Deutsche Reichsbahn (1945–1993)

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German Reichsbahn

logo
legal form State company
resolution January 1, 1994
Seat Berlin
Branch Transport / logistics

Under the name of Deutsche Reichsbahn ( DR ), the state railway was operated in the Soviet Occupation Zone (SBZ) and German Democratic Republic (GDR) or, after reunification, in the accession area .

It was continued after the Second World War from the parts of the Deutsche Reichsbahn that were in the Soviet occupation zone (SBZ) and in Berlin . The German Reichsbahn took the Unification Treaty as a special fund in federal ownership over and insisted after the reunification of Germany until 31 December 1993. The German Reichsbahn was then with the German Railways (DB) to continue federally owned German Bahn AG combined (DB AG). At times the DR was the largest employer in the GDR.

history

Soviet occupation zone

Reichsbahn course book for the Soviet occupation zone 1947/48

The designation Deutsche Reichsbahn was retained for the railway facilities . On the orders of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SMAD), the Deutsche Reichsbahn was commissioned to resume the regulated rail-bound freight and passenger traffic in the area of ​​the SBZ (order No. 8 of the transport department of the SMAD). With the consent of the Western Allies, the entire facilities in the three western sectors of Berlin were operated by the Deutsche Reichsbahn (long-distance railway network, stations, depots and administrative facilities of the railway) including the entire Berlin S-Bahn . After the first Berlin S-Bahn strike in the summer of 1949, however, the Allies withdrew the rights to use the property and properties in West Berlin from the Reichsbahn if they were not directly used for operations, and placed them under the administration of the former Reichsbahn property (VdeR).

Those responsible in the GDR were not sure whether they would keep the operating rights in West Berlin if the name of the Deutsche Reichsbahn changed because the Western Allies had only granted it the operating rights. There were fears that a GDR state railway, whatever its name, could have been denied the rights. For the GDR, however, it was also important for propaganda purposes to declare the DR routes in West Berlin as their own territory. Until reunification in 1990, this repeatedly led to disputes between eastern, western and allied authorities due to differing legal views. DR assets abroad also played a role in the dispute between DB and DR regarding the retention of the name. This concerned especially the Sleeping Car and Dining Car Company Mitropa . A discussion about the name of the state railway in the GDR was officially stopped in the late 1950s. As an externally recognizable difference to other GDR services, the black, red and gold cockade was attached to the DR's service caps .

The reconstruction after the Second World War was difficult due to the enormous reparations payments to the Soviet Union. With the exception of the Frankfurt (Oder) - Berlin - Halle / Leipzig - Erfurt main line, one track was dismantled on all double-track lines. The complete re-installation of the removed tracks also took a long time on main roads and was never achieved overall.

The electrical operation in the central German network with the line to Probstzella (border crossing to the American occupation zone ), which was quickly resumed after the end of the war in 1945 , was discontinued in March 1946 by order of the Soviet occupying forces. The facilities, including the energy supply, were completely dismantled and brought to the Soviet Union together with the electric traction vehicles as reparations.

The employee newspaper of the Deutsche Reichsbahn first appeared on May 1, 1949 under the title "Freie Fahrt", later renamed " Fahrt frei ".

German Democratic Republic

Ticket from 1965 ( Sunday return
ticket Ilmenau Bad– Rennsteig )

On April 1, 1949, the management of almost all private railways in the area of ​​the Soviet occupation zone was transferred to the DR. The only exceptions were railways that only served local transport needs, such as the Strausberg Railway , the Erfurt Industrial Railway and the Spremberger Stadtbahn . With the enforcement of security measures on the inner-German border by the state leadership in 1952, traffic on most cross-border railway lines ended.

The construction of the Berlin outer ring was one of the first major investments by the Deutsche Reichsbahn in the GDR. It was built from 1951 to 1956, taking into account existing routes such as the outer freight ring, bypass and bypass routes and enabled the politically desired bypass of West Berlin in rail traffic.

