From Wroclaw to Bautzen
Today the major part of Silesia belongs to Poland. The borders between Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland follow the crest of the various Mountain ranges like the Riesengebirge, Adlergebirge, Isergebirge, the Tatra and the Sudenten. The borderline is not much different from the situation in the 12th century, when the mountains were the border between Piast Poland, the Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary. Around 1550 Silesia changed sides. As part of the Holy Roman Empire it belonged to the Duke of Silesia, which again was part of the Habsburg Kingdom of Bohemia. Afterwards the star of Prussia began rising. As result of the 7 years war Prussian Frederick the Great defeated Austrian Maria Theresia and obtained Silesia.
The station hall of Gliwice between Krakow and Wroclaw
Mid of the 18th century the Prussian government planned a new railway to form an alternative connection between Berlin and Vienna. Since it followed the mountain range along the border between Prussia and the Austro-Hungarian empire it would eventually be called the Silesian Mountain Railway. The main line connected Görlitz and Kohlfurt (Wegliniec) with Lauban (Luban Slaski) and from there via Waldenburg - Dittersbach (Walbryzch) to Glatz (Klodzko). However, due to the political conflict between Prussia and Austria, which culminated in the Austro-Prussian War in 1866, the Austro-Hungarian empire became wary of the project since most of the railway ran along the common border which now is the border between Poland and Czech Republic.
Remainders of the huge former shed of Katovice
After the Prussians had already conquered Silesia in the 7 years war it increasingly gained importance in the German empire. 100 years later, mid of the 19th century it was longing for the dominating role in the empire, which for centuries was held by the Habsburg dynasty. In 1866 Austria-Hungary lost the war after Prussian troops had invaded the Bohemian borderlands and won the battle of Königsgrätz. A new Prussian railway along the border would be a threat for Austria since it would allow Prussia to quickly move troops to the border and into Bohemian territorry.
Changing at the platform of Wroclaw
While the line between Görlitz and Waldenburg was finished in 1867, the extension to Glatz (Klodzko) was only ready in 1880. Klodzko is at the international line from Wroclaw in Poland to Praha in Czech republic while another line links Walbryzch to Wroclaw. A further extension to Vienna was not built.
Klodzko
Klodzko has two stations, Miasto and Glówne. Glówne is the big station, but Miasto close to the town is where all the passenger trains stop. I arrive with the EC train from Wroclaw to Praha. Klodzko Glówne station is reduced to a platform lacking any shadow and even basic information where the connecting trains are leaving. Since there are only three tracks available it should not be so difficult, but there are several trains waiting on one of the other track. A little Diesel railcar will bring me to Walbryzch. It is operated by Koleje Dolnośląskie, the local provider of public transport. The air-conditioning is working full force. You can hear it from outside. Inside you can notice that it is working because it fills the interior with the Diesel exhaust gases from the engine. The train is full. I hope there will be enough air left for everybody to breath while the space slowly fills with exhaust during the one hour trip.
Klodzko Miasto
Unfortunately I do not have the time to have a closer look at Klodzko. An enormous fortress towers above a town whose narrow streets and worn buildings cling to the slope below. Access is provided by a medieval bridge, which, not by size but by its looks with its lining of statues, resembles the Karlsbrücke in Prague.
View from one of the many viaducts of the line between Klodzko and Walbrzych
But this part of the Silesian mountain railway is interesting enough. During the 50 km between Klodzko and Walbrzych it climbs from 285 to 505 m with a summit at 537 m. It can be seen that it was constructed as a main line. Deep valleys are crossed by long and high viaducts and there are several tunnels, two more than a kilometer long, to avoid even more slopes and bends. I probably would hang out of the window if it would be possible to open. Instead I watch from inside the cage and enjoy the fresh exhaust air. At least the air-conditioning is working well.
