The Cologne-Minden Railway Company was awarded the contract for the line and began construction of the eastern section from its Wanne station on its original trunk line to Hamburg, which continues to have great importance for long-distance and regional passenger and freight traffic as the Wanne-Eickel–Hamburg railway.

Since Prussia required the line to bypass the important strategic and economic industrial area of the Ruhr to the north, the western part of the line was built from Venlo to Haltern, crossing the Rhine at Wesel and running from Wesel to Haltern along the Lippe river.

This service was no longer necessary after the First World War due to the lack of passengers as a result of hyperinflation and the dislocation to operations caused by the occupation of the Ruhr.

Also the line had little significance for local transport, since it bypassed the Ruhr area and there was almost no demand for travel in the directions that it ran.

During the Second World War the line was put back into service at the behest of the German military and served to supply the Western Front.

When Allied troops invaded, the Wesel railway bridge was blown up on 10 March 1945 by German military engineers.