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Freiburg is celebrating 180 years of rail – the city journey began here!
Find out how the railway connection between Emmendingen and Freiburg in 1845 shaped the city's development and was celebrated historically.
Freiburg is celebrating 180 years of rail – the city journey began here!
Freiburg celebrated a very special event last weekend: the 180th anniversary of the opening of Freiburg Central Station. This solemn act took place on July 30, 1845 and was celebrated with cannon shots from Schönberg. Freiburg Weekly Report describes how the first train brought the Grand Duke of Baden, Friedrich I, from Emmendingen to Freiburg. The steam from the locomotive was already visible from Freiburg, while the cannon fire celebrated the timed arrival of the train.
A banquet in the historic department store rounded off the celebrations, and Mayor Friedrich Wagner praised the Grand Duke for his commitment. At that time, Freiburg had around 15,000 residents who gathered to celebrate with banners such as “A Railway to the High Beautiful”. The planning of the route from Mannheim via Basel to Lake Constance had already begun in 1833 and led to a significant upheaval in the city's development.
A train station with history
The train station is now about one kilometer west of the cathedral and has been a center of activity in Freiburg from the beginning. Post offices and the first hotels were quickly built on Eisenbahnstrasse, which promoted the city's development towards the west and towards the Stühlinger district. Architect Friedrich Eisenlohr designed the building in the historicist style, which has archways for different classes of passengers.
The waiting hall is impressive, which is over 100 meters long and the tracks lie under a hall structure made of white brick that is more than twelve meters high. The construction costs at that time amounted to half a million guilders, which is equivalent to around 13 million euros today. Over the years, the railway line was extended and expanded several times, so that the connection to Schliengen followed in 1847 and to Efringen-Kirchen a year later.
- 1850: Anschluss an Kaiserstuhl und Breisach
- 1872: Erweiterung des Streckennetzes nach Donaueschingen
- 1901: Bau der Höllentalbahn
- 1944: Zerstörung des Bahnhofs durch Bomben
- 1949: Provisorium eröffnet
- 1999: Eröffnung des heutigen Hauptbahnhofs
A symbol of mobility
Today's main station has been a central hub for mobility in Freiburg since it opened in 1999 and is 265 meters long. It represents the progress and development that railway transport brought to the city. Freiburg Weekly Report highlights that the train station and the associated infrastructure have played an important role not only in travel, but also in urban development.
Freiburg residents can look back proudly on this historic achievement. The stories surrounding the train station are deeply rooted in the city and contribute to Freiburg's charm. And so the train station remains a popular stop and an important part of life in this lively city.