The Electric Tramway Spandau-Nonnendamm GmbH (SpN) – colloquially known as Nonnendammbahn – was a tramway company that operated between 1909 and 1914, originating from a tram line established by Siemens & Halske in 1908. Three months after its founding, the then-independent city of Spandau acquired all shares in the railway, and its operations were taken over by the Municipal Tramway of Spandau the following year. With the deletion of Nonnendammbahn from the commercial register in 1914, it was fully integrated into the Spandau tramway.

The route operated by Nonnendammbahn between Spandau Old Town and Siemensstadt was last served by Line 55 of the Berlin tramway, which the Berlin Transport Authority discontinued on October 2, 1967, as the last tram line in West Berlin.

History

In 1897, Siemens & Halske acquired approximately 21 hectares of land on Nonnendamm, where a new large industrial site was to be developed over the next few years, later known as Siemensstadt.Karl H. P. Bienek: Chronik der Firma Siemens und der Siemensstadt. Die Geschichte zweier Innovationen. In: Die Siemensstadt – Ein Lexikon der Siemensstadt in Berlin. July 19, 2008, archived from the original on December 2, 2013; retrieved March 18, 2017. Around the same time, a residential colony was established in the nearby Haselhorst area, including housing for the workers of the army's canned food factory, owned by the Prussian military treasury.Karl H. P. Bienek: Haselhorst. In: Die Siemensstadt – Ein Lexikon der Siemensstadt in Berlin. 22. May 2003, archived from the original on October 5, 2013; retrieved March 18, 2017. The city of Spandau aimed to increase its tax revenue through these new industrial settlements. In support of these activities, the Mayor of Spandau, Koeltze, proposed the construction of a freight railway in 1899, branching off from the Spandau Military Railway to serve Nonnendamm. The following year, the Spandau Senate commissioned a railway construction company to begin preparatory work for a standard-gauge freight and tramway line connecting Spandau, Haselhorst, Nonnendamm, and Charlottenburg. During the negotiations, which lasted until 1902, several technical and legal issues were resolved, but financing the costly project, totaling 530,000 marks, remained unresolved. Consequently, the city initially did not pursue the expensive project further.Arne Hengsbach, Wolfgang Kramer: The streetcars in the Berlin area (12). Electric tramway Spandau - Nonnendamm GmbH. In: Strassenbahn Magazin. No. 48, May 1983, pp. 127-134. Additionally, the project seemed unpromising as the relevant districts received a connection to public transport in 1905 with the Fürstenbrunn station, although it was over a kilometer away from the factory halls.Hans-Jürgen Kämpf: . Ed.: Heimatkundliche Vereinigung Spandau 1954. Berlin 2008, , p. 70–79.

From 1904, the Siemens works expanded beyond the administrative borders of the Spandau exclave Nonnendamm into the neighboring districts of Niederbarnim and Osthavelland. Subsequently, both the city of Spandau and the city of Charlottenburg made efforts to bring the area under their jurisdiction. However, Charlottenburg, as a residential city, did not wish for further expansion of industrial facilities as it did not align with its urban planning ideals. On the other hand, Spandau sought to incorporate the area lying between the core city and the exclave, a goal achieved in 1908 and 1910. With the expansion of the factory site, Siemens revived the plans for the freight and tramway, taking the initiative for their implementation. In 1906, a contract was concluded with the military treasury for the construction of the freight railway, and in 1907, the company signed an agreement with the city for the construction of the tramway, which also stipulated the handover to the city in 1909.Arne Hengsbach: Spandau's transport problems at the turn of the century. The emergence and development of the tramway. In: Association for the History of Berlin (ed.): Der Bär von Berlin. 1981, p. 71-74. + Statistical DataHans-Jürgen Kämpf: Die Straßenbahn in Spandau und um Spandau herum. Hrsg.: Heimatkundliche Vereinigung Spandau 1954. Berlin 2008, , S. 100. Time frame Distance of the route(km) People affected Revenue (in marks) 01.10.1908–31.03.1909 1,39 01.04.1909–31.03.1910 3,23 61.060 51.817,00 01.04.1910–31.03.1911 3,23 867.765 69.182,00 01.04.1911–31.03.1912 3,23 1.094.511 104.426,00 01.04.1912–31.03.1913 4,39 1.745.568 154.986,00 01.04.1913–31.03.1914 4,19 1.865.657 169.759,00 01.04.1914–30.09.1914 4,19 1.968.776 84.269,00

The President of the Government in Potsdam granted Siemens & Halske the concession to operate the Spandau – Nonnendamm tramway on February 24, 1908. Initially, construction of the Siemens freight railway took precedence, which commenced operations on March 16, 1908. The construction of the tramway mainly took place in the summer of 1908. Due to track construction work on the Berlin Bridge, the opening date had to be postponed several times.Henry Alex: Ein Jahrhundert Nahverkehr in Haselhorst. In: Verkehrsgeschichtliche Blätter. Nr. 2, 2010, p. 41–47. Finally, on September 30, 1908, the tramway commenced operations from the intersection of Nonnendamm and Reisstraße via Haselhorst to the intersection of Breite and Havelstraße in Spandau. Two of the four tramcars were deployed at intervals of 30 minutes on the single-track route. Since the terminus in Spandau Old Town did not have a turnaround facility, trailer cars could not initially be used. From October 27, 1908, an additional third tramcar was deployed between Spandau and Haselhorst for worker transportation to the army canned food factory, and from early December, a fourth tramcar was added for evening services.

