The railway came into existence early in Frankfurt, but others were faster.

In 1835, a train ran for the first time in Germany, between Nuremberg and Fürth.

Only four years later, on September 26, 1839, did a train set off from Frankfurt, and it only went as far as Höchst.

Two months later the route was extended to Hattersheim, and the following year to Wiesbaden.

Manfred Koehler

Head of department of the Rhein-Main editorial team of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

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Enthusiasm for the newfangled project was limited. "Only proles could be crammed into such boxes," said Duke Wilhelm von Nassau, through whose territory the route led for the most part. The operation began modestly with two locomotives and a few open passenger cars, just four times a day a train set out from Frankfurt to Wiesbaden and returned from there.

As more railway lines were gradually built in Germany, it became clear that Frankfurt was right in the middle of this ever-expanding rail network.

This found its most visible expression in the main train station, opened in 1888, a building that has defied all the passages of time like few others in the city and has now been serving its purpose for 133 years, relatively little changed and with the best prospects of being essentially preserved in the coming decades stay and carry out the familiar tasks.

Central signal box will not be demolished

Anyone looking for traces of railway history in Frankfurt will not be able to avoid a visit to the main train station.

The building still bears witness to the self-confidence of the railway workers in the Empire, the facade is magnificent, the station hall towers high.

In 1902, Baedecker raved that the main station was "one of the most magnificent facilities of this kind, and it has hardly any equal in terms of the practicality of the furnishings".

In front of the tracks there is another contemporary witness to Frankfurt's railway history, the central signal box built in 1957, which was the largest and most modern of the Federal Railways at the time.

It is not torn down, even if it is no longer needed.

On the other hand, nothing remains of the early railway history in the city center, when Frankfurt did not yet have a main station, but did have three smaller terminal stations at the Gallusanlage, from which trains set off in different directions. With the construction of the main train station, the railway pulled back a bit, about 600 meters. The station district was created on the cleared site. Only the curvature of the station forecourt on the east side is a distant reminder of the early railway days, following the connecting tracks between the lines to the former stations closer to the city.

At the same time, the wide arc shows how much the early decisions about the routing of the railway lines have shaped the entire urban topography of Frankfurt to this day.

What would the metropolis look like if, in the 19th century, the decision had been made to opt for a more expensive through station instead of a terminus for reasons of cost?

It would be a different city.

On the trail of railway history

If you are looking for the very early railway history, you have to make your way to Nied.

There is still one of the bridges that were built in 1839 for the first railway line, that direction Hattersheim and Wiesbaden.

Trains still run over the second oldest railway bridge in Germany every day, and because it was only renovated in 2017 in accordance with the requirements of a historical monument, it will remain so for a long time to come.

Of course, anyone who deals with the historic railway Frankfurt, as an association of enthusiasts of this means of transport is called, who owns four locomotives and a number of passenger carriages, is also on the trail of railway history.

Star is a large class 52 freight steam locomotive built in 1943 and often seen in Frankfurt.

For the public, the trains of the historic railway primarily run on the tracks of the port railway, which also includes the rails in the green strip on the northern bank of the Main, which in turn are also a piece of railway history, as they provided a connection between the stations in the west in the early days and the Ostbahnhof.

The historic locomotives and carriages also drive past the Grossmarkthalle, in and on which the worst chapter in Frankfurt's railway history took place: from there, during the years of the Second World War, the trains with which the National Socialists drove the Jewish population bit by bit to the concentration camps - and deported to extermination camps.

Finally, an attractive chapter in railway history is kept alive in the Feldbahnmuseum am Rebstock.

Since the 1970s, enthusiasts have been collecting the small locomotives and wagons that used to be used in many places for simple transports on narrow tracks, and in some cases still are, for example in moors and gravel pits;

a few light railways are still in use today.

Since the 1980s, the railway enthusiasts' vehicle collection has not only been refurbished, serviced and presented to the public, but also presented on a charming route through a nearby allotment garden and the adjacent Rebstockpark.

More than 60 locomotives and around 200 wagons can be seen there.

A journey into the past of its own kind.