History of rail transport in Germany
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- This article is part of the history of rail transport by country series
German Railway history began with the opening of the steam-hauled Bayerische Ludwigsbahn between Nürnberg and Fürth on 7 December 1835. This had been preceded by the opening of the horse-hauled Prinz-Wilhelm-Eisenbahn on 20 September 1831. The first long distance railway was the Leipzig-Dresden railway, completed on 7 April 1839.
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[edit] Epoch 0 (1835-1870)
The Prinz-Wilhelm-Eisenbahn was a horse-hauled narrow gauge (82 cm) railway that ran for a Prussian mile (7,532 metres) along the Deilbach valley from Hinsbeck near Essen) to Nierenhof, opened on 20 September 1831. It operated as a horse-drawn railway carrying coal until 1844, but from 1833 it also carried passengers. In 1847, it was converted to standard gauge and became a steam-hauled railway.
The Bayerische Ludwigsbahn commenced operations on 7 December 1835 with the Adler (Eagle) locomotive running between Nürnberg and Fürth. The locomotive was built by Stephenson and Co. in Newcastle upon Tyne.
The third German railway was the Leipzig-Dresden railway, opened from Leipzig to Althen on 24 April 1837 and completed to Dresden on 7 April 1839. It was the first long-distance line Germany with a length of 120 km and it also contained the first railway tunnel in Germany.
The following years saw a rapid growth: By the year 1845, there were already more than 2,000 km of railroads 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 Rheinische Eisenbahn, built the first ever international railway line. The line connected Cologne in Prussia to Antwerp in Belgium and was opened in 1843.
[edit] Epoch I (1871-1919)
In 1871 the German Empire was founded and consisted of 25 sovereign states. Some of these territories and kingdoms operated their own railways, collectively called the Länderbahnen (Territorial Railways). These were:
- Königlich Preußische und Großherzoglich Hessische Staatseisenbahn (K.P.u.G.H.St.E.)
- which later became the Königlich Preußische Eisenbahn-Verwaltung (K.P.E.V.)
- Königlich Bayerische Staatseisenbahn (K.Bay.Sts.B.)
- Königlich Sächsische Staatseisenbahnen (K.Sächs.Sts.E.B.)
- Königlich Württembergische Staatseisenbahn (K.W.St.E.)
- Großherzoglich Badische Staatseisenbahn (Baden)
- Großherzoglich Mecklenburgische Friedrich-Franz-Eisenbahn (Meckl. or M.F.F.E)
- Großherzoglich Oldenburgische Staatseisenbahn (Oldenburg)
- Pfalzbahn der Königlich Bayerische Staatseisenbahn (PfalzB)
- Reichseisenbahn Elsaß-Lothringen (ReichsEb.)
- Ludwigsbahn
Epoch I was over after Germany lost WW I in 1918.
[edit] Epoch II (1920-1945)
In 1920 after World War I the Länderbahnen were united to form the Deutsche Reichsbahn. According to the "Dawes Plan", it was by law in 30. August 1924 transformed into Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (DRG, German State Railway Company), a private company, which was determined to pay reparations of about 660 million Marks annually.
The more than 200 steam locomotive types of the different German Länderbahnen were standardised into Baureihen (BR) (construction series) resembling similar wheel-notations, like the "BR 18" which covered all 4-6-2 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 BR 01 or BR 41. In 1928 the Rheingold Express started riding between Hoek van Holland and Basel. On 11 May 1936 the streamlined steam locomotive 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 in 1938 at 203 km/h.
[edit] Epoch III (1945-1970)
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 (the West) and the Russian zone became the German Democratic Republic (the East). Also, German territories beyond Oder were left to Poland except northern part of East Prussia, which was left to Soviet Union in 1945.
From 1949, the new governments assumed authority for railway operations. The DRG's (or DR's) successors were named Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB, German Federal Railways) in West Germany, and Deutsche Reichsbahn (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 resp. 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. 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.
[edit] Epoch IV (1970-1993)
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 (ICE V) sets a new German railway speed record of 406.9 km/h (254.3 miles/h) on the new high speed line between Fulda and Würzburg. In 1991 the new high speed lines Hanover-Fulda-Würzburg (280km/h) and Mannheim-Stuttgart (250km/h) were opened for service including the new ICE 1 train sets.
[edit] Epoch V (1994-present)
In 1989, the Wall 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 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).
[edit] See also
- History of rail transport
- Rail transport in Germany
- German steam locomotive classification
- Narrow gauge railways in Saxony
[edit] External links
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