Hamburg-Venloer Bahn
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| Route network of the Cologne-Minden Railway Company | ||
|---|---|---|
| dark red | Main route Cologne – Minden | 1845-1847 |
| purple | Holland route Oberhausen – Arnhem | 1856 |
| blue | Hamburg-Venloer Bahn | 1870-74 |
| For further routes see main article Cologne-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft | ||
The Hamburg-Venloer Bahn is a supraregional historical rail link in northwest Germany, which was part of the transcontinental railroad project “Paris-Hamburger Bahn”.
The north-eastern part of the Hamburg-Venloer Bahn, today's Wanne-Eickel-Hamburg line , continues to be a heavily frequented long-distance connection, while the western part, the Haltern-Venlo line , always remained in deficit and long-distance traffic was only limited until the First World War served, sank to a regional line in the 20th century and was finally largely closed down.
history
The route was created through a French initiative to build a direct rail link from Paris to Hamburg with the option of continuing to Scandinavia. The Hamburg-Venloer Bahn was the only newly constructed line of this project, because there were already several connections from Paris to Belgium and the project of a connecting line between Antwerp and Venlo was rendered obsolete by the Iron Rhine built between 1869 and 1879 .
At the same time, it was a condition of the Prussian state to run this route north past the Ruhr area for strategic reasons . The plans could only be concretized when, after the annexation of the Kingdom of Hanover by Prussia in 1866, the entire length of the line could be run on Prussian territory.
The Cologne-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft was awarded the contract to build and operate the Hamburg-Venloer Bahn . They began the construction of the eastern section of the line in Wanne station on their main line (Cologne–) Deutz – Minden , which then encountered the planned route at Haltern station , and from there continued to build initially northwards. The construction of the line west of Haltern took its time because the construction of the Wesel railway bridge took a considerable amount of time.
| date | opened route section | particularities |
|---|---|---|
| January 1, 1870 | Wanne – Munster | |
| September 1, 1871 | Münster – Osnabrück | |
| December 1, 1872 | Hamburg – Harburg | Elbe bridges |
| May 15, 1873 | Osnabrück-Hemelingen | Connection to Bremen State Railway Station |
| August 16, 1873 | Hemelingen – Bremen | Hamburger Bahnhof |
| March 1, 1874 | Haltern – Wesel | |
| June 1, 1874 | Hemelingen / Bremen – Harburg | |
| December 31, 1874 | Wesel – Venlo | Wesel railway bridge , until 1945 |
Continuous train connections were created as soon as a new section of the line was put into operation, in particular from Cologne and the Ruhr area to the north, but also from Bremen or Hamburg to Wesel. After the entire route was completed, international express trains also ran between Hamburg and the Netherlands.
As with many large railway projects of the 19th century, the large bridges and the tunnel were designed for two tracks, but most of the route sections only had one track when operations began. The double-track expansion from Wanne to Harburg took place from 1881 to 1893.
While the demand on the western section of the line always remained low due to the unfavorable peripheral location, the Deutsche Reichsbahn planned in the 1920s to expand the Münster – Osnabrück section to four tracks; however, this expansion remained in its infancy due to the global economic crisis .
After the Nederlandse Spoorwegen ceased traffic to and from Venlo in 1936, the western section of the route to the branch line became stunted and was largely shut down after the Second World War .
The eastern part of the route, however, remained the main route and was electrified in 1966 and gradually expanded from 1978 to 1990 to become a high-speed route with line train control for speeds of up to 200 km / h.
The line initially ended at the Venloer Bahnhof in Hamburg, only later (until 1906) the Oberhafenbrücke and the Hamburg-Altona connecting line including the Hamburg Central Station were built. The Venlo train station was - after the originally intended long-distance connection - also called the Paris train station and, from 1892, the Hanover train station .
bridges
The railway line had to cross three rivers, the Rhine , the Weser and the Elbe .
