The company was founded by
Bethel Henry Strousberg. In the following years it built a network of railway lines in the former
Prussian provinces of
Brandenburg and
Saxony. The first 38 km section from
Guben to
Cottbus was opened on 1 September 1871. It was extended by 79 km on 1 December 1871 to the west via
Calau,
Finsterwalde and
Dobrilugk to
Falkenberg/Elster. The following year saw the completion of additional main lines with a total length of 270 km. It was possible to run to the west from Falkenberg via Torgau to
Eilenburg (46 km) from 1 May 1872 and a further 51 km via
Delitzsch to Halle an der Saale from 30 June 1872. A new route was opened in an easterly direction from Cottbus to
Forst (Lausitz) on 1 March 1872 and it was extended by 60 km over the
Neisse to Sorau (now
Żary in present-day Poland) from 30 June 1872. A 24 km-long line was opened to connect with the trading centre of
Leipzig on 1 November 1874 from Eilenburg via was
Taucha in the
Kingdom of Saxony. The HSGE network eventually comprised a network that was about 300 kilometres long. However, it was not possible to divert substantial traffic from the competing routes that had been built earlier, so its income fell short of expectations. Its management was transferred to the
Prussian state railways on 1 January 1877 to increase efficiency and the HSGE was nationalised in 1885. ==The lines==