Berlin Straßenbahn
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The Berlin Straßenbahn (Berlin Tramway) is one of the oldest and still today one of the largest tram networks in the world. It is operated by Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) (Berlin Transport Services) which was founded in 1929. Today the standard gauge-network has a route length of 190.4 km and 380 stops.
Since 1865 Berlin had a horse tramway. In 1881, the world's first electric tram line opened. Numerous private and municipal operating companies built new routes. So at the end of the 19th century the network developed quite rapidly and the horse trams were changed into electric ones. Around 1930 the network had a route length of over 630 km and more than 90 lines. In 1929, all operating companies were unified into the BVG. After World War II, BVG was divided into an eastern and a western company, but again reunited in 1992. In West-Berlin, by 1967 all tram lines were shut down. With the exception of two lines being built after the German reunion, the Berlin tram only runs through the eastern part of the city.
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[edit] From horse bus to electric trams
The public transport system of Berlin is the oldest one in Germany. Already in 1847, the first public line opened: The Concessionierte Berliner Omnibus Compagnie (Concessed Berlin Bus Company) operated the first horse bus line of the city from 1st of January of that year. Numerous additional companies launched into the growing market. In 1864, there were 36 bus companies in Berlin.
In the following year, on June 22, 1865, the age of trams started in Germany. Berlin's first horse tramway line opened. It reached from Brandenburger Tor along today's Strasse des 17. Juni (17th of June-Road) to Charlottenburg. On 28th of August in the same year, it was extended along Dorotheenstraße to Kupfergraben near today's Museumsinsel (Museum Island). This terminal stop is still in service today. Alike the horse bus many companies followed the new development and built horse tram networks in all parts of the today's urban area. In 1873, a route from Rosenthaler Platz to the Gesundbrunnen (Health well) was opened, being operated by the new Große Berliner Pferde-Eisenbahn (Great Berlin Horse Tram) which would later become the dominating company in Berlin under the name of Große Berliner Straßenbahn (GBS) (Great Berlin Tram).
On 16 May 1881, the region of Berlin again wrote transport history. In the village of Gross-Lichterfelde, which was incorporated into Berlin-Steglitz 39 years later, Werner von Siemens opened the world's first electric tramway. Firstly, the route was just a testing plant. Siemens named it an "elevated line taken down from its pillars and girders", because he wanted to build a network of electric elevated lines in Berlin. But the sceptical town council did not allow him to do this until 1902, when the first elevated line opened.
The electric tram in Gross-Lichterfelde was built in meter gauge and ran from today's suburban station East Lichterfelde to the cadet school in the Zehlendorfer Strasse (today Finckensteinallee). One trip cost more than an average hourly wage. The route was regauged to standard gauge in October 1925.
The new development overran the old horse trams, and so the last horse tram was closed in Berlin in 1910.
Already by 18 December 1899, one was able to travel under ground, even under the Spree river: The Spreetunnel between Stralau and Treptow was opened by a tram company. Since the tunnel had some weaknesses, it had to be closed on 15 February 1932. From 1916 to 1951, the tram had a second tunnel, the Lindentunnel running under the well-known boulevard Unter den Linden.
[edit] Great Variety of Companies until the formation of the BVG
The history of tramway companies of the Berlin Strassenbahn is very complicated. Besides private companies which often changed due to takeovers, mergers, and bankruptcies, the cities of Berlin, Spandau, Köpenick, Rixdorf, the villages Steglitz, Mariendorf, Britz, Niederschönhausen, Friedrichshagen, Heiligensee und Französisch Buchholz, and the Kreis Teltow (Teltow county) had municipal tramway companies.
The most important private operating company was the Große Berliner Pferde-Eisenbahn (Great Berlin Horse Tramway), which called itself Große Berliner Straßenbahn (GBS) (Great Berlin Tramway) after starting the electrification and which bought nearly all other companies during the years. In 1920, the GBS merged with the municipal companies BESTAG and SSB to the Berliner Straßenbahn (Berlin Tramway), which was reorganized in 1929 into the newly-formed municipal Berliner Verkehrs-AG (BVG) (Berlin Transport Company). Besides the tramway, the BVG also took over the elevated and underground lines and the bus lines that were operated mostly by the Allgemeine Berliner Omnibus-Actien-Gesellschaft (ABOAG) (General Berlin Bus Company).
