Lübeck-Büchen Railway Company
Encyclopedia
The Lübeck-Büchen Railway was a German railway company that built railway lines from Lübeck
to Büchen
and to Hamburg
in the 19th century.
.
Emil Müller proposed in 1831 the construction of a railway line between Hamburg and Lübeck, connecting the North
and the Baltic Sea
s, but finding little support in Lübeck, he travelled to London in 1833, where he eventually found investors. Müller recruited as senior engineer Francis Giles
, the Chief Engineer of the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway
(1829–1836). Marc Isambard Brunel
and his son Isambard Kingdom Brunel
, the designer of London's Thames Tunnel
(1825–1843) also offered their services to Müller. In September 1833, Giles' assistant William Lindley
travelled to Hamburg. He would later lead the successful construction of the Berlin-Hamburg Railway
and the Hamburg urban drainage scheme. He began surveying the line on 6 November 1833. Although the line would have to run through Holstein-Glückstadt
, which was ruled by the King of Denmark, Lindley decided not to submit an application to the Danish authorities for approval for this survey work prior to carrying it out in order to save time.
1834 Giles went to Copenhagen, where on 10 August he submitted the projected railway for approval. Only on this occasion, did he inform the King of Denmark
of the survey work that had taken place; this upset the court and affected the simultaneous negotiations on the construction of the Hamburg–Lübeck highway. The railway company was established and investors were sought (with the intention of issuing 15,000 shares at £ 20 sterling each), but share subscription was slow and in 1839 Müller abandoned the project, dissolving the first Lübeck railway company.
A new start was made in 1843, when Lübeck Council decided that it would lead a project to build a railway to Hamburg and took the issue up with the Danish government. The Holstein area lying between Hamburg and Lübeck, however, was under the rule of the Danish king and the Danish court refused to allow the building of a direct connection between the two cities. This was probably at the urging of Holstein and especially of the Kiel
district, which considered that the trading activities of Hamburg and Lübeck and their tax and customs laws discriminated against Kiel.
Following pressure from the other states of the German Confederation
, as well as Russia and France, the Danish government committed itself on 23 June 1847 to the construction of a railway from Lübeck to Büchen in the Duchy of Lauenburg to connect with the Berlin–Hamburg Railway. Among the supporters for Lübeck's proposal were such renowned figures as Alexander von Humboldt
, Klemens von Metternich and the King of Prussia, Frederick William IV
.
Consent was given three days before the beginning of the German-nationalist public song festival in Lübeck, and three months before the start of the Germanists’ day (Germanistentag) in Lübeck (27–30 September 1847), chaired by Jacob Grimm
, following the first Germanists’ day meeting in the previous year in Frankfurt am Main. The Germanists’ days were part of a political movement in opposition to Denmark's control of Schleswig-Holstein, which gave rise to the Schleswig-Holstein Question
. Among other reasons for the selection of the venue for the Germanists’ day had been that the blocking of rail services to Lübeck by Denmark was seen as a "national question", despite the remote location of Lübeck in Germany and the poor accessibility of the missing rail link.
The line was to be an indirect, 35 km-long connection from Lübeck to Hamburg. This compromise meant that the competing Altona-Kiel Railway Company
(Altona-Kieler Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft) had an advantage in that the connection from Lübeck to Hamburg via Büchen now had about the same track length as the rail link between Altona
and Kiel (both then in Holstein).
On 15 October 1851 the line went into operation, although the Danish concession for operations from 1848 to 1857 was granted late because of the revolutions of 1848
. The LBE station in Lübeck was close to the Holsten Gate
(Holstentor). The line ran by the ramparts of the Lübeck city walls. The felling of numerous street trees and the originally planned demolition of the Rehbock and Scheune bastions met resistance from Lübeck's population. The Council and the Bürgerschaft (Lübeck's parliament) therefore decided that of the felled trees would be sold with their value going to a fund to be used by the Potsdam landscape architect Peter Joseph Lenné
to improve the remaining ramparts artistically. The division of the Möllner lake by a railway embankment was met with little enthusiasm by Lübeck's residents.