In 1952, the Soviet Union returned the confiscated electric locomotives, power stations and catenary systems from the Central German and Silesian networks to the DR for around 300 newly built passenger coaches. In the Muldenstein railway power station , the first turbine set was restarted on July 27, 1955 and a traction current line to the Köthen substation was put into operation. From September 1, 1955, trains with electric traction again ran between Halle (Saale) and Köthen.

Percentage of traction types in the Deutsche Reichsbahn (1974)

The first double-decker trains were put into service in 1952 for miners' rush hour traffic in the Ore Mountains. The DR procured the first diesel locomotives in 1960 ( V 15 , V 180 ), which maintained their position well into the age of the Bahn AG. A year later, the DR was able to take over the first new electric locomotive with the E 11 001 . Negotiations about a license to build the standard electric locomotives of the Deutsche Bundesbahn had previously failed. The electric locomotives were produced in the VEB Lokomotivbau Elektrotechnische Werke "Hans Beimler" (LEW) in Hennigsdorf . The diesel locomotives initially came from VEB Lokomotivbau Karl Marx Babelsberg , and later from the LEW after it was re-profiled.

From the beginning, the DR participated in the cross-border express freight traffic with Trans-Europ-Express-Marchandises (TEEM). On May 28, 1961, the first TEEM drove in a south-north and north-west direction. For this purpose, the Seddin-Süd junction was expanded into a typical GDR border station with concrete walls, metal mesh fences, control towers and floodlights.

In 1968 the DR began transporting large containers . Container stations ( GCUP ) were gradually built, between which block trains with large container transport wagons (later also in single wagon traffic) ran.

Many sections of the route were given the second track again, and the first electrification program continued until the early 1970s. After that, for economic reasons, the government decided to replace steam operations with diesel locomotives .

The DR could not do without steam locomotives for a long time - they were renewed through conversion, here the Rekolok 50 3552 as a museum steam locomotive shunting.
The DR class V 180 was the first large diesel locomotive in the GDR, here the 118 173 in Dresden Hbf station (1972). Later, large Soviet diesel locomotives in particular dominated the scene on non-electrified main lines.
Electric locomotive 250  164 in series version at the Leipzig Spring Fair (1982). All new rail vehicles were presented to the public here.

The GDR had to stop the construction of heavy diesel locomotives of the series ( 118 ) after a decision of the Comecon . But it also lacked the capacity to develop and manufacture a sufficient number of such machines. Large diesel locomotives were introduced from the Soviet Union (series V 200 or 120 , 130, 131, 132, 142 ) and from Romania ( DR series 119 ) from 1966 . Due to poor manufacturing quality, the 119 series locomotives imported from Romania in particular were prone to breakdowns, so that the DR could only make these vehicles permanently operational with a great deal of effort, including replacing the engine. The diesel locomotives from GDR production were given more powerful engines and transmissions in several stages; the newly motorized machines of the 110 series were renamed to the 112 series and, after a further increase in performance, to the 114 series, the 118.0 series to the 118.5 and those of the 118.2–4 series to the 118.6–8.

At times, the Deutsche Reichsbahn transported more goods than the Deutsche Bundesbahn with its network that was more than twice as large. In 1986 the DR achieved a transport rate of 86% for goods (considered over their entire transport route and for all goods transported).

Despite the high economic importance as a means of transport, the economic problems of the GDR also affected the railway network. The DR suffered particularly from the problems that occasionally arise unprepared from economic constraints and political decisions.

