He invented the legendary Orient Express: the Belgian Georges Nagelmackers. Its first passengers had to have a pistol in their luggage – but the murder that turned into a crime never happened on board.
Christiane Schloezer
Georges Nagelmackers on an advertising poster for the 1900 World Exhibition in Paris.
Photo: Jürgen Klein Collection
They called it the “Train of Dreams”, pursued “by the envy of those who only wave goodbye”. A fairy tale on rails. “I love its rhythm, Allegro con fuoco at the beginning, the shaking and rattling in the wild haste,” enthused Agatha Christie – and set a literary monument to her love: “Murder on the Orient Express” was published in 1934, the legendary luxury train was already connecting Europe with Constantinople, now Istanbul, for half a century.