Economically, the operation of the railway proved to be a success, so that the LBE was able to use its profits to build the Lübeck port railway and a coking
plant to supply its locomotives with coke. In 1852 the total route length of the LBE was 47.45 km.
In 1863 the LBE was permitted to build a direct line to Hamburg, which opened on 1 August 1865. The approximately 63 km-long route ran from Lübeck via Reinfeld, Oldesloe
, Ahrensburg
, Rahlstedt
and Wandsbek to Lübecker Bahnhof (Lübeck station) in Hamburg. The LBE's route network in 1870 was 111.27 kilometres long. Heavy traffic on the line to Hamburg meant that a second track was built in 1875-76.
On 1 August 1882 the LBE opened a line from Lübeck to Travemünde. On 1 July 1898 the line opened from Travemünde
—now called Lübeck-Travemünde Hafen (port)—to Lübeck-Travemünde Strand (beach). In 1902 took the LBE opened a connection for freight from Wandsbek via Hamburg-Rothenburgsort to the Berlin-Hamburg line, the origin of the modern Hamburg freight bypass. With the opening of the branch line from Travemünde Hafen station to Niendorf (Ostsee) in 1913, the network of the LBE achieved its maximum length of 160.87 kilometres.
s to carry out technical tests on the building of a crossing over the Elbe near Lauenburg. After lengthy negotiations between the governments, it was finally decided to build a train ferry
.
The operation required a steam ship, commissioned from the engineering office of the Hamburg-Magdeburg Steamship Company (Hamburg-Magdeburger Dampfschiffahrts-Gesellschaft) and put into service in 1864. In February 1869, the high traffic level led to a second ferry being put into service. Numerous breakdowns due to icing in winter and several accidents, however, showed clearly that the ferry woulf provide no lasting solution. With the annexation of the Kingdom of Hanover
by Prussia
after the Austro-Prussian War
of 1866, the military objections to a fixed Elbe crossing was removed. It was finally decided to build a swing bridge
, which was opened in 1878 after two years of construction, allowing through trains from Lübeck to Lüneburg.
On 1 July 1870, the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg Friedrich-Franz Railway
's Lübeck–Bad Kleinen line was opened to the LBE station in Lübeck, and in 1871 the first continuous services operated between Hamburg and Stettin (now Szczecin
). The Eutin-Lübeck Railway Company established a line to Eutin
in 1873, completing a link between Lübeck and Kiel
. In 1916, Lübeck-Segeberg line opened to Bad Segeberg
. From the beginning it was operated by the LBE; it only acquired its own rolling stock after the Second World War.
An important railway junction was at Bad Oldesloe
, which was connected to Neumünster by the Altona-Kiel Railway Company
(Altona-Kieler Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, AKE) in 1875. In 1884 the AKE was nationalised and became part of the Prussian State Railways
(Königlich Preußische Staatseisenbahnen (K.P.St.E)). In 1884, K.P.St.E opened a line to Schwarzenbek and in 1897 a line from Ratzeburg
to Hagenow
(the Kaiser Railway), creating two additional connections to the Berlin-Hamburg line. The opening of the Elmshorn-Barmstedt-Oldesloe line in 1907 created another connection to Oldesloe.
In 1899, a line to Hollenbek was opened from Mölln by the Prussian State Railways, connecting with the Ratzeburg–Hagenow line. In 1903, the Ratzeburg Light Railway (Ratzeburger Kleinbahn) was opened from Ratzeburg
and in 1904 the Alt-Rahlstedt–Volksdorf–Wohldorf Electric Light Railway (Elektrische Kleinbahn Alt-Rahlstedt–Volksdorf–Wohldor) was opened from Rahlstedt
, where it connected with the Lübeck–Hamburg line. There were numerous industry sidings, especially in the urban areas of Lübeck, Hamburg and Wandsbek.
In the 1910s the LBE refused to agree to connection at Ahrensburg station with the proposed Hamburg Forest Villages Railway (Walddörferbahn), with the result that this line, which is now part of line U 1 of the Hamburg U-Bahn
runs through the southern part of the town, without connecting to the Lübeck–Hamburg line station.