Network entertainment

It was not until the beginning of the 1970s that maintenance expenses increased, which also made it possible to purchase track construction machines from Austria . Afterwards, further lines got their second tracks back, even if the level before the start of dismantling after the end of the war has not been reached again until today, and the line top speeds could be increased again to 120 km / h. From 1976 to 1981 concrete sleepers were installed which, after a few years , cracked due to alkali damage due to incorrect concrete mix with Baltic sand . The consequence of this material defect were numerous new speed limits , the high point of which occurred in 1986. The sections of the route, which had mostly been rebuilt shortly before, could therefore only be driven at 50 km / h. The DR had high additional expenses for the renewed renovation (network stabilization campaign) to replace the damaged sleepers. Among other things, two rapid conversion machines and seven high-performance machine complexes (consisting of a continuously operating tamping machine , ballast plow and dynamic track stabilizer) were procured from Plasser & Theurer . The damaged sleepers were gradually replaced in the following years or the tracks were shut down and dismantled.

electrification

The oil price crisis and falling imports made it necessary to resume rapid electrification of the route in 1976. First, the electrification of the routes from the south of the GDR to Berlin was planned, then the connection of the sea ports and the Mukran ferry port to the electrical network and finally the conversion of the coal removal routes from the Lusatian lignite district . There were also many additional routes. A decentralized energy supply for the newly electrified lines was set up largely through rotating synchronous-synchronous converters fed directly from the 50-Hertz national grid. The main energy source was domestic brown coal . From 1982 a "Central FDJ Youth Object " took over the expansion of the route. By September 30, 1989, 2000 km of overhead lines had been built. The new electric locomotive program was successful with the 250 and 243 series ; many of these vehicles had been in operation for decades. The class 112/212 or 143/243 presented by the LEW in 1982 is one of the most successful electric locomotive designs of the German railways. After German reunification, it was used throughout Germany.

In 1976, the system of city ​​express trains started , arriving in the morning from most of the district cities in the capital Berlin and leaving them again in the evening (also popularly known as " bonz throws "). The wagons - originally all first class - came from a planned delivery to the ČSSR , which was not accepted there due to lack of funds. In the 1980s, UIC type Z2 cars (from Raw Halberstadt ) in the city express paint scheme were also procured, but without increased comfort in second class.

In 1979 the length of the route was 14,164 kilometers, 1621 kilometers of which were electrified and a total of 290 kilometers of narrow gauge. In 1981 the oil-fired steam locomotives except for 02 0201 and a class 50.0 engine were parked. Rust-fired steam locomotives were increasingly used for this. Numerous steam locomotives were dismantled on grate firing and machines of the already parked series 01 and 41 were reactivated. The scheduled operation of steam locomotives on the regular gauge did not end until 1988.

Fares

For four decades, passenger transport fares were 8 pfennigs per kilometer for the second and 11.6 pfennigs per kilometer for the first class plus surcharges for express (1.50 marks) and express (3.00 - 5.00 marks) ) and (additionally) express trains (between 2.00 and 8.00 marks). There were many discounts, such as: B. 75% on the price per kilometer for apprentices traveling in 2nd class to and from the training facility. The partially exhausted state of the superstructure forced speed limits , many single-track routes and intensive use of the route extended travel times. The maximum speed of the trains in passenger traffic was 120 km / h. Delays were particularly common in recent years. Plans for line speeds of up to 160 km / h were not implemented.

The transport police, which were part of the armed organs of the Ministry of the Interior , as well as the Ministry of State Security were responsible for protecting the stations and facilities of the DR . Due to the numerous military transports for the NVA and the Soviet Army ( GSSD ), the DR was viewed as particularly in need of security. To secure these transports in the event of a war, many unused connecting curves and strategic routes were created, including to bypass junction stations and larger bridges.

Around 1990 the Reichsbahn network was around 27% (3829 km) electrified and 30% multi-track (4223 km). In 1990 there were 224,000 employees.

Timetable offer

The timetable offer suffered under the circumstances mentioned; so it was because of the high line occupancy u. a. Due to the freight traffic, especially in the main route network, it is not possible to set up regular traffic . In addition, the travel speed was quite low, even with the city ​​express . However, since motorized individual transport was not an adequate alternative either, the DR retained great importance for passenger transport. Despite the relatively small size of the republic, there were night trains in domestic traffic, for example Rostock-Karl-Marx-Stadt, Sassnitz-Leipzig or Stralsund-Erfurt (the latter connection was already at its destination at 4.30 am).

