Southern Railway Company
The Südbahn-Gesellschaft was an Austrian stock corporation that operated numerous railway lines in the Austrian Empire , in Austria-Hungary after 1867 and briefly after 1918 in some of the successor states of the Habsburg Monarchy ( Austria , Hungary , SHS state ).
The company acquired special economic and historical importance through two aspects. On the one hand, after 1918, negotiations about the distribution of assets after the state reorganization in Europe dragged on for decades. On the other hand, the company continued to exist for many years after the end of rail operations as an asset management company to secure the social rights claims of former employees.
history
Emergence
The company was founded in 1859 as a result of the lack of capital on the part of the Austrian state as a stock corporation with its headquarters in Vienna, because it was not possible to expand the previously mainly state railway network from budget funds. Most of the company's capital was in the hands of French investors. The same situation prevailed with the large competitor kk privileged Austrian state railway company .
The Südbahn-Gesellschaft was the successor of the Vienna-Gloggnitzer-Eisenbahn and the kk Südliche Staatsbahn, which operated on the existing Vienna - Trieste route . When the company was founded, Veneto was still part of Austria and the railway company originally sought to connect Venice as the main seaport of the empire. Only after the loss of Veneto to Austria in 1867 did the need for transport turn to the new main sea port of Trieste.
The Südbahn-Gesellschaft operated another north-south Alpine crossing from Kufstein on the German-Austrian border to Verona (later only to Ala on the then border between Tyrol and the Kingdom of Italy ) with the Brennerbahn, completed in 1867, as the centerpiece. Both north-south routes were connected by an east-west route (today Drautalbahn and Pustertalbahn ) from Marburg (an der Drau) via Klagenfurt to Franzensfeste with the Brennerbahn . The company also operated extensive routes in what is now Italy , Hungary and Croatia .
Division after 1865
When Austria lost control of Northern Italy (Veneto, Lombardy) as a result of the war in 1866 , large parts of the route network lay in the new Kingdom of Italy . The Südbahn-Gesellschaft was divided. The newly founded Strade Ferrate Alta Italia (SFAI), which was also held by the same core shareholder group as the Südbahngesellschaft, took over the Südbahngesellschaft's Italian route network as well as other parts of the Südbahngesellschaft's assets in Italy, especially the vehicle fleet.
.jpg)
Flowering up to the First World War
In Austria-Hungary hardly any initiatives up to then were in the field of tourism. The Südbahn-Gesellschaft, under its general director Friedrich Julius Schüler, was active as a developer of health resorts, namely the Semmering region and the Abbazia seaside resort . In both locations and in Toblach , South Tyrol , the company operated its own railway hotels , which could be reached most cheaply via its own rail network. The Südbahnhotel at the Semmering Pass, which still largely exists true to the original, but is now largely unused, is particularly well known today . The growth in tourism in the health resorts led directly to an increase in demand for travel. Due to the growing dominance of private transport and the loss of importance of rail-bound luxury tourism in the 20th century, other former large hotels of the Südbahn-Gesellschaft, such as the Hotel Kvarner, are in a difficult position today . The existence of the Grand Hotel Toblach appears to be secure today as a cultural center.
An administratively significant step was taken on June 1, 1900: Uniform factory inspectorates , with offices in Vienna, Graz, Trieste, Klagenfurt and Innsbruck, improved the overall course of business from then on, among other things by the fact that the inspectorates each included commercial consultants who belonged to the Cultivated contact with industry, trade and travelers.
Division after 1918
After the end of the First World War , the assets of the railway companies affected by the new demarcation, especially the kkStB and the Südbahn-Gesellschaft, had to be divided up. This proved to be particularly difficult with locomotives and wagons. The international apportionment commission formed for this purpose took several years to finally apportion the vehicle fleet to the countries concerned.
Nationalization and the end
In Austria, the Südbahn-Gesellschaft was transferred to the Donau-Save-Adria Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (formerly Südbahn-Gesellschaft) (DOSAG) in 1923, and operations were taken over due to the announcement by the Federal Ministry of Trade and Transport on December 15, 1923 regarding the takeover of the operation of the Austrian Southern Railway Lines the Austrian Federal Railways . Although DOSAG was no longer active as a railway company afterwards, it continued to exist as a legal entity. The legal form of a stock corporation was retained until 1966. On January 15, 1970, an application for liquidation was filed and the company was deleted from the commercial register on December 17, 1982. In the early 1990s, it still existed as a pure asset and property management company in Rome.
In Hungary the company existed until June 30, 1932 as Duna-Száva-Adria-Vasúttársaság and then went on to the MÁV .