(central station), when the LBE also extended its line to the station and closed its former station. The LBE also created a new station east of the Hauptbahnhof at Berliner Tor.
In Lübeck, a new station, called Lübeck Hauptbahnhof
, was built to the west in the Retteich Meadows. On 1 May 1908, the first train ran to the new station. At the nationalisation of the LBE, the Lübeck Hauptbahnhof was the largest private railway station in Germany.
(German State Railways), which since the beginning of 1930 had held a majority of its shares. The state of Lübeck had held a majority of shares in the company since 1883. During the 1921–1923 hyperinflation
, the national Ministry of Transport had acquired shares in the LBE. By 1937 the German government held about 86 percent of its shares. It justified its decision to nationalise the company on the basis of the importance of the lines that were connected by the LBE. The company was dissolved on 1 January 1938.
Lübeck
The Hanseatic City of Lübeck is the second-largest city in Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany, and one of the major ports of Germany. It was for several centuries the "capital" of the Hanseatic League and, because of its Brick Gothic architectural heritage, is listed by UNESCO as a World...
to Büchen
Büchen
Büchen is a municipality in the district of Lauenburg, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated on the Elbe-Lübeck Canal, approx. 13 km northeast of Lauenburg/Elbe, and 45 km east of Hamburg....
and to Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
in the 19th century.
Background
The first plans to build a direct rail link between Hamburg and Lübeck were put forward in 1831 by the Lübeck merchant Emil Müller and his father Nicholas Hermann Müller. After the French occupation of Lübeck, Nicholas Hermann Muller had been committed to improving its transport links. He established the first steamship company in Lübeck, operating regular service between Lübeck and CopenhagenCopenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
.
Emil Müller proposed in 1831 the construction of a railway line between Hamburg and Lübeck, connecting the North
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
and the Baltic Sea
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
s, but finding little support in Lübeck, he travelled to London in 1833, where he eventually found investors. Müller recruited as senior engineer Francis Giles
Francis Giles
Francis Giles was a canal engineer and surveyor who worked under John Rennie and later became a railway engineer-Works and appointments:...
, the Chief Engineer of the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway
Newcastle and Carlisle Railway
The Newcastle and Carlisle Railway, occasionally referred to as the Tyne Valley Line, is a railway line in northern England. The line was built in the 1830s, and links the city of Newcastle upon Tyne in Tyne and Wear with in Cumbria. Formal opening took place on 18 June 1838.The line follows the...
(1829–1836). Marc Isambard Brunel
Marc Isambard Brunel
Sir Marc Isambard Brunel, FRS FRSE was a French-born engineer who settled in England. He preferred the name Isambard, but is generally known to history as Marc to avoid confusion with his more famous son Isambard Kingdom Brunel...
and his son Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Isambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS , was a British civil engineer who built bridges and dockyards including the construction of the first major British railway, the Great Western Railway; a series of steamships, including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship; and numerous important bridges...
, the designer of London's Thames Tunnel
Thames Tunnel
The Thames Tunnel is an underwater tunnel, built beneath the River Thames in London, United Kingdom, connecting Rotherhithe and Wapping. It measures 35 feet wide by 20 feet high and is 1,300 feet long, running at a depth of 75 feet below the river's surface...
(1825–1843) also offered their services to Müller. In September 1833, Giles' assistant William Lindley
William Lindley
William Lindley , was a famous English engineer who together with his sons designed water and sewerage systems for over 30 cities across Europe.-Life:...
travelled to Hamburg. He would later lead the successful construction of the Berlin-Hamburg Railway
Berlin-Hamburg Railway
The Berlin–Hamburg Railway is a roughly 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...
and the Hamburg urban drainage scheme. He began surveying the line on 6 November 1833. Although the line would have to run through Holstein-Glückstadt
Holstein-Glückstadt
The Duchy of Holstein in Glückstadt was the northernmost state of the Holy Roman Empire. It consisted of the part of Holstein that was ruled by the king of Denmark; its capital was Glückstadt on the River Elbe.-History:...
