Imperial Railways in Alsace-Lorraine

Kaiserliche Generaldirektion der Eisenbahnen in Elsaß-Lothringen (EL)

The railway station of Metz (built in 1908) was designed with a distinctive blend of Germanic architecture in order to Germanify the city.
Locale	Alsace-Lorraine, Luxembourg
Dates of operation	1871–1918
Successor	Administration des chemins de fer d'Alsace et de Lorraine
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) and 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in)
Length	2,079 km (1,292 mi) (1913)

The Kaiserliche Generaldirektion der Eisenbahnen in Elsaß-Lothringen or EL (English: General Directorate of the Imperial Railways in Alsace-Lorraine) were the first railways owned by the German Empire.

They emerged in 1871, after France had ceded the region of Alsace-Lorraine to the German Empire under the terms of the Peace Treaty of Frankfurt following the Franco-Prussian War. The railways of the private Compagnie des chemins de fer de l'Est (CF de l'Est; English: [French] Eastern Railway Company), with a total of 740 kilometres (460 mi) trackage, were formally purchased from the French and then sold again to the German Empire. The purchase price of 260 million Goldmarks was counted as compensation for the war.

The General Directorate of the Imperial Railways in Alsace-Lorraine (Kaiserliche Generaldirektion der Eisenbahnen in Elsaß-Lothringen) had its head office in Straßburg (now Strasbourg) and was subordinated directly to the Reich Chancellor. In 1878, however, it was re-subordinated to the newly created Imperial Ministry for the Management of Railways in Alsace-Lorraine in Berlin. The General Division managed six regional operating divisions, which had their headquarters in Mülhausen (now Mulhouse), Kolmar (Colmar), Straßburg I and II, Saargemünd (now Sarreguemines) and Metz. It was also responsible for a seventh region, with a headquarters in Luxemburg, which ran the operations of the Wilhelm Luxemburg Railway.

In the early days, railway vehicles were almost exclusively and forcibly taken from the German railways, because French troops had taken with them almost all rolling stock in the region during the retreat. The French side later built copies of German railway stock, mainly based on Prussian prototypes.