Die Zonengrenze trennte ihn vom Ort: Bahnhof Bergen (Dumme) LOST PLACE Umleiterzüge DDR Amerikalinie

The town was located in the west, the corresponding train station east of the border between East and West Germany. Such a thing actually existed. We're going to investigate. Bergen an der Dumme, a municipality in eastern Lower Saxony, just before Saxony-Anhalt begins. Bergen is too small to be considered a town; here, such places are called "Flecken" (a small, rural area). During the day, hardly any residents are visible. Most of the former shops have been converted into apartments or simply stand empty. Many trucks pass by on the main street. Bergen has a Bahnhofstraße (Station Street), but is there actually a train station? So, let's set out to find the station and follow the road. To shorten the time a bit, the film picks up speed considerably here. The two buildings, which look like a former checkpoint, indicate that we are approaching the former border between East and West Germany. Indeed, there was a border crossing here between September 1949 and May 1952, used for passenger traffic and interzonal trade. Then the GDR closed the crossing as part of its tightened border security measures. The buildings erected on the western side still stand today. The temporary facilities on the east side have long since disappeared. We pass the town sign. This is the end of Bergen an der Dumme. It's three kilometers to the next town. There's still no sign of a train station. So this is the route the residents of Bergen used to have to take to get to the railway. Many probably walked, some by bicycle or horse-drawn cart. And then Lower Saxony ends. The Dumme River forms the border here. Today it's part of Saxony-Anhalt, but until 1990 it was part of East Germany. If it weren't for the brown information panel, you'd hardly guess that until June 19, 1990, walls and barbed wire made passage impossible at this point. We're now in the Altmarkkreis Salzwedel district. Klein Grabenstedt is the first village. Before we know it, we've driven through it. And then, suddenly, there it is: the ghost station of Bergen Dumme. Like Sleeping Beauty's castle, it stands overgrown with trees and thickets along the old America Line. Even 75 years after the last train stopped here, the station name is still clearly legible. At least, when the trees are bare. Because the tracks for the America Line were laid several kilometers away from the village of Bergen Dumme during construction in 1870, this station was built in an open field. On the opposite side of the road, there was only an inn and a house that no longer exists. The demarcation line drawn in 1945 after Germany's defeat in World War II between the western occupation zones and the Soviet zone proved disastrous for the station. Through rail traffic was immediately cut off from the eastern side. Günter Tscharn's photograph, taken in March 1982 with a telephoto lens, illustrates just how close the station was to the inner-German border. He felt so uneasy at the border that he only dared to approach within ten meters. However, he was able to observe a soldier on the eastern watchtower. On the former railway line, approximately 100 meters of the embankment had been removed. A foot patrol of the East German border troops had parked their Robur truck there. According to the 1950/51 winter timetable, the East German Reichsbahn (DR) continued to serve Bergen Dumme station until May 1951, after which the track was removed as far as Salzwedel. Track was also dismantled on the western side. As a replacement for the lost Bergen Dumme station, the Nienbergen stop was established in December 1945, just before the border, as the terminus of the western section of the line. The two tracks up to the border were completely removed. The line ended at two temporary buffer stops made of sleepers. Later, the second track was dismantled as far as Uelzen. A station without tracks is no longer a station. From then on, the building was used as a residence. In the annex, which had apparently once housed the station toilet, livestock were kept, and their manure was piled up on the former track bed. The photograph taken by Stefan Motz in December 1992 clearly shows how wide the track area in front of the station building used to be. At least four tracks can be counted on old postcards. Today, only one track runs past. The Dumme River, which formed the border and ultimately led to the station's closure in 1945, had not previously posed a problem. Although the town of Bergen was located in the Province of Hanover and the station in the Province of Saxony, both were part of Prussia.