, which was ruled by the King of Denmark, Lindley decided not to submit an application to the Danish authorities for approval for this survey work prior to carrying it out in order to save time.
1834 Giles went to Copenhagen, where on 10 August he submitted the projected railway for approval. Only on this occasion, did he inform the King of Denmark
Frederick VI of Denmark
Frederick VI reigned as King of Denmark , and as king of Norway .-Regent of Denmark:Frederick's parents were King Christian VII and Caroline Matilda of Wales...
of the survey work that had taken place; this upset the court and affected the simultaneous negotiations on the construction of the Hamburg–Lübeck highway. The railway company was established and investors were sought (with the intention of issuing 15,000 shares at £ 20 sterling each), but share subscription was slow and in 1839 Müller abandoned the project, dissolving the first Lübeck railway company.
A new start was made in 1843, when Lübeck Council decided that it would lead a project to build a railway to Hamburg and took the issue up with the Danish government. The Holstein area lying between Hamburg and Lübeck, however, was under the rule of the Danish king and the Danish court refused to allow the building of a direct connection between the two cities. This was probably at the urging of Holstein and especially of the Kiel
Kiel
Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...
district, which considered that the trading activities of Hamburg and Lübeck and their tax and customs laws discriminated against Kiel.
Following pressure from the other states of the German Confederation
German Confederation
The German Confederation was the loose association of Central European states created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to coordinate the economies of separate German-speaking countries. It acted as a buffer between the powerful states of Austria and Prussia...
, as well as Russia and France, the Danish government committed itself on 23 June 1847 to the construction of a railway from Lübeck to Büchen in the Duchy of Lauenburg to connect with the Berlin–Hamburg Railway. Among the supporters for Lübeck's proposal were such renowned figures as Alexander von Humboldt
Alexander von Humboldt
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt was a German naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt...
, Klemens von Metternich and the King of Prussia, Frederick William IV
Frederick William IV of Prussia
|align=right|Upon his accession, he toned down the reactionary policies enacted by his father, easing press censorship and promising to enact a constitution at some point, but he refused to enact a popular legislative assembly, preferring to work with the aristocracy through "united committees" of...
.
Consent was given three days before the beginning of the German-nationalist public song festival in Lübeck, and three months before the start of the Germanists’ day (Germanistentag) in Lübeck (27–30 September 1847), chaired by Jacob Grimm
Jacob Grimm
Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm was a German philologist, jurist and mythologist. He is best known as the discoverer of Grimm's Law, the author of the monumental Deutsches Wörterbuch, the author of Deutsche Mythologie and, more popularly, as one of the Brothers Grimm, as the editor of Grimm's Fairy...
, following the first Germanists’ day meeting in the previous year in Frankfurt am Main. The Germanists’ days were part of a political movement in opposition to Denmark's control of Schleswig-Holstein, which gave rise to the Schleswig-Holstein Question
Schleswig-Holstein Question
The Schleswig-Holstein Question was a complex of diplomatic and other issues arising in the 19th century from the relations of two duchies, Schleswig and Holstein , to the Danish crown and to the German Confederation....
. Among other reasons for the selection of the venue for the Germanists’ day had been that the blocking of rail services to Lübeck by Denmark was seen as a "national question", despite the remote location of Lübeck in Germany and the poor accessibility of the missing rail link.
The line was to be an indirect, 35 km-long connection from Lübeck to Hamburg. This compromise meant that the competing Altona-Kiel Railway Company
Altona-Kiel Railway Company
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-Kieler Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft) had an advantage in that the connection from Lübeck to Hamburg via Büchen now had about the same track length as the rail link between Altona
Altona, Hamburg
Altona is the westernmost urban borough of the German city state of Hamburg, on the right bank of the Elbe river. From 1640 to 1864 Altona was under the administration of the Danish monarchy. Altona was an independent city until 1937...
and Kiel (both then in Holstein).