The situation in Central Europe soon after the end of the war made it necessary to operate international passenger trains again, although the travel options of the local population remained very limited for a long time for political reasons. There was international travel to all neighboring countries and, in many cases, beyond that with sometimes long routes. Political changes had an impact on the number of trains running. While traffic in the direction of the Federal Republic declined with the border security measures in the 1950s and collapsed after August 13, 1961, it increased slowly in the 1960s with the introduction of visa-free travel to both countries in 1970 and 71. Rail travel to Eastern and Southeastern Europe was favored by the unified international passenger and luggage tariff (EMPT / EMGT), which is significantly cheaper than the German rail passenger tariff, with a kilometer price of just two pfennigs in the second and three pfennigs in the first class. Additional trains ran in the summer months, but there was not always enough space.

To prevent abuse, a route surcharge was introduced for the EMPT in 1981. As a result of this, the fare for international journeys in one's own country increased to the level of the domestic transport price.

After the opening of the inner-German border in November 1989, the need for travel to the Federal Republic of Germany increased sharply (cf. Interzonenzug # Reiseverkehr ). Both German state railways responded with numerous additional trains. In contrast, traffic to Eastern and Southeastern Europe collapsed. As a result, many long-standing connections were either completely discontinued in the 1990s or their path was broken.

Operating rights in West Berlin

Transit train from Hamburg passes through the border installations at Berlin-Staaken station, 1986
V 180 on the temporary bridge over the Tegel motorway construction site, 1986

Until the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany (May 23, 1949) and the GDR (October 7, 1949), the railroad operated as the Deutsche Reichsbahn in the American, British and Soviet occupation zones of Germany . There was the addition of the occupation zone: "USSR-Zone", " Brit-US-Zone " and "Zone Fr" on freight cars. In the French zone , the railways were formally combined to form the Association of the Southwest German Railways (SWDE).

The name "Deutsche Reichsbahn" had to be retained for formal legal reasons, because the western allies had only given the Deutsche Reichsbahn permission to operate the railway in West Berlin . France defended itself unsuccessfully against the word “ Reichs-” , since terms that reminded of the Reich should be deleted from the vocabulary.

In addition, the efforts of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SMAD) to limit the rights of the civil administration of the Soviet occupation zone (later GDR) , which were not officially recorded . For a long time, the transport department of SMAD was authorized to issue instructions to the Deutsche Reichsbahn. Economic considerations, especially with regard to the high costs that would have been associated with changing the name (e.g. new signs, printed matter, changing existing contracts to a new name, etc.) also played a role. This reason was usually given to the railway workers and the population in the GDR when the designation Deutsche Reichsbahn was discussed. The GDR also hoped to gain access to foreign Reichsbahn assets. The Deutsche Bundesbahn had taken over a large part . Quite a few properties passed into other hands.

Even after the Wall was built in 1961, the Deutsche Reichsbahn retained the operating rights for rail and S-Bahn traffic in Berlin, as there was an independent regulation for the railway systems and these areas were not part of the western sectors of the Allies and therefore belonged to the sovereign territory of the GDR. As a result, the GDR government showed great interest in a secure presence in West Berlin, which was also useful for political and administrative activities outside of rail operations.

In addition, the pricing policy of the S-Bahn gave the GDR the opportunity for political propaganda by denouncing the BVG tariffs, which were described as capitalist . From 1972, the S-Bahn tariffs increased in line with the BVG fares. After the first Reichsbahn strike in 1949 , there was a second Reichsbahn strike of the employees of the Reichsbahn employed in Berlin (West) in 1980 , after the Reichsbahn had submitted a S-Bahn timetable indicating that operations would close at 9 p.m. on all routes in the western sectors of Berlin with the exception of the Section between Berlin-Friedrichstrasse and Berlin-Charlottenburg contained. The strike was directed primarily against the abolition of the night allowance for railway workers associated with the timetable restriction and against the foreseeable downsizing. The Reichsbahn used the strike to implement further restrictions on the West Berlin S-Bahn network. After the strike, only the sections Berlin Friedrichstraße – Berlin-Wannsee, Frohnau – Lichtenrade and Heiligensee –Schönholz and Papestraße (today Südkreuz ) –Lichterfelde Süd were put back into operation. With the exception of between Friedrichstrasse and Zoologischer Garten, the daily closing time was brought forward to 9 p.m. After the strike, many employees of the offices in the western sectors of Berlin were dismissed by the DR. On January 9, 1984, the DR gave the operating rights for the S-Bahn in Berlin (West) indefinitely to the Berlin Senate . The operation was no longer economically interesting, the operating costs could no longer be covered (also because of the S-Bahn boycott ). Due to the policy of détente, the operation of the S-Bahn in Berlin (West) was no longer suitable as a means of the Cold War .

