The Forst Zinna Rail Disaster | East Germany - 1988
Вставка
- Опубліковано 9 лют 2025
- 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
Thank you for this documentary which sheds some light into this special episode from German history. I can still remember this. I was in my late teens at the time in East Germany. People were outraged, because everybody knew, how the russian army handled safety protocols. Or actually didn't handle - because the weren't any... Accidents involving russian military were frequent although often covered up... This time it was different. First of all the accident was to large to sweep it under the rug, second - as you pointed out - the deterioration of the relations between the east german and soviet government but also the fact that with Gobachevs 'Glasnost'-policy the Soviet side was much more open about what actually happend. Some months later my military service (in the east german army) started and I had my own tank night driving experience. The depiction of what the driver and the instructor actually saw is pretty much spot on - or at least very similar to what I experienced when having some tank driving lessons. Driving an old T-55 tank during the night exercise only using a poor night vision system was terryfying. I was solely relying on the commands of the instructor in the turret ("left..., right, accelerate, brake, shift..." ) to find my way. At one point the instructor dropped the intercom cable connector (which should have been firmly attached to a button of his jacket but wasn't) into the depth of the turret. Until he found it on the bottom of the fighting compartment, it was driving totally blind for me. Fortunately there were no major obstacles around (just some minor trees )...
My father can tell similar stories from his army time. Incompetence was like the leading theme of the "commanders". From not getting electrocuted to death only by luck of some wild boar hitting the fence a minute earlier to ripping off parts in the engine compartment of vehicles because they just didn't know what it was for and snipping around cigarettes in the mechanics shop.
I'm glad that this episode of state lies finally backfired at Honecker and it's entourage.
There shuld be a memorial these days, because some tend to forget, what DDR really meant to the people or even themselves back then. Like Linke politicians who have no answers when confronted with DDR leaders guilt. It should be on the opposite side of the 1917 memorial to emphazise the to sides of the coin of "communism".
Thanks for sharing this little treasure anecdote!
Well done 👍🏻
That Mark Felton shade lol
😁
I loved it too 🤣
7:05 tribute to Doctor Mark Felton, an international treasure!
@@N_Wheeler mark Felton is a moron, he literally just reads out Wikipedia articles
Wow, Andy, thank you.
The former DDR is full of intriguing nuances you don't see in the West, and more mysteries for you to uncover.
I travelled thru East Germany in about 1991 - 92 , not long after the wall came down. All the watch towers along the autobahn were standing. It felt oppressive. Berlin was a very strange city - 1 block would be modern, neon, capitalist, walk 200 metres and you have stepped back in time about 70 years. It was a very strange feeling
Yup, I too was there 1990-1994. The former East felt very gray
Funny, then, how people like Honecker (according to this story) wanted to go back to previous Soviet times with more control, when everything around them seems to indicate that more control isn't working out in the long term...
@@MaartenvanHeekThat's a mindset typical for communists, Germans and today's EU. If the policy doesn't work, it must be ramped up. It's a real diagnosis.
Thank you.
I have vivid memories of the night train heading south following that route, we stopped in Leipzig and Dresden later that night.
Those woods with that very fine sandy soil have a beautiful scent in August.
The end stunned me - no stone, no cross, nothing?
Thank you for bringing that to attention.
I am amazed how such a minor and forgotten incident can be made so interesting and woven so well into the tapestry of history. Great work, Andy.
Not sure how you call it "minor incident" but yeah
Fascinating! I was stationed in Berlin at the time and rode my mountain bike on inactive Soviet tank training grounds after the wall came down. Please, more content like this.
4 /502 swift strike👍
Very interesting. Keep it up and you'll be well on your way to becoming the "Dr. Mark Felton" of cold war and soviet intrigues.
😁
Melancholic but very interesting video….👍🏻
RIP all those who passed away as a result of this incident,but let’s not forget all those people who’s lives were irreparably changed on that terrible day.
Thanks for telling the story so respectfully and sensitively.
..it’s a shame that there isn’t any memorial at this place. But it surely has its reasons.
Thoroughly researched,full of details and narrated in a very thrilling way. Many new insights even for a German citizen. Well done, Thank you!
Driving using night vision takes a lot of getting used to. The lack of depth perception makes it very claustrophobic amongst other things, which won't be helping a nervous driver.
