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Baden as it stood from 1806 to 1945.

The Grand Duchy of Baden was an independent state in what is now southwestern Germany until the creation of the German Empire in 1871. It had its own state-owned railway company, the Grand Duchy of Baden State Railways (Großherzoglich Badische Staatseisenbahnen), which was founded in 1840. At the time when it was integrated into the Deutsche Reichsbahn in 1920, its network had an overall length of about 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi).

History

Foundation

Baden premium bond from 1845/49 issued to finance railway construction.

Baden was the second German state after the Duchy of Brunswick to build and operate railways at state expense. In 1833 a proposal for the construction of a railway from Mannheim to Basle was put forward for the first time by Mannheim businessman, Ludwig Newhouse, but initially received no support from the Baden state government. Other proposals too by, for example Friedrich List, were unsuccessful at first. Not until the foundation of a railway company in the neighbouring state of Alsace, for the construction of a line from Basle to Strasbourg in 1837, did any serious planning begin for the building of a railway in Baden in order to avoid the loss of trade routes to Alsace. At an extraordinary meeting of the state parliament, the Baden legislature passed three laws on 29 March 1838 for the construction of the first route between Mannheim and the Swiss border at Basle, as well as a stub line to Baden-Baden and a branch to Strasbourg. The construction of the railway line was to be funded by the state, something that had been championed especially by Karl Friedrich Nebenius. In September 1838 work started.

The Ministry of the Interior was responsible for the construction of the railway, setting up for that purpose its own authority, the 'Railway Construction Division'. Later the railway construction authorities were incorporated into the 'Water and Road Construction Division'. Responsibility for the operation of the railway was, by contrast, given to the Foreign Ministry because it took over the running of the Postal Division, that from then on became the 'Post and Railway Division'. Not until the merger of the Baden Post Office into the Reichspost in 1872 did a separate railway administration emerge in Baden: the Grand Duchy of Baden State Railways.

Departure of a train from Heidelberg station, 1840.

Development of the main lines

The first route, called the 'Baden Main Line' (Badische Hauptbahn), was built in sections between 1840 and 1863. The first, 18.5 km long, section between Mannheim and Heidelberg was taken into service on 12 September 1840. Other sections followed: to Karlsruhe in 1843, Offenburg in 1844, Freiburg im Breisgau in 1845, Schliengen in 1847, Efringen-Kirchen in 1848 and Haltingen in 1851. The branches to Kehl and Baden-Baden were opened as early as 1844 and 1845 respectively. The extension of the main line through Basle territory required negotiations with the Swiss Confederation, during which differences of opinion over the best place for the junction of the Baden line to the Swiss network – Basle or Waldshut – led to delays.

Konstanz station still has today a slim clock tower typical of former Baden stations.

In the state treaty of 27 July 1852 an accommodation was reached which enabled the construction and operation of a line on Swiss sovereign territory by the Baden State Railways.

The Baden railway lines were initially laid to 1600 mm broad gauge. After it turned out that all her neighbouring states had opted for standard gauge rail, the Baden State Railways rebuilt all their existing routes to standard gauge within just one year during 1854/55.

The line reached Basle in 1855, Waldshut in 1856 and Konstanz in 1863. With that the 414.3 km long Baden main line was completed. After the all-important north-south axis as well as links to the Lake Constance region had been established by the Badische Hauptbahn, the remaining network expansion plans concentrated on opening up the area of Pforzheim with the Karlsruhe–Pforzheim–Mühlacker route (opened 1859–1863), linking up the Odenwald and Tauberfrankens with the Baden Odenwaldbahn (Heidelberg–Mosbach–Würzburg, opened 1862–1866) and forging a direct link from Karlsruhe to Konstanz, without the diversion via Basle, in the shape of the Black Forest railway (opened 1866–1873).

Links to neighbouring states

Plan of the railway lines in Baden 1870

Even when the Badische Hauptbahn was being built, plans were already being formulated to link up with the Swiss railway network. This was not achieved until the bridge at Waldshut over the river Rhine, built by Robert Gerwig, was completed on 18 August 1859. Other links were made in 1863 at Schaffhausen, in 1871 at Konstanz and in 1875 at Singen (Hohentwiel). The Basle link line, which connected Baden station on the east of the Rhine with the Central station west of the Rhine, was opened in 1873. Today it is the most important railway connexion between Germany and Switzerland.