Federal Republic of Germany

Course book American Zone 1947. Three months after the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany, on September 7, 1949 the inappropriate designation Deutsche Reichsbahn was replaced by Deutsche Bundesbahn .
DR class 119 , after renumbering to DB scheme now class 219
Class 112 locomotives, the further development of the then class 243, were procured for use at 160 km / h.

In the course of German reunification on October 3, 1990, the DR and the administration of the former Reichsbahngut VdeR became federal railroad assets and now formed the special fund Deutsche Reichsbahn of the Federal Republic of Germany. Parts of the West Berlin properties came directly from the VdeR into the administration of the federal railway assets. The members of the transport police switched to the Federal Border Police (BGS).

A massive downsizing since the beginning of the monetary, economic and social union on July 1, 1990 and plans to lay off 60,000 of the 240,000 railway workers by 1995 led to a great deal of resentment and in November 1990 even to a strike . Another reason for the labor dispute was the lower wages paid by the Deutsche Reichsbahn compared to the Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB). The strike led to the interruption of almost all long-distance and freight traffic in the new federal states. There were also severe restrictions on traffic in the direction of West Germany and Eastern Europe. The labor dispute ended on November 29, 1990 with a compromise between the Union of German Railway Workers (GdED) and the Deutsche Reichsbahn: The new collective agreement stipulated that no employee should be dismissed by mid-1991. According to a regulation adopted on April 26, 1991, employees of the Deutsche Reichsbahn received from July 1, 1991 60% of the wages paid by the Deutsche Bundesbahn. The DR's workforce shrank from 253,000 in mid-1990 to 138,000 by the end of December 1993, a decrease of 45%.

On January 1, 1991, the DR increased fares for the first time in more than 40 years. The price per kilometer rose from 8 to 12 pfennigs in the second class and from 11.6 to 18 pfennigs in the first.

On January 4, 1991 the first of 50 electric locomotives of the class 243 of the Deutsche Reichsbahn arrived at the Mannheim 1 and Dortmund depots. They were considered rental locomotives and were assigned to the Erfurt depot in terms of booking. The Reichsbahnausbesserungswerk Dessau took over the repair of DB locomotives of the series 110, 140 and 150 in February 1991. In addition, the Reichsbahnausbesserungswerke Eberswalde , Potsdam and Zwickau received orders from the Deutsche Bundesbahn.

The decision in favor of a uniform locomotive identification system for the DR and DB was made on May 3, 1991. The Deutsche Reichsbahn then redesigned its locomotives and railcars on January 1, 1992. On June 2, 1991, after an interruption of four decades, an all-German course book came into force again. A uniform numbering system for the routes in East and West Germany was only introduced on May 31, 1992. On May 2, 1992, the official clothing known from the Deutsche Bundesbahn was introduced to the Deutsche Reichsbahn.

On 1 February 1993, the operation went on the narrow-gauge railways of the resin to the miniature railway through GmbH (HSB). The DR had thus regionalized the first of its narrow-gauge railways.

