Deutsche Reichsbahn of the GDR
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- For the 1920-1945 company of the same name, see Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft.
The Deutsche Reichsbahn or DR (literally German Imperial Railways) was the national railway of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). In 1949 occupied Germany's railways were returned to German control after four years of allied control following World War II. Those in the Soviet occupation zone (which became the German Democratic Republic or GDR on October 7, 1949) continued to run as the Deutsche Reichsbahn, the name given to the German national railways in 1920. In West Germany, the Reichsbahn was succeeded by the Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB). Both the Reichsbahn and the Bundesbahn continued as separate entities until 1994, when they merged to form the Deutsche Bahn.
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[edit] Organization
The DR was the largest employer in the GDR and as a state-owned firm was directly subordinated to the GDR Ministry of Transport (Ministerium für Verkehr der DDR). From November 1954 - November 1989, the GDR Minister of Transport also occupied the position of the Director General (Generaldirektor) of the DR. The headquarters of the DR was located in East Berlin at No. 33 Voßstraße, close to the Berlin Wall and across from the site of the former Reich Chancellery. The company was administratively subdivided into eight regional directorates (Reichsbahndirektionen) with headquarters in Berlin, Cottbus, Dresden, Erfurt, Greifswald, Halle, Magdeburg and Schwerin. Mitropa furnished catering services to the DR, both on board trains and in stations.
[edit] Passenger service
The DR was centrally directed according to socialist principles within the context of a centrally-planned command economy. By 1989, 17.2% of the passenger transport volume in the GDR was handled by the DR - three times the market share of the Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) in West Germany. Fares were rather cheap, but the trains tended to be overcrowded and slow, owing in part to the poor condition of most rail lines in the GDR. The DR did offer a limited number of express trains such as the "Neptun" (Berlin - Copenhagen), "Vindobona" (Berlin - Vienna), "Karlex" (Berlin - Karlovy Vary) and "Balt-Orient-Express" (Berlin - Bucharest).
[edit] Electrification
Steam engines were the work horses after the war and remained important for a long time. The DR's last steam engine (on normal-gauge tracks) was taken out of service on 28 May 1988. Much of the electrified rail network that existed in (present-day) eastern Germany in 1945 had been removed and sent to the Soviet Union as war reparations in the early years of Soviet occupation. By the early 1970s, only a small portion of the tracks in the GDR had been electrified in comparison with those in Western Europe; the GDR leadership chose to reduce the pace of electrification and instead relied on mostly Russian-made diesel locomotives due to the easy availability of fuel from the Soviet Union at subsidized prices.
When the GDR's energy costs began to rise dramatically in the early 1980s (in part because the Soviet Union ceased to subsidize the price of fuel sold to the GDR), the DR embarked on a large rail electrification campaign as the GDR's electrical power grid could be supplied with electricity generated from the burning of domestically-produced lignite. Even so, not much progress had been realized by the time of reunification with West Germany.
[edit] The DR in Berlin during the Cold War
Due to a quirk in the Four-Power Occupation Agreements for Berlin, the DR operated the long-haul railway service (Fernverkehr) and barge canals in both East and West Berlin throughout the years of the Cold War (and also after the reunification of Germany) until the merger of the DR and DB in January 1994. This led to unique situations due to the occupied status of West Berlin and the presence of the DR there. For example, there were Bahnpolizei (railway police) employed by the DR in their West Berlin railway stations who were controlled by the GDR Interior Ministry, although the three Western Allies (the United States, Great Britain and France) never officially recognized the authority of the GDR government in the Soviet (Eastern) sector of Berlin, let alone in West Berlin. For this reason, the West Berlin Polizei had separate patrols who were empowered to maintain law and order in the West Berlin railway stations.
The Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) maintained a ticket office in West Berlin for many years on Hardenbergstraße near the main Zoological Garden train station. One reason for this was due to the generally poor customer service offered at the DR's ticket counters. Another reason may have been psychological – to promote a visible West German government presence in West Berlin.
Another oddity was the presence of a ticket counter at the East Berlin station Berlin Ostbahnhof (renamed Berlin Hauptbahnhof in 1987) operated by the Soviet (later Russian) military to facilitate transport of their personnel to and from Russia. A special military train operated regularly between Berlin and Moscow until 1994 when the Russian military finally withdrew from Germany. Each of the Western Allies maintained their own stations and ticket offices in their respective zones. (Americans at Lichterfelde-West, British at Charlottenburg, French at Tegel.) Each of the Western Allies also operated military trains over Deutsche Reichsbahn lines converging on the route between Berlin-Wannsee and Marienborn. DR conductors and engine crews operated these trains while military transport officers and soldiers dealt with their passengers and the Soviet Zone military checkpoint officials at Marienborn.
The presence of the DR in West Berlin was costly to the GDR – the operating deficit for the DR in West Berlin in the early 1980s was estimated to be around 120-140 million Deutsche Marks annually. The status of Berlin is also believed to be the reason the East Germans retained the name Deutsche Reichsbahn as it was mentioned as such in transit treaties. Had the railway been renamed, for example, Staatseisenbahn der DDR (State Railways of the GDR) along the lines of other East German institutions, the Western Allies would probably have refused to recognize it as the same or a successor organization and removed its right to operate in West Berlin. This quasi-official presence in West Berlin was apparently very important to the GDR regime, otherwise it is hard to explain the GDR's willingness to incur large hard currency deficits to operate and maintain the West Berlin railway system.
[edit] The S-Bahn in West Berlin during the Cold War
The DR also operated the S-Bahn local train service in West Berlin during much of the Cold War period. Following the erection of the Berlin Wall on August 13, 1961, many West Berliners boycotted the S-Bahn in West Berlin. After a strike by West Berlin-based DR employees in September 1980, the S-Bahn service in West Berlin was greatly reduced. Almost half of the West Berlin S-Bahn railway network was closed following this action, including the closure of the western portion of the Berlin circular ring railroad (Ringbahn).
On January 9, 1984, a treaty between the GDR and the West Berlin Senate entered into force and turned over the responsibility for operation of the S-Bahn in West Berlin to the West Berlin transport authority BVG. The BVG gradually restored much of the S-Bahn service that had been previously reduced. Following the reunification in October 1990, the DR again assumed operation of the entire Berlin S-Bahn.
It took several years to realize full restoration of all S-Bahn services throughout the Greater Berlin region. Service on the West Berlin portion of the Ringbahn was not restored until after reunification (in phases, from 1993 to 2002). Capital projects continue to address the backlog of construction needs that developed during the DR-GDR era.
[edit] The DR after the Reunification of Germany
Article 26 of the Unification Treaty (Einigungsvertrag) between the two German states signed on August 31, 1990 established the DR as special property (Sondervermögen) of the Federal Republic of Germany. Upon reunification, the DR and DB continued to operate as separate entities in their respective service areas, albeit under a coordination agreement. On June 1, 1992 the DB and DR formed a joint board of directors which governed both entities until they were formally merged on January 1, 1994 to form the "privatized" Deutsche Bahn Aktiengesellschaft or AG (Corporation).
[edit] Directors General of the DR
- Willi Besener (1946-1949)
- Willi Kreikemeyer (1949-1950)
- Erwin Kramer1 (1950-1970)
- Otto Arndt1 (1970-1989)
- Herbert Keddi (1989-1990)
- Hans Klemm (1990-1991)
(1) Was also GDR Minister of Transport during his term of service as Director General of the DR.
[edit] Chairman of the Board of the DR
Heinz Dürr 1991-1992
Dürr was also concurrently chairman of the board of the DB. He later served as the chairman of the joint board of directors of the DB and DR from June 1992 - December 1993.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
Erich Preuß, Der Reichsbahn-Report, Stuttgart: transpress Verlag, 2001. ISBN 3-613-71160-5
