Krzyż Wielkopolski is a town in Poland, with 6,176 inhabitants (2019) in the Czarnków-Trzcianka County, Greater Poland Voivodeship. It is an important railroad junction, with two major lines crossing there - the Berlin-Bydgoszcz and the Poznań-Szczecin connections.

The Prussian Eastern Railway was a railway in the Kingdom of Prussia and later Germany until 1918. Its main route, approximately 740 kilometers (460 mi) long, connected the capital, Berlin, with the cities of Danzig and Königsberg. At Eydtkuhnen it reached the German Empire's border with the Russian Empire. The first part of the line opened in 1851, reaching Eydtkuhnen in 1860. By March 1880 the total route length reached 2,210 kilometers (1,370 mi), with a main parallel route in the south via Bromberg and Thorn to Insterburg. The lines were the first part of the later Prussian State Railways.