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67-698: The industrialists of the Rhineland and the Bergisches Land , then part of Prussia , sought to avoid paying the high tolls for using the Rhine imposed by the Netherlands and very early in its development, saw the possibility of the new means of transport, the railway. As early as the 1830s committees were established by the cities of the Rhineland to promote proposals for building railways. Some of

134-426: A BME line . The line is currently used from Düsseldorf to Mettmann by line S28 S-Bahn trains and by freight trains from Dornap-Hahnenfurth. Most of the section east of Dornap-Hahnenfurth is closed, although the section from Gevelsberg West to Hagen-Heubing is used by line S8 trains and Regionalbahn RB 52 line uses the line from Hagen to Dortmund Signal-Iduna-Park . The Rhenish Railway Company still lacked

201-705: A common station with the intersecting line of the North Brabant-German Railway Company ( Dutch : Noord-Brabantsch-Duitsche Spoorweg-Maatschappij ) from Boxtel to Wesel . The RhE’s Kempen–Venlo line , opened in 1868, provided another link to the Netherlands, which ran parallel with the Viersen–Venlo railway of the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company from Kaldenkirchen . In 1864 work began on

268-628: A connection to the German North Sea ports. The Cologne-Minden Railway Company had completed its line on 18 June 1874 from Wanne through Haltern , Münster , Osnabrück and Bremen to Hamburg. The RhE gained a concession for its own route north from the Prussian government on 9 June 1873, which it completed within six years. On 1 July 1879 it opened the 175 km long Duisburg–Quakenbrück line via Oberhausen West, Bottrop Nord, Dorsten and Rheine to Quakenbrück . It connected with

335-599: A diplomatic test of will three years before the outbreak of the Second World War . To the west the area stretches to the borders with Luxembourg , Belgium and the Netherlands ; on the eastern side it encompasses the towns and cities along the river and the Bergisches Land area up to the Westphalian ( Siegerland ) and Hessian regions. Stretching down to the North Palatine Uplands in

402-426: A form of pontoon bridges, were also used. The earthworks started on 6 June 1855; the foundation stone was laid by Frederick William IV four months later, on 3 October. Only after construction work had begun were the designs altered to include dual railway tracks on the northern downstream side of the bridge. Since the early 1850s, the Prussian authorities emphasized on constructing state railways . This opened up

469-533: A rational, simplified, centralized system controlled by Paris and run by Napoleon's relatives. The most important impact came from the abolition of all feudal privileges and historic taxes, the introduction of legal reforms of the Napoleonic Code , and the reorganization of the judicial and local administrative systems. The economic integration of the Rhineland with France increased prosperity, especially in industrial production, while business accelerated with

536-410: A stationary steam engine assisted trains up the slope. The line was the first line linking Germany with a non-German country. The opening of the line created further connections as the already well-developed Belgian network had two connections with northern France , but the routes to Paris was only finished in 1846, on 16 June from Valenciennes , and on 20 June 1846 from Lille . On 1 January 1857,

603-655: A tradition that continued in the naming of the current German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia . In the early 1800s, Rhinelanders settled the Missouri Rhineland , a German cultural region and wine producing area in the U.S. State of Missouri , and named it after noticing similarities in soil and topography to the Rhineland in Europe . By 1860, nearly half of all settlers in Missouri Rhineland came from Koblenz , capital of

670-633: Is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine , chiefly its middle section . It is the main industrial heartland of Germany because of its many factories, and it has historic ties to the Holy Roman Empire , Prussia and the German Empire . Historically, the term " Rhinelands " refers (physically speaking) to a loosely defined region embracing the land on the banks of the Rhine, which were settled by Ripuarian and Salian Franks and became part of Frankish Austrasia . In

737-681: Is now closed and has been converted into a cycling and hiking trail. The Rhenish Railway Company opened the East Rhine line (or Right Rhine line , Rechte Rheinstrecke ) on 27 October 1869 from Ehrenbreitstein near Koblenz to Neuwied . On 11 July 1870 the section of line was opened from Neuwied to Oberkassel, where the Bonn–Oberkassel train ferry provided a connection between the West Rhine and East Rhine lines. The section from Oberkassel to Troisdorf opened in 1871. The continuation of

