Compiègne Wagon

The carriage of Compiègne is the former dining car and later lounge car, where in November 1918 in a clearing at Compiegne the end of hostilities between the German Empire and the forces of the Entente were agreed (first Armistice ). In June 1940, the capitulation of France against the German Reich was also signed there ( Second Armistice at Compiègne ).

History

The car with the 2419 D was in 1914 in Saint- Denis for the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons- Lits ( CIWL ) built as a dining car and was as such until August 1918 in use. Then the passenger car has been converted into an office for Marshal Foch, who took advantage of him by the end of October 1918 to September 1919.

November 11, 1918 of the Supreme Commander of the Entente for the Western Front, the armistice was signed in this so the " car of Compiègne " become a mobile office, which ended the First World War. According to the September 1919 CIWL donated the vehicle to the Musée de l' Armée ( Army Museum ), housed in the Hôtel des Invalides in Paris. There the car from 1921 to 1927 was exhibited in the courtyard.

At the request of the Mayor of Compiègne and with the support of the U.S. American Arthur Henry Fleming, the car was restored and placed in a specially created museum building on the CLAIRIERE de l'Armistice ( " Armistice clearing ").

At the signing of the armistice between Germany and France on June 22, 1940, Hitler had to get the vehicle out of the building and set it back to the forest clearing at Compiegne. Subsequently, the car was put on the road to Berlin and issued a week at the Berlin Cathedral. Then you put it on a siding. In 1944 the car to Thuringia, was first placed in Ruhla and later to Gotha Crawinkel, near the tunnel system Jonastal brought. There he was destroyed in March 1945 in the face of the advancing U.S. Army is suspected of the SS. But there are also other opinions that the car could have been destroyed by an aircraft attack, former prisoner of the camp Ohrdruf or by the civilian population.

On the CLAIRIERE de l'Armistice one of identical cars of the same series have been prepared.

Whereabouts of the wreck in 1945

The base of the car has probably survived the fire and was rebuilt at the end of the 1940s in the Soviet Zone and GDR to a work car. After a pause use the car was rebuilt again in the 1970s and # 17 used as factory cars in the course work of Gotha; He was nicknamed sofa due to its soft suspension. The only indication of the origin of the car substructure were cast letters in the journal box lids. Following an incident the car was scrapped in 1986.

Impressions from Crawinkel and Compiègne

• Buffer to the memory of the last location of the car in Crawinkel
• Memorial stone
• Plaque on the memorial stone
• Stand of the car in the forest of Compiègne
• The clearing of Compiègne: In the middle of the monument pedestal, left the stand of carriages of General Foch, in the background the memorial of Alsace -Lorraine