Association of the Southwest German Railways

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The Association of the South-West German Railways ( SWDE ) administered the state railways in the countries of the French occupation zone from 1947 to 1951 and gradually became part of the Deutsche Bundesbahn until mid-1952 .

prehistory

After the collapse of the German Empire in World War II in 1945, areas in south-west Germany became the French zone of occupation . Railway operations had come to a complete standstill. First operations were organized by the US armed forces that first invaded here and needed the routes as supply lines. The French occupying power founded the Détachement d'Occupation des Chemins de fer Français (DOCF), a supervisory authority, as a railway authority for their area , and initially attempted via the three Reich Railway Directorates in their area ,

to resume operations.

Since each directorate improvised with the means locally available to it and tried to get the business going again, considerable friction losses arose and the three directorates threatened to develop apart. That was not in the interests of the French occupying power. She, too, had to rely on a railway that was working again as soon as possible. Therefore, at the end of 1945 it created the Oberdirektion der Deutschen Eisenbahnen (OFE) as an authority above the three railway departments . But this failed. Its president was removed from office on May 27, 1946 and named Nôte No. 8 of the DOCF of June 13, 1946, the top of the railway administration was reorganized: The DOFC took over the tasks of the senior management itself and secured the German expertise by creating a specialist authority without authority to issue instructions to the directorates that was supposed to advise the DOFC: the liaison office of German railways in the French occupied zone .

In this phase, on April 1, 1947, the Saar Protectorate was separated from Germany and, with the Saarland Railways, was given its own railway administration that was independent of the occupation zone and consisted of the part of the Saarbrücken Railway Directorate located there . The parts located north of the Saar Protectorate were combined in a Trier Railway Directorate, the parts east of the border fell to the Mainz Railway Directorate. During this time, the states were also reconstituted which - before the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany - also had the highest German state authority. For the French zone of occupation:

Due to the fact that the power of the Reich ceased to exist, the federal states regarded themselves as owners of the respective Reichsbahn assets in their area of ​​responsibility. The legal situation was not clear. For this reason, the states initially regulated operations for the future without touching the property rights issues of the Reichsbahn assets.

founding

The three countries mentioned signed an "Agreement on the establishment of a company association of the South West German Railways" on the future joint operation of the state railways located in their area.

On October 17, 1946, the French military government convened an organizing committee at its headquarters in Baden-Baden , which was supposed to create a new legal basis for railway operations in the French occupation zone. The three countries and VADE were represented. On January 31, 1947, the committee passed the draft of the "Statute of the Association of Works for the Southwest German Railways", which was based on the transnational agreement.

Agreements and statutes were from the three countries and the occupying power to ratify and, as in the countries to July 1, 1947 Act came into force. The company association of the Southwest German Railways was founded. The general management was established in Speyer on November 1, 1947 .

SWDE

business

When the SWDE was founded, on the one hand it was still marked by extensive destruction of vehicles and the railway infrastructure . It was also heavily burdened by reparations and restitution . The latter applied z. B. for locomotives built in France during the war. In order to be able to maintain the railway operation, the SWDE was often forced to rent the locomotives given to France again as "loan locomotives" and to repair them at their own expense before they could be used.

organization

Legal basis

The organization of the SWDE was based on the aforementioned agreement and the aforementioned statute. The SWDE was a non-profit institution under public law and thus a legal person that could act in its own name. In accordance with the geographical conditions of the French occupation zone, it was divided into a north and a south area, each of which represented an island operation . The northern area comprised the state of Rhineland-Palatinate with the railway directorates in Mainz and Trier, the southern area comprised the states of Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern with the Karlsruhe railway department.

Financially, the company should be run as a commercial enterprise and finance itself. For deficits, however, a key was agreed between the countries according to which this was to be compensated.

Administrative structure

The SWDE had a five-tier administrative structure. At the top were the three bodies of the SWDE: Railway Transport Council (EVR), General Management and Railway Advisory Board. The tasks previously performed by the Reich Ministry of Transport were divided between the EVR and the General Directorate.

