The Leipzig–Probstzella railway is a line in the German states of

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

Saxony-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt (german: Sachsen-Anhalt ; nds, Sassen-Anholt) is a state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of and has a population of 2.18 million inhabitants, making it the ...

and

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and lar ...

. It runs from

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

through the valley of the

White Elster The White Elster
Accessed on 16 Jan 2011. (, ) is a long river in central

Zeitz Zeitz ( hsb, Žič) is a town in the Burgenlandkreis district, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated on the river White Elster, in the triangle of the federal states Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia and Saxony. History Zeitz was first recorded und ...

Gera Gera is a city in the German state of Thuringia. With around 93,000 inhabitants, it is the third-largest city in Thuringia after Erfurt and Jena as well as the easternmost city of the ''Thüringer Städtekette'', an almost straight string of cit ...

Triptis Triptis is a town in the Saale-Orla-Kreis district, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated 22 km southwest of Gera. The town is the seat of the municipal association Triptis. History Within the German Empire (1871–1918), Triptis was ...

, the Orlasenke lowland and

Saalfeld Saalfeld (german: Saalfeld/Saale) is a town in Germany, capital of the Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district of Thuringia. It is best known internationally as the ancestral seat of the Saxe-Coburg and Gotha branch of the Saxon House of Wettin. Geography ...

Probstzella Probstzella is a municipality in the district Saalfeld-Rudolstadt, in Thuringia, Germany. History Between 1945 and 1990 Probstzella station served as East German inner German border crossing for rail transport. The crossing was open for trains t ...

. Since it runs parallel with the Saal Railway but is higher, it is also called the ''Obere Bahn'' ("upper railway").

Route

The line begins in Leipzig Leutzsch and runs south from the city. The line then runs through the flat

Leipzig Bay The Leipzig BayDickinson (1964), p. 29.lignite mining area. This section of the line was once used to transport lignite to nearby power plants, but this traffic has declined considerably. The line reaches Zeitz at the southern edge of the lowlands, where it connects with other lines, although some of the network has been closed since 1990. The hills on either side of the White Elster south of Zeitz are steeper. Near Ahlendorf (the administrative centre of Heideland-Elstertal), the line crosses the border between Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. The line now runs on a long curve through the communities of

Crossen an der Elster Crossen an der Elster is a village and municipality in the district Saale-Holzland, in Thuringia, Germany. The White_Elster is the name of the small river which flows through the municipality, so 'Crossen on the Elster' would be the English equiva ...

and the brewery town of

Bad Köstritz Bad Köstritz is a town in the district of Greiz, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated on the White Elster river, 7 km northwest of Gera. Bad Köstritz is known for the Köstritzer brewery and its Schwarzbier (black beer). History The se ...

to Gera, where it meets several other lines. Until 1998, the Crossen–Porstendorf line ran from Crossen an der Elster station via

Eisenberg Eisenberg is a German name in geography and a surname. Literally translated it means ″iron mountain″. ''Eisenberg'' may refer to: Mountains * Eisenberg (Knüll), a mountain in Hesse * Eisenberg (Korbach), a mountain in Hesse * Eisenberg (Ore ...

and

Bürgel Bürgel is a town in the Saale-Holzland district, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated 12 km east of Jena. It contains the Benedictine monastery of Bürgel Abbey. History Within the German Empire (1871-1918), Bürgel was part of the Gr ...

to Porstendorf (north of

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a po ...

). The line runs to the south from

Gera Hauptbahnhof Gera Central Station
on the website of Thuringia Tourism. Retrieved 28 Feb 2014. () is the m ...

. Once out of the city it runs along the banks of the White Elster before running along the valley of the Weida. To the west of the town of Weida the line crosses a crest on the approach to

at an altitude of about 375 metres above sea level. The line now runs through the Orlasenke lowland and continues on a straight path to the south-west through the town of

Neustadt an der Orla Neustadt an der Orla is a town in Saale-Orla-Kreis district, in Thuringia. It is situated at the small river Orla, 17 km north of Schleiz, and 25 km southeast of Jena. The former municipality Stanau was merged into Neustadt an der Orla ...