The Riesengebirge
After the first world Prussia or Germany in its incarnation as the Weimar republic had to cede parts of Silesia to Poland while the Czech bohemian part of the Austro- Hungarian empire became independent Czechoslovakia with a German minority (Sudetendeutsche) in the areas close to the border. While the German and Czech parts of the population generally got along with each other as long as they both were subjects of the old Austro Hungarian emperor Franz Josef tensions started to build up after WW I. The unrest was largely related to the rise of Nazi rule in neighboring Germany. It culminated with the shameful submission of the Sudetenland areas (areas declared to be mainly ruled by a German speaking population) to Hitler's Germany by the allied powers in the Munich treaty of 1938. Only a short time later Hitler occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia to turn into a protectorate Böhmen and Mähren. In 1939 the western half of Poland including the parts surrendered by Prussia in 1918 was conquered by Germany as consequence of the infamous secret Stalin-Ribbentrop pact.
Another bridge. Even the unused second bridge was repainted
But of course fate turned and eventually the Red Army stood as winner above the ruins. At the end of the war the Silesian mountain railway was decisive for the fate of 1.7 million refugees who were trying to move west. Since the Red Army already had occupied the Silesian basin this railway was the only functioning escape route.
Arrival of the railcar from Klodzko in Walbrzych Główny
After world war II the Soviet Union removed the second track to ship it to Russia as reparation. Therefore the second tunnel tubes are empty and only half of the bridges in use. Some of the bridges had already been blown up by the retreating German Wehrmacht.
Inside Walbrzych Główny station
Like Klodko, Walbrzych has a Glowny and a Miasto station. However, there is also Wałbrzych Centrum and Fabrycny. Wałbrzych Główny, former Waldenburg-Dittersbach, is the main hub. There is a big shed with a roundhouse and turntable, both overgrown with weeds at the beginning of decay. For the enjoyment of the passengers of the passing trains they have put a Tkt48 steam engine on display. The station building itself is nicely renovated. There is a ticket counter and a waiting room. Outside it is so hot that even I prefer to wait inside.
Train to Jelenia Gora in Walbrzych Główny
From here a line to Wroclaw drops down to Walbrzych Miasto station closer to the town center and close to the center of activity in the town in a spectacular double horseshoe curve. Walbrzych is a mining town and there was plenty of industry as the name of the station Fabrycny can tell. A part of the old mines has been turned into an industrial museum which would be worth a longer visit.
The big abandoned shed of Walbrzych Główny with a Tkt 58 engine on display
I take the train to Jelenia Gora. It is a modern electric multiple unit arriving from Wroclaw. This part of the Silesian mountain railway was one of the first electrified main line mountain railways in Europe. There already was an earlier electric railway line in the Alps in Bavaria between Murnau and Oberammergau, however, it is a short line without heavy traffic. In Prussia, successful electrification projects had been made in Central Germany, Berlin, and Hamburg before. All were short distance lines without topographic challenges. In 1911, the Prussian State Parliament approved 9.9 million Reichsmarks for the so-called "Electrisierung" of the Lauban–Dittersbach–Königszelt main line with branch lines. The works started in 1912 with the construction of a coal fired power station. The coal was available in abundance locally.
E 18 14 was delivered new to the Bw Hirschberg (Jelenia Gora) in 1935 and moved West in 1945. Almost 50 years later it was still pulling her train from Nuremberg to Regensburg near Feucht
The electrified network in Silesia became an extensive testing ground for electric drive systems and the energy supply infrastructure. The way of suspending the catenary on wires crossing multiple tracks was developed here and is still in use in Germany today. Soon also electric daytime signaling was introduced for the first time in Germany. Today, around a hundred years after that, Deutsche Bahn even on some main lines still uses the traditional mechanical semaphores. Some iconic electrical locomotives were used here for the first time and were so successful that they stayed in use until almost the end of the century.
E 17 113 came new to Hirschberg in 1924 and was still pulling her train to Augsbuerg in Nürnberg 1978
Most of the rolling stock had been evacuated to the west when the front came closer. After 1945 the Soviet Union requested the electric equipment and the remaining locomotives as reparation. The wires were dismantled. However the material was never used. In 1952 the Soviet Union sold everything to the Deutsche Reichsbahn in the East German GDR.
