The Hamburg-Bergedorf railway opened in 1842 is one of the oldest lines in Germany and was the first railway line in Northern Germany. The 16.5 km long line was extended to Berlin in 1846.
It linked Bergedorf Station (German: Bergedorfer Bahnhof) in Hamburg, near Deichtorplatz (just south of the modern Hamburg Hauptbahnhof) with the original Bergedorf station at Neuen Weg in Bergedorf.
Hamburg public opinion was most interested in a rail connection with the Baltic port of Lübeck. This route would have, however, needed to pass through Holstein, which was administered in a personal union by the Danish king. Denmark’s consent was not required for a line from Hamburg to Bergedorf, since it would only run through areas controlled by Hamburg. The track was planned and surveyed by the English engineer William Lindley in 1838.
The opening was scheduled for 7 May 1842. Two days earlier, the Great Fire of Hamburg broke out and largely destroyed the city. The first trips were actually held prior to 7 May: they were used to transport fire-fighting equipment and fire-fighters to Hamburg and to evacuate the homeless. [1] Therefore, no opening ceremony was held.
The stations on the line were all designed by the Hamburg architect Alexis de Chateauneuf. [1]
Already during the planning of the railway an extension had been considered via Geesthacht and Lauenburg to Berlin. On 15 December 1846 Berlin–Hamburg Railway opened; however, on a route further north, through Büchen, the starting point of a line to Lübeck opened in 1851. A new station was established in Bergedorf and the old Bergedorf station closed. Nearby Bergedorf Süd station opened on the Bergedorf-Geesthacht Railway opened in 1906 and closed in the 1950s.
The Hamburg Bergedorf station was expanded after 1846 and was renamed Berlin Station (German: Berliner Bahnhof). The Hamburg-Bergedorf Railway Company was taken over by the Berlin-Hamburg Railway Company (German: Berlin-Hamburger Eisenbahn-Aktiengesellschaft).
Herzogtum Lauenburg is the southernmost Kreis, or district, officially called Kreis Herzogtum Lauenburg, of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is bordered by the district of Stormarn, the city of Lübeck, the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the state of Lower Saxony, and the city state of Hamburg. The district of Herzogtum Lauenburg is named after the former Duchy of Saxe-Lauenburg.
Bergedorf is the largest of the seven boroughs of Hamburg, Germany, named after a quarter within this borough. In 2016 the population of the borough was 126,395.
Bergedorf's postal authority issued only five stamps between 1861 and 1867. Bergedorf is the smallest field of German stamp collecting.
Geesthacht is the largest city in the District of the Duchy of Lauenburg in Schleswig-Holstein in Northern Germany, 34 km southeast of Hamburg on the right bank of the river Elbe.
Hamburg Hauptbahnhof is the main railway station of the city of Hamburg, Germany. Opened in 1906 to replace 4 separate terminal stations, today Hamburg Hauptbahnhof is operated by DB Station&Service AG. With an average of 550,000 passengers a day, it is Germany's busiest railway station and the second-busiest in Europe after the Gare du Nord in Paris. It is classed by Deutsche Bahn as a category 1 railway station.
The Berlin–Hamburg Railway is a roughly 286 km (178 mi) long railway line for passenger, long-distance and goods trains. It was the first high-speed line upgraded in Germany to be capable of handling train speeds of over 200 km/h (120 mph).
The Berlin–Lehrte railway, known in German as the Lehrter Bahn, is an east–west line running from Berlin via Lehrte to Hanover. Its period as a separate railway extended from its opening in 1871 to the nationalisation of its owner, the Magdeburg-Halberstadt Railway Company on 1 July 1886. The company's Berlin station, the Lehrter Bahnhof was finally torn down in 1958.
The Berlin–Szczecin railway, also known in German as the Stettiner Bahn is a mainline railway built by the Berlin-Stettin Railway Company between the German capital of Berlin and the now Polish city of Szczecin, then part of Prussia and known as Stettin. It is one of the oldest lines in Germany, built in 1842 and 1843 and was the company's trunk line. The line was duplicated between Berlin and Angermünde in 1863 and between Angermünde and Szczecin in 1873.
The Hamburg-Altona link line is a railway line in Hamburg, Germany. It now connects the lines from the north and west of Hamburg and Altona station with Hamburg Hauptbahnhof and the lines to the south and east. It was initially designed as a freight line only but is it now one of the busiest lines in Germany. It includes the suburban tracks of the Hamburg Stadtbahn, originally the core of the Hamburg S-Bahn.
The Altona-Kiel Railway Company was a joint-stock company, established under the law of Denmark in personal union with the Duchy of Holstein, that built and operated an 105 km railway line between Altona and the Baltic Sea port city of Kiel. Altona was at that time the second largest city under Danish rule and the railway line was the first built in Danish-controlled territory.
The Lübeck–Lüneburg railway line is a 77 kilometre-long, single-track non-electrified rail link from Lübeck on the Baltic coast of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein to Lüneburg in Lower Saxony. The line was opened in sections between 1851 and 1864 and is one of the oldest railways in Germany.
The Lübeck-Büchen Railway was a German railway company that built railway lines from Lübeck to Büchen and to Hamburg in the 19th century.
The Hamburg–Lübeck railway is one of the most important mainline railways of the German states of Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg. It connects the two Hanseatic cities of Hamburg and Lübeck, and is part of the line to Denmark. The line was opened in 1865.
The Hamburg freight rail bypass is a railway line in the German city of Hamburg. It runs from Hamburg-Eidelstedt via Hamburg-Rothenburgsort to Hamburg-Harburg and connects the long-distance railways approaching Hamburg, bypassing the link line and the railway junctions on the approaches to Hamburg-Altona station and Hamburg Hauptbahnhof. The line is mainly used for rail freight.
Hamburg-Bergedorf station is a station in the municipality of same name in the German city of Hamburg. It is located between the districts of Bergedorf and Lohbrügge near the Bergedorf inner city and the City-Center Bergedorf shopping mall.
The Berliner Bahnhof in the German city of Hamburg was the western terminus of the Berlin-Hamburg railway opened in 1846. It was previously the site of the station built in 1844 to a design by Alexis de Chateauneuf for the Hamburg-Bergedorf Railway. Berliner Bahnhof was completed in 1857 and closed in 1903.
Büchen station is a railway junction in Büchen in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. About 4,000 passengers embark or disembark each day.
Hagenow Land station is a railway junction in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, which was opened on 15 October 1846. It is located about 2.5 kilometres from the centre of the small town of Hagenow. It is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 5 station.
Grabow (Meckl) station is located on the Berlin–Hamburg railway in Grabow in the south west of the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Together with four other stations, which also opened on 15 October 1846, it is the oldest station in the state. The Neoclassical entrance building, which dates from the opening of the line, and some other buildings in the station area are heritage-listed.
Billwerder-Moorfleet is a station on the Berlin-Hamburg railway line and served by the trains of Hamburg S-Bahn lines S2 and S21. The station was originally opened in 1842 and is located in the Hamburg district of Billwerder, Germany. Billwerder is part of the Hamburg borough of Bergedorf.