1906: Line 16 takes off
Streetcars have not been running in Offenbach since 1996. But "the good old line 16", as some of the older people wistfully call it, has left behind an inconspicuous monument: In the western section of Frankfurter Straße, some of the tracks on which it once ran still lie as a silent reminder.
They are the remains of a connection that was important for Offenbach before the S-Bahn replaced it. If it still existed, its 100th birthday would have been celebrated on October 27, 2006.
However, the "16" was not the first tramway in the city. As early as 1884, an electric streetcar ran from Mathildenplatz across the Prussian-Hessian border between Offenbach and Frankfurt to the Old Bridge in Sachsenhausen.
These were small carriages without proper suspension. Their wheels rattled along a one-meter track. The popular nickname "Knochemühl" was attached to it on the very first day. At the state border before Oberrad, it crossed the tracks of the Frankfurt-Bebra railroad line, where signals and barriers prevented collisions. When the big train came, the little one had to wait!
Until 1905, the "Knochemühl" belonged to a private company, the Frankfurt-Offenbacher Trambahn-Gesellschaft (FOTG), which generated the necessary electricity on Oberrad's Buchrainweg using steam engines. It was not until 1905 that the cities took over the tramway. Offenbach acquired the section in the Grand Duchy of Hesse for 14,300 marks. This acquisition paved the way for modernization: Both cities quickly began to upgrade the one-metre gauge to the standard gauge of 1,435 millimetres.
Offenbach received the blessing of its authorities on August 1. On August 1, 1905, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig issued the following decree: "We grant the city of Offenbach, at its request, our sovereign concession to build and operate an electric tramway intended for the transportation of passengers and luggage in public transport from the state border via Frankfurter Strasse, Marktplatz, Biebererstrasse, Hebestrasse and via Friedhofstrasse back through Bieberer Strasse, Marktplatz and Frankfurter Strasse to the state border (with continuation to Frankfurt am Main) in place of the existing tramway".
For the people of Offenbach, this decree meant an extension of the railroad to today's Alter Friedhof. The first train on the new line departed from there on October 27, 1906, and the whole of Offenbach took part. Initially, the train's journey ended at the Kaiserstraße/Frankfurter Straße junction, as the newly installed tracks only reached the state border in December. But that was the end of the line for the time being.
This was because the railroad directorate suddenly used safety arguments to oppose a level crossing of streetcar and railroad, which the private "Knochemühl" had still been able to do. Only one track was approved, over which only empty wagons could be moved. So anyone who wanted to travel from Frankfurt to Offenbach or vice versa had to get off, cross the railroad on foot and then get back on the streetcar! It stayed like this in all weathers until 1910, when the overpass of the state railroad over the road to Oberrad was finally completed and the streetcar could run underneath it. "It's done!" cheered the Offenbach newspaper. The two cities assigned the line number 16 to their new connection. It was operated with cars from each city's own fleet.
For almost 90 years, the "16", the mother of local public transport in Offenbach, was probably the most important means of transportation within the city. The citizens grew fond of it. During the Second World War, it even became important for food supplies. When the war restricted civilian car traffic, the streetcar authorities set up a freight service on line 16. The vegetable train, which regularly supplied Offenbach with fresh produce from the Frankfurt wholesale market, was long remembered.
In June 1996, line 16 disappeared from the cityscape. Only in Frankfurt does it still exist. It ends at the old state border that once separated Prussia from Hesse and lives on as the city boundary between Frankfurt and Offenbach. Lothar Braun