Roman Bönsch Herausgeber und Fotografie | Editor and Photography

Roman Bönsch, Karin Finan, Mathias Ganspöck,Herbert Harrer, Karl-Johann Hartig, Sebastian Illichmann, Jan Kanngießer, Elke Krasny, Martina TritthartTexte | Texts

Sigi Herzog, Harald NavéErgänzende Fotografie | Additional Photography

EKG BaukulturLaser Scans

Wien Südbahnhof Bestand und AbbruchVienna South Station and its demolition

2007–2010

Impressum | ImprintHerausgeber | EditorRoman BönschA-1040 Wien/Viennaromanboensch.at

Gedruckt mit finanzieller Unterstützung von | Printed with financial support of:ÖBB, BMVIT, PORR, STRABAG, SWIETELSKY, UNGER STEEL GROUP

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© 2012 Springer-Verlag/WienPrinted in AustriaSpringerWienNewYork is a part of Springer Science + Business Mediaspringer.at

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Layout, Cover Design: Roman Bönsch, Wien/Vienna, romanboensch.atTypografie, grafische Beratung | Typography, Graphic Consultant: Mihai M. Mitrea, Wien/Vienna, sketodesign.euCMYK Separation: Manfred Kostal, Wien/Vienna, pixelstorm.atRedaktion, deutsche Texte | German Copywriter: Karin Finan, München/Munich, karinfinan.deTechnische Beratung | Technical Adviser: Herbert Harrer, Wien/ViennaKorrektorat, deutsche Texte | German Proof Reading: Michael Walch, Wien/ViennaÜbersetzung | Translation: Christine Schöffler, Peter Blakeney, Wien/Vienna, whysociety.orgDruck | Printing: Holzhausen Druck GmbH, Wien/Vienna, holzhausen.at

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SPIN: 80063437

Mit zahlreichen (großteils farbigen) AbbildungenWith numerous (mainly coloured) illustrations

Bibliografische Informationen der Deutschen NationalbibliothekDie Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über <http://dnb.ddb.de> abrufbar.

ISBN 978-3-7091-0837-6 SpringerWienNewYork

Vorworte | Prefaces 8

Einleitung | Introduction 20

Hauptbahnhof Wien 22Vienna Main Station

Wien Südbahnhof 30Vienna South Station

Südbahn 150The Southern Railway

Zwischen Süd und Ost 166Between South and East

Ostbahn 190The Eastern Railway

Postzentrum Wien Süd 226Vienna South Postal Centre

Frachtenbahnhof 250The Freight Station

Historische Entwicklung 276Historical Development

Laserscans | Laser Scans 280

Chronologie | Chronology 282

Anhang | Appendix 286

INHALT | CONTENT

10 WIEN SüdBaHNHoF

ForewordRoman Bönsch

ForewordKarl-Johann Hartig

This book documents the infrastructure that has accumulated over the course of more than 160 years in the area surrounding Vienna’s South Station, between the bridge over Laxenburger Straße and the Gudrunstraße underpass, during its last years of operation and its demolition. Moreover, it provides an outlook on the future Vienna Main Station with plans and first photo-graphs of the building site.

When I began research for the documentation project “Vienna Main Station” in 2007, I anticipa-ted an investigation of the historical changes in the city and its infrastructure. I soon came to re-alise that I would also learn about the organisati-on and the terminology of the railway in the pro-cess. “A train station is not a building rather the area between its entry signals. The train station building itself is called the reception building.” That was the first lesson I learned. It gave me a sense of what I should come to know behind the façades of the South Station.

It is an honour for me – as a non-railwayman – to have the opportunity to publish a book about Vienna South Station. Perhaps it is exactly the view of the outsider that facilitates rare insights into life and work at the South Station and fresh explorations of its important history.

With its impressive spatial structure and vari-ety of material compositions, Vienna South Sta-tion displayed its exemplary architecture of the 1950s for one last time in 2009.

