The last West German steam train

The era of steam locomotives comes to an end in the Federal Republic of Germany

Not everybody was pleased by the beginning of the railway age at the turn of the 19th century. The Prussian king, Frederick William III, said that he did “not expect to derive much pleasure” from reducing his travel time from Berlin to Potsdam by a few hours. However, his son Frederick William IV recognized the potential of this new mode of transport to transform popular mobility. “No human arm can stop this cart,” he said. As locomotives became faster and more powerful and the rail network expanded across Germany, the new technology soon established itself as the most important means of transport for anything other than local travel. Whilst the revolution was initially powered by steam, electric and diesel locomotives appeared on German tracks in the 1920s. The military was sceptical and hindered progress, believing that the new locomotives would not be as reliable as tried-and-tested steam power. For this reason, the Wehrmacht even developed its own “war steam engines” during the Second World War. After 1945, West Germany began electrifying its railways and rolling out diesel locomotives. In the east, the Soviets initially focused on taking railway equipment and locomotives as reparations. This caused a modernization backlog that the DDR never made up. The greatest enemy of modernization on the railways of both systems, however, was the easy availability of coal, which made steam power inexpensive.

In 1968, the West German Deutsche Bundesbahn announced its intention to phase out steam locomotives, bringing the era of steam to an end on 26 October 1977. The East German railway followed suit in 1988, at least on standard-gauge tracks. Steam trains were allowed a last hurrah in 1985 to mark the 150th anniversary of the railway in Germany, and the crowds were drawn to a number of special services drawn by steam. Today, steam locomotives are still operated on narrow-gauge tourist lines.