Construction of the network
After the Lübeck-Büchen Railway Company was established on 27 February 1850, work began on the construction of the line from Lübeck via Ratzeburg and Mölln to Büchen. A labour force of 2,500 mostly unskilled workers were engaged on the line's earthworks for a total of 400,000 working days up to April 1851.On 15 October 1851 the line went into operation, although the Danish concession for operations from 1848 to 1857 was granted late because of the revolutions of 1848
Revolutions of 1848
The European Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Spring of Nations, Springtime of the Peoples or the Year of Revolution, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe in 1848. It was the first Europe-wide collapse of traditional authority, but within a year reactionary...
. The LBE station in Lübeck was close to the Holsten Gate
Holstentor
The Holsten Gate is a city gate marking off the western boundary of the old center of the Hanseatic city of Lübeck. This Brick Gothic construction is one of the relics of Lübeck’s medieval city fortifications and the only remaining city gate, except for the Citadel Gate...
(Holstentor). The line ran by the ramparts of the Lübeck city walls. The felling of numerous street trees and the originally planned demolition of the Rehbock and Scheune bastions met resistance from Lübeck's population. The Council and the Bürgerschaft (Lübeck's parliament) therefore decided that of the felled trees would be sold with their value going to a fund to be used by the Potsdam landscape architect Peter Joseph Lenné
Peter Joseph Lenné
Peter Joseph Lenné was a Prussian gardener and landscape architect from Bonn who worked in the German classicist style.-Childhood and development:...
to improve the remaining ramparts artistically. The division of the Möllner lake by a railway embankment was met with little enthusiasm by Lübeck's residents.
Economically, the operation of the railway proved to be a success, so that the LBE was able to use its profits to build the Lübeck port railway and a coking
Coke (fuel)
Coke is the solid carbonaceous material derived from destructive distillation of low-ash, low-sulfur bituminous coal. Cokes from coal are grey, hard, and porous. While coke can be formed naturally, the commonly used form is man-made.- History :...
plant to supply its locomotives with coke. In 1852 the total route length of the LBE was 47.45 km.
In 1863 the LBE was permitted to build a direct line to Hamburg, which opened on 1 August 1865. The approximately 63 km-long route ran from Lübeck via Reinfeld, Oldesloe
Bad Oldesloe
Bad Oldesloe is a town located in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein. It is the capital of the Kreis Stormarn .The area has been inhabited since mesolithic times. The flint tools found here from that era are clearly defined and known as the Oldesloer Stufe...
, Ahrensburg
Ahrensburg
Ahrensburg is a town in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region, situated in Stormarn. Its population around 31,700 . Its outstanding sight is the Renaissance castle dating from 1595....
, Rahlstedt
Rahlstedt
Rahlstedt is a quarter in the Wandsbek borough of the Free and Hanseatic city of Hamburg in northern Germany. In 2006, the population was 86,413.-History:...
and Wandsbek to Lübecker Bahnhof (Lübeck station) in Hamburg. The LBE's route network in 1870 was 111.27 kilometres long. Heavy traffic on the line to Hamburg meant that a second track was built in 1875-76.
On 1 August 1882 the LBE opened a line from Lübeck to Travemünde. On 1 July 1898 the line opened from Travemünde
Travemünde
Travemünde is a borough of Lübeck, Germany, located at the mouth of the river Trave in Lübeck Bay. It began life as a fortress built by Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony, in the 12th century to guard the mouth of the Trave, and the Danes subsequently strengthened it. It became a town in 1317 and in...
—now called Lübeck-Travemünde Hafen (port)—to Lübeck-Travemünde Strand (beach). In 1902 took the LBE opened a connection for freight from Wandsbek via Hamburg-Rothenburgsort to the Berlin-Hamburg line, the origin of the modern Hamburg freight bypass. With the opening of the branch line from Travemünde Hafen station to Niendorf (Ostsee) in 1913, the network of the LBE achieved its maximum length of 160.87 kilometres.
