This list of German rail accidents includes those in: German states (excluding Austria) before 1871 German Reich Allied-occupied Germany Federal Republic of Germany German Democratic Republic
List
AccidentLocation Date Killed Injured Description21 January 185137Derailment of a Long Boiler locomotive which caused passenger coaches to derail. One of the injured passengers was Prince Frederick of Prussia, later German Emperor.Hugstetten rail disasterHugstetten3 September 188264230Track failure (after a strong thunderstorm) derailed the train. Improper track maintenance and overspeed are also mentioned.2 September 1883398+?A large crowd, out of control, crossed the main line to reach a departing local train. An express approaching on the main line ran into the crowd.14 November 18842226After a rear-end collision of a passenger train into a freight train, the derailed vehicles also blocked the second track for trains moving in the opposite direction. An oncoming train on the second track hit the remains of the first accident.1 July 18861670The misunderstanding of two traffic controllers brings two trains onto the same track, resulting in a head-on collision.18 May 18971040After the division of a running train, the rear part collided with the front part later on.8 November 1900124Rear-end collision under heavy fog; gas used for car-lighting caused a fire.9 May 190112Spectacular overrun of a buffer stop due to defective brakes6 December 190100Failing brakes caused the engine of the Eastend-Vienna-Express to overrun the buffer stop at Frankfurt Central station and smash a hole into the opposite wall, coming to a stop only in the waiting room of the station. Nobody was seriously hurt.20 December 19011227Rear-end collision after signalling a “go ahead” to the following train too early.5 May 190227Derailment after the breaking of an axle of the tender.7 August 1903330Excessive speed threw a train out of a narrow curve.2 December 19031?Shunting engine in the way of an express which hit it15 August 19041?Sparks of a steam engine ignited a forest, burning down 46 square kilometers of it.25 May 190511A construction train derailed after heavy braking.7 August 19051940A drunken train controller let two trains on the same track, causing a head-on collision.Rabishau rail accidentRabishau31 October 190602Two cargo trains collided at Rabishau on the Silesian Mountain Railway. 28 October 190940First documented level crossing crash between a train and a motor car.17 July 19111132Drunken engineer falls asleep, passes a speed limit with excessive speed, which causes the train to derail into a construction site.22 October 191314?A runaway freight car collided with a tram on a level crossing.14 December 19131053After a landslide the exit of a tunnel was blocked. A passenger train passing through the tunnel rammed itself into the rocks.17 April 19173080Express overran a stop signal and crashed into the side of a shunting mixed train. At the time, the railroad was using a white light to show permission to travel (although all other German railroads had switched to green in 1913); the driver probably confused the windows of the mixed train with the signal light. 16 October 19172616Passenger train passed a red signal and rear-ended a freight train.Osnabrück train collisionOsnabrück15 January 19183166Train stopped for an obstacle on the railway between Ostercappeln and Bohmte, close to Osnabrück. While stationary, another train from Hamburg crashed into it. Amongst the dead were 12 Finnish jägers.22 September 191818118An overrun red signal led to a rear-end crash of two express trains.1 November 19181945Several cars at the rear of a freight train came loose after a coupling failed. A following passenger train rear-ended the cars that had been left behind.24 October 191925+80+The locomotive of a freight train pulled in too far on an adjacent track, fouling the entrance line. An incoming passenger train from Czechoslovakia sideswiped the locomotive. A fire began in the baggage car and this spread to a barrel of smuggled high-proof alcohol which exploded, spreading the fire to the passenger cars.16 December 1920179A mixed train lost control on a steep incline, overran a buffer stop and tumbled 20 meters down a slope. The heavy freight-cars loaded with minerals buried the two passenger coaches.27 June 19224550?During a memorial service for Walther Rathenau, most railway service was halted early and trains that were still running on the Ringbahn were overcrowded. As a result, passengers rode standing on the footboard of the coaches. A passenger was carrying long objects (probably wooden poles) and these struck numerous passengers on an oncoming train, knocking them off onto the tracks.31 July 19234839An express overrunning a red signal crashed into another express which stood in the station due to a defective locomotive. Gerhard Domagk, winning the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1939, travelled in one of the totally destroyed coaches and escaped just by chance: he had left the train to get something to drink in the station.15 November 19231215Engineer misreading a signal collided head-on with an approaching train.18 February 192420After malfunction of the brakes, a freight train ran with excessive speed over a point securing a building site. The locomotive and 21 of the cars tumbled from the Trogenbach Viadukt, a bridge 26 meters high partly on top of buildings situated at the foot of the bridge. A part of the train was consumed in the following fire.24 October 192414?Due to interference of the French military with the automatic train protection and a “go ahead” given too early, a passenger train rear-ended another train within a tunnel situated south of Mainz Central Station. 13 January 19252491Due to hastily installed train protection, a rear-end collision of two trains happened.Rabishau, Schlesien rail accident Der Wanderer im Riesengebirge, 1925, Nr 9, pp. 200.Rębiszów9 August 192532Two cargo trains collided in dense fog near the Rabishau station on the Silesian Mountain Railway. An electric locomotive and 59 cargo cars were damaged. Twelve rail cars were destroyed. 