When the railway line between Aachen and Liège was completed in the 19th century, Herbesthal became the first frontier station in Europe at which a railway line crossed an international border. Until 1920, the station was in Prussia and was operated by Prussian State Railways. As a consequence of the Treaty of Versailles, however, it was ceded to Belgium together with the region of Eupen-Malmedy. With its function as a frontier station, Herbesthal experienced a tremendous upturn: a customs office, several customs agencies, hauliers and grocers took up residence. A gasworks to supply the station, the many railway houses and the streets with town gas, and a school building and the community centre were erected. Next to the customs post at the station, an international postal collection office was also built at that time. With its magnificent interior, Herbesthal Station was regarded as one of the most beautiful in the whole of Europe.
Sadly, hardly any of all that now remains. In the 1980s, the station and all the buildings that went with it were pulled down. Only the former parcel store behind the station building was spared, and that was converted into a clubhouse in 2017/2018. However, looking at charts that cover the area, one can well imagine how magnificent the building once was and the kind of international public that frequented it. A memorial puts one in mind of the many Jewish children who were taken to safer places on trains leaving Germany before the outbreak of the Second World War. In Herbesthal, many of them set foot in a country in which – for the very first time – they were not second-class citizens.
Via the Pre-Ravel cycling trail, the former station building has a connection to the Vennbahn and the hiking trails to Lontzen and Walhorn.
