Berlin-Anhalt Railway Company

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Route network of the Berlin-Anhalt Railway Company around 1875

The Berlin-Anhaltische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (short: BAE) was a railway company in Prussia . The Anhalter Bahn , which she built, ran from Berlin to Köthen as early as 1841 , making it one of the first long-distance railways in Germany.

history

The Berlin-Anhaltische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft was one of the most important railway companies in Germany for more than four decades in the 19th century. In addition to the actual Anhalter main line, it created a network of important railway connections between Berlin and the northern part of the Kingdom of Saxony, the Prussian province of Saxony and the Duchy of Anhalt , which ultimately covered a length of around 430 kilometers.

The railway policy of the Prussian state prevented the originally planned construction of a line from Berlin to Riesa to connect to the Dresden – Leipzig line . Therefore, in 1836, the company initially decided on a route variant in the direction of the Duchy of Anhalt and therefore changed the name from "Berlin-Saxon Railway Company" to "Berlin-Anhalt Railway Company" in 1839.

The first BAE railway line was licensed by Prussia on May 15, 1839 and built over a length of 21 kilometers from Köthen to the capital of Anhalt, Dessau , and opened on September 1, 1840. On August 18 and 28, 1841, the route was then extended by 37 kilometers to Wittenberg .

Timetable Berlin-Jüterbog

As early as July 1, 1841, traffic from the northern end of the line, the Anhalter Bahnhof in Berlin, was started for 63 kilometers to Jüterbog . The remaining gap of 32 kilometers between Jüterbog and Wittenberg was finally closed on September 10, 1841. The Köthen station thus became the first railway junction in Germany, as it was also located on the Magdeburg-Leipzig railway , which opened on June 9, 1840 .

It was not until 1848 that the company was able to realize its original plan to build a railway line from Jüterbog via Falkenberg to Riesa . On July 2, 1848, the railway was opened to Herzberg an der Elster, and on October 1, 1848 to Röderau / Riesa.

Around ten years later, the lines of the Berlin-Anhalt Railway Company reached the Halle and Leipzig junctions . First, from August 17, 1857, a line ran from Dessau to Bitterfeld . From February 1, 1859, two routes to Halle and Leipzig went from there. After Wittenberg was also connected directly to Bitterfeld on August 3, 1859, the BAE route network had grown by a further 125 kilometers.

The construction of the new lines, but also the growth of the competing railway companies, forced a constant adjustment of the transport offers to the changing demand. The importance of the oldest line Dessau – Köthen later declined to the level of a branch line. At the same time, however, the importance of passenger transport by rail increased steadily and the increasing industrialization and the necessary supply of fuel and raw materials (especially lignite from the central German opencast mines ) ensured growth in transport volumes.

Only in the first few years after the founding of the empire did the BAE network grow again. On October 1, 1871, it acquired ownership of the 13-kilometer-long Anhaltische Leopoldsbahn from Roßlau to Zerbst , which has been in operation since it opened on November 1, 1863. When it was extended in the direction of Magdeburg on July 1, 1874, the BAE took over the five-kilometer section from Zerbst to the Anhalt-Prussian border near Trebnitz.

With the Wittenberg – Falkenberg line opened on October 15, 1875, the network of the Berlin-Anhalt Railway Company was completed. However, they expanded their influence still like she the operational management of the on July 1, 1878 Oberlausitzer railway company took over on June 1, 1874 opened distance 148 km far from Falkenberg about Elsterwerda-Hoyerswerda to east across the Neisse up Kohlfurt led.

Opening dates:

  • September 10, 1841: Berlin – Jüterbog – Wittenberg – Roßlau – Dessau – Köthen
  • 0October 1, 1848: Jüterbog – Falkenberg / Elster – Röderau – Riesa
  • 0February 1, 1859: Bitterfeld – Leipzig
  • 0February 1, 1859: Bitterfeld – Halle
  • 0February 1, 1863: Roßlau – Zerbst
  • 0July 1, 1874: Zerbst – Trebnitz
  • October 15, 1875: Wittenberg – Falkenberg / Elster

After the Prussian state had taken over management of the Berlin-Anhalt Railway Company at the beginning of 1882 and ownership of the routes four years later, the railway company finally dissolved.

The Anhalt line belonged to her opening to the main trunk railway lines in Germany. From here the first express trains ran from Berlin via Köthen to Halle, Leipzig, Frankfurt am Main and Munich, as well as on the Dresden – PragueVienna route via Jüterbog – Röderau. Berlin was also connected to Rome and Athens via the Anhalter Bahn . The monumental new building of the Anhalter Bahnhof in Berlin, opened in 1882, was the result of this development.

See also

Lore

Large parts of the records of the Berlin-Anhalt Railway Company are in the Dessau department of the Saxony-Anhalt State Archives .

literature

  • Peter Bley: 150 years of the Berlin-Anhalt Railway . alba, Düsseldorf 1990, ISBN 3-87094-340-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Deutsche Reichsbahn (Ed.): The German railways in their development 1835-1935. Berlin 1935. / as reprint: Dumjahn, Mainz 1984, ISBN 3-921426-29-4 . (No. 1841/9 - 1841/2 + 3 + 9).
  2. Tradition of the Berlin-Anhalt Railway Company in the holdings of the Reichsbahndirektion Halle in the State Archives Saxony-Anhalt, Dessau department