:''This article is part of the
history of rail transport by country
The history of rail transport began in the BCE times. It can be divided into several discrete periods defined by the principal means of track material and motive power used.
Ancient systems
The Post Track, a prehistoric causeway in the va ...
series''
The history of rail transport in Germany can be traced back to the 16th century. The earliest form of railways,
wagonways
Wagonways (also spelt Waggonways), also known as horse-drawn railways and horse-drawn railroad consisted of the horses, equipment and tracks used for hauling wagons, which preceded steam-powered railways. The terms plateway, tramway, dramway, ...
, were developed in Germany in the 16th century. Modern German rail history officially began with the opening of the steam-powered
Bavarian Ludwig Railway
The Bavarian Ludwig Railway (''Bayerische Ludwigseisenbahn'' or ''Ludwigsbahn'') was the first steam-hauled railway opened in Germany. The ''Königlich privilegierte Ludwigs-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'' ("Royal Privileged Ludwig Railway Company ...
between
Nuremberg
Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
and
Fürth
Fürth (; East Franconian: ; yi, פיורדא, Fiurda) is a city in northern Bavaria, Germany, in the administrative division (''Regierungsbezirk'') of Middle Franconia. It is now contiguous with the larger city of Nuremberg, the centres of the t ...
on 7 December 1835. This had been preceded by the opening of the horse-drawn
Prince William Railway
The Prince William Railway Company (German: ''Prinz-Wilhelm-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'', PWE) was an early horse-drawn railway in Germany. It was founded as the ''Deil Valley Railway Company'' (''Deilthaler Eisenbahn Aktiengesellschaft'') in 1828 a ...
on 20 September 1831. The first long-distance railway was the
Leipzig-Dresden railway, completed on 7 April 1839.
Forerunners
The forerunner of the
railway
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, as in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, was to be found mainly in association with the
mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...
industry.
Mine cart
A minecart or mine cart (also known as a mine trolley or mine hutch) is a type of rolling stock found on a mine railway, used for moving ore and materials procured in the process of traditional mining. Minecarts are seldom used in modern operat ...
s were used below ground for transportation, initially using wooden rails, and were steered either by a guide pin between the rails or by flanges on the wheels.
A
wagonway
Wagonways (also spelt Waggonways), also known as horse-drawn railways and horse-drawn railroad consisted of the horses, equipment and tracks used for hauling wagons, which preceded Steam locomotive, steam-powered rail transport, railways. The t ...
operation was illustrated in Germany in 1556 by
Georgius Agricola
Georgius Agricola (; born Georg Pawer or Georg Bauer; 24 March 1494 – 21 November 1555) was a German Humanist scholar, mineralogist and metallurgist. Born in the small town of Glauchau, in the Electorate of Saxony of the Holy Roman Empir ...
(image right) in his work
De re metallica. This line used "Hund" carts with unflanged wheels running on wooden planks and a vertical pin on the truck fitting into the gap between the planks to keep it going the right way. The miners called the wagons ''Hunde'' ("dogs") from the noise they made on the tracks. Such wagonways soon became very popular in Europe.
From 1787, a network of
wagonway
Wagonways (also spelt Waggonways), also known as horse-drawn railways and horse-drawn railroad consisted of the horses, equipment and tracks used for hauling wagons, which preceded Steam locomotive, steam-powered rail transport, railways. The t ...
s, about 30 kilometres long, was also built above ground for the
coal mine
Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...
s of the
Ruhr
The Ruhr ( ; german: Ruhrgebiet , also ''Ruhrpott'' ), also referred to as the Ruhr area, sometimes Ruhr district, Ruhr region, or Ruhr valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 2,800/km ...
in order to speed up the transportation of coal to loading quays on the
River Ruhr
__NOTOC__
The Ruhr is a river in western Germany (North Rhine-Westphalia), a right tributary (east-side) of the Rhine.
Description and history
The source of the Ruhr is near the town of Winterberg in the mountainous Sauerland region, at an el ...
. The system was horse-drawn, and was not available to the public as transport. Some of these tracks were already using iron rails – hence the German term for railway, ''Eisenbahn'', which means "iron way". The Rauendahl Incline (
de) in Bochum (1787) and the Schlebusch-Harkort Coal Railway (
de) (1829) are examples of railways from those early days that can still be seen today. From 1827–1836, a
wagonway
Wagonways (also spelt Waggonways), also known as horse-drawn railways and horse-drawn railroad consisted of the horses, equipment and tracks used for hauling wagons, which preceded Steam locomotive, steam-powered rail transport, railways. The t ...
was also built in Austria and Bohemia from Budweis to Gmunden via Linz (
de).
The railways in Germany were given a significant impetus by the development of the first working locomotives in England (by
Richard Trevithick
Richard Trevithick (13 April 1771 – 22 April 1833) was a British inventor and mining engineer. The son of a mining captain, and born in the mining heartland of Cornwall, Trevithick was immersed in mining and engineering from an early age. He w ...
in 1804 and
John Blenkinsop
John Blenkinsop (1783 – 22 January 1831) was an English mining engineer and an inventor of steam locomotives, who designed the first practical railway locomotive.
He was born in Felling, County Durham, the son of a stonemason and was app ...
in 1812) and the opening of the first public railway, the
Stockton and Darlington Railway
The Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) was a railway company that operated in north-east England from 1825 to 1863. The world's first public railway to use steam locomotives, its first line connected collieries near Shildon with Darl ...
, in 1825. In Germany, even before the first real railways opened, there were attempts to use locomotives for railway operations. For example, in 1815, Johann Friedrich Krigar (
de) built a copy of the Blenkinsop steam engine at the Royal Iron Foundry (
de), Berlin, for
Königshütte in
Upper Silesia
Upper Silesia ( pl, Górny Śląsk; szl, Gůrny Ślůnsk, Gōrny Ślōnsk; cs, Horní Slezsko; german: Oberschlesien; Silesian German: ; la, Silesia Superior) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, located ...
; and, in 1818, he built another locomotive for the 1.8-kilometre-long ''Friederiken-Schienenweg'' (
de), a coal line near
Geislautern in the
Saarland
The Saarland (, ; french: Sarre ) is a state of Germany in the south west of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, and ...
, which had been converted in 1821 from wooden to iron rails. This engine worked, but failed to meet expectations due to its poor performance.
Railways before 1871
In the first half of the 19th century, opinions about the emerging railways in Germany varied widely. While business-minded people like
Friedrich Harkort
Friedrich Harkort (February 22, 1793, Hagen - March 6, 1880), known as the "Father of the Ruhr," was an early prominent German industrialist and pioneer of industrial development in the Ruhr region.(29 December 2009)Friedrich Harkort - Vorbild u ...
and Friedrich List saw in the railway the possibility of stimulating the economy and overcoming the patronization of little states, and were already starting railway construction in the 1820s and early 1830s, others feared the fumes and smoke generated by locomotives or saw their own livelihoods threatened by them.
Development
The political disunity of three dozen states and a pervasive conservatism made it difficult to build railways in the 1830s but the growing importance of the ''
Zollverein
The (), or German Customs Union, was a coalition of German states formed to manage tariffs and economic policies within their territories. Organized by the 1833 treaties, it formally started on 1 January 1834. However, its foundations had b ...
'' made the construction of a coherent infrastructure a necessity. The initial impetus to build was hampered by complicated negotiations on land ownership. However, by the 1840s, trunk lines did link the major cities; each German state being responsible for the lines within its own borders.
During the 1820s, the nobility favoured costly and economically inefficient (but prestigious) canal projects over railways. In the 1830s, the growing liberal middle classes supported railways as a progressive innovation with benefits for the German people in general as well as for the shareholders in the joint stock companies that built and operated the railroads. Though private concerns such as the Nuremberg-Fürth Railway were superseded by state railway companies in the 1840s, the government companies copied many of the private companies' methods and organizational structures. Economist
Friedrich List
Georg Friedrich List (6 August 1789 – 30 November 1846) was a German-American economist who developed the "National System" of political economy. He was a forefather of the German historical school of economics, and argued for the German Customs ...
, speaking for the liberals, summed up the advantages to be derived from the development of the railway system in 1841:
::First, as a means of national defence, it facilitates the concentration, distribution and direction of the army.
::2. It is a means to the improvement of the culture of the nation.... It brings talent, knowledge and skill of every kind readily to market.
::3. It secures the community against dearth and famine, and against excessive fluctuation in the prices of the necessaries of life.
