Essen Railway Directorate

Administration building of the Reichsbahndirektion Essen (1920)

The Reichsbahndirektion Essen was a railway directorate in Essen .

history

prehistory

As part of the wave of nationalization of privately run railways in the Kingdom of Prussia that began in 1879 , the Prussian State Railways had to be reorganized. To this end, 11 railway directorates with a uniform internal structure were created. The Royal Railway Directorate in Cologne on the right bank of the Rhine was one of them.

Kingdom of Prussia

After the nationalization and the construction of numerous new lines, the administration of the state railway had to be reformed again in 1895. For this purpose, the number of railway directorates was increased from 11 to 20 and the area of ​​responsibility of the old directorates was massively reduced. In addition, the Königliche Eisenbahndirection zu Cöln on the right bank of the Rhine and the Königliche Eisenbahndirection zu Cöln on the left bank of the Rhine were merged, but parts were also spun off. The Königliche Eisenbahndirektion Essen emerged from outsourced areas of the (now: former) Royal Railway Directorate in Cologne on the right bank of the Rhine .

Reichsbahn

In 1920 the Prussian State Railways went into the Deutsche Reichsbahn . As a result, the railway directorate was renamed the Reichsbahndirektion Essen in 1922.

In 1923/24 it had its temporary seat in Dortmund as part of the Allied occupation of the Rhineland .

Federal Railroad

After the Second World War , the management was initially called the Essen Railway Directorate . When the Deutsche Bundesbahn was founded , it was renamed the Essen Federal Railway Directorate . In 1974 she took over parts of the disbanded Federal Railway Directorate Wuppertal and Münster .

Area of ​​responsibility

The area of ​​this Reichsbahndirektion extended from the Rhine in a westerly direction over the Prussian area of ​​the Rheinisch-Westfälische industrial area ( Ruhr area ) and in the north to the Dutch border.

In addition to the variously linked routes in the core area, which run primarily in a west-east direction, the management also included the route east of the Rhine to Wesel-Emmerich- (Netherlands).

Significant routes within the management were:

• the Holland route from Oberhausen to the state border
• the Wanne-Eickel – Hamburg railway from Wanne-Eickel to the state border at Lengerich
• the Haltern – Venlo line from Haltern to Wesel
• the northern route from Osterfeld Süd to Hamm
• the Duisburg – Dortmund railway line
• the Witten / Dortmund – Oberhausen / Duisburg railway line

Important nodes were:

• Duisburg Central Station
• Oberhausen main station
• Essen Central Station
• Gelsenkirchen main train station
• Bochum Central Station
• Dortmund Central Station
• Hamm (Westf)
• Wanne-Eickel main station

Headquarters

The administration was located between 1898 and 1994 in the Essen Railway Headquarters on Bismarckplatz, southwest of Essen Central Station .

literature

• Official pocket timetable for Niederrheinisch-Westfälisches industrial area - annual timetable 1943 , valid from May 17, 1943 - Reichsbahndirektion Essen and Wuppertal, Verlag Rockstuhl, Bad Langensalza, 1st reprint edition 2005, ISBN 3-937135-67-7
• Wolfgang Klee: Prussian railway history . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1982. ISBN 3-17-007466-0

Web links

Commons : Office building, Essen Directorate  - Collection of images

• Map of the RBD Essen
• Royal Railway Directorate in Essen ( Memento from October 29, 2013 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Klee, p. 179.
2. ↑ Klee, p. 179.
3. ^ Reichsbahndirektion in Mainz (ed.): Official Gazette of the Reichsbahndirektion in Mainz of December 6, 1924, No. 52. Announcement No. 1004, p. 552.