Legal relics
In § 512 of the General Social Insurance Act (ASVG) , which is still valid , it can still be read today that the permanent employees of the central service (general management) of the Danube-Save-Adria Railway Company (formerly the Südbahn-Gesellschaft) are subject to the legally binding in Austria Social security are excluded. This is a dead right , as there are no longer any persons who are employed by DOSAG.
The agreement between the Republic of Austria, the Hungarian People's Republic, the Italian Republic, the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia and the Danube-Save-Adria Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (formerly Südbahn-Gesellschaft) is still in existence, with representatives of the bondholders of the aforementioned joining Society and the Titres and Coupons issued by the former Südbahn-Gesellschaft in Austria with the rank of a law. The first publication took place in the Austrian Federal Law Gazette for the Republic of Austria with the number 176/1964.
Locomotives
In the last few years of its existence, the Südbahn-Gesellschaft used its own system for the designation of some locomotives, and the series scheme of the kkStB and BBÖ for other locomotives . This makes it one of the very few railway companies in the world that used different series schemes at the same time.
See also main article: List of Southern Railway Company Locomotives and Multiple Units
Museums
Südbahnheizhaus Lienz
The Lienz Railway Friends Association is presenting a permanent exhibition on the southern railway in the Lienz Südbahnheizhaus. The exhibition includes historical vehicles as well as exhibits from the Southern Railway era.
Kulturbahnhof
The main focus of the Kulturbahnhof railway museum in Mürzzuschlag is the Southern Railway and the Southern Railway Company. However, this museum does not have any original vehicles from the Southern Railway Company.
Preserved steam locomotives
In Austria, Hungary, Slovenia and Serbia a considerable number of locomotives of the Southern Railway Company have survived. The Steinbrück steam locomotive of the Vienna Technical Museum , built in 1848 , is one of the five oldest preserved original steam locomotives in continental Europe.
Own original vehicles:
- Railway Museum The Heizhaus in Strasshof near Vienna
- Technical Museum Vienna
- Railway Museum of the Slovenian State Railways in Ljubljana
- German Museum of Technology Berlin
- Technical Railway Museum Lieboch near Graz
- Közlekedési Múzeum , (Transport Museum) Budapest
See also
literature
- Peter Rosegger , Vincenz Chiavacci , Theodor Christomanos : The Southern Railway and its traffic area in Austria-Hungary. With 197 illustrations, four maps and a timetable . Published by the kk priv. Südbahn-Gesellschaft. Verlag Rudolf Rohrer, Vienna / Brno / Leipzig 1900, OBV , ÖNB , online .
- Gerhard Michael Dienes (Ed.), Franz Leitgeb (Red.): Die Südbahn. From the Danube region to the Adriatic. (Vienna - Graz - Marburg - Laibach - Trieste) . Leykam-Verlag, Graz / Vienna 1987, ISBN 3-7011-7178-5 .
- Herbert Dietrich (ed.), Hermann Heless (contributions): The southern railway and its precursors . Bohmann-Verlag, Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-7002-0871-5 .
- Dieter Zoubek: Preserved steam locomotives in and from Austria. Self-published, 2004, ISBN 3-200-00174-7 .
- Désirée Vasko-Juhász, Mario Schwarz (essay), Christian Chinna (photo): The Southern Railway: Your health resorts and hotels. Semmering architecture, volume 1. Vienna a. a., Böhlau 2006, ISBN 3-205-77404-3 .
- Gerhart Artl, Gerhard H. Gürtlich , Hubert Zenz: Full steam ahead in the south. 150 years Südbahn Vienna-Trieste . Fassbaender, Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-902575-01-2 . - Table of contents online (PDF; 270 KB) .
Web links
- Company history
- From the history of the kkpriv. Southern runway
- Literature on the Southern Railway Company at the Austrian State Archives
- Early documents and newspaper articles on the Südbahn-Gesellschaft in the 20th Century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Marburger Nachrichten (…) From the Südbahn. In: Marburger Zeitung , No. 62/1900 (XXXIXth year), June 5, 1900, p. 3, top left. (Online at ANNO ). .
- ↑ Gustav Fall: The end of the old southern railway. In: Die Lokomotive , year 1924, No. 4 (April) / 1924 (XXI. Year), p. 59 ff. (Online at ANNO ). .
- ↑ Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (Ed.): Official Gazette of the Reichsbahndirektion Mainz of July 15, 1932, No. 29. Announcement No. 407, p. 160.
- ^ Association of Railway Friends Lienz