::4. It promotes the spirit of the nation, as it has a tendency to destroy the Philistine spirit arising from isolation and provincial prejudice and vanity. It binds nations by ligaments, and promotes an interchange of food and of commodities, thus making it feel a unit. The iron rails become a nervous system, which, on the one hand, strengthens public opinion, and, on the other hand, strengthens the power of the state for police and governmental purposes.
Lacking a technological base at first, the Germans imported their engineering and hardware from Britain, but quickly learned the skills needed to operate and expand the railways. In many cities, the new railway shops were the centres of technological awareness and training, so that by 1850, Germany was self-sufficient in meeting the demands of railroad construction, and the railways were a major impetus for the growth of the new steel industry.
The following years saw a rapid growth: By the year 1845, there were already more than 2,000 km of railway line in Germany; ten years later that number was above 8,000. Most German states had state-owned railway companies, but there were several large private companies as well. One of these private companies, the
Rhenish Railway (''Rheinische Eisenbahn''), built the first ever international railway line. The line connected Cologne to
Antwerp
Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504, in Belgium and was opened in 1843.
The first German railways
In 1820,
Friedrich Harkort
Friedrich Harkort (February 22, 1793, Hagen - March 6, 1880), known as the "Father of the Ruhr," was an early prominent German industrialist and pioneer of industrial development in the Ruhr region.(29 December 2009)Friedrich Harkort - Vorbild u ...
founded a consortium with the aim of building a wagonway from the Schlebusch Coal Region (''Kohlerevier Schlebusch'') to
Haspe. The Schlesbusch-Harkort Coal Railway (''Schlebusch-Harkorter Kohlenbahn''), with a length of one
Prussian mile (7½ kilometres), was largely completed by 1828 and was the first railway to operate over such a distance. The haulage of coal on this
narrow gauge railway
A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and .
Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structur ...
was carried out by horses. On 1 April 1876,
steam locomotive
A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...
s took over the work. The railway is now closed and has been dismantled, although parts of the line may still be seen. The tracks and wagons were later used in a roughly similar way in the construction of the Deilthal Railway.
With the laying of iron rails from
Essen
Essen (; Latin: ''Assindia'') is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and D ...
by the
Deilthal Railway Company, founded in 1828, the first proper
railway line
Rail terminology is a form of technical terminology. The difference between the American term ''railroad'' and the international term ''railway'' (used by the International Union of Railways and English-speaking countries outside the United Sta ...
was built on German soil. According to one description, the tracks of this line consisted of oak
sleepers
''Sleepers'' is a 1996 American legal crime drama film written, produced, and directed by Barry Levinson, and based on Lorenzo Carcaterra's 1995 book of the same name. The film stars Kevin Bacon, Jason Patric, Brad Pitt, Robert De Niro, Dustin Ho ...
on which so-called ''Straßbäume'' (
wooden rails), each 3.30 metres long, were laid in pairs and fixed with wooden nails. Iron rails, 40 millimetres thick, were fastened onto the ''Straßbäumen'', again with wooden nails. The
track gauge
In rail transport, track gauge (in American English, alternatively track gage) is the distance between the two rails of a railway track. All vehicles on a rail network must have wheelsets that are compatible with the track gauge. Since many d ...
was initially just 82 cm. The line was one Prussian mile.
On 20 September 1831, the Deilthal Railway was ceremonially opened by
Prince William
William, Prince of Wales, (William Arthur Philip Louis; born 21 June 1982) is the heir apparent to the British throne. He is the elder son of King Charles III and his first wife Diana, Princess of Wales.
Born in London, William was educat ...
, a son of the Prussian king,
Frederick William II, and was to be called from then on the
Prince William Railway Company
The Prince William Railway Company (German: ''Prinz-Wilhelm-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'', PWE) was an early horse-drawn railway in Germany. It was founded as the ''Deil Valley Railway Company'' (''Deilthaler Eisenbahn Aktiengesellschaft'') in 1828 a ...
(PWE). Until 1844 it was operated as a
wagonway
Wagonways (also spelt Waggonways), also known as horse-drawn railways and horse-drawn railroad consisted of the horses, equipment and tracks used for hauling wagons, which preceded Steam locomotive, steam-powered rail transport, railways. The t ...
for the transportation of
coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when dea ...
, but as early as 1833
passenger wagons were available "for enjoyment". In 1847, the railway was converted to
standard gauge
A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...
and was worked between
Steele
Steele may refer to:
Places America
* Steele, Alabama, a town
* Steele, Arkansas, an unincorporated community
* Steele, Kentucky, an unincorporated community
* Steele, Missouri, a city
* Lonetree, Montana, a ghost town originally called Steele ...
South and
Vohwinkel as a steam-driven railway with the name Steele-Vohwinkel Railway (''Steele-Vohwinkler Eisenbahn''). The trackbed is used today by
S-Bahn line no. 9.
The majority and official view, however, is that the
Bavarian Ludwig Railway
The Bavarian Ludwig Railway (''Bayerische Ludwigseisenbahn'' or ''Ludwigsbahn'') was the first steam-hauled railway opened in Germany. The ''Königlich privilegierte Ludwigs-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'' ("Royal Privileged Ludwig Railway Company ...
, built in 1835 by the private Ludwig Railway Company in Nuremberg (''Ludwigs-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft in Nürnberg'') by engineer
Paul Camille von Denis
Paul Camille Denis, later von Denis, (28 June 1796 – 3 September 1872) was an engineer, railway pioneer and participant in the Hambach Festival, the German political protest of 1832.
Denis was born at Château des Saales in Montier-en-Der, in ...
, was the first railway in Germany, because it introduced the new type of steam engine. It was officially opened on 7 December 1835 with a journey from
Nuremberg
Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
to
Fürth
Fürth (; East Franconian: ; yi, פיורדא, Fiurda) is a city in northern Bavaria, Germany, in the administrative division (''Regierungsbezirk'') of Middle Franconia. It is now contiguous with the larger city of Nuremberg, the centres of the t ...
after earlier test runs had been carried out with the locomotive ''
Adler'', built by
Stephenson and Co. in
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...
.
The Englishman
William Wilson drove the locomotive on this first journey and became the first engine driver in Germany. In contemporary publications, this first journey by a steam locomotive was seen as the beginning of a new era. The decision of the Ludwig Railway Company to opt for the English system, including its
rail profile and
track gauge
In rail transport, track gauge (in American English, alternatively track gage) is the distance between the two rails of a railway track. All vehicles on a rail network must have wheelsets that are compatible with the track gauge. Since many d ...
, flanges, wagons and so on, also had a normative effect because subsequently, the German railways adopted the same standards based on what was clearly a mature system. The development of the German railway network bypassed this line and it was never connected to other railways. Finally, it had to compete with electric
tram
A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...
s running between
Nuremberg
Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
and
Fürth
Fürth (; East Franconian: ; yi, פיורדא, Fiurda) is a city in northern Bavaria, Germany, in the administrative division (''Regierungsbezirk'') of Middle Franconia. It is now contiguous with the larger city of Nuremberg, the centres of the t ...
. On 31 October 1922, it was closed and used for a tramway.
This was followed by the first railway in Prussia, the
Berlin-Potsdam Railway: the 11-kilometre-long stretch from
Zehlendorf to
Potsdam
Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...
which opened on 22 September 1838; its 12-kilometre extension from Zehlendorf to Berlin was opened on 29 October 1838.
From 1 December 1838, the
Duchy of Brunswick State Railway
The Duchy of Brunswick State Railway (''Herzoglich Braunschweigische Staatseisenbahn'') was the first Länderbahnen, state railway in German Confederation, Germany. The first section of its Brunswick–Bad Harzburg railway line between Braunschweig ...
operated between
Brunswick and
Wolfenbüttel
Wolfenbüttel (; nds, Wulfenbüddel) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, the administrative capital of Wolfenbüttel District. It is best known as the location of the internationally renowned Herzog August Library and for having the largest c ...
. This was the first railway in Germany to be in state ownership, probably intended to prevent a takeover by Prussia, but it was later sold to Prussia in 1869 due to the financial difficulties which the duchy found itself in.
The
Düsseldorf-Elberfeld Railway opened the line between
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...
and
Erkrath
Erkrath () is a town in the district of Mettmann, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Geography
Erkrath is situated on the river Düssel, directly east of Düsseldorf and west of Wuppertal, close to the famous Neandertal. It has two stations, Er ...
on 20 December 1838, thus becoming the first steam railway in the
Rhineland
The Rhineland (german: Rheinland; french: Rhénanie; nl, Rijnland; ksh, Rhingland; Latinised name: ''Rhenania'') is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly its middle section.