The following table includes all companies that operated tramways in today's Berlin before the formation of the BVG. The background color of each line marks the traction which the respective company used to serve their lines at the time of the formation (blue = horse tram, yellow = steam tram, white = electric tram, red = benzole tram).
| First line opened | Operating company | Gauge (mm) | Takeover date | Taken over by | Special remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1865/06/22 | Berliner Pferde-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (BPfEG) | 1435 | 1894/09/26 | BChS | first horse tram in Germany |
| 1871/11/01 | Westend-Terrain-Gesellschaft H. Quistorp & Co. | 1435 | 1878 | BPfEG | |
| 1873/07/08 | Große Berliner Pferde-Eisenbahn (GBPfE) | 1435 | 1898/01/25 | GBS | |
| 1877/01/01 | Neue Berliner Pferdebahn-Gesellschaft (NBPfG) | 1435 | 1900/01/01 | GBS | |
| 1879/04/01 | Große Internationale Pferde-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (GIPfEG) | 1435 | 1886 | GBPfE | founded already in March 1872 |
| 1881/05/16 | Electrische Straßenbahn der Gemeinde Groß-Lichterfelde | 1000 | 1895/03/04 | ESGLSS | world's first electric tramway |
| 1882/10/18 | Cöpenicker Pferde-Eisenbahn (CPE) | 1435 | 1903 | SSC | |
| 1885/06/13 | Pferde-Eisenbahn der Gemeinde Rixdorf | 1435 | 1887/01/01 | GBPfE | |
| 1886/05/05 | Davy, Donath & Co. | 1435 | 1888/12/22 | BDK | |
| 1887/08/06 | Pferde-Eisenbahn der Gemeinde Mariendorf | 1435 | 1888/01/01 | GBPfE | |
| 1888/05/18 | Wilmersdorf-Schmargendorfer Dampfstraßenbahn Reymer & Masch (WSD) | 1435 | 1888/12/22 | BDK | |
| 1888/07/01 | Dampfstraßenbahn Groß-Lichterfelde - Seehof - Teltow | 1435 | 1891/05/31 | DLSTS | |
| 1888/12/22 | Berliner Dampfstraßenbahn-Konsortium (BDK) | 1435 | 1898/10/01 | WBV | also operated some horse trams |
| 1891/05/17 | Straßenbahn Friedrichshagen | 1000 | 1906/12/16 | SSC | in 1894 taken over by the village, electrificated and regauged to standard gauge as of the takeover by SSC |
| 1891/05/31 | Dampfstraßenbahn Groß-Lichterfelde - Seehof - Teltow - Stahnsdorf | 1435 | 1906/04/01 | TKb | |
| 1891/06/04 | Pferdebahn Tegeler Chaussee - Tegel | 1435 | 1891/06/04 | GBPfE | |
| 1891/08/01 | Pferde-Eisenbahn der Gemeinde Britz | 1435 | 1891/08/01 | GBPfE | |
| 1892/06/05 | Spandauer Straßenbahn Simmel, Matzky & Müller (SpS) | 1000 | 1920/12/08 | Berliner Straßenbahn | on 1894/09/01 management taken over by Allgemeine Deutsche Kleinbahn-Gesellschaft (ADKG), electrification finished on 1896/03/18, from 1899/03/04 management by AEG, regauged to standard gauge on 1907/10/26, bought by the city of Spandau on 1909/07/01 |
| 1892/07/01 | Pferde-Eisenbahn der Gemeinde Niederschönhausen | 1435 | 1892/07/01 | GBS | |
| 1894/09/26 | Berlin-Charlottenburger Straßenbahn (BChS) | 1435 | 1919/05/15 | GBS | electrification finished on 1900/10/01 |
| 1895/03/04 | Elektrische Straßenbahnen Groß-Lichterfelde - Lankwitz - Steglitz - Südende (ESGLSS) | 1000 | 1906/04/01 | TKb | |
| 1895/09/10 | Siemens & Halske | 1435 | 1899/07/01 | BESTAG | |
| 1898/01/25 | Große Berliner Straßenbahn (GBS) | 1435 | 1920/10/01 | Berliner Straßenbahn | electrification finished on 1902/12/15, bought by the Zweckverband Groß-Berlin on 1909/09/20 |
