Forbidden History - Witches' Railway: From Pagan Myths to WWII & the Stasi

Episode Date: November 27, 2025

In this episode, we dive into the fascinating history of the Harz Railway in Germany. A story that holds tales of witches, top-secret Nazi weapons programmes and political Cold War spies. Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://surfshark.com/forbiddenhistory⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or use code FORBIDDENHISTORY at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN! Go to ⁠nakedwines.co.uk/forbidden⁠ to get a £30 voucher and 6 top-rated wines for just £39.99, with delivery included. Cast List:  Dominic Selwood: Historian & Journalist Tim Dunn: Railway Historian Guy Walters: Author & Historian Dirk Bahnsen: Communications Manager, HSB  Claire Barratt: Industrial Engineer  Sabine Houben: Local Guide  Dr Friedhart Knolle: Harz National Park Authority  Dr Regine Heubaun: Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp Memorial Nigel Jones: Author & Historian  Stefan Hordler: Director, Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp Memorial  Horst Dittman: Former Driver  Jurgen Steimecke: Former Driver  Christoph Lampert: Director, Brockenhaus Museum  Dietmar Schultke: Former GDR Border Guard Eric Meyers: Narrator  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the Forbidden History Podcast. We're an independent podcast, and advertisements help keep us going. Ads are automatically placed and not specifically chosen or endorsed by us, unless read by me the host. Thanks for supporting the show. The Hearts, Central Germany. The picturesque and rugged scenery of this mountain range has long been closely tied with European folklore and ancient pagan rituals. The hearts is at the epicentre of that dark, magical aspect of German storytelling. It's very much a land where myth and folklore can flourish.

But if you look behind the myths and legends of the mountain, you'll discover a very special steam railway cutting through its landscape. A trip along the heart is actually a trip through Germany's story and its history. In this episode, we'll see how the history of this little-known train line charts the incredible story of Germany itself. Because it tells eloquently the story of modern Germany, from unification when it was first built in the late 1800s through World War II and on into the Cold War. This is the Hearts Mountain Railway, and here is its hidden story. Every day, deep in the heart of modern Germany,

Ordinary people make an extraordinary journey on a steam railway that runs a daily schedule serving a network of towns and villages in a central highlands area known as the Harts. The Harts Railway is utterly unique because it's the largest steam network in Europe and also it's not a heritage railway, it's a working functioning railway that the local people use. If you're taking that train ride on the Harts Mountain Railway, don't just look at it as, a picturesque train journey. In fact, you're on a journey through history and time. The Hart's narrow-gauge railway network is comprised of three lines. The Trans-Hards running from Nordhausen to Wernergheroda,

the Selk of Valley running from Quedlingburg to Hasselflder, and the Brockin starting at Dry Annen-Hona Station and making its way to the summit of the Brockin Mountain, the region's highest peak. All of these are serviced by the network's incredible fleet of vintage trains. The railway today runs the almost entirely original rolling stock and locomotives. You've got stock from the 1950s, even in 1930s, and they're then used day in, day out, because they're so perfect for the line.

They were built specifically for it, and they are suited so well. With up to 15 locomotives still in daily use, The Harts is one of the busiest steam railways on Earth. A remarkable fact, considering Germany is home to some of the most state-of-the-art train networks in the world. The real question is, in the modern world, how is it that this steam railway is still here? The answer lies within the history of Germany itself. From its rebirth as an international superpower, to its dark and turbulent years that ultimately resulted in the division of a country and its people.

You can go all the way back to 1841 and look at the words of an economist like Friedrich Liszt, who was saying at that very time that railways needed to be built if all these states that would comprise Germany would literally be linked together. And that's what the railways would do. The newly formed Germany required a vast train network that would enable the country to both unite and expand.