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804-466: Is one of the prime German industrial areas, containing significant mineral deposits ( coal , lead , lignite , magnesium , oil , and uranium ) and water transport. In Rhineland-Palatinate agriculture is more important, including the vineyards in the Ahr , Mittelrhein , and Mosel regions. Cathedral Bridge The Cathedral Bridge ( German : Dombrücke , pronounced [ˈdoːmˌbʁʏkə] )

871-664: The Britannia Bridge successfully took increasingly heavy railway trains across the Menai Strait from its opening in 1850 until it was seriously damaged by fire in 1970. Designed by Robert Stephenson as a tubular bridge , the longest spans of the Britannia Bridge measured 140 metres (460 ft), with a width of 16 metres (52 ft). The wrought iron latticework of the Cathedral Bridge

938-818: The Hessian Ludwig Railway to Mainz and Ludwigshafen as well as the Nahe Valley Railway to Saarbrücken and its coal mines. In addition, in 1864 the Pfaffendorf bridge was built over Rhine at Koblenz and connected with the Nassau State Railways in Oberlahnstein . The Prussian state helped finance the construction of the Pfaffendorf bridge and its connection with the Nassau State Railways. After

1005-612: The High Middle Ages , numerous Imperial States along the river emerged from the former stem duchy of Lotharingia , without developing any common political or cultural identity. A "Rhineland" conceptualization can be traced to the period of the Holy Roman Empire from the sixteenth until the eighteenth centuries when the Empire's Imperial Estates (territories) were grouped into regional districts in charge of defence and judicial execution, known as Imperial Circles . Three of

1072-769: The North German plain is marked by the lower Ruhr . In the south, the river cuts the Rhenish Massif . The area encompasses the western part of the Ruhr industrial region and the Cologne Lowland . Some of the larger cities in the Rhineland are Aachen , Bonn , Cologne , Duisburg , Düsseldorf , Essen , Koblenz , Krefeld , Leverkusen , Mainz , Mönchengladbach , Mülheim an der Ruhr , Oberhausen , Remscheid , Solingen , Trier and Wuppertal . Toponyms as well as local family names often trace back to

1139-527: The Rhine Province . The western part of the Rhineland was occupied by Entente forces from the end of the First World War until 1930. Under the 1919 Treaty of Versailles , German military presence in the region was banned, a restriction which the government of Weimar Germany pledged to honor in the 1925 Locarno Treaties . Nazi Germany remilitarized the territory in 1936 as part of

1206-701: The Cathedral Bridge. 1 June 1860, the Rhenish Railway Company took over the Cologne-Krefeld Railway Company (German, old spelling: Cöln-Crefelder Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft ), including its 53 km long line from Cologne to Krefeld . In 1863 this line was extended more than 65 km via Goch to Kleve. From there it built a railway line in 1865 over the Griethausen railway bridge to the Spyck–Welle train ferry over

1273-642: The Company acquired the Bonn-Cologne Railway Company ( Bonn-Cölner Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft , BCE) for 1.05 million Prussian thalers along with its 45 km long route from Cologne (St. Pantaleon station) to Bonn and Rolandseck , beginning its development of railways along the Rhine. By 1859, it had extended the West Rhine line (or Left Rhine line , Linke Rheinstrecke ) 107 kilometres via Koblenz to Bingerbrück , where it connected with

1340-888: The East bank of the Rhine, between the Main and the Lahn, were the settlements of the Mattiaci , a branch of the Germanic Chatti , while farther to the north were the Usipetes and Tencteri . Julius Caesar conquered the Celtic tribes on the West bank, and Augustus established numerous fortified posts on the Rhine, but the Romans never succeeded in gaining a firm footing on the East bank. As

1407-627: The Eifel line. On 1 October 1875 a more direct route was opened from Kalscheuren on the West Rhine line to Euskirchen. The company, which had previously operated only on the western side of the Rhine, opened a route across the Rhine on 1 September 1866 to connect with its Ruhr line from Osterath via Uerdingen , Rheinhausen , the Rheinhausen–Hochfeld train ferry across the Rhine, Duisburg -Hochfeld, Mülheim -Speldorf, Mülheim (RhE) , Mülheim-Heißen to Essen Nord (RhE). It built sidings to

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1474-773: The Frankish heritage. The lands on the western shore of the Rhine are strongly characterized by Roman influence, including viticulture . In the core territories, large parts of the population are members of the Catholic Church . At the earliest historical period, the territories between the Ardennes and the Rhine were occupied by the Treveri , the Eburones and other Celtic tribes , who, however, were all more or less modified and influenced by their Germanic neighbors. On

