page_title: Halle–Hann. Münden railway
section_title: Development up to 1945
hierarchical_section_title: Halle–Hann. Münden railway / History / Development up to 1945
context_page_description: The Halle–Hann. Münden railway is a 218 km long main line operated by the Deutsche Bahn in Germany, which links Halle in Saxony-Anhalt with Hann. Münden in the state of Lower Saxony. It is mainly used by regional and east-west goods trains. From 1990 to 1994 it was upgraded as part of a German Unification Transport Project.
context_section_description: Traffic grew rapidly. After a few years, several connecting lines were opened. In 1869, the South Harz Railway opened between Nordhausen and Northeim and the Nordhausen-Erfurt Railway opened between Wolkramshausen and Erfurt. In 1870, the Gotha–Leinefelde railway opened. In 1876, the Bebra–Göttingen line (later part of the North–South railway) was completed from Friedland to Eschwege and Bebra, crossing in Eichenberg.
  On 1 June 1876, the line was nationalised, as part of the line was included in the project to build a line from Berlin to Metz, the Cannons Railway (Kanonenbahn). This strategic railway used the Halle-Kassel line between Blankenheim and Leinefelde. On 15 April 1879, the Berlin-Blankenheim railway was opened from Berlin-Grunewald via Güsten (which was connected to Magdeburg via the Schönebeck–Güsten railway) to a junction east of the Blankenheim Tunnel. In 1879, this was supplemented by a link from Sangerhausen and Erfurt. From Leinefelde the Cannons Railway used the line towards Gotha. The development of the Halle–Kassel line was motivated not only by militarily considerations but also as a means of putting pressure on the Thuringian Railway, leading to its nationalisation between 1882 and 1886.
  In 1884, the Arenshausen-Friedland link (which had been superseded by the Bebra–Göttingen line connection at Eichenberg) was abandoned.
  Together, the South Harz, the Solling and the Altenbeken–Kreiensen lines created a major east-west freight route between Nordhausen and Halle. As a result, a little less traffic ran from Magdeburg and Halle via Nordhausen and Kassel to Frankfurt. Passenger services for example on the Leinefelde–Eichenberg section in the summer of 1939 consisted on weekdays of four pairs of express trains, five pairs of semi-fast (Eilzug) trains and ten pairs of stopping trains.
  Near the southern Harz, the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp was established to the northwest of Nordhausen in 1943; it was attached to vast underground weapons factories. To remove through traffic from this area, construction was begun on a connecting line from the South Harz line near Osterhagen to the Halle–Kassel line between Nordhausen and Werther. The construction of this Helme Valley Railway (Helmetalbahn) cost the life of several hundred forced labourers. It was never completed and its route was disrupted in 1945 by the inner German border. Remnants of its embankments and bridges are still visible today.
  In the last years of the war the line was overloaded with armaments and military traffic, but also with trains carrying prisoners. Maintenance was largely abandoned. In the air raid on Kassel on 22 October 1943, the central station was destroyed. Halle (Saale) Hauptbahnhof was severely damaged on 31 March 1945. German troops blew up the Fulda and Werra bridges in early April during their retreat. On 7 April, an ammunition train exploded in Sangerhausen station. Ten days later the entire area of the line was occupied by the Americans.
  Later in May, traffic resumed on sections of the line.
caption: Sangerhausen station, rebuilt cheaply in 1964 after being damaged in the Second World War
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