The connexion to the north towards Weinheim-Darmstadt–Frankfurt (Main) had been established since 1846 by the Main-Neckar line, in which the Grand Duchy of Baden participated. In 1879 the Riedbahn followed, although Baden did not own any section of it.

From 1861 there had also been a direct route to France after the completion of the Rhine bridge between Kehl and Strasbourg. The opening up of the Palatinate (Pfalz) was first realised in 1865 with a pontoon bridge from Karlsruhe–Maxau as well as a link between Mannheim and Ludwigshafen in 1867. A connexion with Bavaria followed the opening of the Baden Odenwaldbahn in 1866.

Negotiations for a route to Württemberg were particularly difficult because both states were competing for traffic between Germany and the Alpine passes. Whilst Baden favoured a line via Pforzheim, Württemberg was interested in a more direct connexion at Bruchsal. An agreement was finally reached in the state treaty of the 4 December 1850, whereby Württemberg was granted the right to build the direct Stuttgart–Mühlacker–Bretten–Bruchsal route (Württemberg Westbahn) even on Baden territory, whilst Baden was permitted to build and operate the Pforzheim–Mühlacker line, which ran partly in Württemberg. The connexion with Bruchsal was taken into service in 1853.

Further expansion

Construction of the strategic railway line in south Baden and the Danube valley between 1887 and 1890

Baden railway bond from 1907

The subsequent expansion of Baden’s railway network was either aimed at opening up the regions or carried out from a military perspective. Worth mentioning are:

• The Neckar valley line (Neckartalbahn), Neckargemünd–Eberbach–Jagstfeld, opened in 1879
• The Höllentalbahn, Freiburg im Breisgau–Neustadt (Schwarzwald), opened in 1887
• The strategic diversions on the Upper Rhine: Weil am Rhein–Lörrach, Wehratalbahn and the completion of the Wutachtalbahn (all between 1887 and 1890)
• The strategic line, Graben-Neudorf–Karlsruhe–Rastatt–Roeschwoog (Elsass), opened in 1895

Around 1895, Baden’s railway network was more or less finished bar a few small sections. In 1900 it had a track length of 1996 km, of which 1521 km was owned by the State Railways. In the succeeding years the main effort was the expansion of stations which formed railway hubs. The most important conversions were:

• New marshalling yard at Karlsruhe, 1895
• New station at Rastatt, 1895
• New goods relief line at Freiburg im Breisgau, 1905
• New goods station at Basle, 1905
• New goods relief line at Bruchsal, 1906
• New marshalling yard in Mannheim, 1906–1907
• New station at Offenburg with a marshalling yard, 1911
• New Baden station in Basle with new adjoining marshalling yard to the north at Weil am Rhein, 1913
• New central station at Karlsruhe, 1913
• New marshalling yard and goods station at Heidelberg, 1914

The newly built Heidelberg central station could not be completed due to the start of the First World War. Its completion had to be delayed until 1955.

State-run private railways

Several routes in Baden were built by private concerns, but operated by the State Railways and, in most cases, subsequently taken over. These were not just branch lines of purely local significance like the Wiesentalbahn (Basle–Schopfheim–Zell im Wiesental), opened in 1862, but also main lines. In addition to attempts by towns, that still had no railway connexion and wanted better access to the railway network, the large cities in the state also got involved in railway line construction, in order to open up their environs and to strengthen their position as transport hubs. For example, the city of Mannheim built a direct railway line to Karlsruhe without having to go via Heidelberg, in order to step out of the shadows into which they had fallen when the Badische Hauptbahn was married up at Friedrichsfeld and Heidelberg with the Main-Neckar line that ran on northwards. In a countermove the city of Heidelberg pressed for the construction of the Heidelberg–Schwetzingen–Speyer route, in order to secure its importance as a transport hub.

The most important of the privately built lines operated by the State Railways were:

• The Maxaubahn at Karlsruhe an den Rhein, built by the city of Karlsruhe, opened in 1862, was the first link between Baden’s railways and those of the Palatinate. It was nationalised in 1906.
• The Rheinbahn Mannheim–Schwetzingen–Graben-Neudorf–Eggenstein–Karlsruhe, built by the city of Mannheim, opened in 1870 and taken over by the Baden State Railways on the day it opened.
• The Kraichgaubahn Karlsruhe–Bretten–Eppingen with its extension to Heilbronn, built by the city of Karlsruhe, opened in 1879 and taken over by the Baden State Railways on the day it opened.

