NOTES ON THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAY TRANSPORTATION AND THE REICHSBAHN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00810A005000180004-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Sequence Number: 4
• Content Type: REPORT

CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY REPORT
INFORMATION REPORT CD NO.
PLACE
ACQUIRED
Notes on the Ministry of Railway
Transportation and the Reichsbahn
THIS OOCUNRNT CONTAINS INFORNATWN AEFRCDNS TER NATIONIL ORPSNSR
or THN UNITED STATES. OITEIN TAR RRANIRS Or nnl Is. SECTIONS TSS
AND 714. OF TWA U. S. COON. AS A49SOR5. ITS TRANSMISSION OR NNYRL-
ATION Or ITS COMM" TO OR NNCRIR ST AN OuMTSONIas nSSOO
IS PNORIMTES n LAN TON nrROROCTIa Or THIS VONR.. IS rRONIMnD.
DATE DISTR. 5 October 1954
NO. OF PAGES / J, f,
NO. OF ENCLS.
(LISTED BELOW)
SUPPLEMENT TO
PFPf)RT NO
1. For 1954, the East German Ministry of Railway Transportation had provided
an allocation of 20 million DME in the Reichsbahn Economic Plan for the
acquisition of building materials for superstructure construction on
Reichsbahn properties. As of the end of April 1954, only 1,800,000 DME
worth, or approximately one-third of the quarterly allocation of about
7 million DYE worth of building materials had been delivered. The Reichs-
bahn is currently faced with an even more severe shortage of raw materials
than immediately following the end of the war in 1945. All deliveries of
steel rails from the Soviet Union have suddenly been terminated, for
reasons not known to the Reichsbahn officials in charge of procurement
and raw material allocation. It is suspected that the steel required for
production of these rails has been diverted to other end uses within the
USSR. However, no explanation has been made to date to the Reichsbahn on
the failure of the USSR to live up to the promised delivery schedule. 25X1
2. Deputy Minister for Railways Richard Staimer, who is in charge of the
Material Procurement Section, has given orders for the East German
government to attempt to obtain replacement rails in the 'Jest. The nego-
tiations for delivery of these rails are being conducted via the Osthandels-
gesellschaft in Hamburg, which is also negotiating with 'West German firms
for delivery of railway ties and small iron fittings (Kleineisen), including
spikes, tie-plates, coach screws, crab-bolts, spiral dowels, etc.
3. The shortage of nonferrous metals is so great that the Reichsbahn has been
unable even to repair locomotives which have been rendered inoperative as
a result of minor breakdowns requiring replacement parts or repairs.
4. Another serious shortage affecting Railway operations in East Germany, which
has also been responsible in part for increased accident rates on Reichsbahn
trackage, has been the shortage of hard coal for stoking locomotives.
According to the original 1954 operating plan for the last German railways,
only hard coal was to be employed: for operating locomotives. The hard coal
was to be delivered entirely Yfom Polish mines. To date there has not been
any delivery even of briquettes fre~a PoJ. so that the Reichsbahn has been
forced to operate on "Yob,O.Kohle^ ~(f eoa ). As a result, and because
of the lower heating power of the soft coal, the stokers are required to
handle ten times as much coal, thus having to do ten times the amount of
physical labor for each mile of operation, since the pressure of the boilers
 must be maintained throughout.. As a result, train crews, particularly stokers,
are badly overworked, and the accident ratio has risen proportionately in
the first four months of 1954. Another factor which has helped to increase
the accident rate in 1954 has been the failure of the East German Ministry
of Railway Transportation to obtain the required replacement parts for
defective signal equipment.
Deputy :,sinister Richard Staimer recently served as chairman of a meeting
of dapartclent heads and their deputies in the Ministry for Railway Trans-
portation, at which the organizational measures to be taken in connection
:;ith the "Deutschlandtreffen" were discussed. Staimer is in his mid-40's.