The first to be built was the Hamburg Elbe bridges by 1872 . They were the very first permanent connection between Hamburg and Harburg . When they opened, they had no connection to other completed parts of the Hamburg-Venloer Bahn, but they immediately generated revenue as a connection between the Altona – Kiel , Lübeck – Hamburg and Berlin – Hamburg lines to the Hanover – Harburg line .
The Rhine bridge in Wesel was built after the Elbe bridges from 1872 and was the last to be completed. In addition to the waterway, the construction site could be reached via the Dutch route, which also belongs to the Cologne-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft . When it was completed, this bridge was the longest railway bridge in Germany ( list here ). On March 10, 1945, it was the last Rhine bridge in German hands to be blown up when the Wehrmacht withdrew.
The Weser Bridge in Hemelingen was not such a big project and already the second Bremen railway bridge over the Weser, after the bridge of the Oldenburg Railway built in 1866 .
Train stations
Hamburg
In addition to the Hamburg-Venloer Bahn, the Venloer Bahnhof in Hamburg also served the northern line of the Hanover State Railways , which previously ended in Harburg, as the terminus, see article Hamburg Hannoverscher Bahnhof . It was the southernmost of four terminal stations, which were only connected by connecting tracks in the street area. It was not until 1906 that Hamburg Central Station was opened north of the four , which has since replaced them.
Bremen
Bremen was a customs foreign country until 1882. That is why two lines were built here: a pure freight line without any train station, which led past what was then the national territory, and the main line through the city, serving passenger and freight traffic. This was led from the direction of Osnabrück on the edge of the eastern suburb north next to the state railway line from Hanover and then branched off to the northwest at today's Am Barkhof street. Since the (Hanoverian) state train station in Bremen could not accommodate any additional traffic, the station of the Hamburg-Venloer Bahn on the northern edge of the Bürgerweide, intended only for goods traffic, was temporarily also used for passenger traffic until the state train station was replaced by the more efficient central station in 1889. Then the old Hamburg route north of the Bürgerweide was dismantled, see article Bremen Hauptbahnhof
Osnabrück
Today's main station as a real tower station (see below) did not go into operation until 1895. Until then, there were two train stations on the two lines that were a few hundred meters apart. The Hannoversche Bahnhof on Wittekindstrasse was also responsible for the Hanoverian Westbahn . The Bremen train station of the Hamburg-Venloer Bahn was north of today's crossing structure on Buerschen Strasse. It only had a makeshift wooden reception building. Both previous buildings were shut down for passenger traffic when the main train station opened.
Venlo
The terminus of the Hamburg-Venloer Bahn in Venlo was dismantled after the Dutch section of the line was closed, and its site now forms the Julianapark. So it was at right angles to the older and still existing railway line that crosses the Meuse in the city. Their station had previously been further out of town and was then moved 250 meters to the northwest in order to reduce the distance between the two stations.
Tower stations
At several connection points with other routes, train stations with two intersecting track levels were built:
Hervest-Dorsten station: transfer of the Duisburg – Quakenbrück and Gelsenkirchen-Bismarck – Winterswijk railway lines , including the Hamburg-Venloer Bahn
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Osnabrück Central Station: Hamburg-Venloer Bahn as an overpass, Hannoversche Westbahn underneath
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literature
- Bernd Franco Hoffmann: The Cologne-Mindener Railway: Railways through the Rhineland and Ruhr area. Sutton-Verlag, Erfurt 2018, ISBN 3-9540-0972-2 .
- Hartmut Roder (Ed.): Traffic in Bremen. Inland and buten. Ferries, bicycles, planes, trains, buses, taxis. Steintorverlag, Bremen 1990, ISBN 3-926028-15-7 .
- Hermann Hoyer, Dierk Lawrenz, Benno Wiesmüller: Hamburg Central Station 1906 to 2006. 100 years in the city center. EK-Verlag, Freiburg (Breisgau) 2006, ISBN 3-88255-721-4 .
- Rolf Swoboda: Venlo Railway: Haltern - Wesel - Venlo. VBN Verlag Bernd Neddermeyer, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-941712-02-7 .