Ducal Brunswick State Railway
The Herzoglich Braunschweigische Staatseisenbahn was the first state railway in Germany . Its first section from Braunschweig to Wolfenbüttel was opened on December 1, 1838.
history
The construction of the railway was essentially the work of the businessman Philipp-August von Amsberg . He dealt with the traffic connections between the Duchy of Braunschweig and the Hanseatic cities of Hamburg , Bremen and Lübeck and realized that wood and mining products from the Harz Mountains were not competitive in the seaports. Conversely, the products from the seaports were preferably transported on the Elbe to Magdeburg and not to Braunschweig. In 1824 he presented the plan in a memorandum to build rail connections from Braunschweig to Hamburg and Bremen. These ideas are published in 1832.
In 1835 Amsberg dealt with the plan for a railway from Braunschweig via Helmstedt to Magdeburg. This plan was abandoned in favor of a route via Oschersleben (Bode) in order to connect there to the Magdeburg-Halberstädter Bahn .
At Amsberg's suggestion, the Braunschweig State Ministry decided to first build a rail link from Braunschweig via Wolfenbüttel to Bad Harzburg ( Braunschweig – Bad Harzburg railway line ) and thus forestall the intention of the Hanover government to bypass Braunschweig to the south by rail via Halberstadt to Magdeburg to build.
On August 1, 1837, construction began on the first section from Braunschweig in a southerly direction to Wolfenbüttel; on December 1, 1838, the line was opened to traffic as the first German state railway and fourth railway line in the German Confederation . On October 31, 1841, the railway to Harzburg was completed. The incline between Vienenburg and Harzburg was initially managed with horses until 1843 steam operation with three locomotives from Great Britain was introduced here as well . These locomotives were the first triple-coupled locomotives in Germany.
In 1850 Philipp August von Amsberg became head of the ducal railway and post office in Braunschweig.
Route development
On July 10, 1843, the Wolfenbüttel – Oschersleben line with a connection to the Magdeburg-Halberstädter Railway and on to Berlin , Leipzig and Blankenburg was put into operation. The line to Peine was opened on May 19, 1844 (with connection to the Royal Hanover State Railways ). The Braunschweigische Südbahn from Börßum to Kreiensen was built from 1853 and opened in 1856. In 1858 the Helmstedt lignite district was connected to the Jerxheim – Helmstedt line , then the Vienenburg – Goslar line (opened in 1866 by the Hanover State Railway, but initially operated by the Braunschweigische Eisenbahn). With the connection Kreiensen - Holzminden - Höxter - Godelheim to the Altenbeken – Höxter railway line of the Royal Westphalian Railway Company in October 1865, a continuous line was created via Altenbeken into the Ruhr area . With the Jerxheim – Börßum connection , a long-distance connection between Magdeburg and the Ruhr area was created in 1868, bypassing Hanover and Braunschweig, which was particularly beneficial to Prussia's interests .
Takeover by the Prussian state
In 1869 Amsberg campaigned with a heavy heart for the sale of the Braunschweigische Staatsbahn to Prussia. The Duchy of Brunswick at that time had large debts that were incurred primarily by the expansion of the railway, and was nothing of the Prussian state railways enclosed.
In March 1870, with effect from January 1, 1869, the Braunschweigische Staatsbahnen were transferred to a private company, the Braunschweigische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft . Amsberg never saw the Prussian state buy up the shares in this company from 1879 to 1882 when it operated as the Prussian State Railways and in 1886 made them subordinate to the Royal Railway Directorate in Magdeburg .
literature
- Erhard Born (Hrsg.): Pioneers of the railway industry. Carl Röhrig Verlag, Darmstadt undated (1961).
- Wilhelm M. Wunderlich: The first German state railway. Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel. Elm-Verlag, Cremlingen 1987, ISBN 3-9800219-7-1 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Data on the history of the Braunschweigische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (BEG) - Bahnarchiv.de. Retrieved May 29, 2015 .