Deutsche Bahn
Germany's national railway company and one of Europe's largest rail operators, wholly owned by the German federal government.
Deutsche Bahn Investor Relations – About UsDeutsche Bahn AG (DB) is Germany's state-owned national railway company, founded in 1994 through the merger of West Germany's Deutsche Bundesbahn and East Germany's Deutsche Reichsbahn. Headquartered in Berlin and structured as a joint-stock company (Aktiengesellschaft), it is wholly controlled by the German federal government and is the second-largest transport company in Germany after Deutsche Post/DHL.
DB operates the longest rail network in Europe, spanning 33,400 kilometres of track in Germany, and employs approximately 219,000–220,000 people. Its passenger operations served around 132 million long-distance and 1.6 billion regional passengers in 2022, while its freight arm transported 222 million tonnes of cargo that year. The group's rolling stock includes over 253 ICE high-speed trains, more than 1,000 regional locomotives, and 13,000-plus buses.
DB is undergoing significant structural change: in April 2025 it completed the sale of DB Schenker—its last major international subsidiary—to Denmark's DSV for $15.84 billion, refocusing the group on its core German rail business. Simultaneously, DB announced plans to shed approximately 30,000 administrative jobs (~9% of its workforce) amid a €1 billion half-year net loss driven by network repair investments, strikes, and adverse weather.
Innovations in rail operations, infrastructure management, predictive maintenance, workforce optimisation, or sustainable transport are directly relevant to DB as it restructures around its core rail mission and pursues a new national rail strategy under incoming leadership following CEO Richard Lutz's departure in August 2025.