The Leipzig-Dresden railway line through time

The first German long distance railway line

The line in the early 20th century

The success of the mobilisation of the Prussian army in the Franco-German war in 1870 had led most of the military planners of Europe to construct elaborate plans based on complex railway timetables for the movement of their troops. Again the Leipzig -Dresden railway line featured in this assembling of thousands of troop trains and the rigid timetabling of such trains to the front. Again the front was the French border and this time, General von Schlieffen, the chief of staff of the German army, had devised plans that meant not only the mobilisation of the regular forces but bringing in trained reserves from all over the country. Many thousands of both regulars and reserves were in Saxony and were called up in August 1914. When on 1 August news arrived in Berlin that the British would stay neutral if Germany did not invade France the Kaiser exclaimed:

"This calls for champagne. We must halt the march to the west."

Von Moltke, Schlieffen's successor, responded to this celebration from the Kaiser by turning red with the vision of stopping 11,000 trains and responded:

"It is impossible. The whole army would be thrown into confusion."

General von Schlieffen's elaborate railway timetable had a force of its own and the nations were brought to war. 660 trains departed daily and the first twenty days saw 3 million men and 860,000 horses transported to the front. Cheering crowds were again at the railway stations, both Dresden and Leipzig stations witnessed thronging crowds wishing the departing troops well. Throughout the war troops were regularly brought back to Saxony, both casualties and returning soldiers. Troops not only travelled west but also went south through Austria were major battles took place on the Italian - Austrian frontier. The German defeat came on November 11 1918 and the subsequent reparations demanded as part of the Peace Treaty severely weakened the infrastructure of the whole of Germany. Saxony and the Leipzig - Dresden line suffered as industrial equipment including railway machinery was taken by the Allied countries as reparations. The rebuilding of the nation took a long time and industrial prosperity was slow to return to Saxony.

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