1541-590: The Ministry of Trade, Commerce and Public Works appointed the Prussian chief civil engineer Karl Lentze to design the bridge. The initial drawings of the bridge allowed only one horse-drawn carriage to cross the bridge. On the western bank, the road was led in northeastern direction past the Cologne Cathedral. The deck load was to be kept low, because at that time it was not possible to build heavy load bridges spanning over 100 metres (330 ft);

1608-447: The Rhenish Railway Company had 507 locomotives, 862 carriages and 13,572 freight wagons. It operated a rail network of 1,356 km length. The purchase price was financed by government bonds worth 591,129,900 marks . The company was formally dissolved on 1 January 1886. Rhineland The Rhineland ( German : Rheinland [ˈʁaɪ̯nˌlant] ; Dutch : Rijnland ; Kölsch : Rhingland ; Latin : Rhenania )

1675-693: The Rhine and within 50 kilometers east of the Rhine. In 1920, under massive French pressure, the Saar was separated from the Rhine Province and administered by the League of Nations until a plebiscite in 1935, when the region was returned to Germany. At the same time, in 1920, the districts of Eupen and Malmedy were transferred to Belgium (see German-Speaking Community of Belgium ). In January 1923, in response to Germany's failure to meet its reparations obligations , French and Belgian troops occupied

1742-565: The Rhine, connecting to Elten and Zevenaar in the Netherlands. This line gave the RhE not only a connection to the Dutch North Sea ports but also part of a lucrative transit route from the Netherlands to Southern Germany and Switzerland . On 9 September 1865 the RhE opened a line from Cleves to Nijmegen , providing another route to Netherlands. In 1878 a new station was opened in Goch as

1809-505: The Rhineland and other regions along the Rhine. German territory west of the Rhine had been off-limits to the German military. In 1945, the Rhineland was the scene of major fighting as the Allied forces overwhelmed the German defenders. In 1946, the Rhineland was divided into the newly founded states of Hesse , North Rhine-Westphalia , and Rhineland-Palatinate . North Rhine-Westphalia

1876-465: The Rhineland and the Rhine Valley are still vital for rail transport. The founder of the Rhenish Railway Company was the leading banker and merchant Ludolf Camphausen . Also involved at an early stage were other bankers such as William Deichmann (of A. Schaaffhausen & Co. ) and J. H. Stein & Co., and later Abraham Oppenheim ( Sal Oppenheim jr ) and J. D. Herstatt. The RhE was at that time

1943-589: The Rhineland disintegrated into numerous small independent principalities, each with its separate vicissitudes and special chronicles. The old Lotharingian divisions became obsolete, and while the Lower Lorraine lands were referred to as the Low Countries , the name of Lorraine became restricted to the region on the upper Moselle that still bears it. After the Imperial Reform of 1500/12,

2010-450: The Rhineland until 1814 and radically and permanently liberalized the government, society and economy. The Coalition of France's enemies made repeated efforts to retake the region, but France repelled all the attempts. The French swept away centuries worth of outmoded restrictions and introduced unprecedented levels of efficiency. The chaos and barriers in a land divided and subdivided among many different petty principalities gave way to

2077-634: The Ruhr district, strictly controlling all important industrial areas. The Germans responded with passive resistance, which led to hyperinflation , and the French gained very little of the reparations they wanted. French troops left the Ruhr in August 1925. The occupation of the remainder of the Rhineland ended on 30 June 1930. On 7 March 1936, in violation of the Treaty of Versailles, German troops marched into

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2144-548: The bankers developed new forms of cooperation such as national consortia ( underwriters ) and later joint-stock banks. Initially some of the Cologne banks which had acquired shares had found it difficult to sell them due to poor economic conditions and attempted to return their shares to the railway company. Finally in 1840 the Belgian government bought the unsaleable shares. In the course of Bismarck 's nationalisation policy

2211-558: The coal business. As a result of coal prices in Germany and neighboring countries fell by 10% to 15%. In 1873 the company continued its policy of aggressive competition in its decision to build a 75 km long railway line through the Bergisches Land from Düsseldorf to Dortmund Süd via Elberfeld , Schwelm Nord, Gevelsberg , Hagen , Herdecke and Hörde , which was completed on 19 September 1879. This line also competed with