Merger into the Reichsbahn

Plan of the vor 1945 erbauten railway lines in Baden

On the formation of the Deutsche Reichsbahn on the 1 April 1920 the Baden State Railways were merged into it. The head office in Karlsruhe became the ‘Karlsruhe Reichsbahn Division’. The foundation of the Reichsbahn meant that a wish list of routes in Baden was cancelled and only four new lines were built:

• The extension of the Renchtalbahn to Bad Peterstal in 1926 and Bad Griesbach in 1933
• The Three Lakes line Titisee–Seebrugg in 1926
• The gap in Murgtalbahn in 1928
• The Neckarsteinach–Schönau (Odenwald) stub line in 1928

Construction work on a railway connexion from Bretten to Kürnbach (with a planned junction to the Zbutgäubahn at Leonbronn) was begun, but the line was never completed.

Electric operations

The Baden State Railways began electric railway operations on 13 September 1913 with opening of the 15 KV AC, 16 2/3 Hz Wiesentalbahn, Basel–Zell im Wiesental, and on its Schopfheim–Bad Säckingen branch. In addition to an experimental Class A¹ locomotive, eleven Class A² and A³ (DRG Class E 61) electric locomotives were procured. All had side-rods driving three axles. The electrification of the Wiesen valley line was mainly done in order to trial electric traction; it had no great significance in terms of traffic. No further expansion of electric services was carried out after the First World War due to the serious economic situation and it was not until 1952 that the electrification of Baden’s railway network was began in earnest.

The network

The railway lines in Baden State Railway network were opened as follows:

On the cross-border lines marked with ¹ only the section as far as the border belonged to the Baden State Railways. The Basle link line was built by the Swiss Central Line and co-financed by the Baden State Railway. The state railway had a special role for the only narrow gauge line, from Mosbach–Mudau, that opened on 3 Jun 1905. The firm of Vering & Waechter were contracted to build and run this line.

State-operated private lines:

Apart from the Ettlingen West–Ettlingen Stadt line, taken over by the B.L.E.A.G. (Baden Branch Lines) on the 1 January 1899, all state-operated private lines went into state ownership over the course of time. In addition to those lines run by the Baden State Railways there were also fully private lines after 1889 that are not listed.

The Deutsche Reichsbahn completed the following routes within the Baden railway network by 1945:

In addition several routes were built by foreign state railways that ran through Baden territory. The section from Bretten to Bruchsal was transferred in 1878 to the ownership of the Baden State Railways.

Running and rolling stock

The first two steam locomotives for the Baden State Railways were built by the English locomotive works of Sharp, Roberts & Co and delivered in 1839. They were given the names Löwe and Greif (‘’Lion’’ and ‘’Griffin’’). As the railway network expanded the size of the fleet grew rapidly. When the railways were converted from broad to standard gauge in 1854/55 there were already 66 locomotives, 65 tenders and 1133 wagons in the fleet. At the end of the First World War the vehicle inventory included 915 locomotives, 27,600 goods wagons and 2,500 passenger coaches, of which 106 locomotives, 7,307 goods wagons and 400 passenger coaches had to be given to the victorious powers as reparations in accordance with the Versailles Treaty. An overview of Baden's locomotive classes may be found in the List of Baden locomotives and railbuses.

The Baden State Railways fostered the growth of an indigenous railway vehicle industry in Baden, because they preferred to buy from local firms such as the engineering works of Kessler and Martiensen in Karlsruhe, which later became the Maschinengesellschaft Karlsruhe ('Karlsruhe Engineering Company'). And two coach manufacturers emerged in Baden in the shape of Waggonfabrik Fuchs founded in Heidelberg in 1862 and Waggonfabrik Rastatt in 1897.

Sources

• Karl Müller, Die badischen Eisenbahnen in historisch-statistischer Darstellung. Heidelberger Verlagsanstalt und Druckerei, Heidelberg 1904 (Online-Version)
• Albert Kuntzemüller, Die Badischen Eisenbahnen. Verlag G. Braun, Karlsruhe 1953
• Wolfgang von Hippel, Joachim Stephan, Peter Gleiber, Hans-Jürgen Enzweiler, Eisenbahn-Fieber: Badens Aufbruch ins Eisenbahnzeitalter. Verlag Regionalkultur, 1990
• Fridolin Schell, 110 Jahre Eisenbahndirektion Karlsruhe. Eisenbahn-Kurier Verlag, 1982

See also

• List of Baden locomotives and railbuses
• Grand Duchy of Baden

External links

• Laws and state treaties concerned with the Baden railways
• Vehicles of the Baden state railways

Related links