History
On 3 September 1841, a few years after the opening of the first railway in Germany, the Dusseldorf-Elberfeld Railway Company (German: Düsseldorf-Elberfelder Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, DEE) began operation of the Düsseldorf–Elberfeld line from its Düsseldorf station to its Elberfeld station (now Wuppertal-Steinbeck station). It was the first steam-worked railway line in Western Germany and Prussia.
The Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company (Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, BME), opened its Elberfeld–Dortmund railway from its Elberfeld station (known as Döppersberg station) via Hagen to Dortmund to Schwelm on 9 October 1847. It was extended to Hagen and Dortmund on 20 December 1848. The BME took over the DEE in 1857.
The first provisional station building became inadequate within a few years. It was decided to build a new building, designed by Hauptner and Ebeling and opened in 1850 on a new section of line connecting the BME and DEE lines, which was completed on 9 March 1849. Around 1900, a protruding porch was built in front of the ground floor, which conflicted with the architectural design. Nevertheless, this concept was maintained after its reconstruction after World War II. This will only change with the completion of the current renovation of the station/Döppersberg area.
The station has been renamed several times. It was first called Elberfeld, but a few years later it was renamed Elberfeld-Döppersberg and before the First World War it was renamed Elberfeld Hauptbahnhof. In the early 1930s the station’s name was changed to Wuppertal-Elberfeld station as a consequence of the merger of the towns of Elberfeld and Barmen as the city of Wuppertal. Finally in 1992, it was renamed Wuppertal Hauptbahnhof.
Read more about this topic: Wuppertal Central Station
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