2278-416: The company sought to supplement its Eifel line and the planned East Rhine Railway by taking over and the Nassau State Railways lines between Wiesbaden , Oberlahnstein and Wetzlar , now controlled by the Prussian government. However, since it was required to take over the loss-making Nahe Valley Railway in return it lost interest. A takeover of Nahe Valley Railway would have limited the profitability of

2345-624: The construction of the 170 km long Eifel line from Düren via Euskirchen and Gerolstein to Trier , which cost more than 16 million Prussian thalers . The line was completed on 15 July 1871. This gave the RhE a line to the Saar coalfields and convenient connections to the iron ore mines of Lorraine now controlled by Germany as a result of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. After the Austro-Prussian War of 1866,

2412-593: The construction, it was estimated the bridge had cost nearly 4 million (Prussian) thalers . The bridge was unable to meet the increased demands imposed on it by the new Cologne Central Station (1894). After construction work had already started for the Hohenzollern Bridge in 1907, the Cathedral Bridge was deconstructed in stages between 1908 and 1910. The Hohenzollern Bridge was completed 1911, destroyed in 1945 during World War II and subsequently rebuilt. The current Hohenzollern Bridge's southern foundation

2479-647: The east of the river fell to East Francia , while that to the west remained with the kingdom of Lotharingia . By the time of Emperor Otto I (d. 973) both banks of the Rhine had become part of the Holy Roman Empire , and in 959 the Rhenish territory was divided between the duchies of Upper Lorraine , on the Mosel, and Lower Lorraine on the Meuse. As the central power of the Holy Roman Emperor weakened,

2546-523: The first bridge that was subjected to a full structural analysis was the Göltzsch Viaduct only 9 years prior, which is a brick arch bridge with its widest arch spanning 30.9 metres (101 ft) and having a width of 9 metres (30 ft) at the top. Conversely, the Cathedral Bridge was a lattice truss bridge with spans up to 103.2 metres (339 ft) and a collective width of 16.73 metres (54.9 ft). It might, however, be mentioned that

2613-545: The intelligentsia demanded the maintenance of the Napoleonic Code (which stayed in effect for a century). A Prussian influence began on a small scale in 1609 by the occupation of the Duchy of Cleves . A century later, Upper Guelders and Moers also became Prussian. The Congress of Vienna expelled the French and assigned the whole of the lower Rhenish districts to Prussia, who left them in undisturbed possession of

2680-465: The largest private company in Prussia with an initial share capital of three million Prussian thalers . Originally the banker Abraham Oppenheim, held almost a quarter of the share capital, and another six Cologne bankers held another third. Six months later, Oppenheim together with the Belgian banker Bischoffsheim held a majority of shares. To meet the high capital requirements of the railway company,

2747-549: The liberal institutions to which they had become accustomed under the French. The Rhine Province remained part of Prussia after Germany was unified in 1871. The occupation of the Rhineland took place following the Armistice with Germany of 11 November 1918. The occupying armies consisted of American , Belgian , British and French forces. Under the Treaty of Versailles , German troops were banned from all territory west of

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2814-437: The line from Troisdorf to Mülheim -Speldorf was completed on 18 November 1874, opening a cheap route for the shipping coal from the Ruhr to the south. The Ruhr route ran largely parallel to the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company ’s existing Duisburg–Dortmund line and was quickly connected with many mines. The coal shipments grew enormously from the start, as the new railway launched its "one pfennig " tariff to compete for

2881-414: The local nickname " mouse trap " ( Kölsch : Muusfall , pronounced [ˈmus²fal] ). The bridge was also referred to as solid bridge , because it was the first immovable bridge in between Basel and the Netherlands since the Roman bridge , built near Cologne in the 4th century. Since the Middle Ages , reaction ferries formed flying bridges and since Prussian times, ship's bridges ,

2948-405: The many coal mines in this region, generally free of charge. In 1874 the line was continued to Bochum Nord, Langendreer Nord to Dortmund Süd. In the same year, the train ferry was replaced by a solid bridge across the Rhine ( Duisburg-Hochfeld rail bridge ), with the ferry wharf on the right bank replaced by facilities for loading coal on barges. On 15 February 1870 a three-kilometre branch line

