The German Railway Operating Company (German: ''Deutsche Eisenbahn-Betriebs-Gesellschaft'') or DEBG was a public limited company (''

Aktiengesellschaft (; abbreviated AG, ) is a German word for a corporation limited by share ownership (i.e. one which is owned by its shareholders) whose shares may be traded on a stock market. The term is used in Germany, Austria, Switzerland (where it is equi ...

'') that was founded on 15 November 1898 in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

. It was founded by the Vering & Waechter railway construction and operating company, the firm of Doertenbach & Co and the Central German Credit Bank (''Mitteldeutsche Creditbank'').

Acquisition of branch lines

The DEBG immediately took over from Vering & Waechter the running powers for twelve branch lines with a total length of 184 km. These included seven railways of foreign owners in all parts of the

German Reich German ''Reich'' (lit. German Realm, German Empire, from german: Deutsches Reich, ) was the constitutional name for the German nation state that existed from 1871 to 1945. The ''Reich'' became understood as deriving its authority and sovereignty ...

, however these were given up again in the years that followed. One of them was the

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

Gernrode-Harzgerode Railway in the

Harz mountains The Harz () is a highland area in northern Germany. It has the highest elevations for that region, and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. The name ''Harz'' derives from the Middle High German ...

. The remaining five were transferred to the DEBG in 1898/99; four of them were in the Grand Duchy of Baden. After the turn of the century the centre of gravity for the business was now clearly in the southwestern part of the Empire. The DEBG built another four railways in Baden and three in

Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...

Lorraine Lorraine , also , , ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; german: Lothringen ; lb, Loutrengen; nl, Lotharingen is a cultural and historical region in Northeastern France, now located in the administrative region of Gra ...

, the latter being lost again in 1919/20 after the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The loss of the lines in Alsace-Lorraine was balanced out by the procurement of five railways from the Badischen Lokal-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (BLEAG) on 22 December 1931. This expansion added 131 km of line and resulted in the DEBG achieving its highest network length of 264.5 km excluding the 32 km of the VEE. At the start of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

the following branch lines in Baden belonged to the DEBG: *

Acher Valley Railway The Acher Valley Railway (german: Achertalbahn) is a 10.4 km long branch line from Achern to Ottenhöfen im Schwarzwald in the Black Forest in Germany that branches off the Rhine Valley Railway. External links Acher Valley Railway Societ ...

Alb Valley Railway The Alb Valley Railway (german: Albtalbahn) is a railway line in southern Germany that runs from Karlsruhe via Ettlingen to Bad Herrenalb with a branch to Ittersbach. The line is owned and operated, as part of the Stadtbahn Karlsruhe, by the Al ...

* Katzbach Railway *

Kraich Valley Railway The Kraich Valley Railway (german: Kraichtalbahn) is a branch line in southwestern Germany running from Bruchsal to Kraichtal, Menzingen. It is now integrated as line 32 of the Karlsruhe Stadtbahn. Route The Kraich Valley Railway runs from Bru ...

* Bühler Valley Railway *

Harmersbach Valley Railway The Harmersbach Valley Railway (german: Harmersbachtalbahn) is a 10.6 km long branch line in southwestern Germany that branches off in Biberach from the Black Forest Railway and ends in Oberharmersbach-Riersbach. The Harmersbach Valley Rai ...

* Jagst Valley Railway *

Kander Valley Railway The Kander Valley Railway (german: Kandertalbahn, Alemannic dialects, Alemannic: ''Chanderli'') is a private railway, private heritage railway through the Kander (Schwarzwald), Kander valley in the southwest of the German state of Baden-Württember ...

* Münster Valley Railway * Neckarbischofsheim–Hüffenhardt railway * Oberschefflenz-Billigheim railway * Orschweier-Ettenheimmünster railway * Wiesloch–Meckesheim/Waldangelloch railway In the north of Germany the DEBG only owned the Voldagsen-Duingen-Delligsen railway which ran through the Prussian provinces of

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

and the neighbouring state of Brunswick. There in the

Weser Uplands The Weser Uplands (German: ''Weserbergland'', ) is a hill region in Germany, between Hannoversch Münden and Porta Westfalica, along the river Weser. The area reaches into three states, Lower Saxony, Hesse, and North Rhine-Westphalia. Important ...

it also ran the Vorwohle-Emmerthal Railway Company, in which it had acquired a majority shareholding. The VEE owned the main workshop for all DEBG railways in Bodenwerder-Linse; it was also responsible for the Baden railways.

Development after the Second World War

The establishment of the Inner German Border did not affect the DEBG as all its railways lay in

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

. Nevertheless, as a result of declining demand on the DEBG's branch lines it withdrew progressively from railway operations. In 1956/57 it sold the electrified sections of the

, that ran from

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

to the northern

Black Forest The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is t ...

, to the state of

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

, who transferred them to the newly founded Abtal-Verkehrs-GmbH. After the end of 1956 passenger services on the Bühl–Oberbühlertal railway were withdrawn, goods traffic ceased in autumn 1958. The remaining ten lines in Baden-Württemberg were transferred by the DEBG on 1 May 1963 into the newly formed state-owned Südwestdeutsche Eisenbahn. In 1968 the DEBG also got rid of the Voldagsen-Duingen-Delligsen branch line. Meanwhile, the company began to be wound up; this was concluded in 1970. Operations by the VEE were transferred on 1 May 1967 to the Vorwohle-Emmerthaler Verkehrsbetriebe.

Sources

* Meinhard Döpner: Die Deutsche Eisenbahn-Betriebs-Gesellschaft AG, Gülzow 2002

External links

* {{PM20, FID=co/042114, TEXT=Documents and clippings about, NAME= Defunct railway companies of Germany