| 1898/10/01 | Westliche Berliner Vorortbahn (WBV) | 1435 | 1919/05/15 | GBS | also operated some horse trams, electrification finished on 1900/06/19 |
| 1899/07/01 | Berliner Elektrische Straßenbahn-AG (BESTAG) | 1435 | 1920/12/01 | Berliner Straßenbahn | |
| 1899/07/01 | Südliche Berliner Vorortbahn | 1435 | 1919/05/15 | GBS | |
| 1899/10/21 | Straßenbahn Berlin-Hohenschönhausen | 1435 | 1906/12/10 | NBSNO | |
| 1899/12/18 | Gesellschaft für den Bau von Untergrundbahnen (Straßenbahn Schlesischer Bahnhof - Treptow) (SST) | 1435 | 1909/06/22 | Berliner Ostbahnen | opened the Spreetunnel |
| 1901/08/15 | Straßenbahn Niederschöneweide - Cöpenick (SNC) | 1435 | 1909/06/22 | Berliner Ostbahnen | |
| 1901/10/01 | Gesellschaft für elektrische Hoch- und Untergrundbahnen in Berlin (tramway line Warschauer Brücke-Zentralviehhof) | 1435 | 1928/04/01 | BSBG | on 1910/01/01 tram line was sold to SSB, instead of it opening of a new tram line from Warschauer Brücke to Scharnweber-/Gürtelstraße, later extended to Wagnerplatz (today Roedeliusplatz) in Lichtenberg |
| 1903 | Städtische Straßenbahn Cöpenick (SSC) | 1435 | 1920/10/01 | GBS | |
| July 1904 | Pferde-Eisenbahn der Gemeinde Französisch-Buchholz | 1435 | 1907/12/19 | BESTAG | electrification as of takeover by BESTAG |
| 1905/12/03 | Straßenbahn der Gemeinde Steglitz | 1435 | 1921/04/16 | Berliner Straßenbahn | |
| 1906/04/01 | Teltower Kreisbahnen (TKb) | 1000/1435 | 1921/04/16 | Berliner Straßenbahn | steam tram of DLSTS was electrificated on 1907/03/30 |
| 1906/12/10 | Neue Berliner Straßenbahn Nordost (NBSNO) | 1435 | 1910/05/03 | NÖBV | |
| 1908/03/23 | Elektrische Straßenbahn Spandau-Nonnendamm | 1435 | 1914/10/01 | SpS | founded by Siemens & Halske |
| 1908/07/01 | Städtische Straßenbahnen Berlin (SSB) | 1435 | 1920/10/01 | Berliner Straßenbahn | |
| 1909/06/22 | Berliner Ostbahnen | 1435 | 1920/05/01 | GBS | |
| 1910/05/03 | Nordöstliche Berliner Vorortbahn (NÖBV) | 1435 | 1919/05/15 | GBS | |
| 1910/08/07 | Straßenbahn des Flugplatzes Johannisthal | 1435 | October 1910 | service suspended | last horse tram in Berlin |
| 1912/03/09 | Schmöckwitz-Grünauer Uferbahn | 1435 | August 1924 | Berliner Verkehrs-GmbH | electrification finished on 1912/07/23 |
| 1913/05/29 | Straßenbahn der Gemeinde Heiligensee an der Havel | 1435 | 1920/10/01 | Berliner Straßenbahn | |
| 1920/10/01 | Berliner Straßenbahn | 1000/1435 | 1923/09/10 | BSBG | meter gauge routes are of former TKb |
| 1923/01/08 | Kleinbahn Spandau-West - Hennigsdorf | 1435 | 1929/01/01 | BVG | electrification later by BVG |
| 1923/09/10 | Berliner Straßenbahn-Betriebs-GmbH (BSBG) | 1000/1435 | 1929/01/01 | BVG | meter gauge routes are of former TKb |
| August 1924 | Berliner Verkehrs-GmbH | 1435 | 1925/03/01 | BSBG |
On the day of its formation, the BVG had 89 tramway lines, a network of 634 km length, over 4,000 tramway cars, and more than 14,400 employees within the tramway section. An average tramway car ran over 170 million kilometers per year. The Berlin tramway had more than 929 million passengers in 1929. At the end of 1929, the BVG already had 93 tramway lines.