With the following expansion measures between the network of the Deutsche Reichsbahn and the network of the Deutsche Bundesbahn, the continuous electrification and the implemented transport projects "Bahnbau Deutsche Einheit", east-west travel was brought into line with the west. The following went into operation between October 3, 1990 and December 31, 1993:

In the 1990/91 winter timetable, the first interregional trains ran between East and West Germany: three pairs of trains from Berlin to Cologne and one pair of trains from Erfurt to Kassel to Aachen, Leipzig to Nuremberg and two pairs of trains from Leipzig to Nuremberg and Munich. Since September 1, 1990, Berlin and Hamburg have been linked by an intercity couple. However, the IC surcharge required for use caused displeasure, as neither regular services were offered nor were the travel times significantly shorter than the other trains.

The Deutsche Bundesbahn extended its InterCity and InterRegio lines to Berlin, Leipzig and Dresden. The timetable introduced on May 31, 1992 brought the Deutsche Reichsbahn - like the Deutsche Bundesbahn in 1991 - the largest change in decades. Five IC lines connected the networks of both railways. The number of Euro and InterCitys rose to 88. On May 23, 1993, the new electrified line Marienborn – Magdeburg was put into operation and Berlin was connected to the ICE network with line 6 .

On January 1, 1994, the rail reform came into force. From the authorities of the Deutsche Reichsbahn and Deutsche Bundesbahn, the exclusively entrepreneurial Deutsche Bahn AG (DB AG) emerged, which was completely federally owned. The revised Article 87e of the Basic Law determined the federal competence for the railway administration. The Federal Railway Authority (EBA) were incumbent now on the sovereign functions such as zoning, railway and construction supervision. On January 5, 1994, the DB AG was entered in the commercial register of the Charlottenburg district court , because the company is based in Berlin.

organization

General Directorate

The DR was headed by a general director (GD), who was mostly also the transport minister of the GDR. The first deputy minister was solely responsible for the railway. Heinz Schmidt was the first deputy of the Minister for many years and, from 1980, State Secretary in the Ministry of Transport (MfV) . Other deputy ministers for the DR were Robert Menzel , Günter Grohmann, Volkmar Winkler u. } a. The ministerial office was in East Berlin, Vossstrasse 33.

General directors of the DR were:

On June 1, 1992, a joint board of the DR and the Deutsche Bundesbahn was formed, which was also headed by Heinz Dürr .

The central operational management was carried out by the main dispatcher management (Hdl), for security reasons in a service facility in Berlin-Spindlersfeld that is inconspicuous from the outside and is not marked as a DR department. Heinz Krüger was the last manager and head of the main staff of the operational management. The Hdl was connected to all head dispatcher lines (Odl) at the Reichsbahn directorates by means of the railroad's internal teleconference intercom system ( FKWA ).

Central organs

Data center of the Deutsche Reichsbahn

  • was responsible for organizing and securing the technical and commercial implementation of computer solutions. It was divided into computing stations (RST) of the individual Reichsbahn directorates. Major projects were EPLA - electronic seat reservation, IS Stave - border traffic, transport traffic, ADAG - empty wagon traffic, ZEFBA - freight calculations and all accounting such as wages and invoices.

Reich Railway Directorate (Rbd)

The Deutsche Reichsbahn was regionally divided into:

  • Reichsbahndirektion Berlin
    • Reichsbahnamt Berlin 1 (administrative headquarters: at Berlin Ostbahnhof)
    • Reichsbahnamt Berlin 2 (administrative headquarters: Potsdam)
    • Reichsbahnamt Berlin 3 (administrative headquarters: Wustermark), was dissolved on January 1st, 1968
    • Reichsbahnamt Berlin 4 (administrative headquarters: at the Berlin Nordbahnhof). He was responsible for the routes in Berlin (West), the Friedrichstrasse station and the north-south S-Bahn.
    • Reichsbahnamt Frankfurt (Oder)
  • Reichsbahndirektion Cottbus , dissolved on September 30, 1990. Lines of the Rba Bautzen (except lines Horka – Hohenbocka and Horka – Weißwasser) came to Rbd Dresden, lines of Rba Senftenberg and Cottbus to Rbd Berlin.
    • Reichsbahnamt Bautzen
    • Reichsbahnamt Cottbus
    • Reichsbahnamt Senftenberg
  • Reichsbahndirektion Greifswald , dissolved on September 30, 1990, became part of the Schwerin district
    • Reichsbahnamt Neustrelitz
    • Reichsbahnamt Pasewalk
    • Reichsbahnamt Stralsund
    • Fährschiffamt Saßnitz (from February 2, 1993 Sassnitz)
Building of the Reich Railway Directorate in Halle
  • Reichsbahndirektion Magdeburg , dissolved on September 30, 1990, came to Rbd Halle
    • Reichsbahnamt Aschersleben (all railway traffic in the Harz was subordinate to him)
    • Reichsbahnamt Magdeburg
    • Reichsbahnamt Stendal