Also the type of night vision is important - I've got direct experience of Soviet military gear, and it's very different to the western equipment of the same era. Their intensifier tubes were good and the optics were good ( they should be, after WW-2 the Soviets dismantled an entire Zeiss factory and transported it back to Russia, together with all the skilled workers )
What you never know until you look through the thing though, is if it was assembled correctly and collimated properly.The same type of unit could be excellent, or terrible depending on how the factory put it together.
Interesting point easily overlooked. Which I guess with the Soviet planned economy ment if it was a unit produced in the final period of the month, it was not going to be the best! Still they'd hit the production target, even if it worked poorly as it left the factory.
@@hypergolic8468 The Soviets pursued night vision well before entering Germany and for example had some BT tanks equipped with it.
Analog technology. Works for centuries if properly adjusted and cleaned from time to time.
Another terrible tragedy caused by lack if information on exactly how a system works. If the 'instructor' had understood the function of the emergency stop better its highly likely this would have been avoided though in that case how much longer would reunification have taken.
Great video. Thanks for making it.
Before I turn in Dr. Mark Felton … 😂 what a mean and unexpected drive by shooting. Thx for the video. That must have bean a load of work to get all those pictures.
Yet another fascinating snippet of DDR history Andy, thank you so much. Wonderfully researched and presented. I wasn't aware of this disaster - so really appreciate the video.
Wow! Thank you! The story of the Forst Zinna Rail Disaster deserves to be remembered.
The whole Luckenwalde - Jüterbog area is a gold mine for finding cold war lost places. The area is littered with abandoned Soviet and east German barracks and training grounds. Highly recommended if you're into that sort of stuff.
And the Historisch-Technisches Museum - Versuchsstelle Kummersdorf is worth a visit too. Arguably the birthplace of space travel.
This was a really well produced video on something I didn't even know happened. Tanks mate.
I honestly love your channel. The effort you put into your videos is astounding. I say thank you, for providing such high quality content.
Wow, thank you!
Speaking of accidents that came to light after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Interflug Flight 450, scheduled to run between Berlin Schönefeld and Burgas, Bulgaria in 1972. Shortly after takeoff, the Ilyushin Il-62 that formed the flight experienced an electrical fire at the rear of the passenger cabin. Declaring an emergency, the crew turned round to head back to East Berlin, however, they never made it. The plane crashed not far from the town of Königs Wusterhausen, killing all 156 people onboard.
It remains the deadliest aircrash on German Soil/airspace
This is just a 30 Minute train ride from my door step. I have been in exactly this area for hiking and exploring the historic and very large former military site just eight weeks ago not knowing of what happened there in 1988. It is an impreviely vast area that would take many weeks to explore in its intirety and still one would not know the history of it because one would be all alone in that impressively vast and deserted area that is a great big nature reserve nowadays. One would need a knowledgable guide to get a full understanding and background or several a good historic documentaries as this one to get an idea of what was happening there during the 20th century. Very impressive details you have come up with here in this video.
I also went there for nordic and cross country skiing tours and orientiering in recent years during cold, snowy and inaccessible conditions. It is the perfect site to do that. It is a very large area with plenty of forests, fields, sand and dunes packed with old ruhinous military buildings and bunkers ranking from the pre war era to suviet and cold war times. It is really impressive and makes you feel small once you start making your way in.
Good job. Keep it going. Thank you.
Excellent documentary Andy.
Have you considered making a video about the ‘ghost stations’ which were cut off on the Berlin U-Bahn during the Berlin Wall days? I think you’d make a brilliant job of it.
Keep up the great work.
as a german i'd never heard about this (most material around the fall of the wall focuses on the relation between the state and its people, leaving the relations to the soviet union aside) and it was very interesting to hear about. thank you.
if it's not too much effort i would love more videos about relatively unknown historical events (from anywhere in the world) like this, it is very well produced and a great format, especially with your visiting the site. makes the history feel more real. the reconstructive aspect (trying to illustrate the situation the participants found themselves in) also helped this.
great stuff Andy. Keep up the superlative production of these fascinating topics.
This is extremely well done. The research, layout and presentation is superb. It's clear that you want to present the facts and aren't creating sensationalized content that plagues most of youtube.