I also hope I have created a work that will reawaken valuable memories in all those who for decades lived with or worked for the South Station.

My thanks go to all who have supported this book and contributed to its contents (see page 287).

accommodations, and maintenance workshops for first the steam and then the diesel and elec-trically-operated vehicles. All of these facilities existed in duplicate because the connection between the eastern and southern railway con-sisted of only three tracks, the narrow Steudel Tunnel and the steep tracks 110 and 120. Nicknames such as “Bosnia” (track group 700 recalls the troop transports in the First World War), “Kuwait” (for the diesel yards), “Hungarian Group”, and the like were given to these raily-ards over time by the railway workers. Some of them are also portrayed in this book.

The surviving chronicles of the train station, in which all special happenings were meticulously recorded, tell of a wide variety of historical events in its 50 years of existence – the Kennedy-Khrushchev summit in Vienna, to name but one example. And not least, the South Station was a place of memories for many Viennese: for some, the summer holidays in Semmering; for others, the first vacation on the Adriatic Sea. And for others yet again, the station was a place of hope – of economic improvement for the so-called “guest workers”, of safe passage to the “pro-mised land”, as a gateway to the eagerly antici-pated “West”. But in all of these nostalgic obser-vations of the perhaps glorified past, one should not forget that after 50 years, the South Station was urgently in need of renovation. In each and every customer rating, it always took last place. The time for something new had come.

Along with the political situation in Europe, also the traffic flows have changed dramati-cally. After the fall of the Iron Curtain, Vienna became an intersection of three trans-European axes almost over night. The city has become a traffic hub. The four remaining Viennese rail-heads were no longer appropriate for this new situation. All of the main railways leading to countries neighbouring Austria needed to be

From the old emerges and grows the new. The old recoils, disappears. But before it vanishes from our memories, before the images fade away, the pictures in this book show again all that once was. A time document for posterity.

Vienna has erected many train stations only to tear them down again or see them destroyed by war. Today, none of the pompous stations built between 1840 and 1880 in the time of the monarchy still exist – but we have their depic-tions, photographs, and architectural drawings. Traces in the collective memory. In this way, we still know how Wilhelm von Flattich’s classicistic South Station looked like, the remnants of which were found under the South Station’s platforms during their demolition and could be documen-ted and partially conserved. The past is preser-ved for us in images from the pioneering days of the Austrian railways.

In the same way, this book shows the already past of a South Station that was painstakingly built in the hardship of the post-war years as a functional building and single traffic hub for both the southern and eastern railway. Each railway needed to be extended in order to be brought together in the building complex. Furthermore, the two railways were separated by a height dif-ference of 4.5 metres. A main hall connecting the two railheads was then built facing Wiedner Gürtel (ring road). Many of the details and mate-rials evoke memories of the era in which it was built, the 1950s: the marble wall cladding from the quarries of Winzendorf, the floor tiling from five different types of stone, the polished metal frames of the glass doors, and much more. The images in this book document several examples.

Two railheads also need more than twice as much place as the future, modern Vienna Main Station; they require a manoeuvring area for the provision of trains, storage sidings, service and preparation areas, warehouses, personnel

linked in one station – the future Vienna Main Station – in order to facilitate expeditious pas-sage through the Vienna traffic junction. Since 1989, there has been continuous progress made on the western railway. With the completion of the Lainzer Tunnel, a connection will be made between the western railway and the southern railway. Hence, the terrain of the South Station was the logical choice to connect the railway lines in every direction. The idea of the Vienna Main Station began to take shape. In 2003, the City of Vienna, the federal government, and the Austrian Federal Railways eventually came to an agreement on the project, its implementation, and the financing.

In Vienna, as in all big cities, the main railway stations were and are of significant importance for the development of the city. The railway chan-ges the city; the city changes the railway. They profit from one another and stimulate social and economic progress. Train stations can enhance urban development when the new station itself becomes a symbol of the city. Stations can be emblems for rail travel and for the city. This calls for a top-quality train station and the valorisati-on of its surroundings.

