Mecklenburg Spa Railway

At the end of the 19th century the villages of Graal and Müritz (then two separate places) strove to become spa towns and seaside resorts. However they were only linked to the larger towns by poorly maintained cart tracks and country roads. As a result, they called for a railway link. During the planning, the following route sections were discussed:

• Ribnitz – Müritz – Graal
• Gelbensande – Graal – Müritz
• Rostock – Nienhagen – Graal – Müritz
• Extension of the Warnemünde–Markgrafenheide Beach Railway
• Rövershagen – Graal – Müritz (direct route along the Pörstenschneise)

In the event the construction of the line was put off due to a lack of finance and the fear of unprofitability. In addition, the most economic route was the line from Rövershagen to the Rostock–Stralsund line, which was operated by the Prussian Railways. This was a further reason for the Mecklenburg Friedrich-Franz Railway not to build a railway line here. The route via Ribnitz was refused as it was very much oriented towards Prussia. Not until 1910 were there solid plans to build the new line; the First World War, however, put paid to them.

Not until the year 1920 were there once again plans to construct and operate a railway, this time as a private branch line. The Mecklenburgische Bäderbahn AG company was founded on 28 February 1925 with the aim of linking the Baltic Sea resorts of Graal and Müritz to the main line from Stralsund to Rostock. The share capital was raised from the Hanseatic city of Rostock and a large number of Rostock businessmen, the local communities and the Berlin Tramway Operating Company, which had two rest and recreation homes for its staff on the Baltic Sea coast. Other shareholders were the railway construction and operating company of Lenz & Co., who carried out the construction and were also charged with running the line. The line was finally completed from Rövershagen, albeit with a gentle detour to the west in order to keep open the possibility of creating a junction by extending the Warnemünde Beach Railway to Hinrichshagen from the direction of Warnemünde. The station at Graal-Müritz, which was so called even before the villages merged, was erected east of Graal and south of Müritz so that the option of continuing the line to Fischland remained open. Neither project was ever realised, however.

A DBAG Class 642 railcar between Graal-Müritz and Rövershagen

The 10.3 kilometre long, standard gauge line from Rövershagen to Graal-Müritz was officially opened on 1 July 1925. Initially trains only ran during the summer; later they ran all year round. In the 1930s there were even through coaches in the summer from Berlin. After the war, the rest homes in Graal-Müritz which had been turned into military hospitals, were taken over by the Red Army. Transportation was by rail and prevented the line falling victim to war reparations. From 1949 the line was taken over by the East German Deutsche Reichsbahn.

But by the 1960s, consideration was given to closing the route, but it was retained due to lack of bus and lorry capacity. Furthermore, the military had a strong interest in the line because, by then, several firing ranges had been established on the Rostock Heath. In the 1970s, passenger traffic was limited for a number of years to the summer season; in winter buses ran instead of rail services.

In 1993 the halts of Hinrichshagen and Georg Schneise, which lay in the middle of the forest and had been opened in the 1930s, were closed. Goods traffic ceased in 1994 and, in 1999, passenger services were withdrawn due to the poor condition of the track and the track and trackbed were fully replaced. There were various concepts for reactivating the line. For example, it was proposed to electrify the lien and connect it to the Rostock S-Bahn network. However, that was not followed through. Since 12 December 2004 passenger trains have run once again, mainly from and to Rostock Hauptbahnhof. At first, renovation of the line looked doubtful for a long time; only when the community of Graal-Müritz offered to bear a considerable portion of the cost, was work started. As part of the renovation, the line was shortened to 9.7 miles, the station at Graal-Müritz was abandoned and replaced by a halt. After the timetable change on 10 December 2006, the new halt of Graal-Müritz Koppelweg opened. This has a special feature: the 100-metre-long platform is made entirely of glass fibre composite.