In the following years, the railway became one of the strongest economic enterprises of the city and due to the good rail connections several industrial companies settled in Elsterwerda and nearby Biehla, causing significant population growth.

According to a personnel list of 21 November 1912, 129 Prussian and 24 Saxon railwaymen were employed in the station's freight facilities.

[citation needed] In 1914, there were plans to build a railway line from Burxdorf via Elsterwerda to Ortrand and preliminary talks were held to promote the sale of the shares of the proposed company.

The first air raids on Elsterwerda were carried out by the Allies in April 1945 and the town was attacked by low-flying aircraft.

After the end of the Second World War, clean-up and repair work on the railway premises soon began and so on 11 May 1945, the first train ran from the bridge over the Elbe in Niederwartha near Dresden via Elsterwerda to Berlin.

There was a serious accident affecting the entire station area and the adjacent depot on 20 November 1997, when a freight train with 22 petrol-filled tank cars derailed at a set of points due to speeding (90 km/h where 40 was required).

In total, 30 fire departments[Note 1] responded with 310 firefighters (working in shifts) and 62 vehicles, their operation lasted for 34 hours.

[4] The accident investigation revealed: An engine replacement at the previous stop, Berlin-Grünau, in the middle of the night, required testing of the brakes.

But several errors (lack of attention, misperception, deficient communication) by the driver and the assigned train preparation technician occurred.

The first error, caused by the driver, was to not connect the main brake's hoses and to not open the respective valves after coupling the engine to the first wagon.

The irresponsive, still activated brakes were misdiagnosed by the technician (who had to service three trains at the same time) to have a pressure higher than what the engine supplied.

The actual brake test never happened, but the driver later claimed to have received a positive confirmation.