Agreements were reached for the provision of government investment and guarantees from Schwarzburg-Sondershausen and the adjacent districts and cities of Prussia so that the Nordhausen-Erfurter Eisenbahn (Nordhausen-Erfurt Railway, NEE) company could be founded on 24 April 1867 and it received a licence for the project from Schwarzburg-Sondershausen on 17 June 1867.

The aim of the railway construction was to connect the cities of Nordhausen and Erfurt (both in the Prussian Province of Saxony at that time), and at the same time establish the first rail connection to part of the Schwarzburg-Sondershäuser Unterherrschaft (under dominion), which was the northern part of the principality of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen.

The line was built by a consortium of the companies of Plessner, Schultze and Steinfeld of Berlin and was opened on 17 August 1869.

It ran for its first eight kilometres from Nordhausen to Wolkramshausen along the Halle–Kassel railway towards Eichenberg and Kassel, though on a second track built for the line, reached the Residenzstadt (royal capital) of Sondershausen and further south crossed the Hainleite ridge and ran by Greußen and Straußfurt to the state capital of Erfurt, where it ended at the station of the Thuringian Railway.

It is envisaged that travel time will be reduced to less than an hour and services will connect to the Intercity-Express line to the south.