The head of the high-speed train is slowly driven through the gate of the industrial hall. The structure is still nothing more than a white object milled from solid. Two half trains and a platform have already been set up in the hall as mock-ups in original size. The accessible models of the ICE 3 and the structurally related, technically different ICE T tilting train were used by engineers, technicians and designers at the end of 1995 to try out the shape of the trains on a 1: 1 scale. One after the other, the heads are precisely fitted and the interior work begins. The suppliers manufacture the mock-ups under high pressure until the production decision is finally made.
Seldom has such a great deal of effort been put into a Deutsche Bahn train - and not since then.
The chairman of the board, Heinz Dürr, declared the design to be a top priority, also because at that time the design was seen as an element of the corporate strategy.
Quality should pay off in the long term.
Still defining the style today
The railway celebrates 30 years of ICE traffic. The DB Museum Nürnberg therefore not only shows the original head of the mock-up from 1995. Since October, the “Design & Bahn” exhibition has also shown exhibits that have not been or have never been open to the public for a long time: rare 1:10 models from around 1900, doors of the Berlin S-Bahn from the 1930s, the competition model of the Neumeister Design office for the ICE T. The exhibition spans the beginnings of the Deutscher Werkbund, when architects came up with the first drafts for railway design, to new concepts with which travel in regional and urban transport should become more diverse and attractive.
Some of the people involved in the design process report on their experiences in films. One of them is Andreas Bergsträßer, who was a designer in Alexander Neumeister's team in the mid-1990s and who now works in the successor office of N + P Industrial Design in Munich. At that time, Neumeister prevailed against four competitors. His redesign of an entire family of trains continues to shape the style today: it became a milestone in rail design. When doubts arose as to whether his office might be too small for the job, Neumeister suggested bringing some competitors on board. Siemens Design designed the engine driver's cockpit and the information system for the trains. Designworks from the United States took care of the seats. However, Neumeister monitored all relevant design details itself.
Not a realistic option in Germany
Neumeister had been concerned with high-speed transport since the end of his studies at the Ulm School of Design (HfG) in the 1960s.
On behalf of the technology company MBB, for which he worked as a consultant, he found forms for something for which there was no model.
He became known for the design of magnetic levitation trains.
They could be admired or even tried out at industrial trade fairs, gardening and transport exhibitions.
But for the Transrapid, a completely new transport system, gliding on concrete stilts, there was no realistic option in densely populated Germany.