It needed to be able to transport its people and goods across the nation. In many ways, it was the railways that helped weld Germany together as a new country. The Hearts in Central Germany was an area rich with minerals and natural resources, ready to be exploited. The whole network was built between 1880 and 1905. It was built because they're raising tourism in this time, and because of the raising industry in the hearts mountains. And it played a critical role in bringing the country together, in connecting raw materials, consumers, industry and people. The towns and villages served by this railway

also hold a particularly special place in Germany's national identity. Quedlingburg is often referred to as the cradle of Germany. Its majestic abbey was once the seat of Hennington, Henry Fowler, a nobleman who was considered by many to be the first king of Germany after uniting the warring Germanic tribes in the 10th century. To this day, the surrounding areas remain steeped in the country's myths, legends, and traditional folklore, making it a place of interest for those wishing to explore the darker side of the Hartz Mountains.

The Hart's region has a deep connection into the subconscious and imagination of German people. All those famous fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm, you think of Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, all told throughout Europe and indeed throughout the world. But a lot of these stories originate in Germany and they originate from mountains, from deep, dark forests. The hearts is at the epicentre of that dark, magical aspect of German storytelling. It's very much a land where, you know, myth and folklore can flourish. The Germans today still love this, and actually a lot of us like Germany for that

reason. The main reason for the hearts being a central point for folklore, paganism and witchcraft is due to the region's highest peak, the Brockin. Its mystical landscape has inspired some of Germany's most culturally influential people, such as Wagner, the Brothers Grimm, and the celebrated German writer Goethe. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who of course holds a place in German literature and German culture very similar to Shakespeare. His central work is the Faust legend. In Goethe's play, the central character, Faust, unhappy and disillusioned with his life, makes a pact with the devil in order to receive unlimited knowledge and earthly pleasures. Essentially, this seemed to find some sort of echo in Germany.

idea of the conflict between good and evil and of essentially a good man selling his soul to the devil. Sabina Huben is a local guide from the Hart's area. She has come to a place called Valpurgis Hall in an area known locally as the Witch's Dance Floor. Valpurgis Hall, it's a place that is decorated with paintings of scenes from Goethe's book Faust, Dr. Faustus. This shadowy figure, that is obviously this is the devil, this is Satan, this is Mephisto, whatever you might call him, dancing with one of the witches. You have the big shadow coming up through the fire. You've got, of course, a black cat always coming along with witches, and they're probably cooking some potion. The painting takes inspiration from Faust, illustrating a scene that takes place on the brocken mountain, known as Valpurg.

Orgusnacht, or simply Witches Night. And in this Faust's story, he made these tales of the witches part of the literature. And from that point on everybody said, we have to go to the Brocken because Goethe wrote so much on the Witches, we have to go to the Witches Mountain, the Brocken. The Broken Mountain itself is steeped in mysteries. For centuries, it's been one of the epicenters of devil worship, Satanism and the darkest sides of paganism, but all of that is encapsulated and coalesces on the Brockin, which is the centre of it. It's not just notable because it's so high, but also because it's the centre of all the kind of pagan associations, the magic, the supernatural phenomena. So it's a really special place in the middle of an even bigger, an equally special place.

They built the Haars railway system as a fairy tale. It is part of the folklore of Germany and at the time, a way of bringing nation together with its dreams and its aspirations. But we all know that fairy stories quite often have a really dark, nasty undertone, and I'm afraid that part of this railway story isn't so pleasant. The hearts, mountains, and in particular the Brockin, came to represent all that was great and good about Germany. Freedom, national pride, and above all, unity. But all of that was soon to change. We continue the story after the break.

The rise of the Nazi Party in the 1930s would transform the region from a peaceful symbol of hope to a place of suffering and despair. Nordhausen has the honor of being the very first station on the Hartz Railway. From this depot, you can connect to all other lines on the narrow gauge steam network. Less than 100 meters from this station is another train line that tells of a much darker time in the region's history. This forgotten train line, which was never completed, was rediscovered during the 90s after the reunification.

Construction of the Herringen-Helma Valley line started in 1944, with the use of forced labor from the nearby concentration camp at Nordhausen Middlebao Dora. The Nazis had ordered prisoners to lay the standard gauge track at high speed in order to relieve the build-up of rail traffic on the main line. Construction on the Helmetalbahn started in early summer in 1944, and it was meant to relieve the railway line between Nordhausen and Nordheim. There was a regular Reichsbahn line,

which was seriously overburdened by the arms industry. The route to Nordhausen on the Southern Hartz Railway line had become the most densely traveled connection in the whole of Germany. This was because Nordhausen had been chosen as the site of a top secret Nazi weapons program. The V2 rocket in Hitler's mind was going to be a game changer. This was a rocket that was going to fly at six to seven times the speed of sound. It was going to land on enemy cities and obliterate them.