Term
Historically, the Rhinelands ...
and the Prussian
Rhine Province
The Rhine Province (german: Rheinprovinz), also known as Rhenish Prussia () or synonymous with the Rhineland (), was the westernmost province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia, within the German Reich, from 1822 to 1946. It ...
.
The first railway line in
Hesse
Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major histor ...
was the 41.2-kilometre-long
Taunus Railway
The Taunus Railway (German: ''Taunus-Eisenbahn'') is a double-track electrified railway line, which connects Frankfurt and Wiesbaden, Germany. It is 41.2 km long and follows the course of the Main on its north side, running quite close to ...
between the
free city of Frankfurt
For almost five centuries, the German city of Frankfurt was a city-state within two major Germanic entities:
*The Holy Roman Empire as the Free Imperial City of Frankfurt () (until 1806)
*The German Confederation as the Free City of Frankfurt ...
and
Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...
, the capital of the
Duchy of Nassau
The Duchy of Nassau (German: ''Herzogtum Nassau'') was an independent state between 1806 and 1866, located in what is now the German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse. It was a member of the Confederation of the Rhine and later of the G ...
, which was taken into operation in four stages between 26 September 1839 and 19 May 1840.
1840s
The takeoff stage of economic development came with the railroad revolution in the 1840s, which opened up new markets for local products, created a pool of middle managers, increased the demand for engineers, architects and skilled machinists and stimulated investments in coal and iron. Political disunity of three dozen states and a pervasive conservatism made it difficult to build railways in the 1830s. However, by the 1840s, trunk lines did link the major cities; each German state was responsible for the lines within its own borders. Economist
Friedrich List
Georg Friedrich List (6 August 1789 – 30 November 1846) was a German-American economist who developed the "National System" of political economy. He was a forefather of the German historical school of economics, and argued for the German Customs ...
summed up the advantages to be derived from the development of the railway system in 1841:
Lacking a technological base at first, the Germans imported their engineering and hardware from Britain, but quickly learned the skills needed to operate and expand the railways. For example, in 1837-39Thomas Clarke Worsdell (1788–1862), chief coachbuilder of the Liverpool and Manchester Company, came to help engineer the railway linking Leipzig and Dresden. In many cities, the new railway shops were the centres of technological awareness and training, so that by 1850, Germany was self-sufficient in meeting the demands of railroad construction, and the railways were a major impetus for the growth of the new steel industry. Observers found that even as late as 1890, their engineering was inferior to Britain's. However, German unification in 1870 stimulated consolidation, nationalisation into state-owned companies, and further rapid growth. Unlike the situation in France, the goal was support of industrialisation, and so, heavy lines crisscrossed the Ruhr and other industrial districts, and provided good connections to the major ports of Hamburg and Bremen. By 1880, Germany had 9,400 locomotives pulling 43,000 passengers and 30,000 tons of freight a day, and forged ahead of France.
First trunk lines
The first section of the
Leipzig-Dresden Railway, from
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
to
Althen
Jean-Baptiste Joannis Althen, better simply known as Jean Althen (Hovhannès Althounian; 1709–1774), was an Armenian agronomist from Safavid Iran who developed the cultivation of madder in France.
Although the plant had been present in the reg ...
, was opened on 24 April 1837, becoming the third German railway to be built. The line was completed through to
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...
on 7 April 1839. With a total route length of , this was also the first German trunk or long-distance railway and the first exclusively steam-powered railway in Germany. Its route also included the
first German railway tunnel.
On 29 June 1839, the first section of the
Magdeburg-Leipzig Railway, from
Magdeburg
Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river.
Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebur ...
to
Schönebeck
Schönebeck (), officially Schönebeck (Elbe), is a town in the district of Salzlandkreis, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated on the left bank of the Elbe, approx. southeast of Magdeburg.
For much of the twentieth century it was noted ...
was opened. After being extended to Halle and Leipzig in 1840 it became the first international
main line
Mainline, ''Main line'', or ''Main Line'' may refer to:
Transportation
Railway
* Main line (railway), the principal artery of a railway system
* Main line railway preservation, the practice of operating preserved trains on an operational railw ...
and had a route length of .
Between 1839 and 1843, the
Rhenish Railway was built from
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
to the
border station
A border checkpoint is a location on an international border where travelers or goods are inspected and allowed (or denied) passage through. Authorization often is required to enter a country through its borders. Access-controlled borders ofte ...
of
Herbesthal, with its connection to
Antwerp
Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504, . The line was opened on 15 October 1843 and was the first railway line that crossed an external border of the
German Confederation
The German Confederation (german: Deutscher Bund, ) was an association of 39 predominantly German-speaking sovereign states in Central Europe. It was created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 as a replacement of the former Holy Roman Empire, w ...
.
On 12 September 1840, the Grand Duchy of Baden opened a
state railway
State may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State
* ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States
* ''Our S ...
: the route from
Mannheim
Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's 2 ...
to
Heidelberg
Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...
and the first section of the
Baden Main Line
The Baden main line (german: Badische Hauptbahn) is a German railway line that was built between 1840 and 1863. It runs through Baden, from Mannheim via Heidelberg, Karlsruhe, Offenburg, Freiburg, Basle, Waldshut, Schaffhausen and Singen to Cons ...
from Mannheim to
Basle
, french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese
, neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS), ...
, which reached
Freiburg im Breisgau
Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic German, Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population o ...
on 1 August 1845, and which was completed in 1855. Unlike all the surrounding railways, Baden used a
broad gauge
A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways.
Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union (CIS ...
of 1600 mm until 1854/55.
On 12 September 1841, the
Berlin-Anhalt Railway Company The Berlin-Anhalt Railway Company (German: ''Berlin-Anhaltische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'', BAE) was a railway company in Prussia. The railway connection between Berlin and Köthen, built by the BAE, was one of the first long-distance railways in Ge ...
began working the route from the
Anhalter Bahnhof
The Anhalter Bahnhof is a former railway terminus in Berlin, Germany, approximately southeast of Potsdamer Platz. Once one of Berlin's most important railway stations, it was severely damaged in World War II, and finally closed for traffic in 19 ...
in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
to
Köthen (Anhalt)
Köthen () is a town in Germany. It is the capital of the district of Anhalt-Bitterfeld in Saxony-Anhalt, about north of Halle (Saale), Halle.
Köthen is the location of the main campus and the administrative centre of the regional university, ...
, where the line met the
Berlin-Potsdam-Magdeburg Railway. As a result, Köthen became the first
railway hub
A transport hub is a place where passengers and cargo are exchanged between vehicles and/or between transport modes. Public transport hubs include railway stations, rapid transit stations, bus stops, tram stops, airports and ferry slips. F ...
in Germany.
With the opening of the Berlin-Frankfurt Railway on 31 October 1842 from Berlin's
Silesian station to
Frankfurt (Oder)
Frankfurt (Oder), also known as Frankfurt an der Oder (), is a city in the German state of Brandenburg. It has around 57,000 inhabitants, is one of the easternmost cities in Germany, the fourth-largest city in Brandenburg, and the largest German ...
the now loosely connected German railway network now had a total length of just under 1,000 km.
On 22 October 1843, the ''Kreuzbahn'' ("cross railway") was opened from
Hanover
Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
to
Lehrte
Lehrte is a town in the district of Hanover, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approximately 17 km east of Hanover. In the 19th century Lehrte was the most important railway junction in the former Kingdom of Hanover. As of the 21st ...
, the first line operated by the
Royal Hanoverian State Railways. Lehrte became an important railway hub, with routes to
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
,
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
,
Hildesheim
Hildesheim (; nds, Hilmessen, Hilmssen; la, Hildesia) is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany with 101,693 inhabitants. It is in the district of Hildesheim, about southeast of Hanover on the banks of the Innerste River, a small tributary of the Lei ...
and
Harburg in front of the gates of
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
.
The first section of the
Cologne-Minden Railway
The Cologne-Minden Railway Company (German, old spelling: ''Cöln-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'', ''CME'') was along with the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company and the Rhenish Railway Company one of the railway companies that in the mid-19th ...
, from Deutz to Düsseldorf, was opened on 20 December 1845; the second section to
Duisburg
Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in Nor ...
followed on 9 February 1846. The line was extended the following year, reaching
Hamm
Hamm (, Latin: ''Hammona'') is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the northeastern part of the Ruhr area. As of 2016 its population was 179,397. The city is situated between the A1 motorway and A2 motorway. Hamm railwa ...
via
Dortmund
Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the la ...
on 15 May. On 15 October 1847, the entire line to
Minden
Minden () is a middle-sized town in the very north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the greatest town between Bielefeld and Hanover. It is the capital of the district (''Kreis'') of Minden-Lübbecke, which is part of the region of Detm ...
was completed, initially just single-tracked. On the same day the
line from Hanover to Minden was opened by the
Royal Hanoverian State Railways.
