Association of German Railway Administrations

The Association of German Railway Administrations ( VDEV ) emerged in 1847 from the Association of Prussian Railways , which was founded on November 10, 1846 and was founded as an association of ten Prussian railway administrations in order to standardize the operating resources, equipment and regulations between the individual administrations to simplify. The association was also instrumental in the introduction of the metric system , the uniform coinage and the standard time. From 1932 it operated as the Association of Central European Railway Administrations VMEV .

The idea

In the early days of the development of the new means of transport, the railroad, there were only a few commonalities in terms of technical equipment and conception, with the exception of the track gauge common to all railways (with the exception of the Grand Ducal Badische Bahn ) . Each of the railway companies looked for and found their own specifications for clutches , buffers , clearance gauge , brakes and other things. The transport of people and goods from one railway company to another took place exclusively by changing trains or reloading in the border stations.

With the progressive expansion of the railway network, it became increasingly necessary to enable the transfer of wagons from one railway company to another. So a common basis for the technical operation was sought.

In 1836, in his Eisenbahn-Journal, founded in Leipzig in 1835, the economist Friedrich List proposed to the then existing committees and administrations of German railways that all German railroad administrations should be united for the purpose of exchanging experiences from the operation and providing information on all inventions and improvements in the railway system.

The foundation

Friedrich List's idea was adopted by Franz George Friedrich Rhades . He knew how to get the administration of the Berlin-Szczecin Railway - of which he was chairman of the administrative board - enthusiastic about the idea. At the invitation of the Berlin-Szczecin Railway, the deputies of ten railway directorates met in Berlin in November 1846 and founded the Association of Prussian Railway Directorates .

Founding members were the Berlin-Anhalter Bahn , the Berlin-Hamburger Bahn , the Berlin-Potsdam-Magdeburg Bahn , the Berlin-Stettiner Bahn , the Breslau-Schweidnitz-Freiburger Bahn , the Bergisch-Märkische Bahn , the Düsseldorf-Elberfelder Bahn and the Magdeburg -Leipziger Bahn , the Oberschlesische Bahn and the Rheinische Bahn .

The Union

The association initially adopted a very simple constitution, the provisions of which remained the same for a long time. In accordance with the purpose of the association “to promote one's own interests and those of the public through joint consultations and unanimous action” , the area of activity included all topics that were named by one of the member societies for advice within the association.

Organs of the association

The members

In addition to the founding members already named, other societies gradually applied for membership. At the beginning the possible membership was linked to the fact that the applying company had its domicile within the Prussian national territory. At the request of the Cologne-Minden Railway in the General Assembly of 1847 - which took place from June 28 to 29 in Cologne - this area of the association was expanded to include all railways in Germany .

At the meeting that took place in Trieste in 1858 , the resolution was extended so that all railway administrations that were based in a state belonging to the German Confederation could now join the association . At a further general assembly in Cologne in 1861, the resolution was passed that the general assembly of the association would reserve the right to include non-German railway administrations that are in mutual direct transport with a German railway.

Initially, each of the members had one vote. All decisions about the admission of new members had to be taken unanimously. As the society grew, it became apparent that this form of decision-making no longer reflected the weighting of the individual, differently sized companies. At the Nuremberg General Assembly of 1851, a voting key was designed based on the length of the tracks.

VDEV voice key
Length (in miles)	from	to	Number of votes
	0	10	a
	10	30th	two
	30th	60	three
	60	100	four
	100	150	five
one vote for every further 50 mile or part thereof

For the admission of a new member from the core area of the association, only a simple majority of the members entitled to vote was required. For the admission of a new member whose seat was not in the core area of the association, but which was only in direct transport to one of the associations of the association, the unanimity of all association members was still required.

The managing director

The management of the business of the association was entrusted to a managing director. This was elected for two years. At the founding meeting, this task was assigned to the management of the Berlin-Stettiner Bahn and its director Franz George Friedrich Rhades . The managing directorate was responsible for the execution of the resolutions, the organization of the meetings and the administration of the members.

The General Assembly

In the general assembly - later also known as the general assembly - resolutions were passed on the topics discussed according to the majority principle or referred to "ad hoc" named committees to prepare a resolution. Each of the companies involved initially had one vote when passing resolutions. At the Nuremberg General Assembly of 1851, a new voting key was drafted based on the length of the tracks (see section members).

The general assembly took place once a year. The place of assembly was always changed. Resolutions at the general assembly in Hanover (August 9 and 10, 1864) stipulated that the general assembly should only take place every two years.

The commissions

Right from the start, there were technical commissions that prepared specific topics for decisions to be made at the General Assembly. At the Stuttgart General Assembly of 1852 it was decided that the executive management had to limit itself to the necessary processing of business and that fixed commissions were assigned to it for the preparation of the resolution. these are

the Constitutional Commission
the Commission for the Affairs of Passenger Transport
the commission for the association's goods regulations and other matters of freight transport
the Commission for Statistics on Movement of Goods on Railways
the commission for the club car regulation
the Technical Commission
the Commission for the Customs Treatment of Rail Transport
the commission for disability and mortality statistics
the club cards examination committee
the club cards revision commission
the commission for the revision of the club card regulations
the editorial committee for the club newspaper

However, the managing directorate was still free to set up separate commissions on factual issues. Each of the administrations had the right to make proposals.

