Tram Emden

The Electric Kleinbahn Emden - Außenhafen (that's the correct name) was a small tram company in the city of Emden that existed from 1902 to 1953 . The concession was for an “electric small train ” because the term “tram” did not exist in traffic law at the time.

The tram operation consisted of a single 3.7 kilometers long line in meter gauge that connected the city with the outer harbor . At the beginning there were three motor coaches and three sidecars , later three more motor coaches and three more sidecars were used.

history

Horse tram

The first attempt to set up rail-bound urban local transport in Emden was made in 1883 by master baker Reemt Reints Poppinga , who submitted an application to the city to build a horse-drawn tram from the former train station (later the southern train station) to Nesserland. But after laying the tracks and procuring six used double-decker horse-drawn trams from the Hanover tram , it turned out that operation was not possible due to poor track laying and insufficient clearance at the arch of the town hall. This first project therefore failed, the cars were sold to the Borkumer Inselbahn .

Creation of the electric tram

In the files of the Emden City Archives, the establishment of an electric train from Emden to Nesserland was mentioned for the first time in the magistrate's meeting on September 3, 1900. At this meeting, Lord Mayor Leo Fürbringer stated that General Director Albert Ballin of the Hamburg-America Line had pointed out the need for a corresponding connection. The Magistrate of the City of Emden rejected Mr. Ballin's request, as the motorboat connection between Emden and Nesserland was not yet profitable. The operating resources of the motor boat cooperative were not sufficient at the time, so that boat traffic was not sufficiently secured.

A little later, on October 2, 1900, a Berlin government commission, with the participation of Carl Schweckendieck , spoke to Lord Mayor Fürbringer and urged the construction of a connecting line from Emden to Nesserland.

The city should support the construction of the railway as much as possible. Incidentally, the motor boats in the outer harbor could not always drive. An agreement could be reached after the repeated appearance of Mr. Ballin, at which representatives of the magistrate were present. The corresponding minutes of the meeting of October 24, 1900 were sent to the public limited company "Ems" Emder Dampfschiffsreederei, the Westfälische Transportgesellschaft, Emden and the Hamburg-Amerika-Linie, Hamburg. As early as October 18, 1900, the Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft ( AEG ) wrote to the municipal authorities of the city of Emden that they had learned from the newspaper that an electric train was planned in Emden to connect the sea lock with the city. You would like to submit a detailed estimate.

On October 22, 1900, the magistrate had also written to three Berlin companies, such as the electricity stock corporation “Phoebus” , the AEG and the Union-Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft (part of the AEG from 1904), asking for an offer without to have to make advance payments for an electric train with 1 m gauge over a length of 3 kilometers, whereby the track has to be extended by about 900 meters along the establishment of the Hamburg America Line. In this context, the city wrote that it might be necessary to connect or build the electric train from Rathausplatz through Große Straße along the hospital with the East Frisian Coast Railway on Larrelter Straße and with the Emden - Pewsum small train .

On November 1, 1900, the building commission agreed to the routing of the electric railway, although this should not be laid along the Am Delft street. Given the traffic there, this street is too narrow to accommodate an additional rail track. The train would have to start in front of the Ruhe'schen house on Pelzerstraße and run through Nesserlander Straße. According to a sketch by the city architect Heinrich Wiggers from November 15, 1900, the actual route should lead through the newly projected Nesserlander Straße (today's Schweckendieckstraße) to the fishing company Neptun and further into the polder.

Opening of the Emden tram

The opening to the paying public took place on February 23, 1902. When the tram opened, passengers had access to three semi-glazed railcars and three sidecars with open platforms from Waggonfabrik Uerdingen with electrical equipment from AEG.

The fare for a single trip from the Alter Markt to the outer harbor was 10 pfennigs, school children 5 pfennigs. Worker cards cost 0.50 marks and are valid for 14 days for ten journeys in each direction.

The Emder Zeitung wrote on February 24, 1902, that the entrepreneur could be quite satisfied with the success of the electric train. In addition to the free rides, there were around 3,200 paying passengers who used the train. If here and there complaints were made that the transport was too slow, it was to be expected in the first few days of the opening of the railway. Naturally, the cars are very overcrowded on the first few days, so that getting off at the stops is very difficult and takes more time.

Further development of the railway

For many years the Westmole was a particularly popular destination for the Emden population, where the “electric” reached its end point. The departure point was the old market in the city center. Actually, those responsible at AEG and the city had planned a significant expansion of the rail network during the First World War, which was to lead across the city garden to the barracks and the new inland port as further endpoints. The urban planning was done by the architect Hermann Jansen, Berlin, on behalf of the city of Emden. However, the expansion never came to fruition.

The end of the Emden tram came on April 30, 1953. The city of Emden and the AEG could not agree on the necessary investments to repair the war damage. In order to save money for the new laying of the tracks during the upcoming road construction work, the tram operation was stopped without further ado and replaced by bus traffic.

literature

• Dieter Höltge: Trams and light rail vehicles in Germany . tape 2 : Lower Saxony / Bremen. EK Verlag, Freiburg 1987, ISBN 3-88255-331-6 .

Web links

Dietrich Janßen: The Emden tram from 1902–1953 , commented on photos as a video (2013) on YouTube

Coordinates: 53 ° 22 ′ 1 ″  N , 7 ° 12 ′ 19 ″  E