On 1 September 1846, the last section (
Frankfurt (Oder)
Frankfurt (Oder), also known as Frankfurt an der Oder (), is a city in the German state of Brandenburg. It has around 57,000 inhabitants, is one of the easternmost cities in Germany, the fourth-largest city in Brandenburg, and the largest German ...
–
Bunzlau) of the
Lower Silesian-Märkisch Railway
Lower may refer to:
*Lower (surname)
*Lower Township, New Jersey
*Lower Receiver (firearms)
*Lower Wick Gloucestershire, England
See also
*Nizhny
Nizhny (russian: Ни́жний; masculine), Nizhnyaya (; feminine), or Nizhneye (russian: Ни́ ...
was opened, linking the two great cities of Prussia, Berlin and
Breslau. At the same time the main line of the
Upper Silesian Railway
The Upper Silesian Railway (german: Oberschlesische Eisenbahn, OSE, pl, Kolej Górnośląska) was one of the earliest railways in Silesia
Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with sma ...
that started in Breslau reached
Gleiwitz
Gliwice (; german: Gleiwitz) is a city in Upper Silesia, in southern Poland. The city is located in the Silesian Highlands, on the Kłodnica river (a tributary of the Oder River, Oder). It lies approximately 25 km west from Katowice, the re ...
in October of that year. Within three years the railway network in the German Confederation had more than doubled in length.
Three and a half months later, on 15 December 1846, the
Berlin-Hamburg Railway went into service: a diagonal connection between the two largest cities of what became 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 ...
.
Likewise in 1846 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 18 ...
from
Frankfurt (Main)
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 ...
to
Mannheim
Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's 2 ...
and
Heidelberg
Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...
went into service.
Central European network
In the north the
line from Celle to Harburg owned by the Hanoverian State Railway in the
Kingdom of Hanover
The Kingdom of Hanover (german: Königreich Hannover) was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Han ...
reached
Harburg on the
River Elbe
The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Repu ...
on
1 May 1847.
In autumn of that year continuous east-west links were established:
* On 1 September 1847 the
Saxon-Silesian Railway Company connected the railway network Lower Silesia to Central Germany when it opened the
Dresden–Gorlitz railway.
* On 15 October 1847 the last section of the
Cologne-Minden Railway
The Cologne-Minden Railway Company (German, old spelling: ''Cöln-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'', ''CME'') was along with the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company and the Rhenish Railway Company one of the railway companies that in the mid-19th ...
and the
Minden branch of the Hanoverian State Railway were opened simultaneously creating the first through railway link from the
Rhine
), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source1_coordinates=
, source1_elevation =
, source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein
, source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source2_coordinates=
, so ...
to the
Oder
The Oder ( , ; Czech, Lower Sorbian and ; ) is a river in Central Europe. It is Poland's second-longest river in total length and third-longest within its borders after the Vistula and Warta. The Oder rises in the Czech Republic and flows thr ...
via Berlin. The route was more complicated than today however: the link from Brunswick to Magdeburg ran, in July 1843, via
Wolfenbüttel
Wolfenbüttel (; nds, Wulfenbüddel) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, the administrative capital of Wolfenbüttel District. It is best known as the location of the internationally renowned Herzog August Library and for having the largest c ...
,
Jerxheim
Jerxheim is a Municipalities of Germany, municipality in the Helmstedt (district), district of Helmstedt, in Lower Saxony, Germany.
Jerxheim Rathaus.JPG, The town hall
Heeseberg-Turm-2 NS 2014-06-01.jpg, The observation tower
Personalities
*Kur ...
and
Oschersleben
Oschersleben () is a town in the Börde district, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. The population in 1905 was 13,271, in 2020 about 19,000.
History
On November 23, 994 Oschersleben was first mentioned in a document by the Emperor Otto III. In 1235 ...
to
Magdeburg
Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river.
Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebur ...
. Until the completion of the
Buckau Railway Bridge in 1848, traffic from Berlin ended at the station of Magdeburg-
Friedrichstadt
Friedrichstadt (; da, Frederiksstad) is a town in the district of Nordfriesland, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated on the river Eider approx. 12 km south of Husum.
History
The town was founded in 1621 by Dutch settlers. Du ...
on the eastern bank of the Elbe. After crossing the Elbe, passengers had to re-board the train at Schleinufer (Elbbahnhof), the terminus of the
line from Oschersleben.
Berlin's termini were not linked within the city until 1851, when the
Berlin Link Railway entered service.
On 18 October 1847, there was a continuous line from
Breslau to
Cracow for the first time when the
Upper Silesian Railway
The Upper Silesian Railway (german: Oberschlesische Eisenbahn, OSE, pl, Kolej Górnośląska) was one of the earliest railways in Silesia
Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with sma ...
was linked to the
Cracow-Upper Silesian Railway. With the completion of the railway within Breslau on 3 February 1848 that connected its termini, there was now a continuous rail link from the
Rhine
), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source1_coordinates=
, source1_elevation =
, source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein
, source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source2_coordinates=
, so ...
to the
Vistula
The Vistula (; pl, Wisła, ) is the longest river in Poland and the ninth-longest river in Europe, at in length. The drainage basin, reaching into three other nations, covers , of which is in Poland.
The Vistula rises at Barania Góra in ...
And with the closure of a short gap between the
William Railway The history of rail transport in Poland dates back to the first half of the 19th century when railways were built under Kingdom of Prussia, Prussian, Russian Empire, Russian, and Austria-Hungary, Austrian rule. Of course, "divided Poland" in the 19t ...
in
Upper Silesia
Upper Silesia ( pl, Górny Śląsk; szl, Gůrny Ślůnsk, Gōrny Ślōnsk; cs, Horní Slezsko; german: Oberschlesien; Silesian German: ; la, Silesia Superior) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, located ...
and the
Emperor Ferdinand Northern Railway
The Emperor Ferdinand Northern Railway (german: Kaiser Ferdinands-Nordbahn; cs, Severní dráha císaře Ferdinanda; pl, Kolej Północna Cesarza Ferdynanda) was the name of a former railway company during the time of the Austrian Empire. Its m ...
in
Austrian Silesia
Austrian Silesia, (historically also ''Oesterreichisch-Schlesien, Oesterreichisch Schlesien, österreichisch Schlesien''); cs, Rakouské Slezsko; pl, Śląsk Austriacki officially the Duchy of Upper and Lower Silesia, (historically ''Herzogth ...
on 1 September 1848, the first contiguous Central European network was formed, reaching as far as
Deutz, right of the Rhine, in the west, Harburg in the north, Warsaw and Cracow in the east and as far as
Gloggnitz
Gloggnitz is a mountain town in the Neunkirchen district of Lower Austria, Austria.
Gloggnitz is situated in the south-western part of the Vienna Basin in Lower Austria. It is surrounded by the highest mountains in Lower Austria, Mount Rax (20 ...
at the northern foot of the
Semmering Pass
Semmering () is a mountain pass in the Eastern Northern Limestone Alps connecting Lower Austria and Styria, between which it forms a natural border.
Location
Semmering Pass is located west of Sonnwendstein and Hirschenkogel and east of the P ...
in the south. Among the northern lines there were still small gaps in Berlin and Hamburg.
In the following year, 1849, a connexion from Berlin to
Kassel
Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...
via
Halle (Saale)
Halle (Saale), or simply Halle (; from the 15th to the 17th century: ''Hall in Sachsen''; until the beginning of the 20th century: ''Halle an der Saale'' ; from 1965 to 1995: ''Halle/Saale'') is the largest city of the Germany, German States of ...
/
Gerstungen
Gerstungen is a municipality in the Wartburgkreis district of Thuringia, Germany. In July 2018 the former municipalities of Marksuhl and Wolfsburg-Unkeroda were merged into Gerstungen.
History
Between 1945 and 1990, Gerstungen station served as ...
was established when the
Halle–Bebra railway
The Halle–Bebra railway, known in German as the Thüringer Bahn ("Thuringian Railway"), is a 210 kilometre-long railway line from Halle (Saale) via Erfurt and Gerstungen to Bebra, mainly in Thuringia. As far as Gerstungen the line originally bel ...
owned by the
Thuringian Railway
Thuringian is an East Central German dialect group spoken in much of the modern German Free State of Thuringia north of the Rennsteig ridge, southwestern Saxony-Anhalt and adjacent territories of Hesse and Bavaria. It is close to Upper Saxon sp ...
and the
Frederick William Northern Railway Frederick may refer to:
People
* Frederick (given name), the name
Nobility
Anhalt-Harzgerode
* Frederick, Prince of Anhalt-Harzgerode (1613–1670)
Austria
* Frederick I, Duke of Austria (Babenberg), Duke of Austria from 1195 to 1198
* Frederic ...
in the
Electorate of Hesse
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 prin ...
were completed.