The further development

While the area of activity of the association was circumscribed as the totality of the Prussian railways at the time of its founding, this was expanded to include all railways in Germany with the general assembly of 1847 - which took place from June 28 to 29 in Cologne . This resolution was extended at the meeting in Trieste in 1858 so that all railway administrations that were based in a state belonging to the German Confederation could now join the association . At a further general assembly in Cologne in 1861, the resolution was passed that the general assembly of the association would reserve the right to include non-German railway administrations that are in mutual direct transport with a German railway.

The club's growth has been remarkable. As early as 1850 it had 48 members (44 in countries that would later become the German Empire and four 4 Austrian and Hungarian). In July 1870, 77 railway administrations with a total route length of 29,479 km were already members.

The political events of 1866 and 1871 had no particular influence on the size of the association. They led to the fact that, after the establishment of the German Empire, the narrower area of the association was also expanded to include the areas of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy , the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg .

The kk Staatsbahnen (kkStB) institutionalized in Old Austria in 1884 became a member of the association. The club network reached its greatest extent in 1919 with 111,500 km; as a result, it was reduced by the exit of the formerly old Austrian railways.

Statistics on the development of the club network
	Group A German administrations		Group B Austrian and Hungarian administrations		Group C Dutch and Luxembourg administrations		Group D Other administrations		All in all
	Number of administrations	Length of the railway network in km	Number of administrations	Length of the railway network in km	Number of administrations	Length of the railway network in km	Number of administrations	Length of the railway network in km	Number of administrations	Length of the railway network in km
1880	53	33,670	38	18.602	6th	2.013	5	2.133	102	56,508
1890	41	41,224	21st	25,693	6th	2,852	5	3,574	75	73,343
1890	(6)	(101)							[81]	[73,444]
1900	45	48,643	21st	34,815	5	2,982	3	3,603	74	90.043
1900	(15)	(974)							[89]	[91,017]
1910	40	57,248	15th	41,184	5	3,390	3	3,630	63	105,542
1910	(20)	(1,493)							[83]	[106,945]
1914	42	60,566	15th	43,298	5	3,555	3	4,082	65	111.501
1914	(25)	(1,675)	(2)	(102)					[92]	[113,278]
Legend:	the numbers in () are the information for the railways affiliated with the association
	the numbers in [] are the information for club members + affiliated railways

The association's trade journals

The club's newspaper

In the early years from 1847 to 1860, the association 's "Eisenbahnzeitung", published by the technical members of the Württemberg railway administration, Karl Etzel and Ludwig Klein in Stuttgart, served as a platform for all publications and communications. In 1860, the General Assembly decided to found its own newspaper with the name “Newspaper of the Association of German Railway Administrations”, which was initially self-published by JC Hinrich in Leipzig. In 1876 the place of publication changed to Berlin, in 1898 the Julius Springer publishing house became the publisher. The newspaper appeared twice a week.

In the newspaper the managing administration published all notices about club affairs. It also served all club administrations to publish their tariff and other notices. The costs of the newspaper - which around 1910 had a circulation of around 8,000 copies - were borne by the club's treasury, unless they were covered by income from private advertisements and sales to non-members.

Organ for the Progress of Railways

After it was recognized that the club newspaper did not have enough space for reports on technical progress, the General Assembly decided in 1862 that E. Heusinger v. Waldegg founded organ for the advancement of the railway industry in technical relation to use as a technical journal, it was then subtitled Organ of the Association of German Railway Administrations . In 1906 it was decided to make the organ the actual technical journal of the association. Since January 1, 1907, the organ has been published on behalf of the association in 24 annual half-monthly publications.

Worth knowing

The Deutsche Reichsbahn and Luft-Hansa had already cooperated in passenger and luggage transport since the 1920s . In 1930 the Luft-Hansa became a member of the Association of German Railway Administrations .

Remarks

↑ Affiliated railways are not entitled to vote in the general meetings.

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k Newspaper of the Association of German Railway Administrations, No. 34 of 1871, p. 687 ff.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Victor von Röll : Enzyklopädie des Eisenbahnwesens , Vienna 1890–1923, Volume 10, p. 93 ff.
^ Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (ed.): Official Gazette of the Reichsbahndirektion in Mainz of November 15, 1930, No. 54. Announcement No. 764, p. 345.

literature

Hof: The German railway system of the present . Reimar Hobbing, Berlin 1911.
Röll, Freiherr von: Encyclopedia of the Railway System . Vienna 1912.
One hundred years of German railways . Verkehrswwissenschaftliche Lehrmittelgesellschft mbH, Leipzig 1938.

[3] Affiliated railways are not entitled to vote in the general meetings.

[Zeitung_687-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k Newspaper of the Association of German Railway Administrations, No. 34 of 1871, p. 687 ff.

[Roell-2] Victor von Röll : Enzyklopädie des Eisenbahnwesens , Vienna 1890–1923, Volume 10, p. 93 ff.

[4] Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (ed.): Official Gazette of the Reichsbahndirektion in Mainz of November 15, 1930, No. 54. Announcement No. 764, p. 345.