1925: Barriers divide the city - How the rails went up
Those who don't live directly on the tracks hardly notice that Offenbach is divided by the railroad as if by a wall. Because the embankment has loopholes, they take away the obstructive aspect. But it wasn't always like this. It has only been 85 years since the railroad ceased to be an obstacle to road traffic in Offenbach. Until 1925, trains ran through the city at ground level and traffic jammed up in front of the road crossing gates. As if with a sigh of relief, the Offenbacher Zeitung reported on August 21, 1925 that "all trains are now running on the raised track".
It put an end to twenty years of tug-of-war, negotiations, planning and rejection. As early as 1907, the newspaper had complained that the barriers at the Waldstraße crossing, for example, were closed for a total of four hours a day. Queues in front of closed barriers were also part of everyday life at the other level crossings. The traffic jams were caused by horse-drawn vehicles, handcarts and cyclists, who were unable to move as quickly as cars could.
In September 1913, there was talk of "intolerable conditions" after an accident at the Sprendlinger Landstraße crossing. The Sprendlinger milk merchant Neubecker's wagon had been hit and dragged along by the Nuremberg express train while the barrier was open. One fatality and two seriously injured people had to be rescued. And the newspaper described the many barriers in the town as a "constant traffic obstacle and constant danger".
Since the turn of the century, there had been discussions as to whether the railroad line should not be moved to the south, preferably in a curve that would reach as far as the present-day Stadthalle. This would have freed up space for further urban development and the new train station would have been easily accessible via a road connection. If this had happened, there would now be a railroad line instead of the Odenwaldring and a railroad station instead of the Ringcenter.
In the town council meeting, it was mainly the middle-class forces that advocated this. The Social Democrats, on the other hand, campaigned for the existing route to be raised. Relocating the station would burden commuters with longer walking distances and streetcar travel costs. These were the arguments. Mayor Dullo vacillated between the two positions. First he was against, then in favor of moving the line south.
The decision was made in favor of the elevated railroad solution and a conversion of the station. However, it was not until 1911 that the first contractual agreement was reached between Offenbach and the Royal Prussian Railway Administration, represented by its Frankfurt regional directorate. The first step was the relocation of the goods station from Marienstraße to Grenzstraße. This was completed in 1919, but all other work was held up by the First World War, which began in 1914. And in 1920, the railroad administration announced that the financial situation unfortunately prohibited any further progress.
Offenbach sent a deputation to Berlin, where the former state railroads were now under the control of a unified Reich administration, from which the Deutsche Reichsbahn emerged in 1924. Apparently, the Offenbachers negotiated skillfully. Because in 1921 it was agreed: It would continue, and the city would only have to contribute 50 percent of the costs for the desired road underpasses.
However, the city's insistence that the station building be moved so far to the west that Kaiserstraße could be extended in a straight line under the railroad to the south remained unsuccessful. There was another point of contention in which Offenbach lost. Since 1912, the railroad had contested the Prussian-Hessian state treaty of 1868, which obliged it to stop all trains in Offenbach, including long-distance D trains. If the treaty were still in force, every intercity train would have to stop in Offenbach.
Offenbach appointed Professor Hugo Eberhardt, the founder of the Leather Museum, as the architect for the conversion of the station building. He envisaged two separate waiting rooms, one for 1st and 2nd class passengers, the second for 3rd and 4th class: the project was burdened by inflation, which had been galloping ever faster since 1922.
An architect's fee of 50,000 marks and a personnel cost subsidy of 40,000 marks had been agreed with Eberhardt, for example. This meant that by the end of 1923 there was not a loaf of bread left to buy. Time and again, the architect had to wrangle with the mayor for more money. In the end, millions were paid for Eberhardt's personnel costs. Nothing is known about his personal fee.
In 1924 there was good money again, but it was scarce. It was 1927 before all the work was completed. Nevertheless, since August 1925, trains in Offenbach had been stopping on raised platforms.LOTHAR R. BRAUN