General Deutsche Eisenbahn-Betriebs-GmbH

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Allgemeine Deutsche Eisenbahn-Betriebs-GmbH (ADEG) was founded in 1915 as a subsidiary of the Allgemeine Deutsche Kleinbahn-Gesellschaft AG (ADKA) . The history of both companies is closely linked and is therefore presented together.

ADEG certificate of participation from 1925

General German Small Railroad Company AG (ADKA)

The Allgemeine Deutsche Kleinbahn-Gesellschaft (ADKA) became after the entry into force of the Prussian Small Railroad Act of July 28, 1892 - a little later than LENZ & Co. GmbH, but completely independent of it - on January 4, 1893 with a capital of 5 million Mark founded in Berlin. At first she was only active as a financier and operator of railways, but did not build her own railways. Above all, this circumstance is said to have meant that the company was initially denied financial success.

At the end of the 1890s, ADKA operated small railroad lines with a length of 340 km, most of which were laid out with a gauge of 750 mm and 1000 mm. During this time ADKA began to build its own railways, in particular three networks of narrow-gauge railways:

Latest stock market news , Berlin, Deutsche Klein- und Straßenbahnen Allgemeine Deutsche Kleinbahn
(1905) December 30: 89.50
(1906) _2. January: ____ 91.25

Until the time of the First World War , the route length of the railways belonging to the ADKA increased. At the end of 1915 it operated five of its own railways (75 km) and two third-party railways (91 km). She also had two more (49 km) operated by Vering & Waechter . In addition, ADKA was involved in eight railways in Germany (404 km) and - in most cases - also operator. This meant that routes of around 620 kilometers in length were within the ADKA's sphere of influence.

The participation in five railways in Hungary, which were lost as a result of the First World War, is not taken into account.

Allgemeine Deutsche Eisenbahn-Betriebs-GmbH (ADEG) and Allgemeine Deutsche Eisenbahn-AG (ADEA)

The growing number of these railways made it necessary to set up a special operating company. For this purpose, the ADKA founded the Allgemeine Deutsche Eisenbahn-Betriebs-GmbH (ADEG) on October 1, 1915. From 1916/17 this took over the management of the majority of the ADKA railways.

On June 28, 1923, the ADKA changed its name to Allgemeine Deutsche Eisenbahn-AG (ADEA). After increases in 1918 and 1923, the share capital was now 30 million marks.

At that time, the number of railways remained roughly the same as before. Disposals were offset by acquisitions. The participation in the electric small railway in the Mansfeld mountain area was given up in 1919 and the management of the Crefeld railway was given up in 1921, but the majority of shares in the Teltower Eisenbahn -AG and in 1924 in the Rinteln-Stadthagener Eisenbahngesellschaft were acquired.

The ADEA was considered to be a healthy, successful company, whose railways were generally judged to be better and more promising than those of the AG for Transport (AGV). ADEA and its subsidiary ADEG operated fewer railways than LENZ & Co or the Ostdeutsche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (ODEG), but ADEA usually had a larger share in them; often it was even the sole owner.

They were considered to be particularly profitable

The best railways were the Farge-Vegesacker Eisenbahn AG and the Riesengebirgsbahn GmbH, which had been operated electrically since 1934.

So the AGV tried to acquire the ADEA and its subsidiary ADEG. In 1927 the negotiations were successfully concluded. The takeover by AGV took place on January 1, 1926.

In the course of the reorganization of the AGV Group, the small railways, which had been the property of ADEA, were transferred to Vereinigte Kleinbahnen AG (VKA), while management remained with ADEG. The management part of the ADEA was integrated into the ADEG, which in 1928 operated a total of 17 railways with a 940 km route. This status remained - despite the change of individual railways - largely until the end of the Second World War . According to the manual of the public transport company of 1940, the ADEG operated the following railways with a network length of 974 kilometers:

The ADEG was thus in second place among the seven AGV operating companies in terms of route length. But because more than half of the operated railways were in the Soviet occupation zone and in the areas east of the Oder-Neisse line after the end of the war in 1945 , the ADEG lost a substantial part of its previous area of ​​responsibility. The management of the railways that remained in West Germany was transferred to the Deutsche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (DEAG) and the United Small Railways (VKA). The ADEG was then no longer active. With effect from December 31, 1970, it was converted to the AG for Industry and Transport.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Dresdner Journal, 1906, No. 1, Tuesday, January 2 afternoon on Wikisource
  2. ^ Dresdner Journal, 1906, No. 2, Wednesday, January 3rd afternoon #Latest stock market news. on Wikisource