The modernisation of the railyards also crea-tes chances for urban development. The city grows and needs space for this growth. Densi-fication of the city by building on areas previ-ously not exploited to their fullest as opposed to expansion on the periphery is a considerably better urban development solution. Centrally located railyard properties are especially suited for this purpose. By concentrating the railway infrastructure, the Vienna Main Station project can free up 59 hectares of high-grade innercity land for future urban development. Here, too, urban development and the construction of the new main station depend on each other. Vienna Main Station is more than a train station!

19

The main façade of the reception building during the demolition.

03.03.2010

Die Hauptfassade des Aufnahmegebäudes während der Abbrucharbeiten.

2525

01.07.2010

Vienna Main Station according to the design by architects Hotz/Hoffmann.Wimmer viewed from Südtiroler Platz. To the right, the ÖBB corporate headquarters designed by the architects Zechner & Zechner with a view up Sonnwendgasse; to the left, the office building on building site A01.

Der Hauptbahnhof Wien nach den Entwürfen der Archi-tekten Hotz/Hoffmann.Wimmer, Blick vom Südtiroler Platz. Rechts die von den Architekten Zechner & Zechner geplante Konzernzentrale der ÖBB und der Blick in die Sonnwendgasse, links das Bürogebäude am Bauplatz A01.

27

23.05.2011

View over the Schweizer Garten towards the former location of the South Station with real estate projects in Quartier Belvedere to the north-east of Vienna Main Station. Wiedner Gürtel to the right.

Blick über den Schweizer Garten zum ehemaligen Standort des Südbahnhofes mit Immobilien-projekten im Quartier Belvedere nordöstlich des Hauptbahnhofes. Rechts der Wiedner Gürtel.

18.12.2009

162 WIEN SüdBaHNHoF SÜDBAHN

Alfred Ifsits und Günther Augustin von Swietelsky Bahnbau zerschneiden die Gleisanlage des Südbahn-hofes wegen der niedrigen Temperaturen nicht mit dem Schweißbrenner, sondern mit der Trennscheibe. Im Hintergrund werden die demontierten Gleisjoche mit dem Eisenbahndrehkran abtransportiert.

Due to the cold temperature, Alfred Ifsits and Günther Augustin from the railway construction company Swietelsky Bahnbau use a cutting disc instead of a welding torch to cut the rails in the South Station raily-ards. In the background, the demounted track panels are removed with the railway slewing crane.

163

13.11.2009

The South Station railyards, Signal Box 11 to the right, Vienna Main Station Electronic Signal Box to the left. In the middle, seven double slip switches (called “Engländer” in Austria) and “double-suspenders” (two pairs of intersecting tracks) on the bridge over Laxenburger Straße.

Die Gleisanlage des Südbahnhofes, rechts das Stellwerk 11, links hinten das Elektronische Stellwerk Hauptbahnhof Wien in der Mitte sieben „Engländer“ (Kreuzungsweichen) und doppelter „Hosenträger“ auf der Brücke über die Laxenburger Straße.

170 WIEN SüdBaHNHoF ZWISCHEN SÜD uND OST

171

09.09.2008

The track group 600. The platforms of Vienna Main Station will be located at this point. In the middle, the site of the former material warehouse, excavated material from the building site of Vienna Matzleinsdorf High-Tech Headquarters. Behind, the trees in the “Steudelgraben” and the 10th district Favoriten.

Die Gleisgruppe 600. An dieser Stelle werden sich die Bahnsteige des Hauptbahnhofes Wien befinden. In der Mitte, an der Stelle des ehemaligen Materialmagazins, aufgeschüttetes Aushubmaterial von der Baustelle des High-Tech-Stützpunktes Wien Matzleinsdorf, dahinter die Bäume im „Steudelgraben“ und der 10. Bezirk Favoriten.

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