The tramway of the city of Berlin (SSB), also known as Städtische Straßenbahnen in Berlin, was the first municipal tram company within the boundaries of Berlin at the time. In order to counter the monopoly position of the private company Große Berliner Straßenbahn (GBS), the Berlin City Council decided in October 1900 to operate streetcars on its own account in future. The first lines went into operation on July 1, 1908 and were then rapidly expanded. On December 1, 1910, the municipal streetcars took over operation on the so-called Flachbahn, which had previously been operated by the Hochbahngesellschaft. The expansion of the network was provisionally completed with the opening of the Lindentunnel in December 1916. After the formation of the unified municipality of Greater Berlin, the municipal streetcars and the Berlin Electric Trams were merged with the Große Berliner Straßenbahn to form the Berliner Straßenbahn on December 13, 1920. At this time, the SSB had a route length of and had a total of 193 cars (115 motor cars and 78 sidecars) in its fleet.
History
Previous history At the beginning of the 1890s, there were three horse-drawn railway companies in Berlin: the Berliner Pferde-Eisenbahn (BPfE; from 1894 as Berlin-Charlottenburger Straßenbahn, BCS), the Große Berliner Pferde-Eisenbahn (GBPfE) and the Neue Berliner Pferdebahn (NBPf). Of these companies, the GBPfE was by far the largest, providing around 60 percent of transportation services in Berlin in 1890 (including the city and ring railroad and horse-drawn buses). In 1894 it expanded its position by taking over the management of the NBPf. In the following year, Siemens & Halske opened the first electric streetcar line within the boundaries of Berlin at that time with the electric streetcars in Berlin (from 1899 as Berliner Elektrische Straßenbahnen AG, BESTAG). GBPfE, which initially shied away from the high costs of network electrification, followed suit in 1896 and opened its first electric lines on the occasion of the Berlin Trade Exhibition in Treptower Park. After the company realized that the advantages outweighed those of horse-drawn operation, On July 2, 1897, and January 19, 1898, GBPfE and NBPf on the one hand and the City of Berlin on the other concluded a new consent agreement. The key point of this paper, known as the "conversion agreement", was the electrification of the horse-drawn railway network. The city prohibited the hanging of overhead lines at representative locations, and the carriages were to bridge the relevant sections using accumulators. The company was permitted to operate streetcars until December 31, 1919. On January 25, 1898, the general meeting of the GBPfE changed its name to Große Berliner Straßenbahn A.-G. (GBS).
An earlier version of the conversion agreement included several new lines in the GBS network as a construction obligation. The Social Democrats in the Berlin City Council expressed reservations about this, as they feared that GBS would be strengthened. The city therefore put these routes out to tender separately, whereupon offers were received from GBS and Continentale Gesellschaft für elektrische Unternehmungen. The city hoped that negotiations with the latter would result in lasting competition between two transport companies and favorable transport development. However, the Continentale Gesellschaft refused to give a permanent guarantee of independence from the GBS. Instead, the city councillors learned that the company was already in merger negotiations with the companies behind GBS.
On the advice of the negotiating commission, the municipal transport department then considered building and operating its own lines. It was also hoped that this would provide sufficient experience in the tramway sector, as there was an option to acquire GBS after the consent agreement expired in 1919. The decision taken was confirmed shortly afterwards by two important measures:
On May 4, 1900, on the instructions of the Prussian Minister of Public Works, the Berlin Police Commissioner granted GBS the concession to operate streetcars until December 31, 1949. The city only learned of this process from the press and felt that it had been ignored by the state authorities. As the approval contract had already expired in 1919, the lack of clarity led to a series of lawsuits between the company and the city, which worsened the relationship between them. After the harsh winter of 1898/1899, the city, police headquarters and GBS agreed to shorten the sections of the line used in accumulator operation. At the request of the GBS, the Chief of Police then ordered the complete discontinuation of accumulator operation on September 26, 1900. Although the city recognized the necessity, it felt once again ignored by the state authorities.
On October 18, 1900, at the request of the Magistrat, the city council passed the resolution to build a municipal streetcar network by 113:9 votes.
Network planning and opening The resolutions passed by the Transport Department initially provided for the establishment of three routes: Zoologischer Garten – Landwehrkanal – Mariannenstraße – Manteuffelstraße – Manteuffelbrücke (planned) – Küstriner Platz – Landsberger Tor Landwehrkanal – Alexandrinenstraße – Dresdener Straße Seestraße – Torfstraße – Heidestraße – Reichstagufer – Eiserne Brücke
At the suggestion of the Chief Constable, four further routes were included in the plans: Potsdamer Straße Corner of Winterfeldtstraße – Hafenplatz – Dönhoffplatz Neustädtische Kirchstraße – Dönhoffplatz (crossing of the street Unter den Linden) Stettiner Bahnhof – Bernauer Straße – Danziger Straße – Petersburger Straße – Warschauer Brücke Weddingplatz – Voltastraße – Wattstraße – Bernauer Straße
The deputation submitted these plans for an expanded network to the police president for state approval. In consultation with the Königliche Eisenbahndirektion Berlin expressed reservations about the inner-city lines, as the affected streets could not accommodate any further traffic. Only the northern lines from Stettiner Bahnhof or Weddingplatz to Warschauer Brücke were certified as feasible. The crossing of Unter den Linden had previously been rejected by the German Emperor and Prussian King Wilhelm II in April 1901. As the remaining lines were not expected to be of sufficient benefit, the city extended the network planning by a further three lines:
Großgörschenstraße – Dönhoffplatz Kreuzberg – Dönhoffplatz Hermannplatz – Dönhoffplatz
After approval by the magistrate, the project was resubmitted to the Chief of Police. He prohibited the use of the Augustabrücke bridge over the Landwehr Canal, so that the Großgörschenstraße – Dönhoffplatz line had to be postponed. The city was also refused permission to lay tracks in Petersburger Straße. Shared use of the GBS tracks failed as the latter made excessive financial demands. The terminus of this line was therefore initially at Elbinger Straße. There were further changes in Friedrichstadt, where the GBS successfully intervened against the track construction in Friedrichstraße and the end point of the line coming from Kreuzberg was moved to Behrenstraße.