It was going to be the weapon that was going to win the war for Hitler. The ultimate purpose of the V rockets was a war-winning secret weapon. It could do damage which conventional bombers could not do at much less cost. The V-1s were pilotless aircraft rather like today's drones and the V-2s were rockets and they could be launched from great distance away from bases, hundreds of miles from their targets, hitting, as it were, from out of a blue sky, a city and inflicting huge damage much, much more than a conventional bomber fleet could do. These devastating rocket-launched missiles were originally being manufactured at a site

in Pinamunda on the Baltic coast. But heavy Allied bombing air raids in 1943 forced the Nazis to look for a new location to produce the V-2s. And where better than the Hartz Mountains. It was the perfect place to assemble this deadly new weapon. Being rich in natural minerals, the Hearts was littered with mines which stretched deep into the landscape. An ideal place to build a factory safe from Allied bombs. Kornstein Hill, in Nordhausen, was chosen as the location for the new V2 rocket facility.

Its previous use as a gypsum mine had created an underground network of secure tunnels and chambers, but it was still nevertheless a mine, and turning it into a factory was going to require a great deal of labor. To meet this need, the Nazi High Command decided to establish a labor camp where inmates were forced to work in the most inhumane conditions imaginable. Middle Baudora was one of the most atrocious places in the whole of Nazi Germany in the Second World War. It was a place where inmates from all over Europe were literally worked to death. And in fact, 20,000 people died in Middle Bldora during the making of the V2 rocket. Even by World War II German labor camp standards, the conditions were notoriously horrific.

Punishments, hangings, brutality, starvation, it was a world of nightmares. Many of the prisoners who were forced to enter these tunnels never saw daylight again. About 2,000 prisoners were housed. They shared everything. So medical conditions were horrible, yet lights everywhere. pilot, no shower, nothing. So the mortality rate was very high. Stefan Hordler is a historian and the curator of what is now a memorial site

to the thousands of prisoners forced to work within this vast, top-secret facility. In total, this complex had a length of about 20 kilometers. The concentration camp prisoners had to go in into every area, lower the level, widen it, go deeper into the mountain and prepare it for the machines that were brought in to produce the V2 and at the very end also the V1. The slave labourers might have been saved from Allied bombings and Allied observation. They certainly were not safe from other fatal perils. They suffered from lung diseases, they were working like moles in conditions of damp and blackness and extreme cold and heat. and so they were literally worked to death, many of them.

And of course the awful irony is that more people died making the V2 than were actually killed by the V2. So you get a sense there of quite how murderous this place was. An estimated 60,000 prisoners were used in the construction and maintenance of Middlebowl. But production came to a halt in 1945 as the Allies began to close in on the Hart's area. The construction of this railway line was never completed because the war was lost for Germany. The end of the war came quicker than the completion of the construction.

Dora was eventually liberated by the Allied troops, and the remaining prisoners were given care and medical treatment. Many few of the scientists who managed ran and were responsible for the V2 facility in the hearts were ever put on trial. If they were willing to work for the West, they were spirited away into allied programs, developing rocketry, hopefully faster than the Soviets could. And by the end of May 1945, people across Europe were celebrating VE Day. But the end of the World War was also the beginning of the Cold War. and a difficult road lay ahead for the narrow gauge railway. When the Second World War ended, half of Europe disappeared behind the Iron Curtain,

which divided Europe between the Free West and the Soviet East. And Germany was right in the middle of that division. Germany was a divided country. The Hart's Mountains, this beautiful area of countryside, this legendary place, was itself divided. So this dividing line ran through the very solid. of Germany. The iconic Hart's landscape, along with the towns and villages within, was split in two.

