Lauenburg privilege

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The Lauenburg privilege described the right of the citizens of the city of Lauenburg to use the rail link between Lauenburg and Büchen in the southeast of what is now Schleswig-Holstein free of charge if they wanted to travel on the Berlin-Hamburg railway . The Lauenburgers were given the fare as if Lauenburg was directly on the Berlin-Hamburg railway. The privilege existed from 1851 to 1937 and was extended to freight transport in 1883 .

Railway connection Büchen – Lauenburg (1891).

In order to be able to build its main line from Berlin to Hamburg through the north of the Duchy of Lauenburg in 1845, the Berlin-Hamburg Railway Company had to establish and operate a free rail connection for the city of Lauenburg. This branch line Büchen-Lauenburg, which a section of since November 1, 1878 Lübeck-Lüneburg railway is, was on 15 October 1851 to the Palmschleuse opened on 1 July 1853 and to the station Lauenburg.

Citizens were able to have identity cards issued that identify them as residents of the city of Lauenburg and entitle them to free travel. The privilege of free travel between Lauenburg and Büchen was only valid if you had a valid ticket for the Berlin-Hamburg train from Büchen to travel to Büchen and a ticket to Büchen for the trip to Lauenburg. By a judgment of the Reichsgericht in 1883 the privilege was extended to the transport of goods.

The trip was chargeable if you only wanted to drive on the Lauenburg – Büchen section or to Lübeck . When the Müssen station was opened about four kilometers west of Büchen on the Berlin-Hamburg railway , however, there was an opportunity for the citizens of Lauenburg to get to Lübeck more cheaply. They bought a return ticket Lauenburg – Müssen at a price of 0.50  Reichsmarks , but did not go to Müssen, but bought a return ticket to Lübeck in Büchen. The trip Lauenburg – Büchen would actually have cost 1.20 Reichsmarks, the privilege reduced the fare by 70  pfennigs . The Royal Prussian Railway Administration, which was its legal successor from 1884 through the nationalization of the Berlin-Hamburg Railway Company , saw this as an abuse of the privilege. She prosecuted both criminal and civil law through two instances each before the district court of Lauenburg and the district court of Altona , which at the time was the district court responsible for the Duchy of Lauenburg . The criminal chamber of the regional court ruled in 1895 that there was no fraudulent intent because the defendant was convinced of the correctness of his legal opinion. In 1896, the civil chamber ruled that it was sufficient to buy a ticket for the Berlin-Hamburg train to be able to enjoy the privilege. It is not necessary to drive on the main line.

The city of Lauenburg agreed on April 30, 1937, against payment of 60,000 Reichsmarks by the Deutsche Reichsbahn, to revoke the privilege.

prehistory

For the planning of the route for the Berlin – Hamburg railway in 1844 through the Duchy of Lauenburg, which at that time belonged to the Kingdom of Denmark , a total of six routes were examined. One of them, the so-called shore line, was supposed to lead along the Elbe from Boizenburg via Lauenburg and Geesthacht to Bergedorf . This route was preferred by the city of Lauenburg and Denmark because both had a great interest in connecting the city to the German railway network. The Berlin-Hamburg railway rejected this variant, however, because it was considered dangerous and expensive. She preferred a route via Büchen and Schwarzenbek through the Sachsenwald to Bergedorf.

The route via Schwarzenbek was approved on June 21, 1844 by the Danish King Christian VIII, subject to conditions. The Berlin-Hamburg Railway had to undertake to connect the city of Lauenburg by means of a railway line branching off the main Berlin – Hamburg line and to open this branch line at the same time as the main line. Furthermore, to operate and maintain this railway and to allow the citizens of Lauenburg and the suburbs to travel free of charge between Lauenburg and Büchen if they wanted to use the Berlin-Hamburg railway. Alternatively, the railway company was allowed to come to an agreement with the city on remuneration for the exemption from this obligation. The Berlin-Hamburg railway offered the city of Lauenburg 150,000 thalers in compensation. However, the city assumed that both a Lübeck – Büchen line and a line from Lüneburg to the Elbe would be built and therefore refused the compensation, so that the line had to be built and operated.

literature

  • Uwe Thiede: The “Lauenburg Privilege” . In: Press service of the Federal Railway Directorate Hamburg (Ed.): 100 Years Railway Directorate Hamburg 1884–1984 . Hamburg 1984, p. 223 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jürgen Harder: Once you have to and back . In: Lauenburg homeland . Journal of the Heimatbund and history association Herzogtum Lauenburg . Issue 144, September 1996, pp. 85-87 .
  2. ^ Peter Bley: 150 Years of the Berlin – Hamburg Railway . Alba, Düsseldorf 1996, ISBN 3-87094-229-0 , p. 23 .
  3. ^ Hansjörg Zimmermann: Lauenburg or Schwarzenbek? On the problem of the route of the Berlin-Hamburg railway in the Duchy of Lauenburg . In: Lauenburg homeland. Journal of the Heimatbund and history association Herzogtum Lauenburg . Issue 72, September 1971, p. 51-60 . Carl Friedrich Wehrmann : The origin and development of the railway connections of Lübeck . In: Journal of the Association for Lübeck History and Archeology . tape
     5 . Lübeck 1888, p. 47 .