In the beginning of the thirties, the Berlin tramway network began to decline. After partial closing of the world's first electric tram in 1930, on 31 October 1934 the oldest tramway of Germany followed: the Charlottenburger Chaussee (today Straße des 17. Juni) was rebuilt by Nazi planners to a monumental East-West-Axis, the tramway had to leave. In 1938, there were still 71 tramway lines, 2,800 tram cars and about 12,500 employees. Consequently, the bus network was extended during this time. Since 1933, Berlin also had trolley busses.
During World War II, some transport tasks were given back to the tramway to save oil. Thus an extensive transport of goods was established. Bombings (from March 1943 on) and the lack of personal and electricity caused the transport performance to decline. Due to the final fights for Berlin, the tramway system collapsed on 23 April 1945.
[edit] The Berlin Tramway since 1945
[edit] Environment
The Berlin tram network is today the largest one in Germany, and, in spite of many cutbacks, one of the largest in the world.
Around Berlin there are some additional tram companies that do not belong to the BVG:
- the Potsdam Tramway,
- the Strausberg Railway (which is in fact a tram line),
- the Tramway Schöneiche-Rüdersdorf, and
- the Woltersdorf Tramway.
The last three companies are located in the eastern suburbs at the eastern edge of Berlin. Each of them has only one line.
- This article contains information from the German-language Wikipedia article Straßenbahn Berlin.
[edit] Further reading
[edit] Literature (written parallel in English and German)
- Sigurd Hilkenbach, Wolfgang Kramer und Claude Jeanmaire: Berliner Straßenbahnen. Die Geschichte der Berliner Straßenbahn-Gesellschaften seit 1865 (Archive No. 6), Verlag Eisenbahn, Villigen AG (Schweiz), 1973, ISBN 3-85649-006-X
- Sigurd Hilkenbach, Wolfgang Kramer und Claude Jeanmaire: Berliner Straßenbahngeschichte II. Ein Bericht über die Entwicklung der Straßenbahn in Berlin nach 1920 (Archive No. 31), Verlag Eisenbahn, Villigen AG (Schweiz), 1977, ISBN 3-85649-031-0
- Sigurd Hilkenbach, Wolfgang Kramer und Claude Jeanmaire: Die Straßenbahnlinien im westlichen Teil Berlins. Der Wiederaufbau ab 1945 und die Stillegung im Westteil der Stadt bis 1967. (2 Bände) (Archive Nos. 46/52), Verlag Eisenbahn, Villigen AG (Schweiz), 1986, ISBN 3-85649-046-9
[edit] Literature (in German)
- Arbeitsgemeinschaft Blickpunkt Straßenbahn e. V.: Straßenbahnatlas Deutschland 1996, Berlin, ISBN 3-926524-14-6
- Denkmalpflege-Verein Nahverkehr Berlin e. V.: Rekowagen - Die etwas härtere Art, Straßenbahn zu fahren, Verlag GVE, Berlin, 1996, ISBN 3-89218-045-8
- Denkmalpflege-Verein Nahverkehr Berlin e. V.: Historische Nahverkehrsfahrzeuge - Berlin und Brandenburg, Verlag GVE, Berlin, 2001, ISBN 3-89218-027-X
- Denkmalpflege-Verein Nahverkehr Berlin e. V.: 100 Jahre »Elektrische« in Köpenick, Verlag GVE, Berlin, 2003, ISBN 3-89218-082-2
- Sigurd Hilkenbach und Wolfgang Kramer: Die Straßenbahnen in Berlin, Alba, Duesseldorf, 1994, ISBN 3-87094-351-3
- Sigurd Hilkenbach und Wolfgang Kramer: Die Straßenbahn der Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG-Ost/BVB) 1949-1991, Transpress, Stuttgart, 1997, ISBN 3-613-71063-3
- Wolfgang Kramer und Heinz Jung: Linienchronik der Elektrischen Straßenbahn von Berlin. (2 volumes), Arbeitskreis Berliner Nahverkehr e. V., 1994 (Vol. 1), 2001 (Vol. 2)
- Holger Orb und Tilo Schütz: Straßenbahn für ganz Berlin. Geschichte - Konzeption - Städtebau, Jaron Verlag, Berlin, 2000, ISBN 3-89773-024-3
[edit] External links
- bvg.de The web site of the operation company BVG.
- chronik-berlin.de
- berlin-straba.de
- diegeschichteberlins.de
- berliner-verkehr.de
- tram in Berlin
