List of German colonial railways
The German colonial railways in the colonies of the German Empire emerged from the end of the 19th century until 1916. In the German colonies, rail lines with a total length of around 5500 kilometers were built in peacetime. This corresponded to about 7.5 percent of the rail network within what was then the German Empire. The construction of these railways primarily served the control as well as the economic development and exploitation of the colonies. Some railway projects were not carried out due to the First World War or their construction was discontinued due to the war. But even during the First World War, dozens of kilometers of railways were built in German East Africa . The rapid adoption of some of these railways for passenger transport by the colored population even surprised the railroad operators.
Short field and factory tracks are not listed in full. Light railways were used, for example, in the construction of the radio stations Kamina ( Togo ) and Apia ( Samoa ). An example of a works railway was the operation of the Lomé landing stage in Togo. Such railways were used for phosphate mining on the Pacific islands of Angaur and Nauru . Within the city Tanga ran narrow gauge - tracks .
Railways in the German colonies
The following railway lines were built or planned in the German colonial areas:
German New Guinea
- Railway line Stephansort - Erimahafen (narrow-gauge railway with draft animals)
- Narrow gauge railway from Nauru
German East Africa
- Kilossa-Iringa Railway
- Kilwa-Wiedhafen Railway
- Lukoleditalbahn (small train)
- Rwanda Railway
- Sigibahn (small train)
- Tanganyika Railway
- Usambara Railway
- Connecting railway Mombo-Handeni ( Heeresfeldbahn )
- Rufiji-Kilombero Railway
German South West Africa
- Ambolandbahn
- Khan pit connecting railway (Kleinbahn)
- Lüderitzbahn
- Otavi Railway (including the Otavi-Grootfontein branch)
- State Railway Swakopmund-Windhoek
- Windhoek-Keetmanshoop railway connection
Cameroon
- Manenguba Railway (Cameroon Northern Railway)
- Midland Railway Duala-Bidjoka-Njong
- Victoria Planting Railway (Kleinbahn)
- Narrow-gauge railway Eséka – Makak
Kiautschou
Samoa
Togo
- Lomé – Blitta railway line (hinterland railway )
- Lomé – Kpalimé railway line (domestic railway)
- Lomé – Aného railway line (coastal railway)
literature
- Franz Baltzer : The colonial railways with a special focus on Africa . Berlin 1916. Reprint: Leipzig 2008, ISBN 978-3-8262-0233-9 .
- Helmut Schroeter: The railways of the former German protected areas in Africa and their vehicles . Verkehrsw Wissenschaftliche Lehrmittelgesellschaft mbH, Frankfurt / Main 1961.
- Walter Paschasius: "The Liberation of Okahandja", a railway workers' story from the Herero uprising in 1904, Windhoek 2014, NAM ISBN 978-99916-872-9-2
Web links
- Entry “Railways” in the German Colonial Lexicon from 1920
- Railway overview of the German colonies in Africa
Individual evidence
- ^ Winfried Wolf: Railway and car madness. Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1992, ISBN 3-89136-412-1 , p. 73.
- ↑ The construction of the Telefunken station Kamina (Togo), in: Telefunken-Zeitung , 2nd year, No. 12, June 1913, p. 166ff. ( entire issue as pdf; 3.45 MB )
- ^ The construction of the Apia station on Samoa, in: Telefunken-Zeitung , 3rd vol., No. 13, January 1914, pp. 28ff. ( entire issue as pdf; 2.13 MB )
- ↑ Entry “Landungsbrücken” in the German Colonial Lexicon from 1920
- ^ Photo of the narrow-gauge tracks in Tanga, before 1914