You’ve heard of funiculars (I imagine). You’ve heard of suspended trains (I hope). But have you ever heard of combining the two? No? Me either until I laid eyes on the Dresden Schwebebahn, a suspended (i.e. “dangling”) funicular on the outskirts of Dresden.
A historic, unique but ultimately puzzling piece of 19th-Century infrastructure, this cable railway is the only one of its kind in the world. But with a costly, resource-intensive design, and an already-existing funicular literally 30 seconds down the road… why was it built? Let’s see if we can find out.
****EDIT: I’ve been told by a couple of people that my intro/title is problematic for epilepsy sufferers. Apologies! I’m changing it for future videos.*****
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Think abandoned engineering marvels, weird funiculars, transit oddities and other bits of history you never wanted to know about… until now.
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44 Comments
Greetings from Dresden, thanks for showing this to people.
edit:
I believe the words work like this:
Schwebeseilbahn:
Schwebe- = schweben, sich über dem Boden befinden.
Seilbahn = eine Bahn, die an Seilen befestigt ist.
a cable railway, that is floating
Seilschwebebahn:
Seil- = das Seil als technisches Element.
Schwebebahn = eine Bahn, die schwebt.
a floating railway, that is attached to a cable
Don‘t joke about the Laufmaschine. It was the predecessor of the modern bicycle, so that’s also a quite German invention.
Wupertalbahn in more absurd
Ah, the funicular railways and their names (or nicknames…) The one in Stuttgart is called "legacy hunter express" since it connects to a graveyard. 😉
Just found this video on reddit, and thought this must be a well established Youtube channel, turns out it not.
But I will stick around until it is.
Generally speaking, compound words in German follow the same modifier-head structure as in English. A suspended railway is a kind of railway, a "Seilbahn" is a kind of "Bahn". This is also true for compounds in compounds, therefore a "Seilschwebebahn" is a kind of "Schwebebahn" (funicular) and a "Schwebeseilbahn" is a kind of "Seilbahn" (ropeway). In short, it seems to have been reclassified from a Schwebebahn to a ropeway, although the name they chose is a little redundant (see below):
Seilschwebebahn: litearlly "rope suspended railway" i.e., a suspended railway using a rope (unlike the Wuppertal version which uses…motors on the train?)
Schwebeseilbahn: "floating rope way" – bit of a doubling going on there because as far as technically possible, they always do that. Although the name might derive from the German word for a normal funicular, which is "Standseilbahn" meaning standing ropeway (as opposed to one hanging from the rope). This one does neither and thus a new name was needed (no idea if that is the reason, just an idea I had).
This was excellent. Informative and funny. I wait with tented fingers to see if the humour lands when you leave Germany and can no longer use compound nouns to comic effect.
I have lived in Dresden for 7 years now and I'm kinda proud to have been on it at least once cause that is still more than the majority of the population
We rode both funiculars on our first day in Dresden.
Make more vids and get more subs so I can be like I was here when he had 7 subs
I wanna go there now!
There's a deep valley between the Schwebebahn and the regular funicular, so having two funiculars so close together actually makes sense.
This was awesome! So interesting and you keep it light — thanks for sharing
6:22 I can explain the difference. German compound words have two parts: The Grundwort (baseword) and the Bestimmungswort (determinative word). To make things really difficult for non-natives, the Grundwort is the last word. So you have to wait for the speaker to finish the word completely until you get an idea what it is about, because the most important information comes last.
If you have compounds of compounds as in this case, original Grundwort and Bestimmungswort form a new Grundwort, and now you have a second determinative. But to confuse non-natives even more, it could also be a compound as a Bestimmungswort for a new Grundwort. You can imagine it like parentheses in a mathematical formula. There is a difference between a Schwebe(Seil(Bahn)) and a Seil(Schwebe(Bahn)) and a (Schwebe(Seil))Bahn. All three are a Bahn (a path or way fixed in place), but one is a Schwebebahn (a floating or elevated rail) powered by a rope. The second one is a Seilbahn (a ropeway) , suspended from its rail. The third one is a Bahn (a railway) operated by a Schwebeseil (floating rope). As you can see, first and third are easily confused, as they form the same word Schwebeseilbahn, but mean different things. So officials decided to go with the second one, as this is the best and least confusing description of the system, because it's not the rope that is floating, it's the carriages.
