centre of Polish culture in Poznań would be the Bazar hotel on Wilhelms Strasse, built in 1841 by a company set up by Karol Marcinkowski and other Poles. Also in 1841 Marcinkowski and Maciej Mielzynski founded the Towarzystwo Naukowej Pomocy dla Młodzieży Wielkiego Księstwa Poznańskiego ("Scientific Help Society for the Youth of the Grand Duchy of Poznań"), which provided academic scholarships for poor Poles. Raczyński also funded the city's first system of water supply pipes (built of wood, from 1840). Hipolit Cegielski set up his first metal goods shop in the Bazar hotel building in 1846 – the Cegielski company would develop into one of Poznań's largest industrial concerns (since 1919 occupying plants south of Wilda district). In the 1830s the idea was raised of building a railway to Frankfurt an der Oder (which was already connected to Berlin). However the Prussian authorities feared that this might be exploited by Russia in case of war; they were also dissatisfied that the project was being promoted by the Polish-dominated provincial parliament. Approval for a railway was finally given in 1846, but running north to Stargard, and the concession was given to a Prussian company. The railway opened on 10 August 1848. The station was in Jeżyce (on the site now occupied by the zoo and the adjacent tram depot). It later gained connections to Breslau (today Wrocław) (1856), Berlin (1870), Inowrocław and Bromberg (today Bydgoszcz) (1872), and Upper Silesia (1875). The station on its present site, south-west of the city centre, was built in 1879. A direct line to Warsaw would not be opened until 1921. Polish sentiment against the partitioning powers led to two insurrections, each known as a "Greater Poland Uprising" (powstanie wielkopolskie). The 1846 uprising was easily defeated, the insurgents being tried in Berlin the following year. The 1848 uprising initially enjoyed greater success, as it was supported by the German National Assembly which had come into being through the Spring of Nations revolutions, being seen as a force against possible Russian intervention. However this support was lost when the insurrection was seen to be directed against Germans in the region, and this uprising too was ultimately unsuccessful. Following these events the Duchy lost its residual autonomy, being "degraded" to the Province of Posen (Provinz Posen), although the Prussian kings continued to use the title Grand Duke of Posen. With Prussia, the province became part of the united