The Vienenburg–Langelsheim railway was a nearly 18-kilometer-long railway along the northern edge of the Harz in the German state of Lower Saxony. It was mainly used for freight traffic. It was opened in 1875, but it lost its importance with the closure of a line connecting to the east as a result of the division of Germany after the Second World War and it is now closed and dismantled.
The Harz is a Mittelgebirge that has the highest elevations in Northern Germany and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. The name Harz derives from the Middle High German word Hardt or Hart, Latinized as Hercynia. The Brocken is the highest summit in the Harz with an elevation of 1,141.1 metres (3,744 ft) above sea level. The Wurmberg is the highest peak located entirely within the state of Lower Saxony.
Lower Saxony is a German state (Land) situated in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with 47,624 km2 (18,388 sq mi), and fourth-largest in population among the 16 Länder federated as the Federal Republic of Germany. In rural areas, Northern Low Saxon and Saterland Frisian are still spoken, but the number of speakers is declining.
History
The Magdeburg–Halberstadt Railway Company (German: Magdeburg-Halberstädter Eisenbahngesellschaft, MHE) had been trying to develop a western connection from its network since the 1850s, but had failed as a result of disputes between the Kingdom of Prussia, the Kingdom of Hanover and the Duchy of Brunswick. In 1864, a treaty was finally contracted between Prussia and Brunswick authorising construction of the Halberstadt–Vienenburg railway, which was completed in 1869. With the annexation of Hanover by Prussia in 1866, it was possible to extend the line further to the west. Around the same time the Hanover-Altenbeken Railway Company (Hannover-Altenbekener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, HAE) was looking for a connection to the east and the mountain towns in the Upper Harz also wanted a connection to the rail network. So the HAE planned a new long-distance line on the Vienenburg–Hildesheim–Hamelin–Löhne route. The MHE line would build a connection from Vienenburg via Langelsheim to Clausthal. However, in 1873, the HAE ran into financial difficulties, so it was taken over by the MHE. This brought together the two projects aiming at building railways to Vienenburg and instead a line was built to Grauhof, splitting there to run towards Clausthal (the former Innerste Valley Railway) and towards Hildesheim (now part of the Hildesheim–Goslar railway). The latter connected in Ringelheim with the Brunswick Southern Railway, which ran to Kreiensen to meet the Altenbeken–Kreiensen railway, and to the line between Hanover and Kassel, which connected to western and southern Germany.
The Magdeburg–Halberstadt Railway Company was a railway in Prussia. It was nationalized in 1879.
German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol (Italy), the German-speaking Community of Belgium, and Liechtenstein. It is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg and a co-official language in the Opole Voivodeship in Poland. The languages which are most similar to German are the other members of the West Germanic language branch: Afrikaans, Dutch, English, the Frisian languages, Low German/Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, and Yiddish. There are also strong similarities in vocabulary with Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, although those belong to the North Germanic group. German is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English.
The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918. It was the driving force behind the unification of Germany in 1871 and was the leading state of the German Empire until its dissolution in 1918. Although it took its name from the region called Prussia, it was based in the Margraviate of Brandenburg, where its capital was Berlin.
Freight was carried from Löhne to Vienenburg on 19 May 1875 and a passenger service followed on 30 June. The branch from Grauhof via Langelsheim to Lautenthal was open for freight from 25 October and for passengers from 15 November 1875.
On 15 September 1877, the line from Langelsheim to Neuekrug-Hahausen was opened, connecting with the Brunswick Southern Railway, which avoided having to go via Ringelsheim to reach Kreiensen. It has since been operated as part of the main line between Vienenburg and Langelsheim.
The Neuekrug-Hahausen–Goslar railway is a double-tracked, non-electrified main line in Lower Saxony in central Germany. The line, which runs along the northern edge of the Harz mountains, begins in Goslar and forms a junction with the Brunswick–Kreiensen railway to Seesen and Kreiensen at Neuekrug-Hahausen. Because the branch-off station is passed through nowadays without stopping, it is often called the Goslar–Seesen railway. It is often described in the local area as the North Harz Line (Nordharzstrecke) but the term may cause confusion. The most important, and now the only, intermediate station is Langelsheim.
The Brunswick Southern Railway was built by the Duchy of Brunswick State Railway as a link from its Brunswick–Bad Harzburg railway to the Hanoverian Southern Railway. It ran through the northwestern Harz Foreland from Börßum via Salzgitter, Ringelheim and Seesen to Kreiensen. It opened on 5 August 1856 and was one of the oldest railways in Germany.
Goslar was at this time connected to the railway network only by the Vienenburg–Goslar railway. To improve this situation, two railway lines were built simultaneously into the city from Grauhof and Langelsheim, which were opened on 1 May 1883. Passenger services ran on the route via Goslar, with the ever-increasing freight traffic remaining on the older and less steep line.
The Vienenburg–Goslar railway is a main line between Vienenburg and Goslar on the northern edge of the Harz mountains in Germany. It was opened in 1866.
A medium-sized marshalling yard (now closed) was built in Vienenburg, which was associated with a smaller facility in Grauhof.
In 1930, part of a potash mine in Vienenburg voll Wasser collapsed, causing a slump in the ground under the line and requiring repairs to the track, which lasted half a year.
With the division of Germany in 1945, this line lost its connection to the east. Now the line via Goslar could handle all traffic and Deutsche Bundesbahn ended services on the Vienenburg–Langelsheim line. Conflicting sources indicate traffic ended between 1949 and 1960. A section near Grauhof still operated as an industrial siding until the end of the 1990s, when it was finally disconnected.
