The man, who didn't have a ticket, desperately hung on to cables connecting two carriages as the train sped at 282 kph towards Nuremburg.
A Hungarian passenger who got off his train and onto the platform at Ingolstadt for a cigarette hung on desperately as it began leaving the station without him.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
The 40 year old man, who didn't have a ticket, said he decided to jump onto the plates that connected two carriages as he had left his luggage on the train.
After travelling 30 kilometres along the track the train, travelling at 282 kph in the winter cold, made an unscheduled stop at a minor station and the man got off, completely unharmed.
Astonished eyewitnesses had alerted the rail authorities that they'd seen a figure clinging onto an inter-city train speeding through the countryside.
A police officer who happened to be travelling on the train apprehended the man who was then handed over to police at Kinding station and arrested.
He is due to face charges, including evading a fare.