3015-404: The members of the Cologne committee under David Hansemann (1790–1864)—a merchant and banker from Aachen —and the Aachen Committee favoured a railway line through Belgium to the seaport of Antwerp via Liege. Belgium , which had been established as recently as 1830, was interested in trade relations with Prussia, which then included most of the Rhineland. Not having access to the Rhine, Belgium

3082-410: The nationalisation of the RhE was announced on 14 February 1880. At that time, the Prussian state held 42% of its share capital. The Prussian state railways created the Royal Directorate of the Rhenish railways at Cologne (German: Königliche Eisenbahn-Direktion zu Köln linksrheinisch ) for the management and operation of the network taken over, with effect from 1 January 1880. On 23 February 1881 this

3149-471: The network of the Royal Westphalian Railway Company to Emden in Rheine and of to the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg State Railways to Wilhelmshaven in Quakenbrück. The Rhenish Railway Company’s lines in the Ruhr were not well connected to economic centres due to the relatively late construction, especially since they had been planned primarily for the transport of coal. This explains why most of these lines are no longer in operation. By contrast, its lines in

3216-475: The new efficiency and lowered trade barriers. The Jews were liberated from the ghetto. There was limited resistance; most Germans welcomed the new regime, especially the urban elites, but one sour point was the hostility of the French officials toward the Roman Catholic Church, the choice of most of the residents. The reforms were permanent. Decades later workers and peasants in the Rhineland often appealed to Jacobinism to oppose unpopular government programs, while

3283-412: The northern Old Town of the Cologne Innenstadt . As the Cathedral Bridge could not support the increased traffic of the new Köln Hauptbahnhof in 1894, it was replaced by the Hohenzollern Bridge in 1911. The Cathedral Bridge was the second railway bridge to be built over the river Rhine, after the significantly shorter Waldshut–Koblenz Rhine Bridge with spans of up to 52 metres (171 ft), which

3350-425: The possibility for the Cologne-Minden Railway Company to co-finance the bridge to extend the Deutz–Gießen line into the heart of Cologne, and integrate the previously separate railways on either side of the river Rhine. At the request of the Prussian Army , who had to approve every bridge design before it was carried out, it included a swing bridge on the western side which could be closed in case of war. The design

3417-409: The power of the Roman empire declined the Franks pushed forward along both banks of the Rhine, and by the end of the 5th century had conquered all the lands that had formerly been under Roman influence. By the 8th century, the Frankish dominion was firmly established in western Germania and northern Gaul. On the division of the Carolingian Empire at the Treaty of Verdun the part of the province to

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3484-435: The south, this area, except for the Saarland , more or less corresponds with the modern use of the term. The southern and eastern parts are mainly hill country ( Westerwald , Hunsrück , Siebengebirge , Taunus and Eifel ), cut by river valleys, principally the Middle Rhine up to Bingen (or very rarely between the confluence with the Neckar and Cologne ) and its Ahr , Moselle and Nahe tributaries. The border of

3551-408: The takeover of the BCE, Hermann Otto Pflaume completed plans for a new RhE Central Station in Cologne. The station and the Cathedral Bridge ( Dombrücke ) were opened in 1859. The Central Station was a combined terminal and through station: it included four terminal tracks for the RhE running to the west, while the CME had two through tracks connecting to its line on the eastern side of the Rhine by

3618-441: The ten circles through which the Rhine flowed referred to the river in their names: the Upper Rhenish Circle , the Electoral Rhenish Circle and the Lower Rhenish-Westphalian Circle (very roughly equivalent to the present-day German federal state of North Rhine Westphalia ). In the twilight period of the Empire, after the War of the First Coalition , a short-lived Cisrhenian Republic was established (1797–1802). The term covered

3685-402: The territory was part of the Lower Rhenish–Westphalian , Upper Rhenish , and Electoral Rhenish Circles . Notable Rhenish Imperial States included: In spite of its dismembered condition and the sufferings it underwent at the hands of its French neighbors in various periods of warfare, the Rhenish territory prospered greatly and stood in the foremost rank of German culture and progress. Aachen

3752-439: The whole French conquered territory west of the Rhine (German: Linkes Rheinufer ), but also including a small portion of the bridgeheads on the eastern banks. After the collapse of the French empire , the regions of Jülich-Cleves-Berg and Lower Rhine were annexed to the Kingdom of Prussia . In 1822 the Prussian administration reorganized the territory as the Rhine Province ( Rheinprovinz , also known as Rhenish Prussia),

