Railway association

A railway association is a legal person, usually with the addition eV in Germany , for an association registered in the register of associations with the aim of contributing to the maintenance, preservation and operation of railways or to preserving the memory of railway systems or railway technology.

history

Historically, railway associations were associations of railway workers to pursue social, cultural and sociable purposes together. They existed nationwide and were heavily promoted by the railway administrations in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century in order to oppose the up-and-coming unions with a more government-friendly organization. They were organized in local associations, which in turn formed an association at the management level and were united in a Reich Association of Railway Associations. They were also still active in the Weimar Republic , with the focus increasingly shifting to the social area - such as joint excursions. But the clubs also took care of cheap insurance rates for their members.

Focus

The main focuses of railway associations are:

Preservation of testimonies, documents, drawings in archives
Preservation of rail vehicles and museum presentation
Maintaining the infrastructure of earlier railway lines (buildings, bridges, etc.) and using them as domiciles for other exhibits
Reconditioning of rail vehicles (usually under museum and technical-historical demands) and use in train operations
Maintenance of the railway infrastructure for a museum railway operation
Implementation of museum railway operations

For these focal points there is mostly a regional museum reference, which gives many museum railroad associations a regional and technical-historical orientation.

Origin and membership

Railway associations are usually created with reference to a specific object that is particularly worth preserving from a local or regional point of view and from a technical point of view. The association's activity mostly extends to a thematic focus that is presented to the public directly in the form of railway museums or museum railways or indirectly through publications.

Railway associations recruit their members from railway friends who, in addition to their personal interests in the topic of railways, also strive for active participation in specific projects. Many club members initially come into contact with this hobby through model railways . For this reason, many railway associations also have an active model railroader department; some railway associations combine both focus areas on an equal footing in their organization.

Depending on their fields of activity, railway associations develop into local and regional-defining institutions, since they also have a corresponding spatial presence due to the reference to a regional railway line.

In the associations, a distinction is usually made between active and passive or supporting members. The active members usually make up between 5% and 20% of the total membership and take care of the operational work of the association. The sponsoring members are also urgently needed as very essential moral and lobbying support and with their membership (and the membership fee) they ensure the corresponding external impact of the association.

The first German museum railway association was founded in 1966. The German Railway Association (DEV) now operates the Lower Saxony Small Railway Museum and the Bruchhausen-Vilsen-Asendorf Museum Railway. In England, the first railway associations comparable to German associations were established as early as the late 1950s.

In the five East German federal states, many railway associations were founded after 1990 on the basis of the Federal German Association Act, but some with an older history from non-governmental groups, former working groups of the German Model Railway Association of the GDR (DMV) (e.g. Traditionsbahn Radebeul ) or from groups of the Kulturbund of the GDR (e.g. Preßnitztalbahn ).

Finances

Railway associations usually finance the association's goals and areas of activity from the following sources:

Membership fees (range from 1, - € per month up to an unlimited amount with a set minimum limit according to the respective fee regulation)
Donations (for general goals of the association or project-related)
Contributions from sponsors
Income from events, museum operations, museum railroad operations
Income from commercial operations (dining car operations, souvenir sales)

Railway associations are usually not entitled to public funds, but for special projects or investment plans, due to their external impact, various funding opportunities can be tapped from funds from local authorities, federal states or the EU.

organization

The internal organization of the railway associations corresponds to the requirements of the Association Act , adapted to the respective focus areas with special functional areas in the board and internal, regional structures.

Associations that are simultaneously the operator of a railway infrastructure or that operate as a railway undertaking require, in addition to proof of reliability, long-term business activities, as well as the relevant professional qualifications of a railway operations management.

Due to their extensive points of contact with other similar associations, the approval and licensing authorities as well as with Deutsche Bahn AG, railway associations were interested in a joint representation of interests at an early stage. A few years before 1993, a separate museum railroad working group was created in the Federal Association of German Railway Friends (BDEF), after model railway associations and railway associations had worked together on the association's committees for many years. In the spring of 1993, the Association of German Museum and Touristic Railways (VDMT) emerged from the Museum Railways Working Group, which today represents some of the railroad associations operating in Germany.

Web links

Remarks

↑ In the area of the Reichsbahndirektion Mainz and its predecessor, cf. here and: List of railway associations in the Mainz administrative district .

Individual evidence

^ Reichsbahndirektion in Mainz (ed.): Official Gazette of the Reichsbahndirektion in Mainz of May 1, 1926, No. 20. Announcement No. 337, p. 187.
^ Reichsbahndirektion in Mainz (ed.): Official Journal of the Reichsbahndirektion in Mainz of February 27, 1926, No. 11. Announcement No. 159, p. 86f.
^ Reichsbahndirektion in Mainz (ed.): Official Gazette of the Reichsbahndirektion in Mainz of December 4, 1926, No. 54. Announcement No. 903, p. 430.

[1] In the area of the Reichsbahndirektion Mainz and its predecessor, cf. here and: List of railway associations in the Mainz administrative district .

[2] Reichsbahndirektion in Mainz (ed.): Official Gazette of the Reichsbahndirektion in Mainz of May 1, 1926, No. 20. Announcement No. 337, p. 187.

[3] Reichsbahndirektion in Mainz (ed.): Official Journal of the Reichsbahndirektion in Mainz of February 27, 1926, No. 11. Announcement No. 159, p. 86f.

[4] Reichsbahndirektion in Mainz (ed.): Official Gazette of the Reichsbahndirektion in Mainz of December 4, 1926, No. 54. Announcement No. 903, p. 430.