Saturday, October 19, 2019

Nuremberg's Central Train Station-Then and Now

Hat tip Gates of Vienna and Vlad Tepes

Image result for nurnberg bahnhof


Having spent my three-year tour of Army duty in Erlangen, just outside Nuremberg, I can say I am quite familiar with the city's Bahnhof, or central train station. Nuremberg, of course, has a dark chapter in its history thanks to a guy named Hitler. He chose it as his shrine of Nazism and the site of the annual party rally. Thus, there are many photographs of Hitler arriving at the train station (when he wasn't flying into the city). Here is one from 1936:

Image result for hitler at nuremberg train station

In later years, the riff-raff of the 1930s has been replaced by a new generation of riff-raff. When I was there in the 1960s, the train station-at least at night- was largely populated by German drunks, many of whom I figured were dealing with the demons of their own years in the German army twenty or so years earlier.

Now the Bahnhof has a new riff-raff problem and a new threat. No, they don't have to worry about American or British bombers dropping bombs on them or Hitler smoking into town. The new fear is Islamic terrorism. That's why they have just held a practice drill at the Bahnhof, which you can see below.



I am guessing that the people being portrayed as attackers/by-standers were cops doing role play. They could have picked up some role players from the ones hanging around the station as more realistic "attackers".

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