1st level

The Railway Transport Council (EVR) consisted of two government representatives and one trade union representative from each of the three countries. He was chaired by the President of the EVR, who was not allowed to be a member of the EVR and was not entitled to vote. The EVR's task was to protect the interests of the three countries involved. He also presented the business plan established and decided on the approval of the financial statements and of fundamental importance, the appointment of had officials of the higher service agree and regulated the basic questions of civil service law . Until the occupation statute came into force on September 21, 1949, representatives of the occupying power also took part in the meetings and the military government had to approve its resolutions. The railway advisory board had 34 members from the business community and only had an advisory function.

2nd level

The general management with the general manager at the head. Georg Bauer was the general director . The general management was divided into six departments:

  • Finance and administration,
  • Staff,
  • Traffic,
  • Business,
  • Construction and
  • Machine service.

In addition, there was the main auditing office (HPA) for auditing the accounts at this level . The local examination offices (PA) were located at the three railway departments.

3rd level

The three railway departments and three central offices were located on the middle level. Each railway directorate was headed by a president. The Karlsruhe Railway Directorate was divided into six departments, the Mainz Railway Directorate into five departments and the Trier Railway Directorate only into three departments.
The central offices were

  • the central purchasing office (ZEA) for the procurement of material, coal and other operating materials,
  • the main car office (HWA) for the disposition of the freight wagons and
  • the central workshop management (ZWL) for the technical matters of the seven railway repair shops ( EAW) Betzdorf, Trier, Konz, Kaiserslautern, Ludwigshafen, Offenburg and Friedrichshafen, which were otherwise subordinate to the local railway directorates.
4th level

In addition to the railway repair works in their district, the railway directorates were also subordinate to a total of 54 offices: several railway operations offices (BA), railway traffic offices (VA) and railway machinery offices (MA), one railway surveying offices each (VermA) and for major reconstruction work if necessary, new railway building authorities (NbA).

5th level

The offices, in turn, were subordinated to the “Field Service Offices” on the lowest, fifth administrative level: train stations (Bf), stopping points (Hp), ticket issuers (Fka), goods handling (Ga), railway maintenance depots ( Bm), building construction railway maintenance depots (Hbm), signal masters (Sigm), Fernmeldemeistereien (Fm), Bahnbetriebswerke (Bw), Bahnbetriebswagenwerke (Bww), Kraftwagenbetriebswerke (Kbw) and Catenaries (Flm).

Further tasks

In addition, the SWDE continued the former statutory and voluntary social institutions of the Deutsche Reichsbahn:

  • Reichsbahn Company Health Insurance Fund (RBKK),
  • Reichsbahn Insurance Company (RBVA),
  • Reichsbahn implementing authority for accident insurance (RAUV)
  • Reichsbahnbeamten sickness care (RKV),
  • Reichsbahn Central Office against Alcohol Risks (RZAL),
  • Railway Social Work (ESW),
  • Iron web-Agriculture (ELW)
  • Railway house fire supply (EHbV),
  • Railway sports clubs (ESV),
  • Railway Housing Associations (EEC),
  • Railway construction cooperatives (EBG) and
  • Railway savings and loan funds (Sparda)

In addition, the general management of the SWDE managed the assets of the Central European Sleeping Car and Dining Car AG (Mitropa), the Central European Travel Agency GmbH (MER) and the Deutsche Verkehrs-Kreditbank AG (DVKB) in the French occupation zone .

Procurement of vehicles

The first 80 gondolas were purchased as early as 1946, although they had been ordered by the Reichsbahn during the war. By 1949, a total of 1,454 freight wagons of different types had been newly purchased by the SWDE. In addition, in 1948/1949 it bought 1000 used open freight cars of German design from NMBS / SNCB, which came from reparation charges after the First World War.

