Magdeburg-Halberstadt railway company
The Magdeburg-Halberstädter Eisenbahngesellschaft (MHE) was a railway company in Prussia . It was nationalized in 1879 and thus part of the Prussian State Railways .
history
The Magdeburg-Halberstadt Railway Actiengesellschaft received on 14 January 1842 by the Kingdom of Prussia , the concession for the construction of the 58 kilometer long railway line Magdeburg Oschersleben Halberstadt , opened on July 15, the 1,843th By a state treaty between Prussia and the Kingdom of Hanover , a continuation of the railway to Braunschweig and Hanover was secured at this point in time . The MHE was one of the most profitable German private railways, double-digit dividends were the rule, in the 1860s it was even able to pay its shareholders dividends of over 20 percent in some cases.
The expansion phase of the railway began in 1863 when - initially motivated by a defense against increasing competition - neighboring railways such as the Magdeburg-Wittenbergesche Eisenbahngesellschaft were bought up. Decisive for the importance of the railway within the Prussian network was the connection to the traffic leading from Berlin to Hamburg and Bremen through the line of the Berlin-Lehrter Railway from Berlin via Stendal to Lehrte, which was licensed in 1867 with the backing of the government- affiliated Disconto-Gesellschaft and completed in 1872 . In this context, the Lehrter Bahnhof in Berlin was built. The takeover of the Hanover-Altenbekener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft gave MHE access to the Westphalian Railway and thus to the Ruhr area. With the purchase of further railways - including the highly profitable Magdeburg-Leipziger Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft - the route network grew to a length of 1024 kilometers by 1879. This made the Magdeburg-Halberstädter Bahn one of the largest private German railway companies at the time of its nationalization.
In 1870, MHE, together with the Berlin-Potsdam-Magdeburg Railway Company and the Magdeburg-Leipzig Railway Company, bought the 55 hectare site for the construction of the Magdeburg Central Station , the western reception building of which was built by the Berlin-Potsdam-Magdeburg Society and shared by the MHE has been. In 1873 the American line was completed, the management of which was also incumbent on the MHE. On March 17, 1876, the MHE acquired the Magdeburg-Leipzig Railway Company.
In December 1879, the Magdeburg-Halberstädter Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft was acquired by the Prussian state after the MHE shareholders had approved the takeover offer of the Prussian government with the required two-thirds majority (13140: 6441 votes).
Lore
The records of the Magdeburg-Halberstädter Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft are in the Dessau department of the Saxony-Anhalt State Archives .
Web links
literature
- Wolfgang Klee: Prussian railway history . Kohlhammer Edition Eisenbahn, Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-17-007466-0 .