The connexion of the southern German states of
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 ...
and
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
took somewhat longer:
* Berlin – Frankfurt/Main (
Main-Weser Railway, 1852), continuing via Mannheim (
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 18 ...
) to
Freiburg im Breisgau
Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic German, Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population o ...
(
Rhine Valley Railway
), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source1_coordinates=
, source1_elevation =
, source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein
, source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source2_coordinates=
, source ...
, 1855)
* Berlin – Munich (
Ludwig South-North Railway The Ludwig South-North railway (''Ludwig-Süd-Nord-Bahn''), built between 1843 and 1854, was the first railway line to be constructed by Royal Bavarian State Railways. It was named after the king, Ludwig I, whose infrastructure priorities had ear ...
, 1853)
European network
Following the takeover of
Cöln-Crefeld Railway at the turn of 1855/56, the Rhenish Railway Company, which was founded to build the line to Belgium, began work on a railway from Cologne upriver along a section of the left bank of the Rhine. This line reached
Rolandseck
Rolandseck is a borough in the town of Remagen in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
The place consists almost entirely of villas and is a favorite summer resort. Crowning the vine-clad hills behind it lie the ruins of the castle, a picturesque iv ...
on 1 January 1857, Bingerbrück in 1859, today
Bingen Central Station
Bingen (Rhein) Hauptbahnhof is a railway station in the German city of Bingen am Rhein on the West Rhine Railway. It is located in the borough of Bingerbrück. The station that serves central Bingen is called Bingen Stadt.
The station is served ...
, to where in the same year the main line of the
Hessian Ludwig Railway
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 extended, linking
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 ...
with
Ludwigshafen
Ludwigshafen, officially Ludwigshafen am Rhein (; meaning " Ludwig's Port upon Rhine"), is a city in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, on the river Rhine, opposite Mannheim. With Mannheim, Heidelberg, and the surrounding region, it form ...
from 1853.
With the opening of Cologne's
Cathedral Bridge
The Cathedral Bridge (german: Dombrücke, ) was a railway and street bridge crossing the river Rhine in the German city of Cologne. It was owned by the Cologne-Minden Railway Company and named after the Cologne Cathedral, which is located on the ...
on 3 October 1859 the west European rail network, consisting of the
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
and
Belgian networks and German lines west of the Rhine, were joined to the central European network that, meanwhile, had been extended to
Flensburg
Flensburg (; Danish, Low Saxon: ''Flensborg''; North Frisian: ''Flansborj''; South Jutlandic: ''Flensborre'') is an independent town (''kreisfreie Stadt'') in the north of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Flensburg is the centre of the ...
,
Königsberg (Prussia)
Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was named ...
(now Kaliningrad),
Rzeszów
Rzeszów ( , ; la, Resovia; yi, ריישא ''Raisha'')) is the largest city in southeastern Poland. It is located on both sides of the Wisłok River in the heartland of the Sandomierz Basin. Rzeszów has been the capital of the Subcarpathian Vo ...
in
Galicia, Hungary beyond the
Theiß
The Tisza, Tysa or Tisa, is one of the major rivers of Central and Eastern Europe. Once, it was called "the most Hungarian river" because it flowed entirely within the Kingdom of Hungary. Today, it crosses several national borders.
The Tisza b ...
, and to
Triest
Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into provi ...
on the
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...
.
In 1860 the
Prussian Eastern Railway
The Prussian Eastern Railway (german: Preußische Ostbahn) was a railway in the Kingdom of Prussia and later Germany until 1918. Its main route, approximately long, connected the capital, Berlin, with the cities of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) ...
was extended to the Russian border beyond
Eydtkuhnen
Chernyshevskoye (; , from 1938: ''Eydtkau''; ) is a settlement in Nesterovsky District in the eastern part of Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, close to the border with Lithuania. Between Chernyshevskoye and Lithuanian Kybartai is an important 24-hour ...
(today
Chernyshevskoye
Chernyshevskoye (; , from 1938: ''Eydtkau''; ) is a settlement in Nesterovsky District in the eastern part of Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, close to the border with Lithuania. Between Chernyshevskoye and Lithuanian Kybartai is an important 24-ho ...
) in German
East Prussia
East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label=Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 187 ...
. With the opening of the branch from
Vilnius
Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...
(German: ''Wilna'')–
Kaunas
Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Trakai ...
–
Virbalis
Virbalis (, pl, Wierzbołów, yi, ווירבאלן ''Virbalen'') is a town in the Vilkaviškis district municipality, Lithuania. It is located west of Vilkaviškis.
History
It is frequently mentioned in historical as well in modern literatur ...
(German: ''Wirballen'', Russian: ''Вержболово'' and Polish: ''Wierzbałowo'') on the
Saint Petersburg–Warsaw Railway
Saint Petersburg–Warsaw Railway (() (transliteration: Sankt-Peterburgo–Varshavskaya zheleznaya doroga)) is a long railway, built in the 19th century by the Russian Empire to connect Russia with Central Europe. At the time the entire railwa ...
to this border crossing near
Kybartai
Kybartai (; russian: Кибартай) is a city in Marijampolė County, Lithuania. It is located west of Vilkaviškis and is on the border of Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia.
History
Kybartai was founded under the reign of Sigismund I the Old by ...
, the first junction between the European standard gauge and the Russian
broad gauge
A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways.
Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union (CIS ...
networks was established.
State railway ambitions
The governing bodies of the German states had differing attitudes to the railway. Some left the initiative to private operators, others attempted to establish a state-owned railway, especially in the southern German
monarchies
A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state for life or until abdication. The political legitimacy and authority of the monarch may vary from restricted and largely symbolic (constitutional monarchy), ...
of the
Grand Duchy of Baden
The Grand Duchy of Baden (german: Großherzogtum Baden) was a state in the southwest German Empire on the east bank of the Rhine. It existed between 1806 and 1918.
It came into existence in the 12th century as the Margraviate of Baden and subs ...
,
Kingdom of Bavaria
The Kingdom of Bavaria (german: Königreich Bayern; ; spelled ''Baiern'' until 1825) was a German state that succeeded the former Electorate of Bavaria in 1805 and continued to exist until 1918. With the unification of Germany into the German E ...
and
Duchy of Württemberg
The Duchy of Württemberg (german: Herzogtum Württemberg) was a duchy located in the south-western part of the Holy Roman Empire. It was a member of the Holy Roman Empire from 1495 to 1806. The dukedom's long survival for over three centuries ...
.
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
, on the other hand, initially encouraged private railways, but later took several railway companies into state ownership that had run into financial difficulties, such as the
Berg-Mark Railway Company
The Bergisch-Markisch Railway Company (german: Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, BME), also referred to as the Berg-Mark Railway Company or, more rarely, as the Bergisch-Markische Railway Company, was a German railway company that togeth ...
.
Following the
unification of Germany
The unification of Germany (, ) was the process of building the modern German nation state with federalism, federal features based on the concept of Lesser Germany (one without multinational Austria), which commenced on 18 August 1866 with ad ...
in 1871, attitudes changed in Prussia;
Otto von Bismarck
Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (, ; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898), born Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck, was a conservative German statesman and diplomat. From his origins in the upper class of J ...
, in particular, pressed for the development of a state railway system. The railway was seen as having great
military-strategic importance. Numerous ways were tried in order to create a common, German state railway. This was finally achieved during the
inter-war years
In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the First World War to the beginning of the Second World War. The interwar period was relativel ...
(1918–1939): in accordance with the
Weimar Constitution
The Constitution of the German Reich (german: Die Verfassung des Deutschen Reichs), usually known as the Weimar Constitution (''Weimarer Verfassung''), was the constitution that governed Germany during the Weimar Republic era (1919–1933). The c ...
the
Deutsche Reichsbahn
The ''Deutsche Reichsbahn'', also known as the German National Railway, the German State Railway, German Reich Railway, and the German Imperial Railway, was the German national railway system created after the end of World War I from the regiona ...
was founded. Prior to that, there were the following early and significant approaches to the creation of national "state railways" (''Staatsbahnen''):
* In Baden an "Act Concerning the Construction of a Railway from Mannheim to the Swiss Border near Basle" was passed on 29 March 1838 and announced on 2 April 1838. Several other acts followed that dealt with the financing, forced acquisitions, the establishment of a railway division and operating regulations.
