page_title: History of rail transport
section_title: Germany
hierarchical_section_title: History of rail transport / History by country / Europe / Germany
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Bild des deutschen Buches „Friedrich List und die erste grosse Eisenbahn Deutschlands. Ein Beitrag zur Eisenbahngeschichte“ English: Picture of the german book “Friedrich List und die erste grosse Eisenbahn Deutschlands. Ein Beitrag zur Eisenbahngeschichte” Title: “Friedrich List’s Entwurf zu einem Deutschen Eisenbahnsystem aus dem Jahre 1833.” See german Wikisource: Friedrich List und die erste große Eisenbahn Deutschlands
context_page_description: The history of rail transport began in the 6th century BC in Ancient Greece. It can be divided into several discrete periods defined by the principal means of track material and motive power used.
context_section_description: An operation was illustrated in Germany in 1556 by Georgius Agricola in his work De re metallica. This line used "Hund" carts with unflanged wheels running on wooden planks and a vertical pin on the truck fitting into the gap between the planks to keep it going the right way. The miners called the wagons Hunde ("dogs") from the noise they made on the tracks. This system became very popular across Europe.
  The takeoff stage of economic development came with the railroad revolution in the 1840s, which opened up new markets for local products, created a pool of middle managers, increased the demand for engineers, architects and skilled machinists and stimulated investments in coal and iron. Political disunity of three dozen states and a pervasive conservatism made it difficult to build railways in the 1830s. However, by the 1840s, trunk lines did link the major cities; each German state was responsible for the lines within its own borders. Economist Friedrich List summed up the advantages to be derived from the development of the railway system in 1841:
  As a means of national defence, it facilitates the concentration, distribution and direction of the army.
  It is a means to the improvement of the culture of the nation. It brings talent, knowledge and skill of every kind readily to market.
  It secures the community against dearth and famine and against excessive fluctuation in the prices of the necessaries of life.
  It promotes the spirit of the nation, as it has a tendency to destroy the Philistine spirit arising from isolation and provincial prejudice and vanity. It binds nations by ligaments and promotes an interchange of food and of commodities, thus making it feel to be a unit. The iron rails become a nerve system, which, on the one hand, strengthens public opinion, and, on the other hand, strengthens the power of the state for police and governmental purposes.
  Lacking a technological base at first, the Germans imported their engineering and hardware from Britain, but quickly learned the skills needed to operate and expand the railways. In many cities, the new railway shops were the centres of technological awareness and training, so that by 1850, Germany was self-sufficient in meeting the demands of railroad construction and the railways were a major impetus for the growth of the new steel industry. Observers found that even as late as 1890, their engineering was inferior to Britain's. However, German unification in 1870 stimulated consolidation, nationalisation into state-owned companies and further rapid growth. Unlike the situation in France, the goal was support of industrialisation and so heavy lines crisscrossed the Ruhr and other industrial districts and provided good connections to the major ports of Hamburg and Bremen. By 1880, Germany had 9,400 locomotives pulling 43,000 passengers and 30,000 tons of freight a day and forged ahead of France.
caption: Friedrich List's concept for a German railway net from 1833
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