In this video I'm going to explore the Cold War story of the 1988 Forst Zinna Rail Disaster. When an East German commuter train collided with a Soviet Army T-64 Tank. I will be visiting the scene of the former Soviet garrison and the accident for context; and will use archival footage to reconstruct the events of the tragic night of 19th January 1988.
The Soviet Army garrison at Forst Zinna was one of the largest and most important military installations in East Germany during the Cold War era, until the site was vacated in 1991 after German reunification. It was located in the district of Forst Zinna, which is situated about 60 kilometers south of Berlin; between the towns of Luckenwalde and Jüterbog
The Berlin - Halle Railway line of the Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR) ran directly through the centre of the Soviet Tank Training area, and today a modern high speed line of the Deutsche Bahn (DB) still does.
Soviet tanks on training could use a Rail Road Crossing Night and Day, to reach the training areas from the garrison tank park, which was light and barrier controlled.
In the cold early evening of 19th January 1988 a railway accident occured when East German Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR) Express Train D716 travelling at 120 KM/H carrying 450 commuters from Leipzig to East Berlin struck a T-64 Tank of the Soviet Armed Forces that had accidently stalled on the rail line, well away from the authorised and controlled level crossing.
The train crash resulted in destruction of both tank and locomotive; and with deaths and mass casualties among the passengers; as all carriages derailed and were strewn over the crash site.
It became one of the worst rail accidents in German history.
The train crash was politically damaging for the Soviet Army , and came at a time of increasing political tension between the USSR under Soviet Chairman Mikhail Gorbachev, who had embarked on a reform program known as 'Perestroika', and East Germany (DDR) under leader hard liner Erich Honecker, who was fearful of losing control of the DDR population; and strongly opposed Gorbachev's reforms.
The DDR government leveraged the Train Wreck by briefing against the USSR in the state media, and blaming the 'reckless' Soviet Army, in a propaganda attempt to turn the DDR population against Gorbachev and his reforms.
Ultimately this tactic backfired as it further alienated Gorbachev from Honecker.Gorbachev would later that year issue 'The Sinatra Declaration', essentially telling Warsaw Pact countries' leaders that the USSR would no longer back their regimes or interfere in internal political matters.
Within months in 1989 the DDR people had turned on their government, and The Berlin Wall fell overnight, ushering the end of East German state.
Chapters:
01:00 Intro in Luckenwalde
05:00 The Soviet Garrison then and now
09:50 Forst Zinna Bahnhof
11:23 The T-64 Tank
13:05 THE 1988 ACCIDENT
23:10 DDR News Flash
25:50 The Political Fall Out
29:07 34 years Later.... Forgotten?
#soviet #disaster #coldwar #ddr #train #ddr