The engines E 44 were delivered new to Silesia in 1935. It still was busy in Munich almost 50 years later
It took the PKP until the 1960ies to undo the war damage and reconstruct the electrical system, but now in DC 3-kV while originally the line used 15 kV AC as in the rest of Germany. Only as late as 1986 electrical trains could travel between Wroclaw and Lubań Śląski (Lauban) again. The line from there to Görlitz/Zgorzelec is still without catenary. It speaks for the quality of the original equipment that the old catenary masts from the 1920ies could be reused.
The German crocodile E94, here in Augsburg, was the ideal engine for heavy freight trains on mountain lines. 18 were delivered to the sheds of Görlitz-Schlauroth and Waldenburg-Dittersbach in the early 1940'ies and quickly moved west at the end of the war
Jelenia Gora is the center of a popular skiing area in winter and hiking area in summer. The EMU is full of vacationers with big backpacks, hiking boots or climbing gear consulting guide books about trails and routes. Looking outside it appears wiser to look for lakeside campgrounds or swimming pools. When I leave the station at 6.30 pm the heat is oppressive. It still has 35° C. Even carrying my small bag to the hotel just a couple of hundred meter away is a torture.
Freight traffic on the Silesian mountain line today
There is a restaurant in the hotel which serves dinner until 8.30 and I seriously consider staying in the slightly cooler room instead of submitting myself to the heat. Eventually I venture outside to inspect the historic city center. It feels like stepping into an oven. It is a 15 min walk to the town center and while I walk into town I carefully stay on the slightly cooler, shady side of the street.
Market square (Rynek) of Jelenia Gora
The small town center of Jelenia Gora is meticulously renovated. The pastel colored old merchants’ houses have arcaded covered walkways on the ground floor. Probably they were built to keep out rain and snow, but today they help to get some shade.
Market square (Rynek) of Jelenia Gora
The cobbled streets of the old town and the main town square – not surprisingly called Rynek – are more or less free of motorized traffic. With sunset approaching and the heat decreasing people come outside. Parents play with their children without fear of traffic. The little kids are magically drawn to the water of the Neptune fountain to get some refreshment. Others have plenty of space to walk their dogs.
The arcades under the baroque houses also offer plenty of space for cafes, bars and restaurants who have set plenty of tables outside on the square. The restaurants hardly have any customers. I sit down at one of the tables with checkered red and white table clothes and order a beer and what I regard as the typical local food: cuddle soup and red deer roast. Jelenia Gora’s german name was Hirschberg, red deer mountain.
Merchants houses in Jelenia Gora
It is getting dark when I have finished dinner but the temperature is still warm, if not hot. I am not inclined to go back to my sticky hotel room but rather sit down at the only establishment at the market square which has attracted a crowd of customers. In more fashionable towns it would probably be called a lounge bar. After two large pints of beer I am not ready for more alcohol and order a virgin Mojito. While I slowly sip the ice cold drink I watch my neighbors. Two girls at the table in front of me have ordered a coke each and a wooden tray which contains five shots each. With every sip of coke they consume a ration of schnaps. Behind me, two older men discuss politics. Although I don’t understand any Polish I can distinguish the generally known keywords: names of politicians, countries and international economic terms.
Jelenia Gora
Poland just has started to retaliate the German provocation of meticulous border controls to keep out immigrants. Now German politicians are upset that the eastern neighbor has the impudence to control their side of the common border as well. In the beginning of the Ukrainian conflict Poland has welcomed 1.6 million of the 5 million Ukrainian refugees. Many have moved elsewhere and meanwhile Germany houses 1.2 million while the Polish contingent decreased to 1 million. However, the border patrols are not targeting Ukrainian refugees but more other immigrants from non-EU countries. On the side, they also might catch some people who take advantage of the difference in cigarette prices of around 5 € in Poland, 9 € in Germany and 12.50 € in the Netherlands. A bag of cigarettes easily pays for the train ticket from Görlitz to Jelenia Gora.
Jelenia Gora
Again, the next morning at 9 am the heat in Jelenia Gora is unbearable. The short platform where the train to Zgorzelec is supposed to leave at 9.45 am is outside the beautifully restored station hall. There is no shadow. And in the shadowed area under the protective roof of the station hall there are no benches. And there is no train at platform 1 yet.
