The Leipzig-Dresden railway line through time

The first German long distance railway line

The line after the 1871 unification

In 1876 the Leipzig - Dresden railway was nationalised and became an integral part of the unified German railway system. An imperial Railroad Office had been created in 1873 by the Berlin authorities and gradually unified and rationalised the new nation's system. By 1876 most of the new state's main lines had been completed. As the network expanded into new rural areas so it joined further agricultural producers to the growing numbers of urban consumers. More trade used the Leipzig - Dresden line and further commercial and industrial growth was stimulated along the line. Steel works were constructed at Riesa, the town on the Elbe, which had welcomed the railway line following Walker's rejection of the Meissen route in 1835!

As the newly created Germany moved towards the twentieth century, industrial production steadily increased and exports boomed. The USA became a large importer of German produced railway machinery and rails. The massive railway line building programme in Russia also meant considerable work for locomotive builders in Saxony. The Leipzig Fair had readjusted its trade away from reliance in goods in bulk to samples.

It became more convenient to despatch the goods direct, as wanted, then to drag them to fairs. And of course the goods of those 'heavy' trades, which were characteristic of the later nineteenth century, could never go to the fairs at all.

Goods like pottery and glass, light metal goods, hardware and toys were brought into the town. Bicycles and motor cars became specialities of the Fair and although fewer traders from the west were visiting the Leipzig Messe, the trade was prestigious for the whole Saxony region.

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