In addition, there was the management of the repair works of the Deutsche Reichsbahn (Rbd Aw) and the Reichsbahnbaudirektion (Rbbd) in Berlin . Reichsbahn repair shops (Raw) for extensive repairs, general inspections and also new buildings } a. in Berlin, Cottbus, Delitzsch, Dessau, Eberswalde, Görlitz, Halberstadt, Halle, Karl-Marx-Stadt (today Chemnitz), Magdeburg, Malchin, Meiningen, Potsdam, Stendal, Wittenberge and Zwickau. There was also the vehicle repair shop in Greifswald.

Subordinate agencies

Each Reichsbahn directorate was headed by a president and several vice-presidents. The Reich Railway Directorates were in turn subdivided into the Reich Railway Offices. The stations were subordinate to them.

Bahnbetriebswerke (Bw), Bahnstromwerke (Bsw), Starkstrommeistereien (Stm) belonged to the main service branch of machine management and were directly subordinate to the Rbd.

Other departments were:

  • Railway company car works (Bww), previously car maintenance depots (Wm)
  • Railway maintenance depots (Bm)
  • Superstructures (Obw)
  • Maintenance works for security and telecommunication technology (IwST), previously maintenance works for security, telecommunications and process automation technology (IwSFP) (until 1986 signal and remote signaling masters [Sfm])
  • Plant construction for security, telecommunication and process automation technology (ASFP), previously signal and telecommunication works Sfw
  • Building construction masters (Hbm)
  • Maintenance workshops for bridges and engineering structures (IwBK), previously bridge maintenance workshops (Brm)
  • Kraftwagenbetriebswerke (Kbw)
  • Test and development centers (VES), e.g. } B. VES-M Halle test and development center for mechanical engineering

education

Highest educational institution for the training of qualified engineers, qualified transport technologists, etc. } a. was the University of Transport (HfV) in Dresden , which was directly subordinate to the Ministry of Transport. There was also a technical school in Dresden ( engineering school for transport technology ) and the engineering school for transport operations technology in Gotha for the training of engineers. Vocational training was the responsibility of the company vocational schools , which were assigned to the individual departments.

Promotions

The lower ranks were certified or promoted as follows:

Awards

The following awards were given:

Transport volume

Until the founding of the Deutsche Bahn AG, the promotion of the DR was shaped by the state pursued goal of putting as many transports as possible by rail. The SED put the automobile industry on the back burner and criticized the fact that the Federal Republic focused one-sidedly on promoting the automobile industry. In contrast, the SED relied on the expansion of public transport. Rail traffic also had priority in traffic planning. Traffic experts in the GDR saw the increasing traffic chaos in large western cities caused by private cars as confirmation of the correctness of this orientation. The reasons for this were less ecological than economic: in the GDR, rail traffic was considered more rational than car and truck traffic. The specifically cheaper transport and energy costs as well as the traction using inexpensive domestic brown coal instead of imported crude oil also contributed to this.

The goods traffic of the DR grew from 1960 to 1986 by 79% from 32.9 to 58.9 billion ton kilometers. DB's freight traffic grew by only 8.7% in the same period. The DR passenger traffic barely grew from 1960 to 1986 (by 5.2%), while that of the DB grew by 7.8% in the same period.

