The Grand Duchy of Hesse State Railways (''Großherzoglich Hessischen Staatseisenbahnen'') belonged to the ''

Länderbahnen The ''Länderbahnen'' (singular: ''Länderbahn'') were the various state railways of the German Confederation and the German Empire in the period from about 1840 to 1920, when they were merged into the Deutsche Reichsbahn after the First World War ...

'' at the time of the

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

. In the 19th century, the

Grand Duchy of Hesse The Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine (german: link=no, Großherzogtum Hessen und bei Rhein) was a grand duchy in western Germany that existed from 1806 to 1918. The Grand Duchy originally formed from the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt in 1806 ...

consisted of three provinces. Between the rivers

Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , so ...

Main Main may refer to: Geography * Main River (disambiguation) **Most commonly the Main (river) in Germany * Main, Iran, a village in Fars Province *"Spanish Main", the Caribbean coasts of mainland Spanish territories in the 16th and 17th centuries ...

and

Neckar The Neckar () is a river in Germany, mainly flowing through the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg, with a short section through Hesse. The Neckar is a major right tributary of the Rhine. Rising in the Schwarzwald-Baar-Kreis near Schwenn ...

the province of

Starkenburg Starkenburg is an historical region in the State of Hesse, Germany, comprising the area south of the Main River and east of the Rhine, around the regional capital Darmstadt. Geography The region is named after Starkenburg Castle, above Heppen ...

embraced the

Odenwald The Odenwald () is a low mountain range in the German states of Hesse, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. Location The Odenwald is located between the Upper Rhine Plain with the Bergstraße and the ''Hessisches Ried'' (the northeastern section ...

and the

Hessian Ried The Hessian Ried (german: Hessische Ried) is a low-lying, agricultural region that forms part of the northeastern area of the Upper Rhine Plain. It is situated in South Hesse in west central Germany. Location and description The Hessian Ried lie ...

. It also included the ducal residence of

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...

. West of the Rhine, was the province of

Rhenish Hesse Rhenish Hesse or Rhine HesseDickinson, Robert E (1964). ''Germany: A regional and economic geography'' (2nd ed.). London: Methuen, p. 542. . (german: Rheinhessen) is a region and a former government district () in the German state of Rhineland- ...

(''Rheinhessen'') with the towns of

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-we ...

Worms Worms may refer to: *Worm, an invertebrate animal with a tube-like body and no limbs Places *Worms, Germany, a city **Worms (electoral district) *Worms, Nebraska, U.S. *Worms im Veltlintal, the German name for Bormio, Italy Arts and entertainme ...

and Bingen. The province of

Upper Hesse The term Upper Hesse (german: Provinz Oberhessen) originally referred to the southern possessions of the Landgraviate of Hesse, which were initially geographically separated from the more northerly Lower Hesse by the . Later, it became the name of ...

(''Oberhessen''), which included the

Vogelsberg The is a large volcanic mountain range in the German Central Uplands in the state of Hesse, separated from the Rhön Mountains by the Fulda river valley. Emerging approximately 19 million years ago, the Vogelsberg is Central Europe's larges ...

and the

Wetterau The Wetterau is a fertile undulating tract, watered by the Wetter, a tributary of the Nidda River, in the western German state of Hesse, between the hilly province Oberhessen and the north-western Taunus mountains. Bettina von Arnim writes of We ...

was not directly linked by land to the others. As a result of its lack of territorial integrity, the state did not initially build its own state railway. Rather it took part in joint state railway projects with its neighbouring states: These were the: *

Main-Neckar Railway The Main-Neckar Railway (german: Main-Neckar–Eisenbahn, MNE) is a main line railway west of the Odenwald in the Upper Rhine Plain of Germany that connects Frankfurt am Main to Heidelberg via Darmstadt, Bensheim and Weinheim. It was opened in 1 ...

with

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

and

Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in South Germany, in earlier times on both sides of the Upper Rhine but since the Napoleonic Wars only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Baden originated from the House of Zähringen. Baden is ...

Main–Weser Railway , native_name = Main-Weser-Bahn , native_name_lang = de , image = Bahnhof Niederweimar.jpg , caption = Main-Weser-Bahn at Niederweimar , type = Heavy rail, Passenger/freight railIntercity rail, Regional rail, Commuter rail , st ...

with Frankfurt and

Kurhessen The Electorate of Hesse (german: Kurfürstentum Hessen), also known as Hesse-Kassel or Kurhessen, was a landgraviate whose prince was given the right to elect the Emperor by Napoleon. When the Holy Roman Empire was abolished in 1806, its pri ...

* Frankfurt-Offenbach Local Railway with the Free City of Frankfurt As for the rest, a large number of projects by the private

Hessian Ludwig Railway Company The Hessian Ludwig Railway (German: ''Hessische Ludwigsbahn'') or HLB with its network of 697 kilometres of railway was one of the largest privately owned railway companies in Germany. Early history The Hessian Ludwig Railway was a product of ...

was encouraged. Not until 1876 did the

found its own state railway. Its basis was the acquisition of the

Upper Hessian Railway Company The Upper Hessian Railway Company (''Oberhessische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'') was a private concern whose aim was to build and run railway lines in the province of Upper Hesse in the Grand Duchy of Hesse, a state within the German Empire in the 19t ...

. This opened and operated the

and Lahn-Kinzig lines from

Giessen Giessen, spelled Gießen in German (), is a town in the German state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of both the district of Giessen and the administrative region of Giessen. The population is approximately 90,000, with roughly 37,000 univers ...

between 1869 and 1871. In 1880, of a total of of route, lay in Hessen-Darmstadt and in Prussia. After its transition into state ownership, the network was expanded in accordance with a statute of 29 May 1884, by three

branch lines A branch line is a phrase used in railway terminology to denote a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Industrial spur An industri ...

, that fed into the Giessen -

Gelnhausen Gelnhausen () is a town, and the capital of the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is located approximately 40 kilometers east of Frankfurt am Main, between the Vogelsberg mountains and the Spessart range at the river Kinzig. It is one of ...

line in the Vogelsberg region: * Nidda–Schotten railway from 26 May 1888 * Stockheim–Gedern railway from 1 October 1888 * Hungen–Laubach railway from 1 June 1890 Another state branch line, the Eberstadt–Pfungstadt railway was opened on 20 December 1886. It was only {{convert, 1.9, km, abbr=on long and was operated by the "Main-Neckar Railway", but had its own staff, locomotives and coaches. In 1897 the Hessian State Railways were merged into the

Prussian-Hessian Railway Company The Royal Prussian and Grand-Ducal Hessian State Railways (German: ''Königlich Preußische und Großherzoglich Hessischen Staatseisenbahnen'' or ''K.P.u.G.H.St.E.'') was a state-owned network of independent railway divisions in the German states o ...

See also