Again, a fascinating and first rate documentary of one of the least well-known rail disasters of modern times.
Top class documentary mate this is a channel to watch for the future
Thank you for making this - a tragic tale but I am glad it has been properly recorded for history
Very well produced documentary. It’s better than the ones you find on cable networks 😎
A great film Andy. I'd be interested to know a little about your life in the military.
Fascinating film about an event I was unaware of and which seems to have been lost amongst the following events and the collapse of the old East Germany. It's interesting how the East German leadership stoked the public anger in the hope it would re-enforce their view that the USSR were backsliding but seemingly it played out the other way and led indirectly to their own demise. Thank you for producing this.
You Sir have a great story to tell. The way you get into the back story of what would normally be considered a single topic video is excellent. Your videos have a continuity between them that really helps explain an often misunderstood subject. There aren't too many creators who have both the knowledge and experience to do that.
Thank you. This was minutely researched and painstakingly presented. One of the most informative things I've every seen on UA-cam.
Excellent Documentary thanks I knew nothing of this event . As an ex British Army soldier 5 Royal Anglian Rgt 1989 to 1994 I found this Cold War story really Gripping. Many thank Sir . 🇬🇧🇺🇦
Similar accident happend on 23rd of August 1985 in Ralsko - Kuřívody in Czechoslovakia. A tour bus carrying 46 people was ripped in half by a barrel of Soviet T-72 tank that suddenly peaked from the forest, trying to cross public highway without any flagman. Almost by a miracle nobody was killed in this horribly looking accident, although many were seriously wounded.
Soviets had large garrison, tankodromes and airport in Ralsko since invasion in 1968 till 1991.
Outstanding video of a tragic event that most people don’t know about. It happened after my time of service in West Germany with the USAF but I’m familiar with Juterbog and Luckenwalde, as well as the former Soviet garrison and training area. Thank you for your service and for your great videos.
Andy I’ve watched several of your videos and they are not only fascinating but the writing, narration and videography is excellent. Thank you and hats off to you.
Thank for this one, I'm former Infantry, spent many years in Cold War Germany during the 80's your video was easy comprehend and made a lot of sence. This was a tragic Trg Ex accident with unfortunate loss of life.
Great video! I visited this spot last year, very fascinating considering how little information exists online for this incident.
I always wondered about a tank vs train and something at the back of my mind told me that James Bond Goldeneye had to be inspired by something.
Clearly it was this rail disaster that inspired using tanks to stop trains, derailing an armored train and later in Jericho with a M1 Abrams vs train as well.
That's a really interesting tidbit of information, it makes sense now. Goldeneye was my favourite James bond film by far
I watch a lot of short documentaries whilst at my computer eating dinner or just killing time, this wasn't one of them them… I saved this to watch later! I really enjoy your content and wanted to give this documentary the attention it deserved when I could give myself time to appreciate the effort and information you'd complied into a great bit of entertainment! Well done Sir! looking forward to the next one!
Andy, I'm glad to have found your channel. What a thoroughly researched and well presented video. Blokes like you should be commissioned to make television programmes.
Your videos are really good! They deserve more views.
Why arent more people getting access to your videos getting more views? You put together really informative videos that are easy to watch and respect the past of all your research
Another top drawer video from Andy! Thanks again from Cape Town, South Africa.
Excellent video, I was born three years-ish before these events and did not know about this at all! I'm glad you enjoy our country and help shed more light on aspects of it that many people do not know about. If you ever need help (I do live in Berlin), let me know!
Amazing video bringing this story to life. Thanks for making it with such accurate location detail and sharing. A real tragedy of the time.
A truly excellent documentary on an otherwise unheard of incident.
Excellent research and presentation.
I would have loved to have seen the inside of the Soviet camp, but as you said it might be a little dangerous.
Fascinating insight anyway.
FYI … digitalcosmonaut.com/adolf-hitler-lager-forst-zinna/
Thank you for the link. 👍
Quality work, I enjoyed it dear Sir! Greetings from PL
Thank you for telling this very interesting part of history - next time I drive to berlin via train, i will definately remember that documentary and will glance a view out of the window.
Danke!
Ihre Hilfe ist sehr willkommen. 😊
Thank you so much for this documentary.