Connections to other lines
Simultaneously with the opening of Lübeck–Büchen line by the LBE in 1851, the Berlin-Hamburg Railway Company opened a line from Büchen to Lauenburg. The LBE had already established a committee in 1850 with funds of 7,000 Prussian thalerPrussian thaler
The Thaler was the currency of Prussia until 1857. From 1750, it was distinct from north German Reichsthaler unit of account in that it contained 1/14 of a Cologne mark of silver, rather than 1/12, and was minted as a coin...
s to carry out technical tests on the building of a crossing over the Elbe near Lauenburg. After lengthy negotiations between the governments, it was finally decided to build a train ferry
Lauenburg–Hohnstorf ferry
The Lauenburg-Hohnstorf Ferry was a railway ferry over the River Elbe between Hohnstorf on the left bank of the Elbe in the old Kingdom of Hanover and Lauenburg in the Duchy of Lauenburg on the right bank which was then part of Denmark...
.
The operation required a steam ship, commissioned from the engineering office of the Hamburg-Magdeburg Steamship Company (Hamburg-Magdeburger Dampfschiffahrts-Gesellschaft) and put into service in 1864. In February 1869, the high traffic level led to a second ferry being put into service. Numerous breakdowns due to icing in winter and several accidents, however, showed clearly that the ferry woulf provide no lasting solution. With the annexation of the Kingdom of Hanover
Kingdom of Hanover
The Kingdom of Hanover was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg , and joined with 38 other sovereign states in the German...
by Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
after the Austro-Prussian War
Austro-Prussian War
The Austro-Prussian War was a war fought in 1866 between the German Confederation under the leadership of the Austrian Empire and its German allies on one side and the Kingdom of Prussia with its German allies and Italy on the...
of 1866, the military objections to a fixed Elbe crossing was removed. It was finally decided to build a swing bridge
Swing bridge
A swing bridge is a movable bridge that has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its centre of gravity, about which the turning span can then pivot horizontally as shown in the animated illustration to the right...
, which was opened in 1878 after two years of construction, allowing through trains from Lübeck to Lüneburg.
On 1 July 1870, the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg Friedrich-Franz Railway
Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg Friedrich-Franz Railway
The Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg Friedrich-Franz Railway was the state railway company in Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz...
's Lübeck–Bad Kleinen line was opened to the LBE station in Lübeck, and in 1871 the first continuous services operated between Hamburg and Stettin (now Szczecin
Szczecin
Szczecin , is the capital city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland. It is the country's seventh-largest city and the largest seaport in Poland on the Baltic Sea. As of June 2009 the population was 406,427....
). The Eutin-Lübeck Railway Company established a line to Eutin
Eutin
Eutin is the district capital of Eastern Holstein located in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein. As of 2005, it had some 17,000 inhabitants....
in 1873, completing a link between Lübeck and Kiel
Kiel–Lübeck railway
The Kiel–Lübeck railway is a non-electrified, mostly single-track railway line in eastern Schleswig-Holstein in north Germany. It links Kiel and Lübeck, the only two cities in the state...
. In 1916, Lübeck-Segeberg line opened to Bad Segeberg
Bad Segeberg
Bad Segeberg is a German town of 16,000 inhabitants, located in the state of Schleswig-Holstein, capital of the district Segeberg. It is situated approximately northeast of Hamburg, and west of Lübeck.It is famous for its annual Karl-May-Festival...
. From the beginning it was operated by the LBE; it only acquired its own rolling stock after the Second World War.
An important railway junction was at Bad Oldesloe
Bad Oldesloe
Bad Oldesloe is a town located in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein. It is the capital of the Kreis Stormarn .The area has been inhabited since mesolithic times. The flint tools found here from that era are clearly defined and known as the Oldesloer Stufe...
, which was connected to Neumünster by the Altona-Kiel Railway Company
Altona-Kiel Railway Company
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-Kieler Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, AKE) in 1875. In 1884 the AKE was nationalised and became part of the Prussian State Railways
Prussian state railways
The term Prussian state railways encompasses those railway organisations that were owned or managed by the State of Prussia...