The Deutsche Bundesbahn or DB was formed as the state railway of the newly established Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) on 7 September 1949 as a successor of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (DRG). The DB remained the state railway of West Germany until after German reunification, when it was merged with the former East German Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR) to form Deutsche Bahn AG, which came into existence on 1 January 1994.
Today the line is dismantled, but embankments and a bridge can still be found. The Hildesheim–Goslar railway still performs a tight turn at the former railway junction in Grauhof.
The Hildesheim–Goslar railway is a 53 kilometre long, double-track and non-electrified main line in the northern Harz foothills in the German state of Lower Saxony. It serves mainly to connect with the tourist region in the northern Harz with Hildesheim and Hanover. It is served by the HarzExpress, running between Halle, Halberstadt, Goslar and Hannover Hauptbahnhof. The most important station and junction of the line is Salzgitter-Ringelheim station.
Related Research Articles
Goslar is a district in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Göttingen, Northeim, Hildesheim and Wolfenbüttel, the city of Salzgitter, and by the states of Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia (Nordhausen).
Kreiensen is a village and a former municipality in the district of Northeim, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Since 1 January 2013, it is part of the town Einbeck.
The Duchy of Brunswick State Railway was the first state railway in Germany. The first section of its Brunswick–Bad Harzburg railway line between Brunswick and Wolfenbüttel opened on 1 December 1838.
The Langelsheim–Altenau (Oberharz) railway was a railway line, that ran through the Upper Harz in Central Germany. It was also called the Upper Harz Railway or Harz Railway. It was built in order to enable the Magdeburg-Halberstadt Railway Company to access the mines in the Harz mountains.
The Brunswick–Magdeburg railway is an 83-kilometre-long (52 mi) German main line railway. It is with the Berlin–Lehrte railway and the Hanover–Berlin high-speed line one of the most important east-west lines between Hanover and Berlin. Important intermediate stations are Königslutter, Helmstedt and Eilsleben.
The Brunswick–Bad Harzburg railway is a 47 km long German main line railway in the northern foothills of the Harz. It is one of the oldest lines in Germany and the first government-owned railway in Germany.
The Lehrte–Nordstemmen railway is a continuous double track, electrified main line railway in the German state of Lower Saxony. It connects the railway junction of Lehrte with Hildesheim and Nordstemmen, where it connects with the Hanoverian Southern Railway. The section from Lehrte to Hildesheim opened in 1842 and is one of the oldest lines in Germany.
Hildesheim Hauptbahnhof is the main railway station for the city of Hildesheim in Lower Saxony, Germany. The station opened in 1961 and is located on the Lehrte–Nordstemmen, Hildesheim–Brunswick and Hildesheim–Goslar railway. The train services are operated by Deutsche Bahn, Erixx, Metronom and NordWestBahn.
The Hildesheim–Brunswick line is a 43 km long electrified main line railway in the German state of Lower Saxony. It forms part of the Intercity-Express route from Frankfurt to Berlin. It is also used as a diversion route from the Hanover–Brunswick line. It is a single track line from Hildesheim to Groß Gleidingen. A proposal to duplicate the line was included in the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan of 1992.
The Magdeburg–Thale railway is a predominantly single-track, non-electrified main line railway that connects Thale, in the northern Harz, with Magdeburg, the capital of Saxony-Anhalt. Its eastern section between Magdeburg and Halberstadt was opened in 1843 and it is one of the oldest railways in Germany.
The Halle–Vienenburg railway is a 123 kilometre long non-electrified main line north of the Harz Mountains in central Germany. It is an important connection between the metropolitan area of Halle (Saale) and the northern Harz mountains. It was opened in several sections between 1862 and 1872 by the Magdeburg–Halberstadt Railway Company and is now maintained by DB Netz except for the disused section between Heudeber-Danstedt and Vienenburg. Since 1996, traffic between Heudeber-Danstedt and Vienenburg has used the railway via Wernigerode running further to the south.
The Hanover-Altenbeken Railway Company was among the companies of the German "railway king" Bethel Henry Strousberg. Its route network at the end of the first phase consisted of two lines, Hanover–Altenbeken and Weetzen–Haste. In addition, a branch line was opened from Linden-Küchengarten to Linden-Fischerhof for freight transport. The Löhne–Hamelin–Hildesheim–Vienenburg line was built in a second phase up to 1875. The section to Hildesheim is now known as the Weser railway, further east it is operated as the Hildesheim–Goslar line. This extended the network from the Weser Uplands to the Harz.
Salzgitter-Ringelsheim station is a station in the town of Salzgitter in the German state of Lower Saxony. It is located in the extreme southwest of the urban area in the district of Salzgitter-Ringelheim. Salzgitter has no central station and Salzgitter-Ringelsheim station, despite its remote location, is the main station in Salzgitter.
The Elze–Löhne railway is a non-electrified line from the town of Elze in the German state of Lower Saxony via Hamelin and Rinteln to Löhne in North Rhine-Westphalia. It runs between the Weser and the Weser hills from Hamelin to Bad Oeynhausen and as a result this section is also called the Weser Railway.
Bad Harzburg railway station serves the spa town of Bad Harzburg in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the southern terminus of the Brunswick–Bad Harzburg railway, one of the oldest lines in Germany, and the eastern terminus of a branch line to nearby Oker station. Regional rail services are operated by Deutsche Bahn AG and Erixx GmbH.
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