page_title: Erfurt Hauptbahnhof
section_title: 1846–1890 station
hierarchical_section_title: Erfurt Hauptbahnhof / History / 1846–1890 station
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Alter Hauptbahnhof Erfurts (in Betrieb zwischen 1847 und 1890), nachfolgend u.a. als Sitz der Reichsbahndirektion Erfurt genutzt.
context_page_description: Erfurt Hauptbahnhof or Erfurt Central Station is the central railway station at Erfurt in Germany. It is an important junction on the German rail network, served by numerous local and long-distance rail services. Immediately north of the station is Erfurt's city centre. The station was used by approximately 12.5 million passengers in 2006, an average of about 34,000 per day. The station lies on the Thüringer Bahn, which connects Halle to Bebra. It is served also by the Erfurter Bahn.
  It was rebuilt from 2002 to 2008 for the completion of the Nuremberg–Erfurt high-speed railway and the Erfurt–Leipzig/Halle high-speed railway and connects the Berlin–Munich and Frankfurt–Dresden long-distance routes.
context_section_description: The location of the first Erfurt station was controversial. Inside the Erfurt city walls there were only a very limited area available and outside the fortifications a suitable area was available in the Krämpfer field to the east of the Schmidtstedter Tore (gate). The Erfurt Mayor, Karl Friedrich Wagner, however, argued in favour of a location within the city fortification and the Prussian authorities and the military also demanded that the route of the railway line pass through the fortress ramparts, so that they could stop railway operations in crisis situations. In July 1845, the decision was finally taken to build the station within the fortifications, north of the hohen Batterie (high battery).
  The first railway station was built in 1846 during the construction of the Thuringian Railway by the Thuringian Railway Company (Thüringische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft). The location chosen meant that the construction of two double tunnels through the fortress wall and several wooden bridges across the moat would be required. It was opened with the Weimar–Erfurt line on 1 April 1847 with all buildings finished except for the entrance building, which was completed in 1852. Apart from the unfinished entrance building, the station had at its opening a locomotive building, a goods shed, a carriage shed, a coke shed, a shed for reserve locomotives and an operations workshop. Within a few years of its opening, the infrastructure was no longer sufficient for the growing needs. Two buildings, an additional goods sheds and a carriage shed, were planned in 1850 and completed in 1854. An enlargement of the locomotive shed was necessary in 1852 and the freight yard was expanded from 1855. One year later, the side wing of the workshop received another floor; the coke shed was converted into a locomotive shed together with a large turntable after the conversion of locomotive operations to coal.
  A further expansion of freight transport facilities followed in 1860. The two existing freight sheds were expanded and a third was built. However, the lack of space within the fortifications grew increasingly noticeable, and the Thuringian Railway Company purchased a large area in front of the Schmidtstedter gate in 1865 to erect a freight yard. Due to the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, the start of construction was delayed and work only began in the following year. Freight sheds were built in 1871, allowing the freight yard to be opened in 1872, but it was only finally completed five years later in 1877.
  The timetable at the opening of Erfurt Hauptbahnhof showed four trains running daily between Halle and Erfurt with a journey time of three to three and a half hours. Ten years later, in the summer of 1857, two express trains, three ordinary passenger trains, and one mixed train ran daily between Halle and Eisenach via Erfurt.
  The Nordhausen-Erfurt Railway Company (Nordhausen-Erfurter-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft) opened the Nordhausen–Erfurt railway on 17 August 1869. The Erfurt terminus was originally at the Nordhäuser Bahnhof (Nordhausen station) on the Schmidtstedter field; there existed from the outset a transfer railway to the station of the Thuringian Railway Company and from 1872 passenger trains continued through to its station. The Nordhäuser Bahnhof served freight traffic from then on and its entrance building is now used as a residential house. The Sangerhausen–Erfurt railway also originally ended at its own station, the Sangerhäuser Bahnhof, after the opening of the section to Erfurt on 24 October 1881. It was not far from the Nordhäuser Bahnhof and was integrated into the Thuringian station a few years later via the branch line of the Thuringian Railway to the Royal Salt Mine at Ilversgehofen. After that the Sangerhäuser Bahnhof was also exclusively used for freight transport.
  The three-storey entrance building of the first Erfurt station is still preserved and is now used by Deutsche Bahn AG. It is located west of today's Hauptbahnhof and has a white/olive colour scheme. Previously, with the low buildings on Bahnhofstraße (station street), its t
caption: First station (1847–1890), late site of Erfurt marshalling yard
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