, continuing to Oppurg, where until 1944 the

Orla Railway The Orla Railway (german: Orlabahn) is a 14.9 kilometre long branch line in Thuringia, that runs from Orlamünde on the Saal Railway to Pößneck's "lower station" (''unterer Bahnhof''). Until 1946 there was a continuation of the line to Oppurg o ...

branched off towards

Pößneck Pößneck (also spelled ''Poessneck'') is a town in the Saale-Orla-Kreis district, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated 19 km east of Rudolstadt, and 26 km south of Jena. History Pößneck, which is of Slavonic origin, passed about ...

unterer (lower) station and

Orlamünde Orlamünde () is a small town in the Saale-Holzland district, in Thuringia, Germany. It is part of the ''Verwaltungsgemeinschaft'' ("collective municipality") Südliches Saaletal. Geography The town centre stretches along the steep banks of th ...

. It then runs through Pößneck ober (upper) station to Saalfeld, where it connects with the Saal Railway, which links

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

and

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

History

The second quarter of the line was opened in 1859. At that time, a line was built from Weißenfels (connecting there with the

Thuringian Railway Thuringian is an East Central German dialect group spoken in much of the modern German Free State of Thuringia north of the Rennsteig ridge, southwestern Saxony-Anhalt and adjacent territories of Hesse and Bavaria. It is close to Upper Saxon Ger ...

opened in 1846) via Zeitz to Gera. It was the first line to Gera, which was capital of the Principality of

Reuss Younger Line The Principality of Reuss-Gera (german: Fürstentum Reuß-Gera), called the Principality of the Reuss Junior Line (german: Fürstentum Reuß jüngerer Linie) after 1848, was a sovereign state in modern Germany, ruled by members of the House of ...

and had about 14,000 inhabitants at that time. The northern section of the line between Zeitz and Leipzig traffic was opened in 1873. Until the completion of the connecting curve between the Thuringian railway and the Saal Railway at

Großheringen Großheringen is a municipality in the Weimarer Land district of Thuringia, Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. ...

in 1900, it was the most important link between

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

and

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...

, except for the Saxon-Bavarian Railway. Although the curve at Großheringen meant that the Saal Railway was 25 km shorter, the north–south connection (''Nord-Süd-Verbindung'') through Gera continued to be used as a long-distance line from Leipzig in the north to Nuremberg in the south. The section from Gera to Eichicht (now part of Kaulsdorf) was opened on 20 December 1871. It was of great importance for the nearby towns. It allowed the textile industry in the Orlasenke, especially in Pößneck, to grow rapidly before the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

. Pößneck thus became a centre of the Thuringian textile industry along with

Apolda Apolda () is a town in central Thuringia, Germany, the capital of the Weimarer Land district. It is situated in the center of the triangle Weimar– Jena– Naumburg near the river Ilm, c. east by north from Weimar. Apolda station lies on ...

and

Greiz Greiz () is a town in the state of Thuringia, Germany, and is the capital of the district of Greiz. Greiz is situated in eastern Thuringia, east of state capital Jena, on the river '' White Elster''. Greiz has a large park in its center (Für ...

. Also of importance to this section was the former Maxhütte steel and rolling mill in

Unterwellenborn Unterwellenborn is a municipality in the district Saalfeld-Rudolstadt, in Thuringia, Germany. It was created on 1 February 2006 by fusion of the municipalities , Goßwitz, Könitz, Lausnitz bei Pößneck Lausnitz (official name: ''Lausnitz b ...

as well as the steel works, now known as the Thuringian Steelworks (''Stahlwerk Thüringen''). The line built in 1871 ran through the following states (starting in Gera):

Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (german: Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach) was a historical German state, created as a duchy in 1809 by the merger of the Ernestine duchies of Saxe-Weimar and Saxe-Eisenach, which had been in personal union since 1741. It was rai ...

Saxe-Meiningen Saxe-Meiningen (; german: Sachsen-Meiningen ) was one of the Saxon duchies held by the Ernestine line of the Wettin dynasty, located in the southwest of the present-day German state of Thuringia. Established in 1681, by partition of the Ernest ...