13 August 19261220Badly secured building site led to the derailment of a train.19 August 19262140Two criminals intending to rob a mail-coach damaged the track. Express D 8 from Berlin to Cologne derailed.10 June 192824128Derailment caused by added multiple causes15 July 19281025Due to a misunderstanding between traffic controllers, two passenger trains had a rear-end collision when leaving München Hauptbahnhof. A third train could just stop before running into the debris. Still lighted by petroleum, the mainly wooden cars caught fire.31 July 19282351Passenger train ran into a freight train. The accident was caused by defective train protection due to work in progress.25 August 192914103An express negotiated a low speed turnout at 100 km/h instead of 40 km/h and derailed.Rail accident of GroßheringenSee German WP: Eisenbahnunfall von GroßheringenGroßheringen24 December 19353427Express overran a red signal and crashed into the side of another passenger train.Rail accident of HolzheimSee German WP: Eisenbahnunfall von Holzheim15 September 19371735On a building site, the “slow down” signal was not installed. So a train passed on too high a speed and derailed.Rail accident of BauerwitzSee German WP: Eisenbahnunfall von Bauerwitz12 November 19394377By a mistake of a traffic controller, two trains entered the same section of a single-track line and collided head-on.Genthin rail disasterGenthin22 December 1939186106Rear-end collision of two express trains after overrunning a red signalMarkdorf rail disasterSee German WP: Eisenbahnunfall bei Markdorf22 December 193910147Mistake of a traffic controller led to a head-on collision of a passenger train and a freight train, bad weather, and wartime precautions were contributing factors.Rail accident of GifhornSee German WP: Eisenbahnunfall von GifhornGifhorn22 January 194112280Rear-end collision of a freight train overrunning a red signal and running into a train which transported about 1,000 prisoners of war.Rail accident of LeichholzSee German WP: Eisenbahnunfall von LeichholzLeichholz27 December 19414467After the division of a freight train transporting petrol, a following express collided with those cars of the freight train which were disconnected. The collision caused an explosion of the petrol.Halbstadt rail accident Peter Glanert, Thomas Borbe, Wolfgang-D. Richter. 2015. Reichsbahn-Elloks in Schlesien: Entwicklung, Einsatz und Verbleib von 1909 bis heute. Verlagsgruppe Bahn. ISBN 978-3969681084. p.73 Meziměstí8 June 194330Head-on collision with a steam engine and derailment of a cargo train at Halbstadt on the Silesian Mountain Railway. In the aftermath, the E91-96 electric locomotive had to be written off. 20 January 19447964+Rear-end collision after signalling a “go ahead” to the following train too early.Lichtenau rail accidentZaręba24 October 1944??During the Lichtenau train accident on the Silesian Mountain Railway, the D 192 Breslau – Berlin collided head-on with an electric suburban train at Lichtenau Station. The electric locomotive of the D 192, E18-15 (from Bw Hirschberg), suffered total damage in the accident and was scrapped on site. Cause of the collision was never determined. 19./20. November 1944 29 A train that was transporting, among other things, Dutch prisoners from the Rotterdam raid to Germany ran into another train at considerable speed.Ludwigsdorf railway disasterLudwigsdorf27 January 1945603Several rear carriages of a train became detached on a gradient, rolled uncontrollably downhill, were diverted onto a siding at Ludwigsdorf, broke through the buffer stop, plunged down an embankment, and caught fire.31 March 19457+?Rear-end collision of two trains not using any train protection which was not working due to destruction by war activities in the last days of World War II.8 May 194511?Explosion of ammunition train16 July 1945102+?Due to faulty signaling and a poor decision by a traffic controller, a freight train rear-ended a passenger train which had stopped after a technical default.4 December 19453868Head-on collision of two passenger trains due to a dismantled train protection system and a mistake by the train controller. 16 April 19462439Train running on orders of Soviet occupying forces under the Soviet Military Administration in Germany but outside the rules securing movements of trains. This caused a rear-end collision of the train into a passenger train.22 December 194742116Defective signalling due to shortages in the post-war era caused a head-on collision of two express trains.28 July 19482073818A tank car, loaded with Dimethyl ether and parked within the industrial complex of BASF, leaked and exploded, releasing other chemicals. Most of the injured suffered from poisonous gases. 22 November 194802After a coal dust explosion and fire on the steam engine of the express from Paris to Koblenz within Kaiser Wilhelm Tunnel, then the longest railway tunnel of Germany, the engineer managed to run the train out of the tunnel with the burning engine – not a single passenger was injured. Tunnel operating regulations were changed: pilot locomotives required a special permit, trains were to have a second locomotive as a pusher to prevent exhaust fumes from entering the drivers cab, carbide and petroleum lamps in the tunnel were banned, coal dust had to be swept out of driver cabs before entering the tunnel and the entire surface of coal in the tender had to be wetted.4 May 19511111During repairs on a steam engine in Meiningen Steam Locomotive Works, the boiler was not supervised properly and exploded.10 June 19511533A train on the Moselbahn struck a bus at a confusing, unguarded crossing.19 June 1951167Passenger train 3461 struck a truck carrying 22 Jesuits on a pilgrimage to Andechs Monastery. The crossing had a self-operating barrier and it had not been