On December 7, 1835 the first steam engine powered train in Germany drove from Nuremberg to Fürth, around 6 kilometers. The road between the two Franconian cities was the busiest trade route in the kingdom of Bavaria. The train is called Ludwigsbahn or Ludwigseisenbahn after King Ludwig I. In English, it’s called Bavarian Ludwig Railway.
Rocky Start
King Ludwig I had proposed building a railway in 1825 and 1828 when word from England about steam engine locomotives reached continental Europe. However, his request fell on deaf ears and Ludwig turned his attention to his favorite project, a canal connecting the rivers Danube and Main. When the Franconian merchants finally decided in 1833 that building a railway was the way to go, Ludwig I supported them, though reluctantly.
The dark blue shows the run of the Ludwig-Donau-Main-Kanal , also called Ludwigskanal, connecting the Danube (Kelheim) and Main (Bamberg). Building started in 1836 and the canal opened in 1843, though some areas were under construction until 1845. Except for a couple kilometers of the 172 km long waterway, the canal is no longer navigable. Instead ships use the Main-Donau-Kanal, built from 1960 – 1992.
During the planning and building of the railway, the founded “Königlich privilegierte Ludwigs-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft” encountered many delays and setbacks. The association had to buy the land the railway was to be built on and some landowners were reluctant to sell. The English unit of a foot was different from the Bavarian Fuß causing problems during construction. It took a long time to ship building materials and the locomotive, named “Adler” (eagle) and built by the Robert Stephenson company in Newcastle, from England to Bavaria.
Inauguration
In November 1835, the first trial runs of the Adler on the newly built, though not quite finished, railway were conducted. People were very excited and came in masses to see the locomotive and ride in the wagons.
Because the inauguration of the Germany’s first Eisenbahn was postponed, when it finally did take its first official trip from Nürnberg to Fürth on December 7, the king couldn’t attend. Though the train was named after him: Ludwigseisenbahn or Ludwigsbahn.
On the day of the opening in Nuremberg, people started gathering at 8 o’clock in the morning, setting up tents and pavilions, getting ready to witness history. Local politicians, military officials, and a marching band were there to give speeches and play music.
At 9am, a cannon was fired and the train with 9 train cars rode 200 invited guests the 6 kilometers from Nuremberg to Fürth. The engineer was the Englishman William Wilson, all dressed up with a top hat. The trip from Nuremberg to Fürth and back was repeated at 11am and 1pm as well as 2pm for “normal” people.
The Ludwigsbahn stopped running in 1922. Already the train had been dealing with competition by the Pferdestraßenbahn (street cars pulled by horses) which ran parallel to the train and had opened in 1881. Once the street cars started running with electricity in 1896, the railway couldn’t keep up.
Fun Facts
The train had 40 PS, a maximal speed of 23-30 km per hour, and took about 9 minutes to reach its destination. However, when King Ludwig I finally took his first trip he wanted a Schnellfahrt and the train reached a speed of 60 km/h.
The day after the big opening, the train started running hourly between the two cities. However, only the train at 1pm and 2pm were pulled by the locomotive, for the other trips horses were used, since coal was rather expensive and had to be imported from Saxony. If the “Adler” pulled the wagons, the trip took 9 minutes, but with horses it took 24 minutes.
During this time, people noticed that the time in Nuremberg and Fürth didn’t match and the train wasn’t on time. The church clock in Fürth had to be adjusted to the (right!) time in Nürnberg.
50 years after the inauguration of the Ludwigseisenbahn, the city of Nuremberg decided to erect a monument to this technological milestone near the Nürnberger Ludwigsbahnhof. They laid the corner stone on December 7, 1885, however it was only later that they announced a competition for the monument. In 1887, Heinrich Schwabe’s design of a decorative fountain won and was opened in 1890.
The fountain consists of an obelisk, around 10 meters tall, made from granite. A statue of a genius on a winged wheel stands at the top while two women sit below. They are Noris and Furthia and represent the cities Nürnberg and Fürth. The fountain had to be moved several times and is now located at the Fürther Straße (since 1993).
Sources and Resources
- Ludwigseisenbahn – Wiki
- Ludwig-Donau-Main-Kanal – Wiki
- DB Museum
- Ludwig-Eisenbahn-Denkmal – Wiki