Fully paid up German here: Funicular is Latin for ropeway as in cable car. In German, that is Seilbahn (pron. "zyle-"). But they normally run on tracks ("Standseilbahn"). Here, the thing is suspended, so it would correctly be a "Schwebeseilbahn". "Schweben" means to swing, to dangle, to hang etc. But the engineer here (I've already forgotten his name) called his inventions "Schwebebahnen", so some beaurocrat at some stage saw fit to prefix a "Seil-" to move the thing in line with other such products (despite there not being any, this is Germany). "Seil-" focuses on the method of propulsion, "Schwebe-" on the method of construction, so they don't contradict each other.
It was built to connect 2 districts with affluent population. Affluent people always do weird stuff that sometimes turns out to be quite the sight.
We should note that the funiculars of Loschwitz and the Blue Wonder steel bridge were not commissioned or sponsored by the City of Dresden. At the time of construction, Blasewitz, Loschwitz and Oberloschwitz were separate villages. And the funiculars connect to two different places, to Weißer Hirsch, where a large spa and health resort was operating, the Lahmannsches Sanatorium, and to Oberloschwitz, which opened the path to the Schönfelder Hochland (Schoenfeld Uplands). At the time, Dresden's tram ended in Blasewitz, and the funicilars together with the bridge provided access from both places. The tram to Bühlau, which connected Weißer Hirsch, opened a few years after the Standseilbahn in 1899, and the Bühlauer Außenbahn to the Schoenfeld Uplands in 1908.
Thank you for the video. I have been there 2 weeks ago and plan to use the Restaurant next time around. It is e beautiful peace of public infrastructure. In conjunction with the Steamships the blue Wonder Bridge und the history of the whole surroundings. Dresden art the time of construction was a place of technological and Medicine Marvel. People around the world came to Medical institutions on the Hills behind the Schwebeseilbahn and Standseilbahn. Even a World Fair has been conducted in the middle of Dresden. The world's first hygiene Museum and the worlds first model city for workers Build by the responsible owners of a factory. Combining work health culture and knowledge. Die Hellerauer Werkstätten. So this is no wonder that was the place to be.
Tag urself (intro photo montage edition): I'm *pointing at pelican while squatting*.
I live almost 10 years in dresden. I was at the top, i was at the bottom, i never drove on it.
Please get more sidetracked. I like sidetracks.
"Pointless… I love it!"
25.000 civilian casualties? Now that's a war crime, if there's ever been one!
A friend of mine lives right around the corner of the Schwebebahn. He says that there is a "Villenviertel" on top of the hill, that means there were and are very wealthy people and they wanted to trump the other cablerailway.
Tom Scott should have rode it.
„In a way, its very pointlessness adds to the appeal.“ what a quote… gotta find out where ChatGPT plagiarized that from
Is it technically a monorail?
Seilschwebebahn = a float-train with rope somewhere
Schwebeseilbahn = floating cablecar
To understand the differences: Schwebebahn is the German word for suspension railway, while Seilbahn is the word for cablecar.
Bahn in general is not railway, but "engineered somewhat straight path or area". A railway is an Eisenbahn, while other Bahns like a Reeperbahn (rope-maker workspace, typically a straight sufficiently wide street), Stoffbahn (a long sheet of fabric) or a Schießbahn (a lot with 1 single target on a shooting range), being not related to vehicles at all.
