Reichseisenbahnamt
The Reichseisenbahnamt ( REA ) was an authority of the German Reich with its seat in Berlin ( Linkstrasse 44), which was responsible for maintaining relations between the Reich and the railway administrations ( state and private railways ) of the member states and for regulating the execution of the railways To guard laws.
history
The authority was created on September 16, 1873 under the official name Reichseisenbahnamt . The first director was Friedrich-Wilhelm Scheele, who resigned in May 1874. Albert Maybach followed him for three years . He was entitled to the following competencies:
- to exercise the right to supervise the railway system due to the Reich;
- to ensure the implementation of the provisions contained in the Imperial Constitution as well as the other laws and constitutional regulations relating to the railway system;
- to work towards eliminating the deficiencies and grievances emerging in relation to the railway system.
The Railway Office was an imitation of the Railway Department of the UK Board of Trade and was also created in a few other countries, e.g. B. Switzerland and Austria-Hungary . After Otto von Bismarck had failed to create a joint German Reichseisenbahn with the creation of this authority , Maybach was entrusted - initially on a temporary basis from April 1878 - with the management of the newly created Prussian Ministry of Public Works . In this function he was then responsible for the management of the Prussian state railways .
Presidents of the Reich Railway Office were:
- 1873–1874 Friedrich-Wilhelm Scheele
- 1874–1877 Albert Maybach
- 1877–1887, the position remained vacant after Maybach's resignation; In the next management level there were seven Secret Upper Government Councilors (“ Lecturing Councilors ”), chaired by Daniel Bernhard Hermann Körte and another named Kraefft as senior officials
- 1887–1891 Friedrich Schultz (managing director until 1890)
- 1891–1902 Karl von Thielen
- 1902–1906 Hermann von Budde
- 1906–1918 Paul von Breitenbach
- 1918–1919 Wilhelm Hoff
The Reichseisenbahnamt was dissolved by the law on railway supervision of January 3, 1920 (RGBl. P. 13).
tasks
The office was entitled, within its jurisdiction, to request information from the railway administrations about all facilities and measures, or to withdraw it as it was determined by personal inspection and then to initiate the necessary.
With regard to the German private railways, this Reich Railway Authority had the same powers as the supervisory authorities of the federal states concerned. The Reich Law of June 27, 1873 stipulated that if an objection was raised against a measure ordered by the Reich Railway Office on the basis of the assertion that this measure was not justified in the laws and legally valid regulations, the Reich Railway Office should decide on this with the involvement of judges (so-called reinforced Reich Railway Authority).
For the latter there was the regulation of March 13, 1876, according to which the strengthened Reich Railway Office should consist of the President of the Railway Office or his deputy as chairman, two councilors of the Reich Railway Office and three judicial officials. As far as the activity of the Reich Railway Authority was concerned, it was especially devoted to the drafting of a Reich Railway Act.
In addition, it was particularly complaints that claimed the work of this authority. Finally, from the varied activities of the Reich Railway Authority, the negotiations on the relationship between the railways and the German Reich military, telegraph and postal administration, the development of a signaling system and the care for regular regulations on the timely opening of the waiting rooms and ticket counters, for the proper calling of the station names , for the associated facilities with regard to heating, lighting and ventilation of the passenger cars, for the production of uniform locking devices on the passenger and freight cars, for a clear and uniform designation of the ordered, smoke and woman coupees, for the erection of clear gradient indicators, etc.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bis Schultz: Malfunction of the German Imperial Railway Office (PDF, 394 kB)
