Odenwald Railway (Baden)
Encyclopedia
The Odenwald Railway (German: Odenwaldbahn) (sometimes referred to as the Baden Odenwald Railway to distinguish it from the Hessian line of the same name) was the name given to a Baden
Baden
Baden is a historical state on the east bank of the Rhine in the southwest of Germany, now the western part of the Baden-Württemberg of Germany....
railway line in southwestern Germany built from between 1862 and 1866. It ran from Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
via Neckargemünd
Neckargemünd
Neckargemünd is a town in Germany, in the district of Rhein-Neckar-Kreis, state of Baden-Württemberg. It lies on the Neckar, 10 km upriver from Heidelberg at the confluence with the river Elsenz. This confluence of the two rivers is the origin of the name, as Neckargemünd means confluence of...
and Meckesheim
Meckesheim
Meckesheim is a village in south western Germany. It is located between Heidelberg and Sinsheim in the Rhein-Neckar district in the state of Baden-Württemberg.-History:...
through the Little Odenwald
Odenwald
The Odenwald is a low mountain range in Hesse, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg in Germany.- Location :The Odenwald lies between the Upper Rhine Rift Valley with the Bergstraße and the Hessisches Ried in the west, the Main and the Bauland in the east, the Hanau-Seligenstadt Basin – a subbasin of...
mountains to Waibstadt
Waibstadt
Waibstadt is a town in the district of Rhein-Neckar-Kreis, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.It belongs to the municipal administration union "Waibstadt", which consists of Epfenbach, Helmstadt-Bargen, Neckarbischofsheim, Neidenstein, Reichartshausen and Waibstadt itself...
, Mosbach
Mosbach
Mosbach is the capital of the Neckar-Odenwald district in the north of Baden-Württemberg, Germany, about 58 km east of Heidelberg. Its geographical position is 49.21'N 9.9'E....
, Osterburken
Osterburken
Osterburken is a town in the Neckar-Odenwald district, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated 28 km southwest of Tauberbischofsheim, 50 km northeast of Heilbronn, 90 km east of Heidelberg, 60 km southwest of Würzburg and 30 km east of Mosbach...
and Lauda
Lauda-Königshofen
Lauda-Königshofen is a town in the Main-Tauber district in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated on the river Tauber, 7 km southeast of Tauberbischofsheim, and 30 km southwest of Würzburg...
in Bavarian Würzburg
Würzburg
Würzburg is a city in the region of Franconia which lies in the northern tip of Bavaria, Germany. Located at the Main River, it is the capital of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. The regional dialect is Franconian....
.
History
Grand Duchy of Baden State Railway
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 , which was founded in 1840...
’s Rhine Valley Railway in 1840. In 1854 the Ludwig's Western Railway
Ludwig's Western Railway
Ludwig's Western Railway is a German railway line that was originally funded by the Kingdom of Bavaria. It runs from Bamberg via Würzburg to Aschaffenburg and on into the former 'Kurhessian' Hanau.- History :...
was opened from Bamberg
Bamberg
Bamberg is a city in Bavaria, Germany. It is located in Upper Franconia on the river Regnitz, close to its confluence with the river Main. Bamberg is one of the few cities in Germany that was not destroyed by World War II bombings because of a nearby Artillery Factory that prevented planes from...
in Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
to the Hessian
Hesse
Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...
border near Kahl am Main
Kahl am Main
Kahl am Main is a community in the Aschaffenburg district in the Regierungsbezirk of Lower Franconia in Bavaria, Germany.- Location :...
through Würzburg. Both Bavaria and Baden saw reasons to build a railway line between Heidelberg and Würzburg: the government of Baden sought a continuation of its main line to the north east and the Bavarian king, Maximilian II
Maximilian II of Bavaria
Maximilian II of Bavaria was king of Bavaria from 1848 until 1864. He was son of Ludwig I of Bavaria and Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen.-Crown Prince:...
, sought a connection with the Palatinate, then a geographically separate part of Bavaria.
The shortest route between the two cities was via Eberbach
Eberbach (Baden)
Eberbach is a town in Germany, in northern Baden-Württemberg, located 33 km east of Heidelberg. It belongs to the Rhein-Neckar-Kreis. Its sister city is Ephrata, United States.- Location :...
, Mudau
Mudau
Mudau is a municipality in the Neckar-Odenwald district, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. it has 5,099 inhabitants.-Geography:Mudau lies in the southeastern Odenwald mountains between the Neckar and Main rivers, 75 km southeast of Frankfurt am Main and 40 km northeast of Heidelberg...
and Miltenberg
Miltenberg
Miltenberg is the seat of the like-named district in the Regierungsbezirk of Lower Franconia in Bavaria, Germany.- Location :...
ran through Hesse, which saw this route as being opposed to its own interests. Instead, after a review of 45 alternative routes and lengthy negotiations, a decision was taken to build a line through Meckesheim
Meckesheim
Meckesheim is a village in south western Germany. It is located between Heidelberg and Sinsheim in the Rhein-Neckar district in the state of Baden-Württemberg.-History:...
, Mosbach
Mosbach
Mosbach is the capital of the Neckar-Odenwald district in the north of Baden-Württemberg, Germany, about 58 km east of Heidelberg. Its geographical position is 49.21'N 9.9'E....
, Osterburken
Osterburken
Osterburken is a town in the Neckar-Odenwald district, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated 28 km southwest of Tauberbischofsheim, 50 km northeast of Heilbronn, 90 km east of Heidelberg, 60 km southwest of Würzburg and 30 km east of Mosbach...
and Lauda
Lauda-Königshofen
Lauda-Königshofen is a town in the Main-Tauber district in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated on the river Tauber, 7 km southeast of Tauberbischofsheim, and 30 km southwest of Würzburg...
. This had the advantage for Baden that the line opened up the Baden Bauland and that it could operate entirely within Baden, as it only reached Bavaria at the end of the line. The disadvantages that had to be taken into account, were an unfavourable topography and a route that was 25 km longer than the shortest route. A treaty adopting the agreed route was signed between the two countries was on 27 January 1862. The line was completed on 25 August 1866.