* In
Württemberg
Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart.
Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Würt ...
King William I announced on 18 April 1843 the "Act Affecting the Construction of Railways", according to which railways were to "be transferred to the administration of the state or built at the cost of the state". Apart from the state railways the construction of other branch lines was left to private concerns. However, relatively few private railways were built in Württemberg.
* In
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
the private
Munich-Augsburg Railway Company began railway construction in 1839 and opened its route from
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
to
Augsburg
Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ' ...
on 4 October 1840. The period of the Bavarian state railways began with the nationalisation of the Munich-Augsburg line in 1844. The
Royal Bavarian State Railways
The Royal Bavarian State Railways (''Königliche Bayerische Staats-Eisenbahnen'' or ''K.Bay.Sts.B.'') was the state railway company for the Kingdom of Bavaria. It was founded in 1844. The organisation grew into the second largest of the German ...
began by building the
Ludwig South-North Railway The Ludwig South-North railway (''Ludwig-Süd-Nord-Bahn''), built between 1843 and 1854, was the first railway line to be constructed by Royal Bavarian State Railways. It was named after the king, Ludwig I, whose infrastructure priorities had ear ...
from 1844 to 1853; a line 548 kilometres long between
Hof and
Lindau
Lindau (german: Lindau (Bodensee), ''Lindau am Bodensee''; ; Low Alemannic German, Low Alemannic: ''Lindou'') is a major Town#Germany, town and Lindau (island), island on the eastern side of Lake Constance (''Bodensee'' in German) in Bavaria, Ge ...
.
* The
Frankfurt National Assembly
The Frankfurt Parliament (german: Frankfurter Nationalversammlung, literally ''Frankfurt National Assembly'') was the first freely elected parliament for all German states, including the German-populated areas of Austria-Hungary, elected on 1 Ma ...
advised on the constitution of a German Empire as a federal state in 1848/1849. In doing so, they considered nationalising the railways and placing their management under the imperial government in order to strengthen the power of the empire.
The ''Länderbahn'' era (1871 to 1920)
German unification
The unification of Germany (, ) was the process of building the modern German nation state with federal features based on the concept of Lesser Germany (one without multinational Austria), which commenced on 18 August 1866 with adoption of t ...
in 1871 stimulated consolidation, nationalization into state-owned companies, and further rapid growth. Unlike the situation in France, the goal was support of industrialization, and so heavy lines crisscrossed the Ruhr and other industrial districts, and provided good connections to the major ports of Hamburg and Bremen. By 1880, Germany had 9,400 locomotives each annually pulling 43,000 passengers or 30,000 tons of freight, and forged ahead of France
Prussia nationalized its railways in an effort both to lower rates on freight service and to equalize those rates among shippers. Instead of lowering rates as far as possible, the government ran the railways as a profitmaking endeavor, and the railway profits became a major source of revenue for the state. The nationalization of the railways slowed the economic development of Prussia because the state favoured the relatively backward agricultural areas in its railway building. Moreover, the railway surpluses substituted for the development of an adequate tax system.
Nebenbahn
As the main line network consolidated, railways were driven into the hinterland, serving local needs and commuter traffic. This was the age of the branch line or ''Nebenbahn'' (plural: -en), also variously called the ''
Sekundärbahn'' ("secondary line"), ''
Vizinalbahn
Bavarian branch lines comprised nearly half the total railway network in Bavaria, a state in the southeastern Germany that was a kingdom in the days of the German Empire. The construction era for branch lines lasted from 1872, when the first rout ...
'' ("neighbourhood line") or ''
Lokalbahn
A ''Lokalbahn'' or ''Localbahn'' ("local line", plural: -en) is a secondary railway line worked by local trains serving rural areas, typically in Austria and the south German states of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. ''Lokalbahnen'' appeared at t ...
'' ("local line") depending on local laws and usage.
Important lines
Several states operated their own railways, collectively called 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 ...
'' (state railways). Those created up to 1871 were the:
*Various
Prussian state railway companies, including the ''Königlich Preußische und Großherzoglich Hessische Staatseisenbahn'' (K.P.u.G.H.St.E.)
*
Royal Bavarian State Railways
The Royal Bavarian State Railways (''Königliche Bayerische Staats-Eisenbahnen'' or ''K.Bay.Sts.B.'') was the state railway company for the Kingdom of Bavaria. It was founded in 1844. The organisation grew into the second largest of the German ...
(''Königlich Bayerische Staatseisenbahn'' or ''K.Bay.Sts.B.'')
*
Royal Saxon State Railways
The Royal Saxon State Railways (german: Königlich Sächsische Staatseisenbahnen) were the state-owned railways operating in the Kingdom of Saxony from 1869 to 1918. From 1918 until their merger into the Deutsche Reichsbahn the title 'Royal' was d ...
(''Königlich Sächsische Staatseisenbahnen'' or ''K.Sächs.Sts.E.B.'')
*
Royal Württemberg State Railways
The Royal Württemberg State Railways (''Königlich Württembergische Staats-Eisenbahnen'' or ''K.W.St.E.'') were the state railways of the Kingdom of Württemberg (from 1918 the ''People's State of Württemberg'') between 1843 and 1920. Please ...
(''Königlich Württembergische Staatseisenbahn'' or ''K.W.St.E.'')
*
Grand Duchy of Baden State Railways
The Grand Duchy of Baden was an independent state in what is now southwestern Germany until the creation of the German Empire in 1871. It had its own state-owned railway company, the Grand Duchy of Baden State Railways (''Großherzoglich Badische ...
(''Großherzoglich Badische Staatseisenbahn'' or ''G.Bad.St.E.'', 1840–1920)
*
Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg Friedrich-Franz Railway
The Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg Friedrich-Franz Railway (''Großherzoglich Mecklenburgische Friedrich-Franz-Eisenbahn'' or ''M.F.F.E.'') was the state railway company in Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz. After its second nationalisatio ...
(''Großherzoglich Mecklenburgische Friedrich-Franz-Eisenbahn'' or ''M.F.F.E.'')
*
Grand Duchy of Oldenburg State Railways
The Grand Duchy of Oldenburg Railway (''Großherzoglich Oldenburgische Eisenbahn or GOE'') was the railway company that was run as a state railway for the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg (''Großherzogtum Oldenburg''), part of the German Empire.
History ...
(''Großherzoglich Oldenburgische Staatseisenbahn'' or ''G.O.E.'', 1867–1920)
*
Royal Hanoverian State Railways (''Königlich Hannöversche Staatseisenbahnen''), from 1866 part of the
Prussian state railways
The term Prussian state railways (German: ''Preußische Staatseisenbahnen'') encompasses those railway organisations that were owned or managed by the State of Prussia. The words "state railways" are not capitalized because Prussia did not have a ...
*
Duchy of Brunswick State Railway
The Duchy of Brunswick State Railway (''Herzoglich Braunschweigische Staatseisenbahn'') was the first Länderbahnen, state railway in German Confederation, Germany. The first section of its Brunswick–Bad Harzburg railway line between Braunschweig ...
(''Herzoglich Braunschweigische Staatseisenbahn''), from 1870 part of the
Prussian state railways
The term Prussian state railways (German: ''Preußische Staatseisenbahnen'') encompasses those railway organisations that were owned or managed by the State of Prussia. The words "state railways" are not capitalized because Prussia did not have a ...
*
Nassau State Railway The Nassau State Railway (german: Nassauische Staatsbahn) took over the privately built railway lines on the Rhine and Lahn rivers in the Duchy of Nassau from the ''Nassau Rhine and Lahn Railway Company'' in 1861 and extended them further. It was ta ...
(''Nassauische Staatsbahn''), from 1866 part of the
Prussian state railways
The term Prussian state railways (German: ''Preußische Staatseisenbahnen'') encompasses those railway organisations that were owned or managed by the State of Prussia. The words "state railways" are not capitalized because Prussia did not have a ...
*
Anhalt Leopold Railway
Saxony-Anhalt (german: Sachsen-Anhalt ; nds, Sassen-Anholt) is a state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of
and has a population of 2.18 million inhabitants, making it the ...
(''Anhaltische Leopoldsbahn''), from 1882 part of the
Prussian state railways
The term Prussian state railways (German: ''Preußische Staatseisenbahnen'') encompasses those railway organisations that were owned or managed by the State of Prussia. The words "state railways" are not capitalized because Prussia did not have a ...
*
Bebra-Hanau Railway (''Bebra-Hanauer Eisenbahn''), a Kurhesse state railway, from 1866 part of the
Prussian state railways
The term Prussian state railways (German: ''Preußische Staatseisenbahnen'') encompasses those railway organisations that were owned or managed by the State of Prussia. The words "state railways" are not capitalized because Prussia did not have a ...