3819-411: Was a railway and street bridge crossing the river Rhine in the German city of Cologne . It was owned by the Cologne-Minden Railway Company and named after the Cologne Cathedral , which is located on the same longitudinal axis. It was built in combination with the original Central Station (German: Zentralbahnhof [tsɛnˈtʁaːlˌbaːnhoːf] ) and a new ground-level railway track through

3886-433: Was at a commercial disadvantage to the Netherlands and therefore moved faster than any other country on the continent to build a rail network. The supporters of the line to Antwerp founded the Rhenish Railway Company on 25 July 1835 in Cologne. Its first president was Ludolf Camphausen , who a few years later in 1848 was briefly Prime Minister of Prussia . From 1844 until the company’s nationalisation in 1880, Gustav Mevissen

3953-447: Was designed by hydraulic engineer Hermann Lohse and formed an intricate network of diagonal lattices both on the inside and outside of the bridge. The bridge's gates, erected out of gray Udelfanger sandstone and holding heavy iron doors to close either side of the bridge, were designed by Heinrich Strack and added after the bridge had been completed. The combination of a cage -like structure that could be closed on either side inspired

4020-438: Was established in 1856 with the opening of the Hanoverian Western Railway to Emden and in 1873/74 with the opening of the Hamburg-Venlo railway to Bremen and Hamburg . On 21 August 1837 the Company received a concession from the Prussian government to build the railway line from Cologne via Düren and Aachen to the Belgian border, a distance of 86 kilometres. The first seven kilometres of track from Cologne to Müngersdorf

4087-455: Was inspired by the railway bridges over the river Vistula at Tczew and over the river Nogat at Malbork , both of which were finished in 1857 as part of the Prussian Eastern Railway . The same chief superintendent for those bridges, Hermann Lohse, also led the construction work for the Cathedral Bridge. The Cathedral Bridge was inaugurated on 3 October 1859, exactly four years after construction work had officially begun. Forty years after

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4154-420: Was opened from Hochfeld train ferry station to (old) Duisburg, which was the starting point of a line to Quakenbrück completed on 1 July 1879. Some sections of the Rhenish Ruhr line are now closed and where trains runs it is mostly used by freight trains, the only passenger trains on the route are the line S4 S-Bahn trains through southern Dortmund. The section of line between Duisburg-Neudorf and Essen Nord

4221-418: Was opened in 1839. Two further sections to Lövenich and from Düren to Aachen were completed in 1840 and 1841. This included the 1,632 m long Königsdorfer Tunnel, which has now been opened to create a cutting. The last section to the Belgian border at Herbesthal was opened to traffic on 15 October 1843. There was a grade of 1:38 between Aachen and Ronheide (the Ronheide ramp ). Until 1855, cable-haulage powered by

4288-405: Was opened just a few months prior on 18 August 1859. The Prussian authorities pressed for a bridge due to increasing road traffic between Cologne and the eastern river bank . Before the Cathedral Bridge, passengers and goods had to be transported across the river by reaction ferry or pontoon bridge . The city council filed a request with Frederick William IV of Prussia in 1847, who through

4355-411: Was president of the RhE. A connection with the German North Sea ports was not achieved until years later. The Cologne-Minden Railway Company was founded in 1843 and in 1847 the line to Minden was finished. Connection with the Royal Hanoverian State Railways provided links to other German seaports. A direct rail connection between the Rhineland-Westphalian industrial belt and the German North Sea ports

4422-428: Was renamed the Royal directorate of left Rhine railways at Cologne ( Königliche Eisenbahn-Direktion zu Köln linksrheinisch ). The east bank were combined with those of the Cologne-Minden Railway Company which had also nationalised with effect from 1 April 1881 in the newly established Royal directorate of right Rhine railways at Cologne ( Königliche Eisenbahn-Direktion zu Köln rechtsrheinisch ). At its nationalisation

4489-429: Was the place of coronation of the German emperors, and the ecclesiastical principalities of the Rhine played a large role in German history. At the Peace of Basel in 1795, the whole of the left bank of the Rhine was taken by France. The population was about 1.6 million in numerous small states. In 1806, the Rhenish princes all joined the Confederation of the Rhine , a puppet of Napoleon. France took direct control of

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