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.
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