*
Imperial Railways in Alsace-Lorraine
The Kaiserliche Generaldirektion der Eisenbahnen in Elsaß-Lothringen or EL (English: General Directorate of the Imperial Railways in Alsace-Lorraine) were the first railways owned by the German Empire.
They emerged in 1871, after France had ced ...
(''Reichseisenbahn Elsaß-Lothringen''), founded in 1871 and handed to France at the end of the First World War
The
Palatinate Railway
The Palatine Railways (german: Pfälzische Eisenbahnen), often abbreviated to Palatinate Railway (''Pfalzbahn'') was the name of the railway division and administration responsible for all private railway companies in the Bavarian Palatinate fro ...
(''Pfalzbahn''), formed in 1870, was a private railway company that was nationalised in 1909 and became part of the ''
K.Bay.Sts.B.''.
In order to enable the free exchange of goods wagons between the different state railway administrations, the
German State Railway Wagon Association The German State Railway Wagon Association (german: Deutscher Staatsbahnwagenverband) or DWV was an association of the German state railways ''Länderbahnen'' founded in 1909. The purpose of the association was to guarantee the unrestricted exchange ...
(''Deutscher Staatsbahnwagenverband'' or ''DSV'') was formed in 1909. The standard wagons that resulted are often referred to as '
DSV wagons
The German term ''Verbandsbauart'' describes both a type of goods wagon as well as a type of tram.
In order to standardise the goods wagons classes of the various German state railways (''Länderbahnen''), the German State Railway Wagon Associat ...
'.
At the end of the First World War, most of the state railways lost their 'royal' or 'grand duchy' titles as the nobility abdicated. Huge
reparations
Reparation(s) may refer to:
Christianity
* Restitution (theology), the Christian doctrine calling for reparation
* Acts of reparation, prayers for repairing the damages of sin
History
*War reparations
**World War I reparations, made from G ...
of locomotives and rolling stock followed. Epoch I ended with the merger of the seven remaining state railways in the newly created
Deutsche Reichsbahn
The ''Deutsche Reichsbahn'', also known as the German National Railway, the German State Railway, German Reich Railway, and the German Imperial Railway, was the German national railway system created after the end of World War I from the regiona ...
in 1920.
Deutsche Reichsbahn (1920–1945)
In 1920, following World War I, 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 ...
'' were united to form the ''
Deutsche Reichsbahn
The ''Deutsche Reichsbahn'', also known as the German National Railway, the German State Railway, German Reich Railway, and the German Imperial Railway, was the German national railway system created after the end of World War I from the regiona ...
''. In accordance with the "
Dawes Plan
The Dawes Plan (as proposed by the Dawes Committee, chaired by Charles G. Dawes) was a plan in 1924 that successfully resolved the issue of World War I reparations that Germany had to pay. It ended a crisis in European diplomacy following Wor ...
", on 30 August 1924 the state railways were legally merged to form the
Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft
The ''Deutsche Reichsbahn'', also known as the German National Railway, the German State Railway, German Reich Railway, and the German Imperial Railway, was the German national railway system created after the end of World War I from the regiona ...
(DRG, German State Railway Company), a private company, which was required to pay
reparations
Reparation(s) may refer to:
Christianity
* Restitution (theology), the Christian doctrine calling for reparation
* Acts of reparation, prayers for repairing the damages of sin
History
*War reparations
**World War I reparations, made from G ...
of about 660 million Marks annually.
The more than 200 steam locomotive types of the different German ''Länderbahnen'' were grouped into ''Baureihen'' (BR) (roughly translates as classes) of engines with similar wheel notations, like the "BR 18" which covered all
4-6-2
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and two trailing wheels on one axle. The locomotiv ...
Pacific express train engines.
New construction standards since 1925 resulted in ''
Einheitsloks'' (DRG Standard design), using similar mechanical parts to lower costs, which allowed fast and reliable manufacturing, repair and operating. New DRG Standard design locomotives were mostly large passenger and freight locomotives, like the
Class 01 or
Class 41. In 1928 the
Rheingold Express
The ''Rheingold'' ('Rhinegold') was a named train that operated between Hook of Holland, near Rotterdam, and Geneva, Switzerland (or Basel before 1965), a distance of , until 1987. Another section of the train started in Amsterdam and was coupled ...
started riding between
Hook of Holland
Hook of Holland ( nl, Hoek van Holland, ) is a town in the southwestern corner of Holland, hence the name; ''hoek'' means "corner" and was the word in use before the word ''kaap'' – "cape", from Portuguese ''cabo'' – became Dutch. The English t ...
and Basel. On 11 May 1936 the streamlined
steam locomotive
A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...
05 002 established the first railway speed world record above 200 km/h: 200.4 km/h, between Hamburg and Berlin. The record was finalised by
Mallard
The mallard () or wild duck (''Anas platyrhynchos'') is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Arge ...
in 1938 at 203 km/h.
The standardisation of goods wagons under the
German State Railway Wagon Association The German State Railway Wagon Association (german: Deutscher Staatsbahnwagenverband) or DWV was an association of the German state railways ''Länderbahnen'' founded in 1909. The purpose of the association was to guarantee the unrestricted exchange ...
, that had produced the ''
Verbandsbauart
The German term ''Verbandsbauart'' describes both a type of goods wagon as well as a type of tram.
In order to standardise the goods wagons classes of the various German state railways (''Länderbahnen''), the German State Railway Wagon Associat ...
'' ('Association design') wagons, continued as new designs using interchangeable components were introduced from about 1927. These were the ''
Austauschbauart
The so-called ''Austauschbauart'' wagons were German railway vehicles produced from the late 1920s onwards which had common components built to agreed standards.
Origin of the concept
The German term ''Austauschbau'' ('interchangeable component ma ...
'' ('interchangeable design') wagons. The 1930s saw the introduction of
welded construction and solid wheels replacing spoked wheels on new goods wagons. As the Second World War loomed, production was geared towards the war effort. The focus was on fewer types but greater numbers of so-called ''
Kriegsbauart
''Kriegsbauart'' (German, 'wartime class') refers to railway goods wagon classes that were developed during the Second World War for the Deutsche Reichsbahn. The start of the war was an arbitrary dividing line for the classification of goods wago ...
'' or wartime designs for the transportation of large quantities of tanks, vehicles, troops and supplies.
The grave lack of passenger coaches resulting from
World War I reparations
Following the ratification of article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles at the conclusion of World War I, the Central Powers were made to give war reparations to the Allied Powers. Each of the defeated powers was required to make payments in eith ...
led to the design and production of all-steel, standard passenger coaches in the 1920s and early 1930s. These four-wheeled, branch line coaches, nicknamed ''
Donnerbüchsen'', lasted into the 1970s and can still be seen today on museum lines.
During the Second World War, austere versions of the standard locomotives were produced to speed up construction times and minimize the use of imported materials. These were the so-called war locomotives (''
Kriegslokomotiven
''Kriegslokomotiven'' (german: for "war locomotives", singular: ''Kriegslokomotive'') or ''Kriegsloks'' were locomotives produced in large numbers during the Second World War under Nazi Germany. Their construction was tailored to the economic circ ...
'' and ''
Übergangskriegslokomotiven''). In the absence of a good highway network and trucks, Germany relied heavily on the railways, supplemented by slower river and canal transport for bulk goods. The rail yards were the main targets of the "transportation strategy" of the British and American strategic bombing campaign of 1944–45, and resulted in massive destruction of the system.
Transition period (1945–1949)
After World War II, Germany (and the DRG) was divided into 4 zones: American, British, French and Soviet. The first three eventually combined to form the
Federal Republic of Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between ...
(the West) and the Russian zone became the
German Democratic Republic
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
(the East). German territories beyond the
Oder
The Oder ( , ; Czech, Lower Sorbian and ; ) is a river in Central Europe. It is Poland's second-longest river in total length and third-longest within its borders after the Vistula and Warta. The Oder rises in the Czech Republic and flows thr ...
were ceded to Poland except for the northern part of
East Prussia
East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label=Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 187 ...
, which was ceded to the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
in 1945.
Deutsche Bundesbahn (1949–1994)
From 1949, the new governments assumed authority for railway operations. The DRG's (or DR's) successors were named ''
Deutsche Bundesbahn
The Deutsche Bundesbahn or DB (German Federal Railway) was formed as the state railway of the newly established Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) on 7 September 1949 as a successor of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (DRG). The DB remained ...
