Minden station

Minden station is a railway station in Minden. The station is located on the Hanover–Minden railway to Hanover, the Hamm–Minden railway to Hamm and the Weser–Aller railway to Rotenburg an der Wümme. The train services are operated by Deutsche Bahn and WestfalenBahn. The station is also served by the Hanover S-Bahn.HistoryThe station was opened in 1848 as the terminus of the trunk line of the Cologne–Minden Railway Company (CME), connecting with the Royal Hanoverian State Railways’ Hannover–Minden line. South of Minden the Cologne–Minden line passes through the gap created at Porta Westfalica by the Weser river between the Weser and Wiehen Hills. The geography made it difficult to build the railway on the western side of the river through the gap to a station near Minden and then cross the river to continue to the east. Instead it was decided to cross the river at Rehme (near Bad Oeynhausen), continuing north on the eastern bank through the gap, which was widened with explosives and then along a levee to a station built on the eastern bank of the river. Both lines were completed on 15 October 1847. As it was a border station on one of the major routes for east-west traffic, it was originally highly fortified. In 1866 the Kingdom of Hanover was annexed by Prussia, allowing the railway to operate continuously from Berlin to Cologne without frontiers. The fortifications around the station were abandoned in 1873.