But surprisingly, it was this act that helped to preserve both the network and its rolling stock. The company operating the railway was based in Eastern Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic, during a time when money, resources, and spare parts were hard to come by. Both German states had a very different economical systems and the people in the East urgently need trains because they hadn't enough cars. The people needed railways, buses and public services to get from one place to another. Without the ability to purchase the latest locomotive technology, they had to be resourceful. When it was possible, the trains would be repaired and when it was not, they would be remade,

using the original designs from the 1930s. One of the things that makes this railway system so unique is that it's not actually had much of a break-in service. So it's not about conserving or doing up something you found in the scrapyard. It's been about maintaining what was already there. And the current rolling stock is still going strong. It's been there since the 1950s, and it's still there moving people around

just as it was a hundred years ago. Keeping the locomotives maintained and operational was of the utmost importance. And it was for this reason that the drivers operating the trains on the Hart's narrow gauge railway were also skilled engineers. All of the drivers here started as apprentices learning from the ground up and honing their skills, such as Horst Ditman, one of the network's former drivers. I came to the railway more by chance, and I developed a real passion, especially for the steam engine. It was a lot of fun, even as a stoker, watching the driver over his shoulder to get to know the trade.

So my ambition was, of course, to become an engine driver. To me, this engine I operate is alive. I feel what I operate, the power of the machine. Horst was an East German working on the line from Wernergeroda to Nordhausen, a vital service for those living on the eastern side. But due to its proximity to the border, the East German police kept a close eye on what happened both in and around the train network. I once had an experience during the GDR times, when arriving at a station in my train, on the train, on the train, On the track next to me, there was an engine from the west.

Both the locomotive and its driver were from West Germany and under GDR law. Horst was forbidden from having any form of contact with citizens from across the border. Despite this, when the West German driver said hello, Horst responded in kind. I greeted him back, of course. Then, when I got out on the platform, there was a station commander of the border troops. He said to me, you know that any contact with Federal German citizens is prohibited. I replied, I don't know what upbringing you had, but my parents told me that when someone greets you, you do the same. And that's what I did.

In a time when punishments for breaking the rules could be very severe, Horace was lucky not to have had any further action taken against him. The Stasi was notorious for the thoroughness and the viciousness of its punishments. In addition to the usual prison, torture, disappearing murder, they had a particular punishment called which translates as something like biodegrading or decomposition and that was the complete erosion of someone's life they would work specifically to destroy your job your family your relationships until there was nothing left of you in East Germany with typical German thoroughness the police state the secret police state was bought if you like to its most perfect form in that the Stasi the

secret police of the German Democratic Republic of East Germany had a watching brief over every single citizen. Horst continued with his work on the trains and was even tasked with delivering coal to the Bracken. It was destined for the Russian troops and members of the Stasi stationed in the barracks at the peak of the mountain. But what were they doing there in the remote surroundings of the hearts? Steinmecca was one of only a handful of drivers given permission to operate the trains at the summit of the Brockin. Such was the secrecy surrounding the Stasi activities there. Jürgen had to be carefully vetted to ensure he was not a security risk. They didn't ask or tell you you could drive up here.

You just had to do it. Because I met all the criteria, I was married, had children, and had taken the oath to the state. I had to do it. It wasn't possible to contact the Russian soldiers. I wouldn't say they were locked in, but they were inside the buildings. And they watched to see they didn't come out of the building and make official contact with us. The Stasi had good reason for wanting to keep what they were doing quiet, because they had turned the Brockin into a top-secret listening station

with the capability of spying across not just East Germany, but also the whole of the West and even further. The whole area of the Brockin became a military-restricted area in August, 1961, when the Berlin Wall has been built, and nobody of the common people was allowed to be. and people was allowed to come here. Christoph Lampert is the director at Broken House Museum. Nastasi, they were able to listen to every radio news, telephone calls,

broadcasted from Western Germany to West Berlin and back. The Secret Service of the GDR had a very, very big range. They were able to listen over the English Channel, right to Britain and right to Scotland. And in southwestern direction, they were able to listen right to the border of Spain. So that was a very, very big range considering the 80s. It was said that working in the remote bleakness of the mountain, unable to communicate with anyone from the outside for months on end, tested even the most loyal soldiers and Stasi agents.

