Railway Repair Factory Potsdam
The Reichsbahnausbesserungswerk (Railway Repair Factory - RAW for short) was located in Potsdam's Teltower Vorstadt district and in its heyday stretched from the Lange Brücke - at the Leipziger Dreieck - along Friedrich-Engels-Straße, almost as far as the Märkische Verlags- und Druck-Gesellschaft and had its main entrance opposite Schlaatzstraße.
In 1838, with the construction of the railroad line between Potsdam and Berlin, the "Königliche Eisenbahn-Hauptwerkstatt" (Royal Railway Main Workshop) was established here on an estate in the immediate vicinity of the then "Potsdam
Railway Station". The Königliche Eisenbahn-Hauptwerkstatt was the first German railroad repair workshop and became one of Potsdam's largest companies over the years.
When the German Reich was founded in 1871, the workshop was renamed the "Reichsbahnausbesserungswerk" ("RAW" for short). In addition, from 1894 to 1897, the Daheim colony was built for the workers of the RAW.
After the German reunification, the factory was closed in favor of West German repair works and left to decay. When the new main station was built in 1997, the old roundhouse with the turntable was demolished, but the old water tower and some historic depots were placed under a preservation order. The water tower was later renovated and converted into a café and bistro.
Construction of the "City-Quartier Potsdam" began on the former RAW site in 2007. Somewhat earlier, the remaining historic depots at the main station were also renovated and a casino and a video store were set up there - at the cabstand - among other things.
Planning permission was granted in July 2023 for the planned "Creative Village / Innovation Lab", a place of digital transformation on the former site of the Reichsbahnausbesserungswerk (RAW) on Friedrich-Engels-Straße. In addition to the preservation, renovation and extension of the listed RAW hall, the site will be expanded with two new buildings including an underground parking garage.
Visited: May 16, 2014
Location: Potsdam, Brandenburg, Germany
Status: Demolished/Renovation
Sources: PotsdamWiki and Potsdam.de
