History of German Railways

The history of German railways is greatly influenced by the history of Germany as a nation.

	The first railway in Germany was built in 1835, using British rolling stock, the first train driver was the Englishman William Wilson (who of course married a German Fräulein and stayed). At that time, the word Germany was not the name of a country, but merely a notion describing the geographic area where German was spoken. After the Liberation Wars against Napoleon, in 1815 the Deutscher Bund (German Federation) was founded as a federation of independent states, some being kingdoms, some being duchies, principalities or republican city-states. Austria and Prussia were the largest dominating powers in Germany, until the German Federation fell apart in 1866, to be succeeded by the North German Federation under Prussian leadership. During this time, railways were run or concessioned by the respective country's government. The German word for country is Land, and so the railways operating during this period are called Länderbahnen ("countries' railways").
	In 1871, following the Franco-German war, Germany was united into a nation state, excluding Austria, and the king of Prussia became Emperor of Germany. The constituent states retained their individual status as monarchies and republics, and also the railways stayed to be concessioned or operated by these Länder. A national railway was not established at this time, although technologies and rules began more closely to follow those of the Königlich Preußische Eisenbahnverwaltung (KPEV, Royal Prussian Railway Administration).
	After the First World War was lost, as a part of war reparations the German railways were nationalized into the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (German Railway Society) which was incorporated in London. The German Empire continued to be the owner, but the company was mortgaged to the victorious powers, until the Reichsbahn was taken back into direct control of the German government in 1937.

As it is easy to see, these political developments heavily influenced the German railways as much as new technological developments. Like the British railway history is ordered into eras, the history of German railways is divided into the epochs I to VI, some of which are overlapping, depending on which aspects one may look, like technology, liveries, organisation, etc.

Epoch I - before 1920, Länderbahnen
Most of the German states have their own railways, such as:

Royal Bavarian State Railways
Oldenburg Grand Ducal Railway Administration
Mecklenburg Frederick-Franz Railway Society
Royal Prussian Railway Administration
and others

Most of these railways have heir own rules, vendors, rolling stock and signals

Epoch II - 1920-1950, Deutsche Reichsbahn
the railways are united and nationalised

After WW I, all railways are nationalized and united into the German Imperial Railway Society
Rules, rolling stock, signals are unified as Einheitsbauform ("unified model"), according to the Prussian railways’ standards, with only few exceptions namely in Bavaria
In the 1920s, electrification became more common and the first light signals were tested
The Indusi (the German version of ATP) was introduced

Epoch III - 1945-1970, Deutsche Bundesbahn and Deutsche Reichsbahn
German Division

After WW II, Germany was partitioned into what was to become the western Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Federal Republic of Germany), the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR), (German Democratic Republic), and the east German territories of East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia, which were annexed by the Soviet Union and Poland.
Along with the nation, the national railways were split. The West German part was renamed Deutsche Bundesbahn (German Federal Railway) while the now East German part retained the name Deutsche Reichsbahn (German Imperial Railway). The railways in the annexed territories were incorporated into the respective countries' railways.
The historic curiosity that a communist state operated an imperial railway was due to the fact that under this name, the Allied Powers had concessioned the S-Bahn in all of Berlin (i.e. including West Berlin) to East Germany, and East Germany feared that by renaming the railways, they might lose this valuable source of convertible money.
Signalling was developed independently in both parts of Germany. East Germany followed the developments in the OSShD, the international railway organization of the East Bloc.

Epoch IV - 1965-1990, separate developments in East and West
modernization

Signalling was further developed separately both in East and West Germany
Various new proposals for signalling systems were tested
Cab signalling was introduced in West Germany in the 1960s and made mandatory for ICE trains

Epoch V - 1985-2010, reunification and digitalization

After the German Reunification, the Deutsche Bundesbahn and the Deutsche Reichsbahn merged into Deutsche Bahn AG ("German Railway PLC")
A new signalling system (Ks) is developed that is to ultimately replace the traditional Hp and Hl systems
Digital and cab signalling systems such as ETCS is being introduced, beginning with high speed rail lines

Epoch VI - since 2005, privatization and split

The Deutsche Bahn AG is split into various companies for infrastructure and operations
The aim is to sell the shares off to fill the government's eternally empty pockets
Raising the profitability results in severe underfunding of staffing and infrastructure maintenance
Punctuality is a thing of the past, rather than improving infrastructure, the statistic methods are tweaked
In some cross-border infrastructure projects with Swiss Railways SBB and Danish Railways DSB, German Railways are about a decade behind.