The Magdeburg-Wittenberge railway is a two-track, electrified main line in the east of the German state of Saxony-Anhalt.

The line starts at Magdeburg Hauptbahnhof and then runs to the north, mostly between the Elbe and the B 189 highway.

At the same time, plans for a continuation of the Berlin-Potsdam Railway developed into a direct link to Magdeburg.

The Magdeburg-Wittenberg Magdeburg Railway Company was constituted as the designated operator in the following month.

Approval for the construction of the line depended mainly on minimising its impact on the Elbe levees in Altmark.

In order for the company to obtain a concession it had to develop concrete plans for the Elbe crossing and to make preparations for work to be carried out on the levees.

On 6 July 1845 the Prussian king Frederick William IV made a decree authorising the construction by the joint stock company with a capital of 4,500,000 thalers.

The chosen route had a maximum gradient of 1 in 210 and its sharpest curve had a radius of 300 Prussian rods (equivalent to about 1,130 metres).

In Wittenberge the construction of the bridge over the Elbe led to postponement of the opening of the entire line.

To achieve this, there were two possibilities: the first was for the line to cross the slopes of the fortifications on the western edge of Magdeburg to the MHE station.

To avoid this low-level structure obstructing shipping, part of it was built as a swing bridge.

In addition, in 1855 a large part of the line had to be rebuilt as a result of several floods in Altmark.

The railway facilities in Stendal had to be rebuilt to make it easy for passengers to change trains.

The new Lehrter Railway has a connection with a relocated line from Wittenberge to the west of Stendal.

The transfer of trains to the Leipzig railway was difficult and the Elbe river prevented the expansion of the rail facilities.

There still had to be lengthy negotiations with the Prussian military before the railways were offered a suitable site along the northern and western moat.

After the founding of Deutsche Reichsbahn (German State Railways) in 1920, the divisions were rearranged.

The route was developed in the coming years as the most important north–south link in East German, bypassing Berlin.

This involved adapting all the lines' infrastructure as far as Zielitz, which was selected as the northern terminus, to support a mixed operation of S-Bahn, regional, long-distance and freight traffic.

Continuing towards Magdeburg a pair of tracks was built for the S-Bahn from the junction with the line from Oebisfelde, bypassing the Magdeburg-Rothensee marshalling yard.

In the summer it is served by an InterCity pair of trains called Warnow (2238/2239) from Leipzig via Magdeburg, Wittenberge, Schwerin and Rostock to Warnemünde.

In 2012, a new electronic interlocking was put into operation in Wolmirstedt, this is connected to the sub-centre in Biederitz.