East German Railway Company in Koenigsberg
The Ostdeutsche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft ( ODEG ) was founded on April 12, 1893 in Bromberg in West Prussia under the Ostdeutsche Kleinbahn -AG company with a share capital of four million marks. It was only given its later name on September 28, 1899.
The German railway construction and operating company, the company Lenz & Co. GmbH, combined a number of its small railway and railway companies in the ODEG and other subsidiaries in order to make these railway assets for sale and thus to increase their liquidity.
Because the ODEG took over the railways built by Lenz & Co in East Prussia and entered into the existing management contracts, it moved its headquarters to the provincial capital Königsberg on June 15, 1903 .
The stock corporation for transport (AGV) in Berlin, founded by Lenz & Co in 1901, took over the administration of the ODEG in 1902. AGV became the sole shareholder of ODEG in 1912 . One of their daughters was Samlandbahn AG .
It achieved its importance above all in the field of operational management of all private and small railways in East Prussia and some in West Prussia. Only a few of these were lost when the border was drawn in 1919.
When the Second World War began in 1939, the ODEG operated all private and small railways in the province of East Prussia, after it had been entrusted with the management of the " Königsberg-Cranzer Eisenbahngesellschaft " in 1928 . A part of the former province of West Prussia also belonged to East Prussia at that time; Furthermore, the small railways in Memelland, which was occupied by Lithuania from 1920 to 1939 , always remained in the care of the ODEG.
Orbits of the ODEG
The length of the route network was 1055 km and was divided into the following railways:
- Elk lowland railway = 750 = 53.3 km - November 7, 1902
- Fischhausener Kreisbahn AG 18.6 km - October 1st, 1900
- Kleinbahn Groß Raum-Ellerkrug GmbH 10.3 km - May 9, 1916
- Haffuferbahn AG 48.3 km - May 20, 1899
- Kleinbahn Heydekrug – Kolleschen 16.2 km - December 14, 1913
- Insterburger Kleinbahnen = 750 = 221.4 km - August 1st, 1902
- Königsberger Kleinbahn = 750 = 58.6 km - January 15, 1900
- Königsberg-Cranzer Railway Company 48.7 km - December 31, 1885
- Lycker Kleinbahnen = M = 48.0 km - October 22, 1913 (from 1950 to 1952 changed from 1000 mm to 750 mm)
- Kleinbahn AG Marienwerder = 750 = 37.4 km - September 28, 1901
- Memeler Kleinbahn = M = 50.4 km - October 20, 1906
- Ortelsburger Kleinbahn = 600 = 15.4 km - June 16, 1920
- Rastenburger Kleinbahnen = 750 = 127.3 km - May 1st, 1898
- Samlandbahn AG 47.0 km - July 14, 1900
- Pillkaller Kleinbahn = M = 60.8 km - December 24, 1901
- Kleinbahn-AG Tharau-Kreuzburg 13.6 km - July 26, 1908
- Kleinbahn Pogegen – Schmalleningken = M = 65.5 km - August 1, 1902
- Treuburger Kleinbahnen = M = 43.1 km - September 18, 1911
- Wehlau – Friedländer Kreisbahnen = 750 = 65.8 km - April 9, 1898
- Kleinbahn Wöterkeim – Schippenbeil 5.0 km - June 30, 1907
Explanation: = 600 = corresponds to a track width of 600 mm, = 750 = corresponds to a track width of 750 mm, = M = corresponds to a track width of 1000 mm, without details: standard track 1435 mm
Insofar as the railways did not belong to special corporations , they were owned by Ostpreußische Kleinbahnen AG . Its major shareholders in 1940 were the Prussian State, the Province of East Prussia, numerous East Prussian cities and districts and, last but not least, AGV and its operational subsidiary ODEG. The Ostpreußische Kleinbahnen AG operated until June 30, 1924 as "Insterburger Kleinbahn AG".
When the Red Army conquered all of East and West Prussia in the winter of 1944/45 , all small railways came under Russian or Polish suzerainty; most of them were destroyed or dismantled. This then led to the liquidation of the Ostdeutsche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft and Ostpreußische Kleinbahnen AG.
literature
- Wolfram Bäumer, Wolf-Dietger Machel: Friedrich Lenz: A pioneer of regionalization . In: The Museum Railway; Issue 2/1987 and 3/1987, pp. 24–33. ISSN 0936-4609