Such a contrast in the official reaction to the Interflug disaster of 1972
There was no memorial there for a long time, but finally now there is.
Maybe one day one will come at Forst Zinna
A great documentary of a terrible accident. Thank you Andy.
WOW, the timing for that high speed train couldnt have been better. loved this!
Tragic and thank you for an excellent documentary. I visited the DDR as a teenager in the 80's. It had this melancholic feel about the place.
I really liked your view into this little known piece of German/Russian history. My only issue with it is... blaming/pointing at Lenin at the end. Sure, his Revolution was necessary to set up the Pieces, but there was 70+ years of significant political development including Stalin and a whole World War inbetween.
Thank you, Andy, for this splendidly researched and sensitively and respectfully narrated presentation.
Admittedly a grim subject but as you said, thankfully an event without greater loss of life. Your videos are top notch. Thoroughly well on the ground researched & with very good visual depiction of events.
Smashing video and how lovely to catch the train for the vid. Thank you for this video.
Thanks for putting this together. I had not heard of the accident before so it was a great historical piece you have done. Thank you.
A really fascinating documentary, thank you very much.
I watched it with great interest, since I lived in East-Berlin from 1986 until 1990 (my father was a West-German diplomat at our Permanent Mission in East-Berlin - not an embassy, since we did not recognize East-Germany as a foreign state).
Now, since 2015, my family and I live in Jüterbog so we are very familiar with the train line from Jüterbog via Luckenwalde to Berlin 🙂
It is a shame that no memorial has been set up for those who died on that day.
So thank you for bringing this to our attention again.
Great videos Andy. I was at Wildenrath 86 to 89 and then Laarbruch late 89 to 92. I remember this incident being reported on the West German news with them showing the East German news version. Visited Wildenrath in 2018, also was taken back by the gymnasium!!! Recently visited Laarbruch with some German friends and stood in my old room in block 13A which is now an airsoft battle sight. 😮. Thanks for posting.
Tremendous content, i was conpletely unaware of this tragedy.
Thanks Andy, another corker👍
Keep them coming!!
Surely, JHQ Rhiendahlen must be on your video to do list?🤔
Superb video. Captivating from start all the way to the end due to your amazing footage
Wow that was absolutely superb. National TV level documentary. Absolutely brilliant.
Thanks for bringing this story to us. Most of us who like history will not know about this, especially the DDR periods.
Outstanding video! Very clear, detailed.thanks a lot
This was a very well done production. I must say the footage provided is great.
A fascinating documentary, very well made, thank you. I look forward to taking a look at your other uploads.
Wow, that was really interesting and the video was very well done. I'd never hard of this incident before and you did an excellent job of describing it. It was also interesting to hear about the background behind it and the results of it.
Please more documentaties on the Soviets in East Germany. Youre my favorite youtuber.
I love these Cold War stories you do! I was stationed in Hohenfels Germany with the US army modern day, im 37, i get a kick about learning about stuff dealing with the Cold War and Europe. Thank you from the states!
I Hope you get 100k subs by the end of this year. Unlike Mark Felton you are actually vlogging outside in public and show the historic sites.
Outstanding work, really enjoyed that. Well done and thank you Sir.
How do you know so much about these smaller pieces from Cold War History? It is pretty amazing to me. Keep up the great work!
Andy, that was excellent. Thank you for putting this together.
What a really great job you’ve done here Andy 👏🏻 I would have been 15 at the time but don’t remember anything about this at all which would be normal for your average teenager growing up in Essex back then apart from the fact my old man was living and working in West Berlin then. He used to call us almost every night so I’m sure he’d have mentioned it and as a bit of Germanophile I honestly am a bit ashamed to finally be aware of this tragedy 35 years later. One of my closest mates lives in Cottbus so I will definitely bring it up and recommend she watches this video next time we chat on What’s App which might be as soon as today. Thank you for an absolutely amazing video geezer!
Thank you Andy for another fantastic video, I've only just discovered your channel and I'm working my way through your playlists. Very well presented and fascinating to watch. 👍
Welcome aboard!
WOW. Absolutely great video. Keep it up 👍🏻
Its really lucky that the front cars of the train were empty. Fantastic video! I look forward to more!
Great documentary, absolutely fascinating story. Thank you.
