It was the first high-speed line upgraded in Germany to be capable of handling train speeds of over 200 km/h (120 mph) (up to 230 km/h).

The willingness of Hamburg and Mecklenburg to subscribe part of the share capital was a prerequisite for the establishment of the Berlin–Hamburg Railway Company (German: Berlin-Hamburger Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft) and the construction of the line.

The first ten percent of the share capital, amounting to a total of eight million thalers, was subscribed in 1844, so that construction could start near Ludwigslust immediately.

The first managing director from 1850 was Ernst Georg Friedrich Neuhaus, who filled this office with great dedication until his death on 4 December 1876.

Freight revenue rose even faster over the years, due to increasing industrialisation and the growing population of Berlin and Hamburg.

The Berlin–Hamburg Railway Company obtained a concession to build a twelve-kilometre-long (7.5 mi) branch line from Büchen to Lauenburg on the Elbe.

It was extended to Lüneburg by the Royal Hanoverian State Railways in 1863 and 1864, which used the Lauenburg–Hohnstorf train ferry to cross the Elbe for 14 years from 15 March 1864.

Between Karstädt and Wittenberge the train reached a top speed of 230 km/h (140 mph),[2][3] which was a world record for rail vehicles that was not broken until 1955.

With the outbreak of World War II, military priorities meant that high-speed projects were abandoned.

In the Deutsche Bundesbahn (German Federal Railways, DB) network in West Germany the line between Büchen and Schwarzenbek the second track was also dismantled.

Deutsche Reichsbahn (East German railways, DR) Class 03 steam locomotives hauled interzone services to Hamburg-Altona in the 1950s and 1960s.

On the evening of 5 December 1961, a train driver Harry Deterling ran at full speed through barriers erected in Staaken on 13 August 1961 as part of the Berlin Wall to escape from East Germany.

[3] Before the division of Germany, there were five main rail axes running to Hamburg from all directions (from Berlin, Flensburg, Lübeck/Wismar/Rostock/Stralsund/Sassnitz, Hanover and Bremen).

With the division, the Berlin–Hamburg line lost its importance, and the traffic to and from Hamburg was now concentrated mainly in the north-south direction.

The part from Falkensee to the Northern Ring line was electrified with Third Rail in 1951, being operational from August 14, 1951 to the end of the 1950s, thus enabling direct S-Bahn trains from East Berlin to the places being located in the GDR west of Spandau.

On the Hamburg end, an S-Bahn service was established alongside the Berlin–Hamburg line, since long distance traffic was now insignificant.

After the fall of the Wall on 1 August 1990 an Intercity service was established on the Berlin–Hamburg line under the name of Max Liebermann, initially with former TEE carriages hauled by DB Class 601 locomotives that were hired by DR from Italy.

In the early 1990s the German government was considering constructing a maglev (magnetic levitation) line between Berlin and Hamburg.

During the development of Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan of 1992, two options were considered for upgrading the Berlin–Hamburg line were also considered:[6] The line was included as part of the German Unity Transport Projects (Verkehrsprojekte Deutsche Einheit) as VDE Rail No.

In order to allow traffic to and from Berlin to use platform tracks 11-14 of Hamburg Hauptbahnhof, an additional single-track line was built from Tiefstack junction via Hamburg-Rothenburgsort station over a new Upper Harbour bridge to Ericus junction (originally built for the former Hamburg freight station).

During the planning carried out between 1996 and 2000, it was envisaged that a line could be built with an investment of from 3.9 to 4.5 billion euros that would allow a journey time of less than 60 minutes (non-stop) at a maximum speed of 400 km/h.

[11] Already before the end of 1999 Deutsche Bahn had internally prepared an alternative scenario in case in the failure of the Transrapid project.

After the cancelling of the Transrapid project in February 2000, the federal government made a grant of DM one billion (about €511 million) for a second stage of the upgrade that would raise speeds on 263 km of the existing line from 160 to up to 230 km/h.

The additional 30 km/h in comparison to the normal limit on upgraded conventional lines was necessary in order to achieve a total journey time of 90 minutes.

A new overhead line was also installed as well as the German Linienzugbeeinflussung train protection system and 162 sets of points were converted or replaced.

With the timetable change in December 2006, the hourly Hamburg–Berlin ICE service was extended to the south (Leipzig, Nuremberg and Munich).

Long-distance trains were diverted via Stendal and Uelzen and regional services were largely replaced by buses.

The section of the line from the 16.5 to 271.0 km marks is equipped with the Linienzugbeeinflussung (LZB) train protection system.

In 1993, a test section of slab track of the Züblin type was installed Between Wittenberg and Dergenthin (129.3 to 135.4 km).

On the opposite side of the fence passengers are warned not to enter the platform before a train has passed by or comes to a halt.