In March 1909, a new depot was built at the intersection of Nonnendamm and Grenzstraße. Prior to this, the cars were housed in the Siemens railway hall on Rohrdamm. The construction of the depot was necessary due to the expansion of the vehicle fleet, and initially, accommodation at the municipal tram depot was not feasible as it was already operating at full capacity. At Easter 1909, the tramway operated for the first time with trailer cars. For this purpose, a switch connection to the Spandau tramway network was established, which could be used as a provisional turning triangle. As this operating mode was insufficient, trains began to use a loop via Havelstraße, Potsdamer Straße, Markt, and Breite Straße from May 2, 1909.

To hand over the tramway to the city of Spandau, Siemens & Halske and Siemens-Schuckertwerke founded the Elektrische Straßenbahn Spandau–Nonnendamm GmbH on March 23, 1909. The city of Spandau acquired their shares in the company for 300,000 marks on October 1, 1909, at a price of 463,000 marks. The transfer of the concession to the city took place on February 16, 1910.Heinz Jung, Wolfgang Kramer: Spandau und seine Straßenbahn. In: Berliner Verkehrsblätter. Nr. 6, 1961, p. 37–39 Only the tracks exclusively used for passenger traffic were transferred. The tracks shared with the Siemens freight railway in Nonnendamm and Schwarzer Weg remained with Siemens.Hans-Jürgen Kämpf: Die Straßenbahn in Spandau und um Spandau herum. Hrsg.: Heimatkundliche Vereinigung Spandau 1954. Berlin 2008, , S. 80 From April 1, 1910, the Spandauer Straßenbahn took over the operation of the tramway.Hans-Jürgen Kämpf: Die Straßenbahn in Spandau und um Spandau herum. Hrsg.: Heimatkundliche Vereinigung Spandau 1954. Berlin 2008, , S. 80–89.

As a result of the continuous expansion of the Siemens works, demand on the Nonnendamm line also increased. In the morning and evening hours, trains operated with three cars. The extension of the route by 800 meters through Reisstraße and Rohrdamm to Fürstenbrunn station, which Siemens had already planned, was opened on November 1, 1911.Heinz Jung, Wolfgang Kramer: Spandau und seine Straßenbahn. In: Berliner Verkehrsblätter. Nr. 7–8, 1961, S. 49–51. The route ran via Reisstraße and Rohrdamm to the station on the Hamburg Railway.Heinz Jung, Wolfgang Kramer: Spandau und seine Straßenbahn. In: Berliner Verkehrsblätter. Nr. 10, 1961, p. 68–71.

At the beginning of 1912, a 700-meter branch line between the army canned food factory and Gartenfeld, where Siemens established its cable factory, was put into operation. The line was only intended for worker trains, which operated at the beginning and end of the working day. The city of Spandau subsidized the construction with 250,000 marks. Siemens also participated in the construction of the line, as there was a joint operation with the freight railway.

In 1913, line N, despite the heavy commuter traffic to the Siemens works, ranked third among the Spandau lines. While lines P to Pichelsdorf and H to Hakenfelde carried 3.26 million and 2.55 million passengers, respectively, the Nonnendamm line carried 1.865 million passengers. The other two lines, B and J to Spandauer Bock and Johannesstift, followed closely. Despite the extensions, the Nonnendamm line remained deficit-ridden throughout its existence. Revenue was relatively low because the line between Spandau and Haselhorst ran through predominantly undeveloped areas, and most passengers could use non-profit worker tickets. On the other hand, there were high operating expenses, which included the interest and amortization of the capital investment of 780,000 marks. Additional cars had to be provided for the commuter traffic, which concentrated within a few hours, but remained unused for the rest of the day. Finally, even after the city took over the tramway, it continued to source its electricity from the company's power plant, for which Siemens charged 12 pfennigs per kilowatt-hour. The municipal tramway transferred between 42,000 and 71,371 marks annually to the Nonnendamm line to offset its losses from 1910 to 1913. In 1912, the additional revenue was insufficient to cover the shortfall, so the city contributed an additional 11,000 marks. It was not until around 1914 that the situation seemed to improve. As the company was now fully integrated into the Spandauer Straßenbahn, considerations were made to dissolve the company from 1911. The city councilors made the decision on April 3, 1914. On October 1, 1914, the Elektrische Straßenbahn Spandau–Nonnendamm GmbH was removed from the commercial register.

On December 8, 1920, the Städtische Straßenbahn Spandau merged with the Große Berliner Straßenbahn, which shortly thereafter became the Berliner Straßenbahn (BSt). On April 21, 1921, the Spandau lines were fully integrated into the Berlin network. The routes remained in operation with occasional interruptions until the 1960s. The connection to Gartenfeld was closed by the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe on October 1, 1960, and the main route of the Nonnendamm line remained in operation until October 2, 1967, as part of the last tram line, 55, in West Berlin.

Route description

The route was approximately 3.2 kilometers long at the time of opening and mostly single-track. It led from the intersection of Breite Straße and Havelstraße in the Spandau Old Town via Berliner Straße and Berliner Chaussee, Gartenfelder Straße, Schwarzer Weg, and Nonnendamm to the corner of Reisstraße, where there was a turning loop. On Nonnendamm between Grenzstraße and Reisstraße, the track was dual-track for a length of 1250 meters.Arne Hengsbach: Die Strassenbahn der Siemens & Halske AG und der Siemens-Schuckert-Werke GmbH. In: Berliner Verkehrsblätter. Nr. 8, 1986, p. 176–178. The tracks were located in the middle of the street or, where available, on the median strip. In Schwarzer Weg, it was arranged alongside the roadway. Passing loops were located on Berliner Chaussee and Gartenfelder Straße at Küsterstraße. Initially, there was mixed traffic with the Siemens freight railway on Nonnendammallee and Schwarzer Weg.