'' (DB, German Federal Railways) in
West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
, and ''
Deutsche Reichsbahn
The ''Deutsche Reichsbahn'', also known as the German National Railway, the German State Railway, German Reich Railway, and the German Imperial Railway, was the German national railway system created after the end of World War I from the regiona ...
'' (DR, German State Railways) in East Germany kept the old name to hold tracking rights in western Berlin.
Unlike the DRG, which was a corporation, both the DB and the DR were federal state institutions, directly controlled by their respective transportation ministries. Railway service between East and West was restricted; there were around five well-controlled and secure checkpoints between West and East Germany, and about the same number between East Germany and
West Berlin
West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...
. Four transit routes existed between West Germany and West Berlin; citizens of West Berlin and West Germany were able to use these without too much harassment by the East German authorities.
The DB started in 1968 with changing the locomotive and passenger car serial numbers to the
UIC norm. In 1970 the DR followed. The DB started experimenting with the Intercity trains in a new livery (bright orange).
In 1988 the prototype
InterCityExperimental
The Intercity Experimental, later renamed ICE V, was an experimental train developed by the Deutsche Bundesbahn for research into high-speed rail in Germany. It is the predecessor of all Intercity Express trains of the Deutsche Bahn.
Design
The ...
(ICE V) set a new German railway speed record of 406.9 km/h (254.3 miles/h) on the
new high speed line between
Fulda
Fulda () (historically in English called Fuld) is a town in Hesse, Germany; it is located on the river Fulda and is the administrative seat of the Fulda district (''Kreis''). In 1990, the town hosted the 30th Hessentag state festival.
History ...
and
Würzburg
Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is a city in the region of Franconia in the north of the German state of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the ''Regierungsbezirk'' Lower Franconia. It spans the banks of the Main River.
Würzburg is ...
.
In 1991 the new high speed lines
Hannover-Fulda-Würzburg (280 km/h) and
Mannheim-Stuttgart (250 km/h) were opened for service including the new ICE 1 train sets.
Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR) (1949–1994)
Deutsche Bahn (1994–present)
In 1989, the
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government ...
fell. Train frequency rapidly increased on the existing East/West corridors; closed links which had formerly crossed the border were re-opened. On 3 October 1990,
Germany was reunified; however, this was not immediately the case with the railways. Administrative and organisational problems led to the decision to completely re-organise and reconnect Germany's railways. The so-called ''Bahnreform'' (Railway Reform) came into effect on 1 January 1994, when the State railways ''Deutsche Bundesbahn'' and ''Deutsche Reichsbahn'' were formally reunited to form the current German Railway Corporation (''
Deutsche Bahn
The (; abbreviated as DB or DB AG) is the national railway company of Germany. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). The Federal Republic of Germany is its single shareholder.
describes itself as the se ...
'').
The German railways have long been protected from competition from intercity buses on journeys over 50 km. However, in January 2013, this protection was removed, leading to a significant shift from rail to bus for long journeys.
See also
*
History of rail transport
The history of rail transport began in the BCE times. It can be divided into several discrete periods defined by the principal means of track material and motive power used.
Ancient systems
The Post Track, a prehistoric causeway in the v ...
*
Rail transport in Germany
, Germany had a railway network of , of which were electrified and were double track. Germany is a member of the International Union of Railways (UIC). The UIC Country Code for Germany is 80.
Germany was ranked fourth among national European r ...
*
History of the railway in Württemberg
*
German steam locomotive classification The DRG locomotive classification system was developed by the German Imperial Railway Company or Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (DRG), which was formed in 1924 following the merger of the German state railways (''Länderbahnen'') in 1920.Between 1 ...
*
Narrow gauge railways in Germany A number of narrow-gauge lines survive, largely as a consequence of German reunification, in the former East Germany where some of them form part of the public transport system as active commercial carriers. Most extensive of those still employing s ...
References
Notes
Further reading
* Aldcroft, Derek H., and Michael J. Freeman, eds. ''Transport in the Industrial Revolution'' (Manchester UP, 1983).
* Banzawa, Ayumu. "A Comparison of Railway Nationalization Between Two Empires: Germany and Japan." in ''The Development of Railway Technology in East Asia in Comparative Perspective'' (Springer, Singapore, 2017). 129–149.
* Brophy, James M. ''Capitalism, Politics, and Railroads in Prussia, 1830–1870'' (Ohio State UP, 1998).
* Brose, Eric Dorn. ''The Politics of Technological Change in Prussia: Out of the Shadow of Antiquity, 1809–1848'' (Princeton, 1993).
* Clapham, J. H. ''The Economic Development of France and Germany, 1815–1914'' (4th ed. 1966)
online 1921 edition* Davie, H. G. W. "The Influence of Railways on Military Operations in the Russo-German War 1941–1945." ''Journal of Slavic Military Studies'' 30.2 (2017): 321–346.
* Dunlavy, Colleen A. ''Politics and Industrialization: Early Railroads in the United States and Prussia'' (1994).
* Fremdling, Rainer "Freight Rates and State Budget: The Role of the National Prussian Railways 1880–1913," ''Journal of European Economic History'' (1980) 9#1 pp 21–40.
* Fremdling, Rainer, and Günter Knieps. “Competition, Regulation, and Nationalization: The Prussian Railway System in the Nineteenth Century,” ''Scandinavian Economic History Review'' 41 (1993): 129–54
online
* Kocka, Jurgen, "Capitalism and Bureaucracy in German Industrialisation before 1914" ''Journal of Economic History'' (1981) 34: 453–68.
* Landes, David. ''The Unbound Prometheus: Technological Change and Industrial Development in Western Europe from 1750 to the Present'' (1972
online
* Lee, "Economic Development and the State in 19th century Germany" ''Economic History Review,'' (1988) 41#3: 346–67.
* Lodge, Martin C.E. "On different tracks: Institutions and railway regulation in Britain and Germany" (PhD Diss. London School of Economics and Political Science, 2000
online
* Mierzejewski, Alfred C. ''The most valuable asset of the Reich. A history of the German National Railway: Vol 1: 1920–1932'' (1999); Vol 2: 1933–1945 (2000)
* Mierzejewski, Alfred C. ''The collapse of the German War Economy, 1944–1945: Allied Air Power and the German National Railway'' (2007).
* Millward, Robert. ''Private and public enterprise in Europe: energy, telecommunications and transport, 1830–1990'' (Cambridge UP, 2005).
* Milward, Alan S., and S. B. Saul. ''The Development of the Economies of Continental Europe 1850–1914'' (Harvard UP. 1977)
online
* Mitchell, Allan. ''Great Train Race: Railways and the Franco-German Rivalry, 1815–1914'' (2000).
* Mitchell, Allan. “Weak Sisters: The Employment of Women by French and German Railroads in the Nineteenth Century,” ''Francia'' 22#3 (1995): 175–82.
* Nock, O. S ''Railways of Western Europe'' (1977
online
* O’Brien, Patrick, ed. ''Railways and the Economic Development of Western Europe 1830–1914'' (Oxford UP, 1983)
* Roth, Ralf. "German State Action and Railway Policy during the 20th Century." ''Revista de Historia Actual'' 5 (2007): 15–28.
* Schot, Johan, Hans Buiter, and Irene Anastasiadou. "The dynamics of transnational railway governance in Europe during the long nineteenth century." ''History and Technology'' 27.3 (2011): 265–289.
* Showalter, Dennis E. ''Railroads and Rifles. Soldiers, Technology, and the Unification of Germany'' (1975).
* Stevenson, David. "War by timetable? The railway race before 1914." ''Past & Present'' 162 (1999): 163–194. France vs Germany
online* Vahrenkamp, Richard. "The limits of railway transportation in a mass consumption society: Germany, 1900–1938." ''Journal of Transport History'' 32.1 (2011): 1–16.
online* Ville, Simon P. ''Transport and the Development of the European Economy, 1750–1918'' (1990).
Historiography and memory
* Robbins, Michael. "Some Recent Railway History in German: A Review Article." ''Journal of Transport History'' 9.1 (1988): 109-117.
* Youngman, Paul A. ''Black devil and iron angel: the railway in nineteenth-century German realism.'' (2005).
In German
*
* Sonnenberger, Franz & Manfred Jehle, eds. ''Zug der Zeit. Zeit der Züge''(Deutsche Eisenbahn 1835 -1985) (2 vol 1989
excerpt 395pp; 72 essays by experts, cover the early years, construction, railways and industrialization, finance, and railways in the world wars, as well as trade unions, employees, accidents, tourism, and numerous other topics. Heavily illustrated catalog for major museum exhibit.
External links
The Leipzig-Dresden railway line through time
{{DEFAULTSORT:History of Rail Transport in Germany