The Berlin-Charlottenburger Straßenbahn (BCS) was a private tram company in the greater Berlin area. It was founded in 1865 as the Berliner Pferde-Eisenbahn (BPfE) and renamed in 1894 in anticipation of electrification. The line opened on 22 June 1865 between the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin and the then-independent city (until 1920) of Charlottenburg and was the first tram line in Germany. The company expanded its network primarily within Charlottenburg until 1914. The lines also extended into Berlin's city center, to Spandau, Weißensee, and Neukölln.
In 1900, the competing Große Berliner Straßenbahn acquired three-quarters of the shares in the BCS and took over its administration from 1907. The complete takeover occurred in 1919. While the central section of the company's first route through the Großer Tiergarten fell victim in the 1930s to the expansion of the east–west axis, the western branch was operated until the shutdown of the West Berlin tram network on 2 October 1967. A section opened in 1865 in Dorotheenstraße remains in operation as the oldest existing track segment in the network of the Berlin tram.
History
Prelude and opening On 26 November 1832, the New York and Harlem Railroad became the world's first tram to enter service. In Europe, the new mode of transport spread from 1854, first in Paris. Public transport in Berlin at that time was handled by a variety of coach operators with hackney carriages and horse-drawn omnibuses. The Berlin Police Presidency therefore desired a "centralization of all public transport," by awarding the necessary concessions to a single entrepreneur. In 1858, the French State Councilor Carteret contacted the presidency. He proposed a comprehensive network of horse omnibuses and horse trams. The project failed because Carteret could not raise the necessary funds. The concessions granted to him expired on 1 December 1859.
In 1863, the Württemberg engineer von Bingeraccording to other sources von Bönger and the Danish engineer Møller came forward. Møller had received royal approval in 1862 for setting up a horse tram line in Copenhagen but had to abandon his project. At the same time, he was in contact with the Hamburg Senate and the Berlin Police Presidency for two similar projects. The Prussian Minister of Trade von Itzenplitz was not opposed to Møller's plans for a line from Berlin to Charlottenburg. However, on the advice of the authorities, he had to abandon the planned route through the Brandenburg Gate and the boulevard Unter den Linden and instead choose a route through Sommerstraßesince 1925: Ebertstraße and Dorotheenstraße. This required an additional breakthrough through the Berlin Customs Wall. The terminus was to be at Am Kupfergraben. On 23 March 1864, the minister granted Møller the concession. At Møller's request, the concession period was extended from five to ten years. In addition to the Kupfergraben–Charlottenburg line, Møller was permitted to set up a branch line from the Brandenburg Gate via the Kroll’sche Etablissement and the excursion restaurant In den Zelten to the Kleiner Stern, and another line from Dönhoffplatz through Leipziger Straße and Potsdamer Straße to Schöneberg. To finance the tram, the transfer of the concession to a company was allowed.
On 11 May 1864, the Kommanditgesellschaft auf Aktien in Firma Berliner Pferdeeisenbahn-Gesellschaft E. Besckow was founded, which took over all rights and obligations. The brothers Ernst and Wilhelm Besckow were haulage contractors from Berlin. The share capital was to amount to 510,000 thalers (1,530,000 marks) for both lines. However, the company only raised the capital required for the Charlottenburg line of 280,000 thalers (840,000 marks), so construction of the Schöneberg line was initially omitted. Møller is said to have initially retained the concession for this line and transferred it to the Große Internationale Pferde-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft in 1872. In addition to the concession document issued by the police president, the company had to apply for road construction police approval for the installation of horse trams and obtain the consent of the road owner for its use.
Until 31 December 1875, the first measure was also the responsibility of the Berlin Police Presidency; consent was the responsibility of the Royal Ministerial Building Commission until the same date. By cabinet order of 28 December 1875, road construction police came under the cities from the beginning of 1876, and most roads also passed into city ownership. This did not affect various country roads and the street Unter den Linden.
Construction of the route began in January 1865. Just under a month before commissioning, the Berlin police president issued a regulation on the operation of the horse railway. The 42-paragraph regulation governed, among other things, the labeling of cars, uniforms, and transport conditions. The drivers were instructed not to drive faster than a trot; a walk was prescribed before street intersections. Women were also prohibited from entering the upper deck; this rule was not lifted until in the run-up to the Berlin Trade Exhibition 1896. In contrast to the gate cars ("Kremsers"), which often only departed when fully occupied, drivers were prohibited from soliciting passengers to ride. If further travel was interrupted by obstacles that could not be removed immediately, the cars were to be lifted out of the rails and the spot bypassed. When traveling in convoy, at least 60 steps were to be maintained, and at least ten steps for stationary cars, so that the draft horses would not nibble on the cars.
