This morning, two trains run by the Meridian company had a head-on collision on the route from Holzkirchen to Rosenheim, near the town of Bad Aibling. Here's the BBC's story as well as the German-language story from the Holzkirchner Merkur

If you don't know, I did my study abroad in Holzkirchen. It was perhaps the greatest experience of my life. It helped me become more independent and sure that studying German was, for me, the proper choice. It also means that I saw the trains that ran on the line where the crash occurred almost every single day on my way to school during the summer of 2012 since the train station was between my house and the school. I even took a train on that route once when I went to Austria for a day. 

Additionally, Meridian operates my favorite train of all time, the BOB (Bayerische Oberlandbahn; Bavarian Overland Train). The BOB offers service between Munich and Holzkirchen in less than an hour. We took this train into the city at least twice a week while I was studying abroad, and I used it again later when I visited Holzkirchen while working in Erfurt. The BOB is such a quintessential German experience for me: quiet, on-time trains that offer reliable service without having to drive. Since the train is privately owned and only covers a short distance, it is usually very clean. There are so many differences between the south-central United States and Germany, but this is the first one that I encountered, and the one that I'm most fond of. 

Train wrecks in Germany often make me think about language and how our language must sound to others. In German, the word for wreck is "Unglück." However, the work "Glück" means "joy" or "luck." Every time I see a wreck or disaster mentioned in the German media, my first thought is that this seems like a horrible situation to term "unlucky." Then I remember that the word means "disaster" in this case. Our words are such a powerful thing, and yet sometimes we may not think through how it is perceived by those who don't share our language. There is no German word that better describes this incident than "Unglück." Words such as this, which cause me to do an unnecessary double-take, make me wonder if it is possible to be totally fluent in a language I learned as an adult. It also makes me wonder what our English words are worth. People are always "heartbroken" after tragedies, even if they have no connection to the incident. How many times can your heart break for disasters before it ceases to cause you pain?

One of the last things my study abroad group did in Holzkirchen was act out the final scene of the play Der Besuch der alten Dame at the train station. The Germans there thought we were crazy, but the final scene of the play takes place at a train station, so there we were. The empty platform on the right in the photo is the place from which the Holzkirchen-Rosenheim train leaves.

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Photos from own collection.