During the 1860s there were many years of controversy over the route. Darmstadt, the capital city of the Grand Duchy of Hesse (Hesse-Darmstadt) supported a route through the Gersprenz valley through Reinheim, Brensbach, Hollerbach and the Kinzig and the Mümling valleys. Frankfurt instead supported route through Dieburg. As a compromise, the route as later built was chosen. It runs from Eberbach through the Odenwald via Wiebelbach-Heubach, where it branches, with one branch running to Babenhausen and Hanau Central Station (Hauptbahnhof) and the other branch to Reinheim and Darmstadt. This meant that traffic from the Odenwald ran to Darmstadt rather than bypassing it.