On 22 June 1865, the first section between Brandenburg Gate and the tram depot in Charlottenburg entered service. Two months later, on 28 August, the line was extended from the Brandenburg Gate to Kupfergraben. The route was initially single-track with eight passing loops. The route ran from Dorotheenstraße via Sommerstraße, Charlottenburger Chaussee,since 1953: Straße des 17. Juni Berliner Straßesince 1953: Straße des 17. Juni and Otto-Suhr-Allee and Spandauer Bergsince 1950: Spandauer Damm to the corner of Sophie-Charlotte-Straße. The first tram depot, then still called a horse tram depot, was also located there. Passing opportunities existed at the termini as well as at the intersection of Dorotheenstraße and Neue Wilhelmstraße,since 1740 Wilhelmstraße in Sommerstraße, at the Großer Stern, at the border with Charlottenburg, at the Knie,since 1953: Ernst-Reuter-Platz at Wilhelmplatzsince 1934 Richard-Wagner-Platz and at Luisenplatz.
The branch route to Zu den Zelten, also approved in 1865, could be opened in 1866 or 1872. It remained in operation only until 1874 or 1875 due to lack of profitability.
Expansion of the network +Line overview 1890RouteLength (in km)Kupfergraben – Horse tram depot7.8Kupfergraben – Lützowplatz5.0Horse tram depot – Lützowplatz5.0Charlottenburg station – Lützowplatz5.4Horse tram depot – Spandauer Bock2.8Horse tram depot – Alt-Moabit, Criminal Court5.5Alt-Moabit, Criminal Court – Lützowplatz5.4Kurfürstendamm/Kurfürstenstraße – Rankestraße, Joachimsthal Gymnasium1.1 Despite the initially high fare of two and a half Silbergroschen (25 [Reichs-]pfennigs; in 1901 the same journey cost 10 pfennigs), the tram proved successful. In the first full year of operation in 1866, it carried around 960,000 passengers; with an extraordinary load observed in excursion traffic to the city of Charlottenburg, which was then still considered a summer resort. While 46,560 passengers used the horse tram in January 1866, the figure was 165,230 in August of the same year. The writer Hans Wachenhusen described such an excursion trip during the first years of operation. On such days, several hundred people could be observed at the stop at Kupfergraben, and boarding along the route was almost impossible. Newspapers reported that cars approved for 45–50 people sometimes had to accommodate up to 93 passengers. As a result, the timetable could only be adhered to a limited extent, resulting in hardly any time savings compared to pedestrians on the same route. The satirical publication Kladderadatsch took these circumstances as an opportunity to issue a "Reglement zur Benutzung der Berliner Pferdebahn," which, for example, provided for a fine of five Silbergroschen for pedestrians overtaking horse tram cars.
In 1871, the Terrain-Gesellschaft Westend had H. Quistorp & Co. build a single-track route from the horse tram depot to the Westend villa colony at its own expense. It transferred operations to the BPfE. The route was 1.4 kilometers long and had a gradient of 33.3 permille over a length of 620 meters. Service was provided with a shuttle line from the horse tram depot, as the double-horse open-top cars used on the main line were unable to handle the gradient. In the same year, the Große Berliner Pferde-Eisenbahn-Aktien-Gesellschaft (GBPfE) was founded, which, starting in 1873, opened several routes from Berlin to the suburbs.
After the first concession expired, the company operated from 1875 under the name Berliner Pferde-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, Kommandit-Gesellschaft auf Aktien J. Lestmann & Co. In the same year, a branch route from the Großer Stern via Fasanerieallee and Corneliusbrücke to the main entrance of the Berlin Zoological Garden entered service. The main route received a second track throughout. Further routes followed from Westend to Spandauer Bock (1879), from the Knie via Hardenbergstraße to the Zoological Garden (1880), via Rankestraße to the Joachimsthal Gymnasium (1881), from Kurfürstendamm to Lützowplatz (1885), from Wilhelmplatz via Wilmersdorfer Straße to Charlottenburg station (1887), and from the Knie via Marchstraße, Gotzkowskybrücke and Alt-Moabit to Moabit, Paulstraße (1890). With the city of Berlin, the company concluded a new consent agreement on 7 May 1881 until 31 December 1909, which included, among other things, approval for the construction of new lines.
Frequent changes of traction Operation as a horse tram quickly revealed the limits of this type of traction. To increase capacity, the BPfE experimented several times with different drive options. From 20 April 1878, the BPfE used two box steam locomotives from Wöhlert and Krauss on the Brandenburg Gate–horse tram depot route. Horse tram cars served as trailers. The trial with steam trams ran parallel to the horse trams until it was discontinued on 11 August 1878. In addition to smoke nuisance, it turned out that the super- and substructure were too weak for the locomotives. In 1881/82, the tram started a second unsuccessful trial with Rowan steam railcars.