Even at the bottom of the Brockin, along the railway lines and security blockades, many employees of the GDR, such as Dietmar Schultke, were dreaming of a life elsewhere. We stay here at the borderline between East and West Germany, and that is the last place in former East Germany, and behind this territory starts West Germany. Dietmar joined the GDR Army in 1987. He was specially selected for the position of border guards.

the position of Border Guard due to the fact he had no relatives living in the West. That was my job as a soldier with my partner to control the fence. As a dog handler, he was tasked with keeping the West Germans out and the East Germans in, even if necessary, by use of deadly force. It's not a good feeling because you have Kalashnikov with 60 shots. I must stay with my captain at this watchtower, maybe eight hours every day and look for the refugees. In GDR times, there were no official maps of the hearts or the Brocken region. So anyone attempting to illegally cross the border would have to use landmarks for directions.

The railway line nearby the first fence and people trying to escape need a way to come to the border and they use the railway line. Many citizens of the GDR were desperate to flee the harsh and restrictive conditions of the East. Some for economic or political reasons, others simply to be reunited with family, friends and loved ones. Even Deepmar was hiding a secret. When I was offered the position, I had to be a position.

I had a dream to go from east to west Germany to escape because I was thinking to my girlfriend in New York City and I want to meet her and I want to live in freedom. That was the reason. For Dietmar to escape to the West, he would have needed help. But life in the GDR was such that no one really knew who they could trust. The Stasi was also a part of the border system. In my company we are maybe more than 100 soldiers and every 10th soldier was a spy for the Stasi. It's estimated that the Stasi had one agent for every 166 people in East Germany.

But if you count all the informants who were made to work with the Stasi, the numbers more like one in 12. For those like Dietmar longing for a free and unified Germany, they would soon get their wish. As the East German government started to falter, the fall of the Berlin Wall signaled the beginning of the reunification of Germany. By 1990, the country and its people were once again united. But the fall of the government in the East had its consequences. Economic turmoil meant an uncertain future for the previously state-owned narrow-gauge steam railway. After the reunification, they had a lot of problems.

The German National Railway in the GDR didn't want to have the narrow gauge any longer. They want to sell it or close it or anything. So the main problem was how to preserve the whole network. But in 1991, the people united once again. This time, forming a society to repair and maintain the railway that had come to represent the heart and soul of Germany. and Seoul of Germany. Communities and districts sit along our network.

They try to find a way to preserve the whole network. Not only the Broganlein which was interesting for private investors to earn money. They had the aim to preserve the whole network and so they found it out a private community company. In 1993, they took over the running of the steam railway itself, making it the first ever non-state run railway in West Germany, operating a regular service for passengers and goods. It was the first company owned by communities, districts and cities, so nowadays it's also unique because it's the only one who operate like that. The history has been different. The whole network of the Hudson Narrow Gate was situated in the

western part of Germany. I don't think that the whole network would exist today. The Haas Mountain System, due to politics and the Cold War, has a perfectly conserved, a conserved railway system, not a preserved one or a rebuilt one. It has the real deal. Every year, an estimated 1.1 million passengers continue to use the railway, either as a daily commute for the locals or as a means for the huge number of tourists to take in the breathtaking views from the region's highest and most famous point. In what is already regarded as a special area at the Hart's Mountains, the

brocken is the center of it all. It is the most special place. Every German knows the brocken. So we have a saying that the brocken mountain is a German. These high mountains, they are always symbols of feelings for nation building. So you can say the the broken mountain is the German. So the idea that the German unity has something to do with this broken, that is correct. So I think that the broken railway is really part of this story. Against the odds, this railway has managed to survive through a century burdened by war, civil unrest, and economic hardship. Continuously transporting people and goods,

across a region that has come to mean so much to the people of Germany. And it's for that very reason that the heart's narrow-gauge steam railway truly is one of the greatest railways in the world. Thanks for exploring the past with us today. If you like this episode, please be sure to follow for more. We post new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. Don't forget to leave a comment below, and feel free to leave us a rating or review.

Your feedback helps us reach more listeners like you. And for more from the Like a Shot Network, check out Where Did Everyone Go, Histories of the Abandoned, a deep dive into the incredible stories behind forgotten places, available now on your favorite podcast platforms. Thanks for listening.