Jelenia Gora
The information is contradictory. While the interrail travel planner offers a connection with several changeovers where a bus has to be used between Gryfow Slaski and Luban Slaski there is nothing about that visible on the departure board in the station. It simply displays train OS69855 to Zgorzelec. Zgorzelec is across the river Neisse from Görlitz.
Jelenia Gora station baking in the sun
After the train finally has arrived and departed on time the conductor comes to check the tickets. Again, the reader of the conductor of the local railway company Koleje Dolnośląskie cannot read the QR code of the interrail ticket on my phone. However, scrolling down to the printed part in the lower part of the ticket is satisfactory. I overhear her conversation with other passengers and distinguish the word autobus. She does not say anything to me. Maybe she has seen that the interrail pass has included a bus trip in the ticket. Confusion is part of interrail life.
Train 69855 in Jelenia Gora
There are only a few minutes time to change to bus 69855 in Gryfow Slaski. I have no idea where the bus is supposed to depart. When I ask the conductor I only get an incomprehensible answer in Polish. I follow the rushing crowd across the tracks and though a gap in one of the makeshift fences railways like so much nowadays to block access to their derelict buildings. In this case the beautiful, but abandoned station of Gryfow Slaski. On the other side of the fence is a bus and a couple of taxis. Together with the others I board without further questions. There is no time for a picture of the abandoned, but beautiful station.
This sectional turnable survived in the modernisation of the station in Jelenia Gora
It is surprising that the bus still has spare seats left after departure since the much larger train was well occupied. It also stays unclear what has happened with some of the large luggage and the bicycles some people had brought along in the train.
The station of Stara Kamenica
Again, in Luban Slaski, the time to change from bus to train is far too short to even take a photo of the interesting station where the main building is on an island between the platforms. Behind the station building, between the tracks, there even was space for a water tower, a turntable and an engine shed.
Arrival of train 69855 in Zgorzelec
Both train and bus rides are quite short. But then, the waiting time in Zgorzelec is quite long. I had hoped that the train would continue across the border to Görlitz, sometimes they do, but this one did not. The station is restored to modern standards. That means high platforms, few seats, no roof above the platforms and lots of fences. At least they have restored the station building, here also on an island between the lines from Görlitz to Wegliniec and Jelenia Gora. There is a waiting room inside but all the seats are taken. There are no seats outside on the shady side of the building. The heat still is terrible.
Inside the station of Zgorzelec
They have made big efforts to allow the handicapped the access to the platform to Wegliniec. The banisters are such that there is no chance that an audacious wheel chair could get out of control and race down the slope. He has got that chance when he crosses the tracks on a level crossing because that is the only access to the other platform. Maybe no trains never stop there.
Zgorzelec is the end for electric trains from Wegliniec
Maybe they ran out of material when they rebuilt the station. There is no platform where the train to Görlitz stops. The rebuilt part of the platform is far too short. Since it also works they could have just left the other parts of the platform alone as well.
The train to Görlitz stopped at the short platform
The station of Zgorzelec is separated from Görlitz by a magnificent viaduct across the deep gorge of the river Neiße. The catenary for the electric trains coming into Zgorzelec from Wegliniec stops halfway on the bridge. Electric train traffic which arrived in Görlitz in the 1923 and was dismantled by the Russians after the war was never restored.
The Neisse viaduct between Zgorzelec and Görlitz
Like most of the other bridges across the Neisse the railroad viaduct was blown up by the retreating German army on May 7th 1945, one day before the end of the war. Built in 1847 it was one of the oldest big railway bridges in Germany. There is an agreement between Germany and Poland about the bridges across the border-rivers Oder and Neisse. Germany is responsible for the bridges along the southern part of the border south of Frankfurt(Oder) while Poland takes care of those north of Frankfurt. Nevertheless Polish specialists took care of the reconstruction of the blown up bridge in 1957. Especially in the late years of the communist regime in East Germany the rulers were not very interested in easy communication between the own population and the rebellious Polish residents under Solidarnosz. It took until 2004 until the road bridge between the old town centers of Zgorzelec and Görlitz was rebuilt. Again it was a Polish initiative.
