AG for transport

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The joint-stock company for traffic ( AGV ) was a holding company in which the investments in the numerous - mostly small - Railway stock companies were merged by the & Lenz Co in the first decade were built its existence and operated. The further expansion led to a considerable need for capital at her house bank. This was to be covered by the issue of AGV shares, which offered an interesting investment opportunity for the public. When it was founded in Berlin on June 4, 1901, the Berliner Handels-Gesellschaft (BHG) and other banks took over the share capital of 10 million marks .

The AGV until 1945

Share over 1000 Marks of the AG for Transport from August 1, 1906

In 1916 the bank for Deutsche Eisenbahnwerthe was incorporated into the AGV , which had already been founded in 1896 - also with a share capital of 10 million marks - by Friedrich Lenz , A. Schaafhausen'schen Bankverein and other banking houses that were friends of the BHG. It too had taken over blocks of shares from Kleinbahnen, which Lenz & Co had built in order to relieve these and BHG financially, so it served the same purpose as AGV. In addition to the shares in numerous railway companies, the latter gradually also took over the shares in the operating companies responsible for them.

Since 1901, that is, from the very beginning, the AG for Transport was the sole shareholder of its "parent company", the railway construction and operating company Lenz & Co GmbH.

In 1912 she became the owner of all shares in the Ostdeutsche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (ODEG), which she had been managing since 1902.

In 1925 she acquired 70% of a block of shares from a bank consortium, which also included 90% of the shares in the West German Railway Company (WeEG). This had been founded by banks that were also the main shareholders of AGV. The remaining 30% of the package followed in 1928.

The following important railway companies emerged from the WeEG:

In the following years the AGV increased its influence on the German branch and small railroad system again quite considerably by acquiring a number of other railway companies.

In 1927 - with retroactive effect from January 1, 1926 - the Allgemeine Deutsche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft AG (ADEA) and the Allgemeine Deutsche Eisenbahn-Betriebs-GmbH (ADEG) were transferred to AGV.

In 1929 the AGV's sphere of influence was reduced by the acquisition of the

The AGV's assets consisted almost exclusively of investments in railway or operating companies. She was the owner of only two railways:

The high point of development was reached around 1931. The AGV empire ruled over 100 railways with a distance of 4,035.5 km. That was 28% of all German branch and small railways that did not belong to the Deutsche Reichsbahn. By the beginning of the Second World War in 1939/40, the number of railways fell to 88 with a length of 3,475 km.

Seven companies have been available for operational management since 1931:

  • ADEG - Allgemeine Deutsche Eisenbahn-Betriebs-GmbH (Berlin) (100%) with 19 railways = 1040.7 km for AGV and VKA routes
  • DEGA - Deutsche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (Frankfurt am Main) (98.5%) with 24 railways = 450.6 km including the
    • Württembergische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (WEG) and the
    • Württemberg branch lines AG (WN)
  • Lenz & Co GmbH (Berlin) (100%) with 30 lanes = 1109.6 km with operating departments in Berlin, Breslau and Halle and the Herzfelde and Jauer workshops
  • ODEG - Ostdeutsche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (Königsberg) (100%) with 17 railways = 1029.4 km in East Prussia
  • VKA - Vereinigte Kleinbahnen -Gesellschaft (Frankfurt am Main) (95.5%) with nine railways = 423.1 km

As a second mainstay of the business, construction companies played an important role from the start. Initially used to build the railway lines, the range of business expanded to include all branches of construction, including residential construction. Further investments in construction companies followed. In 1928, for example, AGV acquired a stake in Dyckerhoff & Widmann (Dywidag) .

Further development after the end of the Second World War

The extensive mergers of 1927/29 had led to an abundance of participations that urgently needed a reorganization. The AGV tried to sell small holdings or shares of poorly profitable railways.

The AK of 36 million Reichsmarks in 1944 represented a fortune of 50–60 million Reichsmarks. After the end of the Second World War, about half of this was lost through the separation of the Central and Eastern German territories. The assets remaining in the three western zones were transferred in July 1945 to the Transport West GmbH , newly founded in Hamburg . It acted as a trustee until the end of 1949. In that year, AGV also sold its holdings in the

About half of the company's assets were in central and eastern Germany and were lost after 1945.

From 1951 the participations in the field of construction and mechanical engineering (including Carl Schenck in Darmstadt or Wayss & Freytag in Frankfurt) were expanded.

Conversion to AGIV

On January 1, 1974, AGV was merged with Allgemeine Lokalbahn- und Kraftwerke AG (ALOKA) to form the joint stock company for industry and transport (AGIV).

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