On the basis of the revised design, the city was granted planning permission by royal cabinet order on October 24, 1906. With regard to the inner-city terminus stations in Krausenstraße (Dönhoffplatz) and Behrenstraße, the city was obliged to relocate them if the supervisory authority – the Royal Railway Directorate of Berlin – deemed it necessary. As the tracks of GBS and its subsidiaries had to be used in this area, but no agreement had yet been reached, the city initially concentrated on building the northern lines from Weddingplatz or Stettiner Bahnhof to Landsberger Allee, on the corner of Elbinger Straße. The police commissioner issued the permit on January 10, 1907, and the city approved the necessary funding a month later. Meanwhile, plans for an extension of these lines were maturing. For the extension to the south, an agreement was reached with Neue Berliner Straßenbahnen Nordost A.-G. to use their tracks in Landsberger Allee. In the further course, the line was to run through Ebertystraße and thus parallel to Petersburger Straße to the Zentralviehhof. The permit was received on October 31, 1907, and the city approved the necessary funds on December 12, 1907. Construction work on the line began in November of the same year.
+ Line overview August 29, 1908 Line/Signal board Course Length(in km) Virchow-Krankenhaus (Augustenburger Platz) – Triftstraße – Tegeler Straße – Fennstraße – Am Nordhafen – Sellerstraße – Schulzendorfer Straße – Grenzstraße – Hussitenstraße – Voltastraße – Wattstraße – Strelitzer Straße – Bernauer Straße – – Danziger Straße – Elbinger Straße – Landsberger Allee – Viehhof (Ebertystraße Ecke Thaerstraße) 9,5 Stettiner Bahnhof (Borsigstraße Ecke Elsasser Straße) – Invalidenstraße – Gartenstraße – Bernauer Straße … Viehhof (Ebertystraße Ecke Thaerstraße) 6,6
The work proceeded quickly so that the official acceptance could take place six months later on June 19, 1908. On July 1, the ceremonial opening of the municipal streetcar service took place in the presence of Lord Mayor Martin Kirschner and City Planning Officer Friedrich Krause. The first scheduled train left the depot in Kniprodestraße shortly after midday. The lines were marked with colored signal boards on the front of the vehicles, green for the Stettiner Bahnhof – Landsberger Allee line and red/white for the Weddingplatz – Landsberger Allee line. A few weeks later, the extensions from Weddingplatz to Rudolf-Virchow-Krankenhaus and from Landsberger Allee to Zentralviehhof went into operation. The line length in the first year thus amounted to 10.4 kilometers. The construction costs, including the extensions, amounted to 3,106,465.75 Mark.
Expansion to the south Since 1905, the city had been negotiating with the Hochbahngesellschaft to take over the Flachbahn operated by it. This streetcar line ran between Warschauer Brücke and Zentralviehhof in connection with the elevated line and thus played a central role in the expansion of the city's streetcar network to the south. On October 28, 1909, the city council approved funds of 700,000 marks for the acquisition of the line. The takeover and simultaneous extension of the municipal lines took place on January 1, 1910. At the same time, the Hochbahngesellschaft put a new streetcar line between Warschauer Brücke and Lichtenberg into operation. This had previously been contractually guaranteed.
On January 1, 1911, the city opened the extension from Warschauer Brücke to Wiener Straße near Görlitzer Bahnhof. This was followed by negotiations with the then still independent city of Neukölln about an extension of the line to Hermannplatz, which went into operation on December 20, 1912. The line length was now 15.3 kilometers.
+ Line overview 1st October 1913 Line/Signal board Course Length(in km) Virchow Hospital (Augustenburger Platz) ... Ebertystraße – Thaerstraße – Baltenplatz – Petersburger Straße – Warschauer Straße – Oberbaumbrücke – Falckensteinstraße – Wrangelstraße – Taborstraße – Görlitzer Ufer – Wiener Straße – Grünauer Straße – Friedelstraße – Weserstraße – Hermannplatz 15,3 Szczecin railroad station (Borsigstraße corner Elsasser Straße) ... Hermannplatz – Urbanstraße – Tempelherrenstraße – Johanniterstraße – Alexandrinenstraße – Neuenburger Straße – Alte Jakobstraße – Hollmannstraße – Lindenstraße – Markgrafenstraße – Behrenstraße Ecke Charlottenstraße 17,3 Kreuzberg, Großbeerenstraße – Königgrätzer Straße – Hedemannstraße – Wilhelmstraße – Zimmerstraße – Markgrafenstraße – Behrenstraße Ecke Charlottenstraße 3,7 Großgörschenstraße – Steinmetzstraße – Kurfürstenstraße – Dennewitzstraße – Flottwellstraße – Schöneberger Ufer – Köthener Straße – Königgrätzer Straße – Prinz-Albrecht-Straße – Zimmerstraße ... Behrenstraße Ecke Charlottenstraße 4,8