The city bridge of 2004 between Zgorzelec and Görlitz
The railway arrived in Görlitz in 1847. The original station was built as transit station of the Sächsisch-Schlesischen Railway from Dresden towards the East and the Niederschlesisch-Märkischen Railway from Berlin to Wroclaw. As such Görlitz was an important transit point and stop for numerous long-distance trains. Increasing traffic already made it necessary to rebuilt and enlarge the station in 1867.
Inside Görlitz station hall
The present building is an art-deco marvel built between 1906 and 1917. The station hall extending across the platforms survived the second world war. Its glazed staircases, water fountains and guard houses show how much importance for details was given to the new station.
Görlitz station hall
Already in the times of the GDR the station building became a protected monument. The entrance building has a high vaulted ceiling decorated with hexagonal ornaments on a blue background. Two big ornamented candelabras and a number of smaller art-deco lamps are suspended from the ceiling. The octagonal clock is a reconstruction of the original, which was demolished in the 1960’ies.
Görlitz station
The lower part of the hall is glazed with blue tiles. The store front of the various commerces are adapted to the blue decoration. Originally there were two waiting rooms for travelers in first and second and third and forth class. One now is used as an event location.
Reception hall in Görlitz station
The station of Görlitz lost much of its importance when the town became a border station after 1945. Many of the long distance trains disappeared, instead some facilities for the border control authorities were added. The importance decreased even more after the German reunification in 1990. Görlitz became a last outpost before entering the wild east. There are still no long distance trains. However, recently the trains from Dresden also continue to Zgorzelec and a few weeks after my visit the train from Jelenia Gora ran through to Görlitz without changing or use of a bus. There are also plans to extend the Polish 3 kV electrification into Görlitz station so that the Polish trains from Wegliniec don’t have to end in Zgorzelec.
Art-deco department stores in Görlitz
Medieval decoration
Miraculously the old town of Görlitz was not destroyed at all during the war. Nevertheless there was no protection for the historic buildings during the communist era after 1945. The idea was to move the inhabitants into newly built apartment blocks outside the center and then demolish the historic town center. However, the city architect secretly sabotaged the plans. There was a little money available for renovation of some of the prominent buildings. Demolition of the old buildings was made impossible by using it for rebuilding the houses at the corners of the intersections of the narrow medieval alleyways. That way it was impossible for the heavy machinery to enter and tear down the buildings behind.
Inside the streets of Görlitz in 1994
After the reunification it turned out that the city center of Görlitz had only three buildings built after 1900, all art-deco structures. Most of the others were built before 1800. However, few residents were left in the old town center. They had all been removed into the newly built suburbs. Renovation was difficult. Investors hesitated to put money into projects in such a remote place. Even after more than 30 years the restoration of the old town is not finished. In the younger suburbian quarters built around the turn of the 19th to 20th century a lot of the old apartment block still wait for somebody to pay for their restoration.
Art-deco apartment blocks in Görlitz 2025
However, what has been done is impressive. A comparison with old pictures from just after the reunification is difficult. The buildings are just not reckognisable any more.
Meanwhile the city is so popular as a backdrop for movies that the industry is locally called Görliwood. Like others in the former east, the town also has gained a lot of attraction as a retreat for pensioners from the west. Houses and apartments are readily available and prices are much lower.
Old town Görlitz
The Schönhof building, a medieval palace rebuilt in the style of the Renaissance in 1526, houses the Silesian Museum. It is dedicated to the history of Silesia, the changing rulers from Poland, Austria-Hungary, Prussia and the German empire, the industrialization and ensuing social unrest in the 19th century and the political developments in Silesia in the 20th century. One chapter is the deportation of the German part of the population after 1945.
Old town Görlitz
A sequence of maps displays that after all those changes over many centuries the borders of 12th century piast Poland in Silesia are practically identical to those today. The second world war basically restored the situation of the 12th century.
Old town Görlitz
My destination for today is the nearby town of Bautzen. During the communist rule Bautzen was infamous as the location of various prisons for heavy criminals, in particular spies, human traffickers and opponents of the regime.
Old town Görlitz
Sources:
Information panels, Schlesisches Museum Görlitz
Old town Görlitz in 1994
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