The Deutsche Bundesbahn or DB 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.
Telegram announcing the formation of the Deutsche Bundesbahn
V200 number 010 pulling passenger train in West Germany, c. 1961
West German trains ran through East Germany. This 1977 view shows how barriers were made near the tracks to keep people away.
The Deutsche Reichsbahn, also known as the German National Railway, the German State Railway, German Reich Railway, and the German Imperial Railway, was the German national railway system created after the end of World War I from the regional railways of the individual states of the German Empire. The Deutsche Reichsbahn has been described as "the largest enterprise in the capitalist world in the years between 1920 and 1932"; nevertheless, its importance "arises primarily from the fact that the Reichsbahn was at the center of events in a period of great turmoil in German history".
A DRG conductor in 1928 complete with rank insignia
1938 military ticket from Rendsburg to Königsberg (Pr.)
WWII Reichsbahn military marked railwayman's carbide burner lantern (c. 1942)
The wagon monument, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem