Railway divisions in Germany

Incorporation into the state government

The first railway divisions of the various German state railways (known as Länderbahnen), usually reported to a specific government ministry. For example, in Prussia they came under the 'Ministry for Trade, Industry and Public Works" and, from 1878, the "Ministry of Public Works" which had been split off from it. In the Kingdom of Bavaria the railway operating divisions came under the "State Ministry of Transport". By contrast the Royal Saxon State Railways reported to the Saxon finance ministry.

In Bavaria the five railway operating divisions (Eisenbahnbetriebsdirektionen) initially worked under the "General Division for Royal Transportation", in 1886 they reported to the "General Division of the Royal Bavarian State Railways" and from 1906 to the "State Ministry of Transport".

As a small state, Baden ran its railway operations from just one central headquarters and it was not until 1882 that there was a railway division in Karlsruhe. Hitherto, the responsibility for national railway construction was allocated to its Home Office and operations, by contrast, to the Foreign Office. In between times, the "Department of Waterway and Road Construction" and, later on, the "Department of Post and Railways" were responsible.

Internal organisation

The Royal Berlin Railway Division

As the organisation of railway operations progressed, railway divisions were usually subject to state control with regard to finances. In particular this covered the fares structure (standard fare rates and special fares for specific areas), the retention or handing over of financial takings and the guarantee of additional resoureces to compensate for losses or for the construction of railway structures such as stations, new lines or electrification.

Within these prescribed boundaries the divisions ran the traffic operations on the routes allocated to them. Internally they frequently had departments assigned to "Finance and Staff", "Timetables, Fares and Operating Procedures" and "Construction, Maintenance and Vehicles".

Sub-divisions

Beyond that, a railway division could have several traffic operating offices, main workshops or locomotive depots at various locations, that were each allocated to specific lines. It was also sometimes the case that in a city or at a railway hub, several traffic operating offices of different railway divisions were represented next to one another, especially in the capital city of Berlin.

For example, the "Royal Berlin Division of the State Railways" was divided into eleven external "traffic operating offices" (Betriebsämter) for the routes shown:^[1]

• Three in Berlin: a) Stadtbahn and Ringbahn, b) Berlin-Sommerfeld, c) Berlin-Dresden
• Two in Breslau: a) Breslau-Sommerfeld, b) Breslau-Halbstadt
• Two in Stettin: a) Berlin-Stettin, b) Stettin-Stralsund
• One each in Görlitz, Stralsund, Kottbus and Guben

Following its restructuring on 1 April 1895 the Berlin division had:

• nine operating inspectorates (Betriebsinspektionen)
• three engineering inspectorates (Maschineninspektionen)
• thirteen workshop inspectorates (Werkstätteninspektionen)
• a telegraph inspectorate (Telegrafeninspektion) and
• four traffic inspectorates (Verkehrsinspektionen).

In addition to the president, the workforce comprised 15 members of the board, 10 assistants, an accounts director, an accounts manager and 580 office workers.

Prussia

In Prussia the administrations of the larger state railways were reorganised into independent divisions that were referred to as "Royal Railway Divisions" (Königliche Eisenbahndirektionen or KED for short. Later they were simply called railway divisions (Eisenbahndirektionen or ED) within the Prussian state railways. Prussia's vast railway network had the largest number of railway divisions and they had widely differing structures. The railway divisions reported directly to the Ministry for Trade, Industry and Public Works until 1878, when it was broken up and the divisions reported to the newly formed Ministry for Public Works. In addition to the railways, it was responsible for the construction of canals and country roads, thus it was a sort of transport ministry.

Bavaria

The state-run regional administrations which formed part of the Royal Bavarian State Railways were initially referred to as "railway offices" (Bahnämter) and "main railway offices" (Oberbahnämter). The latter were located in Augsburg, Bamberg, Ingolstadt, Kempten, Munich, Nuremberg, Regensburg, Rosenheim, Weiden and Würzburg.^[2] Until 1886, they were subordinated to the "General Division of Royal Transportation" (Generaldirektion der königlichen Verkehrsanstalten) and from 1886 to 1906 to the "General Division of the Royal Bavarian State Railways" (Generaldirektion der königlich bayerischen Staatseisenbahnen). From 1906 'railway operating divisions' (Eisenbahnbetriebsdirektionen) were created, that reported to the "State Ministry for Transport" (Staatsministerium für Verkehrsangelegenheiten).^[3] They included the divisions of Augsburg, Ludwigshafen/Rhine, Munich, Nuremberg, Bamberg, Regensburg and Würzburg, that, apart from Bamberg (which became part of Nuremberg) were taken over by the Reichsbahn in 1920.

Saxony

In Saxony there were initially several organisationally separate "state railways", based in Dresden, in Leipzig and briefly it would seem in Chemnitz.

On 1 August 1848 the "Royal Division of the Saxon-Bohemian State Railway" (Königliche Direction der Sächsisch-Böhmischen Staatseisenbahn) was founded. Shortly afterwards it was retitled to the "Royal Division of the Saxon-Bohemian and Saxon-Silesian State Railways" (Königlichen Direction der Sächsisch-Böhmischen und Sächsisch-Schlesischen Staatseisenbahnen), from 14 December 1852 to the "Royal State Railway Division" (Königlichen Staatseisenbahn-Direction), from 1 October 1853 to the "Royal Division of the Eastern State Railways" (Königliche Direktion der östlichen Staatseisenbahnen) and finally on 1 July 1869 it was combined with the Leipzig division to become the "Royal General Division of the Saxon State Railways" (Königlichen Generaldirection der sächsischen Staatseisenbahnen).

On 1 April 1847 in Leipzig the "Royal Division of the Saxon-Bavarian State Railway" (Königliche Direction der Sächsisch-Bayerischen Staatseisenbahn) was founded; on 1 October 1853 it became the "Royal Division of the Western State Railway" (Königlichen Direktion der westlichen Staatseisenbahn). It was disbanded on 1 July 1869 and merged with Dresden.

Other state railways

The other state railway divisions were:^[4]

• Hesse:
  • The "Grand Duchy Division of the Upper Hessian State Railway" in Giessen
  • The "Main-Neckarbahn Division" in Darmstadt.
• Württemberg: "Railway Division of the Württemberg state railways" in Stuttgart
• Baden: "General Division of the Grand Duchy of Baden State Railways“ in Karlsruhe
• Oldenburg: "Grand Duchy railway division" in Oldenburg.
• Alsace-Lorraine: "Imperial General Division of the railways in Alsace-Lorraine" at Strasbourg, for the railway in Alsace-Lorraine and the Wilhelm-Luxemburg railway.
• Mecklenburg: "Grand Ducal General Railway Division" (GGED) in Schwerin (from 1889)

Reichsbahn divisions

The individual divisions were given identification letters. Even the abbreviations of stations and other operating points within the division began with the divisional letter as recorded in the Reichsbahn's official list of railway operating points (DV100/DS100).

In 1927, the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft was divided into 24 Reichsbahn divisions, to which were added the six, initially separate, divisions of the Bavarian Group Administration (Gruppenverwaltung Bayern) and two divisions from the wider German-speaking world:

• A Reichsbahndirektion Altona (later Hamburg)
• B Reichsbahndirektion Berlin
• Reichsbahndirektion Breslau
• D Reichsbahndirektion Dresden
• Reichsbahndirektion Elberfeld (later Wuppertal)
• U Reichsbahndirektion Erfurt
• E Reichsbahndirektion Essen/Ruhr
• F Reichsbahndirektion Frankfurt/Main
• L Reichsbahndirektion Halle (Saale)
• H Reichsbahndirektion Hannover
• R Reichsbahndirektion Karlsruhe
• Reichsbahndirektion Kassel
• K Reichsbahndirektion Köln
• Reichsbahndirektion Königsberg (Pr.)
• Reichsbahndirektion Magdeburg (disbanded on 1 October 1931, to RBD Halle/Saale, Berlin, Altona and Hannover), but see below!
• Reichsbahndirektion Mainz
• Reichsbahndirektion Münster (Westf.)
• Reichsbahndirektion Oldenburg (dissolved on 1 January 1935, to RBD Münster and Hannover)
• Reichsbahndirektion Oppeln
• Reichsbahndirektion Osten (in Frankfurt/Oder)
• W Reichsbahndirektion Schwerin
• Reichsbahndirektion Stettin
• T Reichsbahndirektion Stuttgart
• S Reichsbahndirektion Trier (from 1935 RBD Saarbrücken)

The Bavarian Group Administration (dissolved at the end of 1933) of the Deutsche Reichsbahn included the:

• Reichsbahndirektion Augsburg
• Reichsbahndirektion Ludwigshafen/Rhein (dissolved on 1 April 1937, to RBDs Mainz und Saarbrücken)
• M Reichsbahndirektion München
• N Reichsbahndirektion Nürnberg
• Reichsbahndirektion Regensburg
• Reichsbahndirektion Würzburg (dissolved on 1 January 1931, to RBD Nuremberg)

The railway lines of the Sudetenland were allocated to the neighbouring railway divisions of Breslau, Dresden and Regensburg. In 1939, after the annexation of former German imperial and Polish territories into the German Reich, two new Reichsbahn divisions were formed:

• Reichsbahndirektion Danzig for the Reichsgau of Danzig-West Prussia
• Reichsbahndirektion Posen für the Reichsgau of Wartheland

GDR Reichsbahn divisions

List of divisions in the Reichsbahn in East Germany:

• Reichsbahndirektion Berlin
• Reichsbahndirektion Cottbus (from 1 October 1945 for RBD Osten)
• Reichsbahndirektion Dresden
• Reichsbahndirektion Erfurt
• Reichsbahndirektion Greifswald (from 10 October 1945 for RBD Stettin)
• Reichsbahndirektion Halle
• H Reichsbahndirektion Magdeburg (from 18 August 1945 for RBD Hannover)
• Reichsbahndirektion Schwerin
• Reichsbahndirektion Wittenberge (from 15 August to 30 September 1945 replaced RBD Hamburg)

Bundesbahn divisions

In 1993 the Deutsche Bundesbahn was divided into the following divisions (in brackets the identification numbers of the traffic operating departments, the construction and engineering departments had this number plus 50):

• Bundesbahndirektion Hamburg [01]
• Bundesbahndirektion Hannover [13]
• Bundesbahndirektion Essen [10]
• Bundesbahndirektion Köln [15]
• Bundesbahndirektion Frankfurt [11]
• Bundesbahndirektion Saarbrücken [25]
• Bundesbahndirektion Karlsruhe [14]
• Bundesbahndirektion Stuttgart [29]
• Bundesbahndirektion Nürnberg [22]
• Bundesbahndirektion München [20]

At that time the following divisions had been dissolved and absorbed by other remaining divisions:

• Bundesbahndirektion Augsburg (dissolved on 1 Juni 1971, to BD München) [02]
• Bundesbahndirektion Mainz (dissolved on 30 April 1972, to BDs Karlsruhe, Frankfurt and Köln)[19]
• Bundesbahndirektion Münster (dissolved on 31 December 1974, to BDs Essen and Hannover) [21]
• Bundesbahndirektion Wuppertal (dissolved on 31 December 1974, to BDs Köln and Essen) [08]
• Bundesbahndirektion Kassel (dissolved on 31 December 1974, to BD Frankfurt) [05]
• Bundesbahndirektion Regensburg (dissolved on 1 June 1976, to BDs München and Nürnberg) [26]

In addition there were departments like the Bundesbahn central offices in Munich and Minden (Westf.) and other central departments, whose ambit covered several divisions.

On the creation of Deutsche Bahn AG in 1994 all the divisions were scrapped and their tasks transferred to new business areas.