Headquarters of the German Railways in the French-occupied zone

The Head Office of the German Railways in the French Occupied Zone (ODE) was the first attempt by the French occupying power to organize the railways in their zone of occupation centrally and uniformly after the end of the Second World War .

prehistory

The French occupation took over their zone established on July 28, 1945 and with it the remains of the Deutsche Reichsbahn located in it from the American military , which at the end of the war initially also occupied the areas of the German Reich from which the zone was formed.

The French crew set up the Détachement d'Occupation des Chemins de fer Français (DOCF) to supervise the railways , initially exclusively a control and railway supervisory authority. In practice, due to the destruction of the war, the railroad was largely idle. For the reconstruction and commissioning, the French occupation had to access the remaining German structures. Since the Supreme Administrative level of the Reichsbahn was attributable to the actual destruction of the German Reich, remained as the highest level of the railway administration, the Reichsbahn . In the French occupation zone these were:

• the Reichsbahndirektion Karlsruhe (for the railways in southern Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern ),
• the Reichsbahndirektion Mainz (for the railways in Rheinhessen , the Palatinate and the French-occupied areas on the right of the Rhine in the Westerwald and in the Lahn valley ) and
• the Reichsbahndirektion Saarbrücken for the southern area of ​​the former Prussian Rhine province .

The occupying power therefore initially organized the reconstruction and commissioning of the railroad via these three authorities, now called "Railway Directorates", which had no common leadership, but to which only the DOCF was the supervisory authority: both in the railway directorates and in the middle departments DOCF employees to control the German railway workers.

This structure led to considerable friction losses, as each of the directorates improvised with the means locally available and tried to get operations going again: The three directorates threatened to develop apart, which also contradicted the interests of the French occupying power. She, too, had to rely on a railway that was working again as soon as possible.

founding

In autumn 1945, the French occupying power therefore considered it necessary to have a joint head for the three directorates. The presidents of the three directorates submitted a joint proposal to the head of the DOFC in mid-October. From December 17, 1945, in Speyer , where the DOCF was also based, work began on setting up a senior management of the German railways in the French-occupied zone . The former president of the Reichsbahndirektion Karlsruhe, Dr. Max Rosner was appointed "Oberpräsident" on January 4, 1946, and the authority began its work on January 8, 1946.

The End

The ODE project failed in the spring of 1946, however. On May 27, 1946, the DOFC removed Dr. Rosner from duty with immediate effect, without naming a successor.

With note No. 8 of the DOCF of June 13, 1946, the management of the railroad was reorganized: the ODE was dissolved and the head of the DOCF took the management of the railroad into his own hands: the DOCF supervisory authority itself became a "senior management".

The German competence was to be preserved by creating the liaison office of the German railways in the French-occupied zone (VADE) - also in Speyer - a specialist authority that had no right to give instructions to the three railway departments, but was solely intended to advise the DOFC. In practice in the following time, however, the VADE was increasingly entrusted with the tasks of a "senior management" by the DOFC.

literature

• Friedrich Wachtel: Legal and organizational development of the railway in the French occupation zone . In: Bundesbahndirektion Mainz (Ed.): The Bundesbahndirektion Mainz. Festschrift for the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Mainz Railway Directorate . Carl Röhrig, Darmstadt 1956 = special print from Die Bundesbahn 22/1956, pp. 23–28.

Remarks

1. ↑ The source - from 1956 - was probably too close to the events and remains vague at this point. Personal differences between the heads of DOFC and ODE may have been decisive.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Wachtel: Legal and organizational development , p. 24f.
2. ↑ Wachtel: Legal and organizational development , p. 24.
3. ↑ Wachtel: Legal and organizational development , p. 24f.
4. ↑ Wachtel: Legal and organizational development , p. 25.
5. ↑ Wachtel: Legal and organizational development , p. 25.
6. ↑ Wachtel: Legal and organizational development , p. 25.