Originally a carpenter by profession, and an old-line Communist, he fled
to the USSR from Germany around 1934, and is reported to '.lave received Soviet
citizenship during the period 1935-1940. His office is located in the
Ministry for Railway Transportation building on Krausenstrasse in East Berlin,
in Room 114 on the second floor. Staimer is responsible for material
procurement and organization of the ministry, the latter including the
Personnel and Cadre Departments. In addition to his duties as Deputy Min-
ister in the Ministry for Railway Transportation, Staimer also holds a
commission with the rank of Colonel in the SSN.
6. The Finance Section of the Ministry for Railway Transportation is checking
all RBD books in =last Germany in connection with an audit of repair costs
on the basis of Price List (Preisvorschrift) Number 269, according to which
all expenditures of all Reichsbahn offices and repair stations must be
accounted for. The ministerial auditors are mainly interested in the
Zuschlagssaetze, i.e., in the 25 to 27 percent extra charge (Zuschlag)
which is permitted on all labor costs, and which is considered the profit
on such repair work. Under the planned economy bookkeeping introduced
into the railway system accounting, this mythical "Zuschlag" profit has
never been sufficiently large to meet the costs of the overpoweringly large
administrative apparatus of the Boichshahn and the Ministry for Railway
Transportation. The cost of maintenance of this administrative apparatus
is best illustrated by a comparison of prewar and present day personnel
on an average employed by a single Reichsbahnamt:
Political Administration
Labor Section
Organization Section
Bookkeeping Section
Security Inspection Unit
Investment Section
Plant Guard
None
None
None, or one
8 to 10 employees
9 employees
personnel man
10
to 12 employees
2 employees
25
to 40 employees
None
4
employees
None
4
to 6 employees
None
60 to 200 men per
Amtsbezirk
East Germany, it is not known yet what function or relationship will exist
in the future between the Reichsbahn and the WOSO office, since the latter
originally was organized as an office of the Soviet occupation authorities
attached to the East German Ministry for Railway Transportation, to main-
tain liaison on matters affecting Soviet occupation use of railway transport
facilities. Since 9 April 1954, there have been no accountings cleared
on billings for shipments ohargeable to the Soviet Occupation Forces, since
the whole question of accountability for these costs in the future is under
consideration by the highest level East German authorities. It is expected
the East German t.inist
ort#jjpjq i niace add-Anvil 1954
jivilia only.' din** about
 SECRET 0 RO/ 1S: UtttL3nf.9 Y
that all such billings will be held up, pending receipt of a new order on
how these costs will be accounted for in the future.
3. The Transit Bri~ades of Reichsbahn personnel-at Frankfurt/Oder have been
?^^
disbanded. All railroad employees who belonged to these brigades have
n the future, shiQments to the USSR and satellite countries will be shipped
i ...Here tti,e
rt
t1yains will -he turn over to Czech and Polisi railway crews, who will
h~ndle all traffic bktween Frankfurt/Oder and,'Brest-Litovsk, In the pest
t e East Getman Reichsbahn crews took the USSR-bound trains through Frank-
at-which paint the cars were unloadeid
ai far as Bust-Litovsk
t~Od
f
,
er
r
a4d reloaded to Russi -gauge boxcars and flaticars by Russian railway i
p rsonnel. ?Under theew set-up, the railway Brews of mixed Czech and
Polish nat'onality willi.take over the physical' control of the loaded freight
ca s at Frankfurt/Oder,~,and will esdort them tolBrest, where they will bA
tuxk ed ove to Russian suthorities;hs heretofor4 for relo$ding. All docu\
men s indifating the final destination of loade4 cars coming into Brest-
Lit Avsk halve always been, kept by Soviet personneR only; these records are
required 11o direct the rd-distribtjtion of goods kt the est-Litovsk borde4'
rail ros ing, where th_eg1o_ods are redirected to(their estinatione in the
USSR "^^ rs ?-ef re-il -ehi
s -to to #rrercase- ~;
transit Yhg oOtcho'sl'avatcT8 ~$nd o nu M - .