Deutsche Bundesbahn
state railway of the Federal Republic of Germany (1949–1993)
Deutsche Bundesbahn (German pronunciation: [ˈdɔʏtʃə ˈbʊndəsˌbaːn], lit. 'German Federal Railway'), or DB ([deːˈbeː]), was formed as the state railway of the newly established West Germany (FRG) on 7 September 1949 as a successor of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (DRG). The DB remained the state railway of West Germany until after German reunification, when it was merged with the former East German Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR) to form Deutsche Bahn, which came into existence on 1 January 1994.
Background
After World War II, each of the military governments of the Allied Occupation Zones in Germany were de facto in charge of the German railways in their respective territories. On 10 October 1946, the railways in the British and American occupation zones formed the Deutsche Reichsbahn im Vereinigten Wirtschaftsgebiet (German Imperial Railway in the united economic area), while on 25 June 1947, the provinces under French occupation formed the Südwestdeutsche Eisenbahn. With the formation of the FRG these successor organisations of the DRG were reunited, a situation codified by the Federal Railways Law (Bundesbahngesetz) that was ratified on 13 December 1951. The railways in the Saarland joined on 1 January 1957.
Organisation
The DB was a state-owned company that, with few local exceptions, exercised a monopoly concerning rail transport throughout West Germany. The DB was placed under the control of the Bundesverkehrsministerium (Federal Transport Ministry). With its headquarters in Frankfurt, in 1985 the DB was the third-largest employer in West Germany, with a strength of 322,383 employees. A special transit police (Bahnpolizei) provided security.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Deutsche Bundesbahn” as state railway of the Federal Republic of Germany (1949–1993). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as state railway of the Federal Republic of Germany (1949–1993). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q687175. VIAF identifies the subject as 131078768. The Library of Congress control number is n80067034. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1949, 1994, 1946 and 1947.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
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- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Deutsche Bundesbahn” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.