(Königlich Preußische Staatseisenbahnen (K.P.St.E)). In 1884, K.P.St.E opened a line to Schwarzenbek and in 1897 a line from Ratzeburg
Ratzeburg
Ratzeburg is a town in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is surrounded by four lakes—the resulting isthmuses between the lakes form the access lanes to the town. Ratzeburg is the capital of the Kreis of Lauenburg.-History:...
to Hagenow
Hagenow-Land
Hagenow-Land is an Amt in the Ludwigslust-Parchim district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. The seat of the Amt is in Hagenow, itself not part of the Amt.The Amt Hagenow-Land consists of the following municipalities:...
(the Kaiser Railway), creating two additional connections to the Berlin-Hamburg line. The opening of the Elmshorn-Barmstedt-Oldesloe line in 1907 created another connection to Oldesloe.
In 1899, a line to Hollenbek was opened from Mölln by the Prussian State Railways, connecting with the Ratzeburg–Hagenow line. In 1903, the Ratzeburg Light Railway (Ratzeburger Kleinbahn) was opened from Ratzeburg
Ratzeburg
Ratzeburg is a town in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is surrounded by four lakes—the resulting isthmuses between the lakes form the access lanes to the town. Ratzeburg is the capital of the Kreis of Lauenburg.-History:...
and in 1904 the Alt-Rahlstedt–Volksdorf–Wohldorf Electric Light Railway (Elektrische Kleinbahn Alt-Rahlstedt–Volksdorf–Wohldor) was opened from Rahlstedt
Rahlstedt
Rahlstedt is a quarter in the Wandsbek borough of the Free and Hanseatic city of Hamburg in northern Germany. In 2006, the population was 86,413.-History:...
, where it connected with the Lübeck–Hamburg line. There were numerous industry sidings, especially in the urban areas of Lübeck, Hamburg and Wandsbek.
In the 1910s the LBE refused to agree to connection at Ahrensburg station with the proposed Hamburg Forest Villages Railway (Walddörferbahn), with the result that this line, which is now part of line U 1 of the Hamburg U-Bahn
Hamburg U-Bahn
The Hamburg U-Bahn is a rapid transit system serving the cities of Hamburg, Norderstedt and Ahrensburg in Germany. Although technically an underground, most of the system's track length is above ground. The network is interconnected with the city's S-Bahn system, which also has underground...
runs through the southern part of the town, without connecting to the Lübeck–Hamburg line station.
New stations
In the area of Lübecker Bahnhof in Hamburg, in the early 20th century, there were three stations (Berliner Bahnhof, Hannöverscher Bahnhof and the Bahnhof Klosterthor), none of which had a direct connection to the LBE line. On 6 December 1906, they were replaced by the new Hamburg HauptbahnhofHamburg Hauptbahnhof
is the Hauptbahnhof for the German city of Hamburg. It was opened in 1906 to replace 4 terminal stations. Hamburg Hauptbahnhof is operated by DB Station&Service...
(central station), when the LBE also extended its line to the station and closed its former station. The LBE also created a new station east of the Hauptbahnhof at Berliner Tor.
In Lübeck, a new station, called Lübeck Hauptbahnhof
Lübeck Hauptbahnhof
is the Hauptbahnhof for the Hanseatic city of Lübeck, in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. It is a through station at the western edge of the city centre....
, was built to the west in the Retteich Meadows. On 1 May 1908, the first train ran to the new station. At the nationalisation of the LBE, the Lübeck Hauptbahnhof was the largest private railway station in Germany.
Nationalisation
On 1 January 1938, the Lübeck-Büchen Railway Company was acquired by the Deutsche ReichsbahnDeutsche Reichsbahn
Deutsche Reichsbahn was the name of the following two companies:* Deutsche Reichsbahn, the German Imperial Railways during the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich and the immediate aftermath...
(German State Railways), which since the beginning of 1930 had held a majority of its shares. The state of Lübeck had held a majority of shares in the company since 1883. During the 1921–1923 hyperinflation
Inflation in the Weimar Republic
The hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic was a three year period of hyperinflation in Germany between June 1921 and July 1924.- Analysis :...
, the national Ministry of Transport had acquired shares in the LBE. By 1937 the German government held about 86 percent of its shares. It justified its decision to nationalise the company on the basis of the importance of the lines that were connected by the LBE. The company was dissolved on 1 January 1938.