25,000 people from Dresden were killed in the air raid on Feb. 13th/14th, 1945. The city was packed with Refuges at the time of the bombing. The total number of casualties must have been horrifying, as more than 500,000 people were missing after the raid. Estimates from Swiss historians talk about a figure exceeding the number of victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki together.
At 8:06 why not just use Tram Line 12 to Schillerplatz and walk the short Way to Schwebebahn or use at Schillerplatz Bus 63 to drive to Körnerplatz where is the Schwebebahn ? Or you use Tram Line 11 and drive to "Weißer Hirsch" Station and walk the Plattleite Street to drive with Schwebebahn down to Körnerplatz.
Greeting from Dresden
I presume, that a Schwebeseilbahn is a funiclular on a suspended right of way, a Seilschwebebahn is a suspended railway on a rope track. i.e a cable way with self propelled gondolas. The had such a system at the Mannheim Garden fair in like the 70s called teh Aerobus.
Epilepsy warning please !
Or even better: change the intro.
Thanks.
The naming is simply due to German gramer – which in fact is exactly the same way as in English (*1), just leaving out the spaces inbetween (*2). The defining part is always the last, all upfront parts are about detail in sequence of ever finer definition. So a 'railway' is a Bahn (literally track). 'Cable railway' is Seilbahn and if that Seilbahn is floating (aka dangling from a rail), its a 'floating cable railway' Schwebeseilbahn. Simple, isn't it?
*1 – At least in proper English. Just think 'Dresden tram shelter' … would sound strange any other way or even create a different meaning.
*2 – The word 'railway' itself makes a pretty good example in English as well, a way made of rails
Please don't show me chatgpt answers. I don't watch furnicular videos to see halfbaked halftruths. Rest of this video is splendid!
You know the Germans are happy with your video when, even after 50 comments, no one had the heart to mention the spelling mistakes. Please continue 😉
Well there is/ was a suspended funicular used as a ski lift in Heiligenblut in Carinthia (Tunnelbahn Fleißalm) it is basically two groups of cabins pulled by a rope running on a suspended rail… it runs mostly underground, but I think technically it should be a suspended funicular.
Why it was build: The uphill endpoints of those funiculars serve two separated hills with a steep valley in between … so going directly from one endpoint to the other to share a single funicular wasnt possible. The common funicular came first in 1895 and the rich folk on the other hill probably were simply jealous and demanded their own engineering wonder.
As for why it was suspended … the incline there is too steep and the route far too short for a typical funicular on ground to cross the roads which are on that hillside. The roads would have to go or extremely tilted sideways for a crossing if a common funicular were chosen. So they needed a solution which went over the two roads … hence suspension.
All fairly rational in that particular circumstance.
Why it never caught on? well, cable cars are just cheaper and solve practicly the same problem … just that back then rich folk werent about cheap, but about novelty and impressing people.
Mainly it is a possibility for pedestrians to reach from top to bottom of The Valley. There are people living up there…..1901 a time where personell cars where not so much as today and a Tramline where incredible complicate to build because of the steepness. So it’s a part o public transport… not more and not less…. Later they added the restaurants.
such a curious mix of tom scott and jago hazard – i like this monstrosity
Hi all! I've been told by a couple of people that my intro/title is problematic for epilepsy sufferers. Just wanted to say I'm sorry about that and I'll be changing it for future videos. Thanks for watching!
Civilian/soldier wise the second disagreement sucked for both.
Best regards from Dresden and thank you for the video. Both funiculars are part of the public transport system of the city. The connect the districts of Loschwitz with Oberloschwitz and Bühlau/Weißer Hirsch. Both upper districts a separated by a valley.
I can see an advantage to this format, lifting the train over irregularities in the terrain.
People make a big deal out of the Dresden firebombing killing 25,000 Germans but on March 9, 1945 there was a firebombing of Tokyo that killed over 100,000 people and between March and the surrender in August a total of 350,000 civilians were killed in multiple cities in preparation for the invasion.