In Germany and Austria, the running of railway services for a railway administration or the regional network of a large railway company was devolved to railway divisions, variously known as Eisenbahndirektionen (ED), Bundesbahndirektionen (BD) or Reichsbahndirektionen (RBD/Rbd). Their organisation was determined by the railway company concerned or by the state railway and, in the German-speaking lands at least, they formed the intermediate authorities and regional management organisations within the state railway administration's hierarchy. On the formation of the Deutsche Bahn AG in 1994 the system of railway divisions (Eisenbahndirektionen) in Germany was discontinued and their tasks were transferred to new "business areas".
Germany
State railway divisions
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
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 resources 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:Meyers Konversations-Lexikon – 1885 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.
Divisions As at 1907, after the management reform of 1895 and its merger with the Hessian State Railways, the Prussian state railways had the following divisions:
Date founded Location Remarks 5 November 1849 Bromberg As "Royal Division of the Ostbahn at Bromberg" 1 January 1852 Berlin As the former "Royal Division of the Lower Silesia-Mark railway"1 April 1880 Cöln linksrheinisch (i.e. 'Cologne west of the Rhine'), Frankfurt, Hannover, Magdeburg1 May 1882 Erfurt1 January 1883 Kattowitz Disbanded in October 19211 March 1884 Altona1 April 1895 Breslau, Cassel, Danzig, Elberfeld, Essen, Halle (Saale), Königsberg, Münster, Posen, Saarbrücken, Stettin1 February 1897 Mainz As "Division of the Royal Prussian and Grand Duchy of Hesse State Railways"1 April 1907 Royal Railway Head Office, Berlin Ranked as a KED
The divisions created as a result of the restructuring of 1895 in Prussia were, in the main, adopted by their successor administrations: the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft, the Deutsche Bundesbahn and the Deutsche Reichsbahn in East Germany.
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.Meyers Konversationslexikon – 1888 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).Organisational structure of the Royal Bavarian State Railways (German) 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:Meyers Konversations-Lexikon – 1888
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)
Deutsche Reichsbahn In 1920 the successor to all the German state railways, the Deutsche Reichsbahn was founded and, in 1924 the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (to 1945/1949) took over most of the divisions of the German Länderbahnen, which then acted as intermediate authorities within the Reichsbahn structure. During the 1930s, a few of the smaller Reichsbahn divisions were allocated to larger divisions or split between several divisions.
The Reichsbahn divisions (Reichsbahndirektionen, RBD or Rbd) were responsible for traffic operations, locomotive running and all specialist functions that were not reserved by the Ministry, by a senior management department (Oberbetriebsleitung, later Generalbetriebsleitung), a central office or special "lead divisions". In the case of the latter, the specific functions of several RBDs were carried out by one of them. These were primarily workshop functions (especially those of the Reichsbahn repair shops, the Reichsbahnausbesserungswerke, which counted as "offices"), i. e. these lead divisions commanded and oversaw the activities of all workshops in the repair shops of its area of business, the remaining, local RBDs having nothing to do with those workshops.
Each RBD was usually divided into five specialist departments, that corresponded to the railway departments of the Reich Transport Ministry and the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft.
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