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Rescue work at the scene of the accident: Further fatalities cannot be ruled out
Photo: Katherine Rydlink / DER SPIEGEL
The wagon creaks unpleasantly as it is placed on the street.
Inside, it rumbles loudly a few times, you can hear glass shattering, as if several sets of dishes were thrown on the floor.
Then silence.
A firefighter leans a ladder against the battered wagon, climbs up and removes the huge hooks of the two cranes that had previously lifted the heavy train section out of the ditch next to the tracks.
Helpers clear away the white screens that previously concealed the scene of the accident.
Now the wagon blocks the view of the spot that nobody should see and nobody wants to see.
About 20 minutes later, the chief of police in Upper Bavaria, Manfred Hauser, appears in front of the journalists, who are waiting behind the crash barrier of the B2 with red faces and sunburnt arms.
He speaks so softly that he is asked to repeat what he has said.
It is visibly difficult for him to raise his voice: "Unfortunately, I have to report that the number of victims has increased to five." He says what everyone feared.
Another victim has just been found under the smashed carriage of the regional train that derailed near Burgrain on Friday.
On Friday afternoon, the rear part of the train, which was traveling from Garmisch-Partenkirchen to Munich, jumped off the tracks a few kilometers after the start.
The middle parts of the train slid down the embankment, one wagon remained on its side.
Further fatalities cannot be ruled out
44 people were injured in the serious accident, three of them seriously.
Four female victims who did not survive the accident were recovered on Friday.
Another fatality and at least seven people are still missing.
Police President Hauser does not assume that these are still buried under the other wagons.
"But unfortunately we can't rule that out at the moment," he says in a low voice.
The fact that the mighty Zugspitze massif is emblazoned against the bright blue sky in the background of the sad scenery makes the sight even more impressive.
The region is one of the most popular destinations for holidaymakers from all over Germany, and the Whitsun holidays have just begun in Bavaria.
For the time being, there will be no more trains going to Garmisch-Partenkirchen and the region will also be largely bypassed by car.
Nevertheless, in the nearby town of Burgrain, traffic is backing up along the only main road.
Motorists coming from the north are guided through the small town, as the actual route leads directly past the scene of the accident and is closed.
Nobody honks, everyone endures the traffic chaos, knowing the reason.
Police investigators are already standing around the wagon that has just been recovered, on which bushes are still hanging, assessing the damage.
Five windows were smashed, and the occupants were probably saved through them.
Around 24 hours earlier, the red double-decker car was first the well-known and familiar means of transport, then a terrible trap for 140 people.
Now he has become the subject of investigations as a pile of rubble.
Processing could take weeks or months
Neither the railway nor the police know why the train derailed.
A collision or sabotage are excluded.
The investigators assume a technical fault - but leave open whether this could have been on the train or on the track.
The single-track line was only completely renovated a few years ago and is therefore actually considered to be intact.
Another possibility is that the train was going too fast, 100 km/h is allowed on the section.
"The processing could take weeks or months," says the police spokesman.
For the time being, the entire train has to be salvaged, and that may still take some time.
The two heavy-duty cranes can only move the parts centimeter by centimetre.
In order to remove the wagons from the scene of the accident, they have to be cut up and loaded onto trucks, the police spokesman explains.
Around 300 assistants are deployed in Burgrain.
In the morning, the Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) praised her work.
He expressed his condolences to the families of the victims and said something that is particularly memorable: his thoughts are also with those who would have survived the accident unharmed.
»The mental wounds they have experienced must now be worked through.«
The sight of the red train inevitably draws attention to the fact that Deutsche Bahn actually wanted to make headlines this weekend with other news: the nine-euro ticket that had just been introduced.
Holidaymakers and commuters are out and about all over the country trying out the ticket.
Accompanied by journalists who expect crowded trains and remarkable stories.
The nine-euro ticket is valid for local transport – for example in regional trains like the one that derailed near Burgrain.
Especially on this Pentecost weekend, which drew attention to German train traffic, the accident was all the more shocking.
A single road leads so close to the scene of the accident that a view of the train is possible.
It leads over a bridge on which onlookers stop, mountain bikers roll past extra slowly.
You will be sent away by the police.
Helicopters keep circling above the crashed train.
Otherwise it is comparatively quiet at the scene of the accident, the helpers are working in a concentrated manner, only the squeaking and groaning of the cranes can be heard now and then.
Someone has reached the bridge railing and tied a small bouquet of flowers to it.
In memory of the victims.
They are wildflowers that bloom purple and yellow.
