Bavarian Eastern Railway Company - Foundation

Foundation

The construction of the Bavarian state railway network had concentrated, during the first decade, on the 3 major lines: Ludwig's South-North Railway, Ludwig's Western Railway and the Bavarian Maximilian's Railway. At that point the majority of the Bavarian State Parliament rejected any further expansion of the state railway network due to the state's financial situation and the fact that railway operations were still largely unprofitable in those days. As a result, large parts of eastern Bavaria would still have remained unconnected to the railway network had not parliament passed a law on 19 March 1856, which permitted more private railway companies to be established and simplified their financing by the offer of guaranteed, state interest rates.

As well as private individuals, businessmen, factory owners and brewers from eastern Bavaria, others from outside the region became involved in order to improve their own businesses. These included Maximilian Karl, 6th Prince of Thurn and Taxis and four commercial institutions from Regensburg, as well as the manufacturers Theodor von Cramer-Klett of Nuremberg and J.A. Maffei of Munich. They generated a start-up capital of 60 million gulden for railway construction in eastern Bavaria and for the associated running and rolling stock. In the same year they founded the Bavarian Eastern Railway.

King Maximilian II of Bavaria authorised the founding of the company on 12 April 1856 and awarded it the concession they had applied for:

...for the construction and operation of railways

from Nuremberg via Amberg to Regensburg,

from Munich via Landshut to the Danube,

from Regensburg via Straubing and Passau to the state border,

from the Amberg-Regensburg line at Schwandorf to the state border at Furth near Pilsen.....

The manager of the new company was the well-known railway engineer, Paul Camille von Denis (1795 – 1872), who had not only built the first German railway line from Nuremberg to Fürth, but also the first railway lines in other German states. Von Denis succeeded in building the routes named in the concession to operational status within just 5 years and delivered them at a saving of 17 million gulden against the estimated costs of 60 million.