Dignified setting: The commemoration of the terrible train accident in the Loisach floodplains a year ago took place in the pilgrimage church of St. Anton. © Dpa
Most people in the Garmisch-Partenkirchen district will not forget June 3, 2022: At that time, a regional train derailed in the Loisachauen. Five people died. One year after the terrible train accident, a moving memorial service took place in the pilgrimage church of St. Anton.
Garmisch-Partenkirchen – It was this very first song that made it so clear what this late morning was all about. Just one line from it said so much. The text read: "There are days in life without meaning!" June 3, 2022 was definitely one of them. It brought disaster to the people who were sitting on the regional train in the direction of Munich at around 12:15 p.m. on this Friday afternoon, the last day of school before the Whitsun holidays, when it derailed in the Loisach floodplains. Five people lost their lives. 78 were injured.
The year of mourning ends
A few of them sat in the pilgrimage church of St. Anton on Saturday. They were looking for fellowship, perhaps they were striving for what Martin Dubberke, the local Protestant pastor, said so clearly in this memorial service: "Today the year of mourning ends. We don't shed grief like an old garment, we don't forget those we've lost, but we should have the courage to let go of grief." Dubberke did this with a symbolic gesture: he took off his purple stole, exchanged it for a white one. "Violet is the color of sorrow, of suffering. We wear white at Easter, at baptism, when new life begins."
Numerous high-ranking representatives of the local rescue forces, but also of the police, including Vice President Frank Hellwig, or politicians had come to St. Anton to pause together in a small circle exactly 365 days after the terrible accident. Dean Andreas Lackermeier explained why this place of pilgrimage was deliberately chosen. "When something extraordinary happens, when people are faced with almost unsolvable tasks in life, then they come up here to St. Anton," emphasized the local Catholic priest of the Assumption of Mary in Partenkirchen. To Saint Anthony. "Then this is the space where I can be there with my life, telling me, 'You're not alone.'" As a symbol, he pointed to the Christ on the cross, who has found his place in the middle of the small church. "It's nice that so many people have come who don't want to celebrate this anniversary alone, but want to be together." The community, that is now the way into the future.
District Administrator Anton Speer (Free Voters) emphasized in his short speech that the death of the five people "should be a reminder that everything is being done to make our railway lines safer". He is aware that especially for those who experienced the disaster, the reappraisal is far from over. "We want you all to know that we won't leave you alone."
Performance of the rescue workers
Like Speer, Elisabeth Koch (CSU) once again emphasized the performance of the rescue forces. "You have all achieved superhuman things," emphasized the mayor of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. She saw people who went beyond their limits mentally and physically, who were exhausted and yet did not give up. Despite all the suffering, it was precisely in this dark hour that we saw "what our community is capable of. This is also the positive thing that we should take away from this Church today".
At the end of his speech, Speer made a request to the top: "That we may be spared from such misfortunes!" With a five-minute ringing in the churches between Grainau and Oberau at the very time when the train derailed a year ago, the market and the church community also sent a signal to the outside world - in memory of the victims, but also as a thank you to those who "did not duck away or look away" on these days, said Pastor Lackermeier. "Thank the Lord that there are so many who can help."