South German Railway Company

The South German Railway Company (Süddeutsche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft AG) or SEG was founded on 11 February 1895, in Darmstadt by the railway entrepreneur, Herrmann Bachstein, and several bank managers.

The majority of shares were owned by the Bank für Handel und Industrie in Darmstadt. In 1908 this share was bought out by Hugo Stinnes and other industrialists, who founded the Rhine Westphalia Railway Company (Rheinisch-Westfälische Bahn-GmbH or RWB) in 1909, in order to bring together the numerous tramway operations of the Ruhrgebiet. Major shareholders in the RWB included the city of Essen (48%), the district of Essen (27%) and the Rheinisch-Westfälische Elektrizitätswerk or RWE (25%).

The SEG was formed by Hermann Bachstein with the aim of reorganising the railways in the states of Baden and Hesse that were part of the Hermann Bachstein Branch Line Central Organisation (Centralverwaltung für Secundärbahnen Herrmann Bachstein).

Of these, Bachstein initially brought the following Hessian railways into the new company in 1895:

Also included were the steam tramways in Darmstadt, Mainz and Wiesbaden-Biebrich, that provided suburban services, as well as the electric tramway in Essen on the Ruhr, the Pferdebahn in Mainz and the Nerobergbahn in Wiesbaden.

Three lines in Thuringia also now belonged to the SEG:

However these were operated by the Branch Line Central Organisation not by the SEG itself.

On 8 December 1897, the SEG was expanded again with the following Bachstein railways the Grand Duchy of Baden:

After the Mainz Tramway had been sold to the city in 1904, the electric tramway networks in Essen and Wiesbaden remained with the SEG.

In the same year the railway network grew with the addition of the:

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