, Prussia,

Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt was a small historic state in present-day Thuringia, Germany, with its capital at Rudolstadt. History Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt was established in 1599 in the course of a resettlement of Schwarzburg dynasty lands. Since ...

and Sachsen-Meiningen. A temporary terminus was built in Eichicht as the route for the continuation of the line and connection to Bavaria was still unclear. Before the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

the entire line was double track. In 1946 the second track was dismantled as

reparations Reparation(s) may refer to: Christianity * Restitution (theology), the Christian doctrine calling for reparation * Acts of reparation, prayers for repairing the damages of sin History * War reparations ** World War I reparations, made from ...

to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

. The line at Knautnaundorf was realigned for the establishment of an

open cut Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a borrow. This form of min ...

lignite mine under the

East German East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

regime. The section from Saalfeld and Probstzella was electrified by 1939. Seven years later, all components of the electrification along with the second track were removed for reparations to the Soviet Union. Because of the

division of Germany Division or divider may refer to: Mathematics *Division (mathematics), the inverse of multiplication *Division algorithm, a method for computing the result of mathematical division Military * Division (military), a formation typically consisting ...

the line had little importance for the next four decades. Double track has been restored on the sections between

Leipzig Hauptbahnhof Leipzig Hauptbahnhof (Leipzig main station, ) is the central railway terminus in Leipzig, Germany, in the district Mitte. At , it is Europe's largest railway station measured by floor area. It has 19 overground platforms housed in six iron train ...

and Zeitz, between Gera Hauptbahnhof and Gera Süd and between Unterwellenborn and Probstzella. Electrification has been restored on the section between Saalfeld and Probstzella.

Operations until 2012

Regional-Express In Germany, Luxembourg and Austria, the Regional-Express (RE, or in Austria: REX) is a type of regional train. It is similar to a semi-fast train, with average speed at about 70–90 km/h (top speed often 160 km/h) as it calls at ...

(RE) 12 services and Regionalbahn (RB) 51 services run between Leipzig and Gera. The RB and RE services both run every two hours, alternating with each other to create an hourly service. In addition, on Saturdays (during the summer timetable), a pair of RE trains run from Leipzig via Gera and Saalfeld to

Blankenstein Blankenstein is a village and a former municipality in the district Saale-Orla-Kreis, in Thuringia, Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member sta ...

(''Schiefergebirgs-Express'') and to

Katzhütte Katzhütte is a municipality in the district Saalfeld-Rudolstadt, in Thuringia, Germany. Geography The municipality Katzhütte is the centre of the upper Schwarza valley. History The borders of the present day town were formed in 1950 by the co ...

(''Schwarzatal Express''). The Gera-Saalfeld section was served by RE 4 services between Gera and Saalfeld every two hours. In addition, RB services alternate with the RE services every two hours between the two cities. These are mostly operated by class 612 and class 642

diesel multiple units A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple-unit train powered by on-board diesel engines. A DMU requires no separate locomotive, as the engines are incorporated into one or more of the carriages. Diesel-powered single-unit railcars are als ...

. Until 2012 all services had been operated by

DB Regio DB Regio AG is a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn which operates regional and commuter train services in Germany. DB Regio AG, headquartered in Frankfurt am Main. It is a 100% subsidiary of the Deutsche Bahn Group and there part of the DB Regio ...

Current operations

Since 2012, passenger services on the Leipzig–Zeitz–Gera–Saalfeld section are operated by

Erfurter Bahn The (EB, lit. "Erfurt railway") is a railway company and public transit system serving the city of Erfurt, the capital of Thuringia, Germany. is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Erfurt city council, and Süd-Thüringen-Bahn, operating between ...

. Since 15 December 2013

S-Bahn Mitteldeutschland S-Bahn Mitteldeutschland represents an enlargement of the previous Leipzig-Halle S-Bahn. It is an electric rail public transit system operating in the metropolitan area of Leipzig-Halle, Germany. This S-Bahn (German abbreviation for ''Stadtschn ...

trains use this line between Leipzig-Leutzsch and Leipzig-Plagwitz.

References

External links

Data and photographs of the line
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leipzig-Probstzella railway Leipzig-Gera-Saalfeld Leipzig-Gera-Saalfeld Leipzig-Gera-Saalfeld Railway Leipzig-Probstzella Buildings and structures in Gera Railway lines opened in 1859 1859 establishments in Germany Buildings and structures in Saalfeld-Rudolstadt