Luckenwalde hasn't changed much? 🤣🤣🤣
True a lot of the buildings are the same but they have been renovated and repainted. If you had seen Luckenwalde in '94 when I arrived in Berlin then the place was just drab grey/brown and all the buildings massively run down
It's amazing that the tank training course was laid out across an active railroad line in the first place, and more amazing still that trainees weren't prerunning the course in a UAZ.
Always a pleasure seeing your work
Very good documentary ! I have been to some of these places in the former DDR since they are fascinating to explore.
The weird thing is that the locals seem to just want to forget all about them and deny people access to them. Here in Denmark we don´t hide away all the German bunkers from WW2, we make the sites public and turn them into museums to tell the stories. But I understand the situation is different for the Germans. Their occupiers stayed for nearly 50 years...
A masterful documentary. Very interesting. Thank you.
Surprisingly moving, well-written and presented.
This is brilliant. Thank you so much for posting it!
Great vid Andy, love your work yet again
Very interesting and well presented. Funny to think of that vast group of barrack buildings standing there empty after all this time.
Very well made documentary, and a great voice for presenting too. Thank you!
Excellent production and presentation about a little unknown story. Thank you very much for this great infomentary. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Another interesting cold war story from the great narrator,Mr. Ioone!
Thank you. A great video. I learned a lot from this. Well put together and seems well researched. So useful to see it on the ground and to pinpoint the locations. The drone footage is excellent. The Bolshevik Revolution memorial at end of video is fascinating.
The train accident was avoidable. A tragic loss of life due to inadequate Soviet tank driving instruction regulations and orders, or enforcement thereof.
A couple of comments.
- At 31:30 'concurrently 30 miles south at Forst Zinna Garrison'. Should be '30 miles north', as (the former) garrison was to the north of Jüterbog? Or have I misunderstood?
- At 23:30 in the DDR 1 Aktuelle Kamera TV news recording the presenter says the accident occurred 'aus noch nicht geklärter Ursache' - due to an as yet undetermined cause. However, there is a simultaneous German voice-over (presumably a separate later recording of a West German broadcast?), commenting that the East German presenter does not mention the cause was a Soviet battle tank.
However, what you say rings true and seems supported by many sources, including (the translation of) this extract from the German Wikipedia article (yes, some of which may be inaccurate):
"The GDR media reported on the train accident in unusual detail. Accidents involving members of the Soviet Army were almost always kept secret in the GDR. The now open reporting was particularly possible because there had been disagreement between Erich Honecker and Mikhail Gorbachev for years over the future political course.
Video recordings that were made of the wreckage in the dark reached Hamburg across the inner German border and were broadcast by the local ARD studio on the Tagesschau (West German TV news). Since Western correspondents were not on site so quickly or would not have been allowed in at all, these recordings must have been sent to the West with the permission of GDR authorities. This is another indication of how upset the GDR leadership was about the event. Contemporary witnesses later expressed the suspicion that Erich Honecker had deliberately allowed the announcement to be made to show to Mikhail Gorbachev the consequences of the course of openness (glasnost) promoted by Gorbachev but rejected by the GDR leadership."
absolutely fascinating, I hope you have more such content, thank you for the peek behind the Iron Curtain.
This and "Operation Foot" I have just discovered and seen. You do BRILLIANT work, with an ironic sense of humour too. Amongst your many ironic asides, I particularly loved your comment on showing the Nazi era photographs of the camp in its 1930´s state, . "I shall move on "..."At the risk of turning into Dr Mark Felton" Whilst I love MF´s videos, when it starts to be 14 minutes on "Martin Bormann´s Hankerchief collection", I find this sort of stuff is much more interesting and apt. It shows how political maipulation can backfire spectacularly. How I wish Gorbachov and not Putin were running Russia now. Thanks !! Tarik Charles Wildman
Another excelled documentary. Thanks very much.
Thank you for this fascinating albeit tragic piece of history, your videos are always put together incredibly well. Subbed 👍
Thank you for this brilliant documentary. I still remember the ban of the Sputnik paper - I loved to read these and was disappointed when it was no longer available. Few months later I was in Lübeck 😊
Another great video, thanks again! It would be interesting to see a video about the West Berlin exclaves. I've always found those quite fascinating.