”. After the developments made with the Kiel Railway Station (1881)[7] and the “Staatsbahnhof” (1884)[8], the current location, the area of the filled-in mill pond, was chosen as the site for the new station. In the recent past, the station found itself in the headlines when thousands of refugees arrived there in transit. From 2015, voluntary helpers, together with the city administration, businesses and institutions, organised initial assistance, accommodation in Flensburg or the journey on to Scandinavia.