Ulm Central Station - History

History

As early as 1834, there were plans for a railway between Cannstatt, Ulm and Friedrichshafen. In August 1835, some citizens of Ulm joined formed an initiative to promote its construction. Then on 21 December 1835, the Ulm Railway Company (Ulmer Eisenbahngesellschaft) was founded; it had already spent 80,000 guilders on the day of its incorporation. On 18 April 1843, the construction of the section from Stuttgart through the Swabian Alb (Swabian Jura) range to Ulm was approved rather than the originally planned, longer variantion via Aalen. However, there were arguments about the location of Ulm station. The military architect Moritz Karl Ernst von Prittwitz and the city and cathedral architect Ferdinand Thrän favoured an option for a station to the north of the centre on an east–west alignment. Because this option would have meant that the extension of the line to Friedrichshafen would have run through Bavarian territory, the Württemberg engineers instead planned a railway station aligned north-south at its current location to the west of the city. Although the price of this land was higher and nine roads were disrupted, compared to the disruption of only three roads under the northern option, the north-south option was chosen. Ulm’s western suburbs are now separated from the inner city as a result.

In the race against Bavaria and Baden to complete the first rail connection to Lake Constance, Württemberg began building the Southern Railway to Friedrichshafen via Biberach, with major work beginning in the summer of 1847. The first earthworks and foundation works for Ulm station in August 1848 and work began on the buildings in March 1849. The contracts for the excavation, blasting and construction were awarded by the Royal Württemberg State Railways to small contractors. Because of possible landslides on Kuhberg (hill), just before Ulm station, the Danube was moved and the Southern Railway was built on reclaimed land on the old river bed. The economy of Ulm benefited from the construction, particularly establishments supplying meals for the workforce. The first locomotive trial ran from Biberach to Ulm on 17 May 1850.