In addition, 10 skirted wagons and 30 express train wagons were procured, which, in contrast to pre-war cars for international traffic, had electric heating and also had upholstered seats in 3rd class. In April 1950 a pre- series rail bus of the VT 95 series (VT 95 911) with a sidecar was ordered, which was delivered to the SWDE in August of that year.

In order to no longer have to use large numbers of freight locomotives in passenger train service, the SWDE ordered eight locomotives of the DB class 23 from the Arnold Jung Lokomotivfabrik in August 1950 . However, these were only delivered to the DB in 1952 after the end of the SWDE.

resolution

In the Bizone (united economic area) the part of the Reichsbahn that remained there was continued to operate under this name. With the entry into force of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany on May 23, 1949, the "Agreement on the Establishment of an Association of Southwest German Railways" became federal law and the legislative competence for the federal railways was now settled there. The SWDE became a "Federal Railroad" and, according to a decree of the Federal Minister of Transport of September 21, 1949, together with the "Deutsche Reichsbahn in the United Economic Area", formally formed the Deutsche Bundesbahn . In its 23rd meeting on October 8, 1949, the Railway Transport Council passed the resolution that the SWDE should be called "Deutsche Bundesbahn - Betriebsvereinigung der Südwestdeutsche Eisenbahnen". The two administrations initially remained legally separate, even if they agreed to work more closely with them in administrative agreements. The conclusion of this series of agreements was the one with which the financial and economic community was established on January 1, 1951.

Legally, the existence of the SWDE only ended with the entry into force of the Federal Railroad Act on December 18, 1951, after a uniform “Federal Railroad Assets” had already been established with the “Act on the Property Relationship of the Deutsche Bundesbahn”. The SWDE was actually dissolved in the following months, which also included a festive meeting of the EBV in Baden-Baden with the participation of Federal Transport Minister Hans-Christoph Seebohm . The last business of the SWDE was transferred to the now fully functional Deutsche Bundesbahn on June 1, 1952.

literature

in alphabetical order by authors / editors

  • Railway Transport Council (Ed.): Memorandum on the activities of the Railway Transport Council of the Association of Southwest German Railways in the years 1947–1952 . Speyer 1952.
  • General Directorate (Ed.): The General Directorate of the Southwest German Railways in Speyer on the Rhine . Speyer 1952.
  • Peter Schymanietz: The organization of the German railways 1835-1975 . Freiburg 1977.
  • 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.
  • Hansjürgen Wenzel: The southwest German railways in the French zone (SWDE) . Krefeld 1971.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ F. Wachtel: Legal and organizational development of the railroad in the French zone of occupation. 1956, p. 24f.
  2. ^ F. Wachtel: Legal and organizational development of the railroad in the French zone of occupation. 1956, p. 27.
  3. ^ F. Wachtel: Legal and organizational development of the railroad in the French zone of occupation. 1956, p. 27.
  4. ^ F. Wachtel: Legal and organizational development of the railroad in the French zone of occupation. 1956, p. 27.
  5. ^ F. Wachtel: Legal and organizational development of the railroad in the French zone of occupation. 1956, p. 25.
  6. ^ F. Wachtel: Legal and organizational development of the railroad in the French zone of occupation. 1956, p. 27.
  7. ^ F. Wachtel: Legal and organizational development of the railroad in the French zone of occupation. 1956, p. 27.
  8. ^ F. Wachtel: Legal and organizational development of the railroad in the French zone of occupation. 1956, p. 27.
  9. ^ F. Wachtel: Legal and organizational development of the railroad in the French zone of occupation. 1956, p. 27.
  10. ^ Railroad Journal. Special issue 1/2012: VT 95–98 Uerdinger rail bus. P. 19 f.
  11. ^ F. Wachtel: Legal and organizational development of the railroad in the French zone of occupation. 1956, p. 28.
  12. ^ F. Wachtel: Legal and organizational development of the railroad in the French zone of occupation. 1956, p. 28.
  13. ^ F. Wachtel: Legal and organizational development of the railroad in the French zone of occupation. 1956, p. 28.