MEANWHILE IN POLAND: LUXTORPEDA AHOI

In this mini-series I will be presenting small stories from my mother-land, Poland, which considering that Poles are Berlin’s third largest foreign-nationality group after Turkey and (since Russia’s assault on Ukraine) Ukraine, makes a lot sense. Also because there are many many things you did not know you wanted to know about Poland, too:-)

Today, the “Luxtorpeda”.

Luxtorpeda in Zakopane in 1936, Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe (Sygnatura: 1-G-2970).

Polish fast, long-distance railcarriage "Luxtorpeda" (Lux Torpedo) designed by a Polish engineer, Klemens Sielecki, based on an Austro-Daimler model and built in 1936.

Altogether six “Luxtorpedas” were built and one of them was used on the line Cracow-Zakopane, where it needed only 2h 29' (a record until 1992).

Luxtorpeda in Zakopane 1936, via Muzeum Tatrzańskie.

In 1939 four “Luxtorpedas” were destroyed in Nazi air-raids and the shelling of the Polish cities upon their attack on the country and the beginning of the Second World War. After that they used two remaining ones (marked as "Nur für Deutsche", “Only for Germans”) as luxury trains to Zakopane (a very popular Polish Tatra mountains skiing resort) and to Krynica (an old Polish spa town).

The “Luxtorpedas” also carried guests of the Generalgouvernement: Nazi-occupied Polish territories in central and southern Poland were Polish natives were eventually to be exterminated and replaced by the Germans.

Hitler's soldiers next to the wreck of the Luxtorpeda at a destroyed engine hall in Cracow, 1939. Photo published by the Nazified "Krakauer Zeitung".

The two “Luxtorpedas” survived the war, however, only one of them remained in Poland. The other one was found in late 1945 in Schwerin (soon to become a city in the DDR). It is likely that it was used to escape from the territories which in 1944-45 were to be taken from the Nazis by the Red Army.

Sadly, none of the two railcarriages survived until today: both were scrapped.