Registered transport services
Transport performance Railway company 1960 1970 1980 1986
Freight transport in billions of ton kilometers German Reichsbahn 32.9 41.5 56.4 58.9
German Federal Railroad 56.2 72.6 65.3 61.1
Passenger traffic in billions of passenger kilometers German Reichsbahn 21.3 17.7 22.0 22.4
German Federal Railroad 38.4 37.5 41.4 41.4

Accidents

A number of accidents have occurred in the history of the Deutsche Reichsbahn . In July 1967 the Langenweddingen railway accident occurred , with 94 fatalities the worst railway accident in post-war German history before reunification.

See also

literature

  • Didier Bauzière: VEB rail battle . About the difficult handling of GDR journalism with the Deutsche Reichsbahn. IKS Garamond, Jena 2002, ISBN 978-3-934601-40-6 .
  • Robin Garn (Ed.): Reichsbahn without Reich. About the post-war history of the East German State Railways. Volume 1: Risen from the Ruins (1945–1955). Lok-Report, Berlin / Münster 1996, ISBN 978-3-921980-52-1 . Volume 2: facing the future? (1955-1971). Lok-Report, Berlin / Münster 1999, ISBN 978-3-921980-69-9 .
  • Ralph Kaschka: On the wrong track. Infrastructure policy and development of the GDR using the example of the Deutsche Reichsbahn 1949-1989. Campus, Frankfurt a. M./New York 2011, ISBN 978-3-593-39488-6 (also dissertation , Technische Universität Dresden 2010).
  • Christopher Kopper : The Deutsche Reichsbahn 1949–1989. In: Lothar Gall , Manfred Pohl (Hrsg.): The railway in Germany. From the beginning to the present. CH Beck, Munich 1999, ISBN 978-3-406-45334-2 , pp. 281-316.
  • Bernd Kuhlmann: Deutsche Reichsbahn secret. Poison trains, military transports, secret projects. 2nd Edition. Geramond, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-86245-187-6 .
  • Erich Preuss : That was the Deutsche Reichsbahn. The large archive of the GDR rail traffic. Loose leaf. Geramond, Munich 2003ff., ISSN 1860-5389.
  • Erich Preuss: Reichsbahn report. Between ideology and reality. Transpress. Stuttgart 2015, ISBN 978-3-613-71516-5 (reprint of the two-volume work first published in 1993 and 1999).
  • Manfred Weisbrod, Franz Rittig: The class 232 - the famous Ludmilla (= railway journal special edition ). Publishing group Bahn, Fürstenfeldbruck 2005, ISBN 3-89610-123-4 .

Web links

Commons : Deutsche Reichsbahn  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Transportation of the GDR. (No longer available online.) In: hfv-dresden.de . Hendrik Ammoser, archived from the original on July 13, 2016 ; Retrieved on November 20, 2018 (private “traditional website for the Dresden student body for traffic sciences”).
  2. ^ Ulrich Hassel: Quickly through the GDR . In Eisenbahn Geschichte 76 (June / July 2016), pp. 4–13.
  3. 10 years of rail reform . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , Issue 3/2004, ISSN  1421-2811 , pp. 114–116.
  4. After the war, the victorious powers concluded an agreement according to which "without prejudice to the division into sectors, in the interests of safety and the maintenance of transport, the entire railway system within the boundaries of the city of Berlin is subject to the Soviet military administration."
  5. Art. 26 Unification Treaty
  6. ^ German Bundestag : Law for the reorganization of the railway system. Matthias Dörfler, August 4, 2010, p. 2 , accessed on February 18, 2007 .
  7. ^ The tasks of automobile construction after the fifth congress of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. In: Motor Vehicle Technology 11/1958, pp. 401–403.
  8. The US has concerns. In: Motor vehicle technology 3/1963, p. 114.
  9. ^ State Central Administration for Statistics: Statistical Yearbook 1989 of the GDR , State Publishing House of the GDR, 1st edition, Berlin June 1989, VLN 610 GDR, LSV no. 9815, ISSN  0323-4258 , Appendix II, page 93