German Railways

Deutsche Bahn AG (short DB AG, DBAG or DB) is the German national railway company, a private joint stock company (AG). It came into existence in 1994 as the successor of the former state railways of Germany, the Deutsche Bundesbahn of West Germany and the Deutsche Reichsbahn of East Germany. It also gained ownership of former railway assets in West Berlin held by the VdeR.

The second step of the Bahnreform was carried out in 1999. All rolling track, personnel and real assets were divided among the holding and the five principal subsidiaries of DBAG: DB Reise & Touristik AG (long distance passenger service, later renamed DB Fernverkehr AG), DB Regio AG (regional passenger services, in the course of the reform under charge of the federal states), DB Cargo AG (freight services, later changed to Railion AG), DB Netz AG (operating the railway system), and DB Station & Service AG (operating the stations). This new organisational scheme was not least introduced to implement the European Community directive 91/440/EEC that demands access to railway system free of discrimination.

The group is the largest German railway enterprise and one of the largest transport corporations in the world. About two billion passengers are served each year.

DBAG has taken over the abbreviation and logo DB from the West German state railway Deutsche Bundesbahn, although it has modernised the logo, which is occasionally called "Dürrkeks" (after Heinz Dürr, the first chairman of the DB AG), a play on words meaning "meagre biscuit", referring to its shape and the sans-serif font, especially when compared to the older, more rounded Bundesbahn logo.

Originally DBAG was headquartered in Frankfurt am Main but moved to Potsdamer Platz in central Berlin in 1996, where it is located in a 26-story office tower designed by Helmut Jahn, at the eastern end of the Sony Center and appropriately named BahnTower. As the lease expires in 2010, DB had announced plans to relocate to Berlin Hauptbahnhof, but these plans changed, as the decision was made to lease the BahnTower for at least three more years.[2] A move to Hamburg was briefly considered in 2005, but these plans were abandoned after political pressure.[3]