History of the BVG

In 1920, Berlin was united with its suburbs and neighboring municipalities to form Greater Berlin. Although there was no BVG at the time, there were various independent companies that transported the population of Berlin from A to B. These included, for example, the Allgemeine Berliner Omnibus-Actien-Gesellschaft (ABOAG) and Gesellschaft für elektrische Hoch- und Untergrundbahnen in Berlin (Hochbahngesellschaft). The various companies did not have standardized timetables or ticket prices – anyone changing trains had to buy a new ticket. For these and other reasons, Ernst Reuter, who took over the Department of Transport and Utilities in the city council in 1926, set himself the task of standardizing and nationalizing these companies. The Berliner Verkehrs-Aktiengesellschaft (BVG) was founded on December 10, 1928, with a capital of 400 million Reichsmark and began operations on January 1, 1929. Just four years after her founding, the darkest hours in the BVG's history followed when the National Socialists seized power in Germany. The management board and senior staff were dismissed, and the workforce was aryanized. On January 1, 1938, the company became an independent enterprise of the city of Berlin under the name Berliner Verkehrs-Betriebe (BVG). During the Second World War, women and forced laborers kept the company running and large parts of the transport infrastructure were destroyed. With the liberation of Berlin and Germany, the National Socialist terror also ended at the BVG.

With the division of Berlin, the Berlin transport companies were also divided: on August 1, 1949, a separate BVG administration was formed in the east, from January 1, 1969, it operated under the name VEB Kombinat Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVB). The BVG remained in the West. Although the BVG was divided, both companies initially had the same goals: Cleaning up and rebuilding as well as an extensive expansion of its services. While the BVG focused on the underground and massively expanded the U6 to U9 subway lines, tram services in West Berlin were discontinued until 1967 (the BVG also operated the Berlin S-Bahn in the West from 1984-1994). The BVB focused its expansion on buses and trams – apart from the U5, which connected the new housing estates in the east of Berlin with Alexanderplatz from the late 1980s. The period was characterized by growth, but also crises such as supply shortages and financial problems.

Just a few days after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the first subway trains stopped again at stations that had been closed during the division and the first buses travelled across the border between East and West Berlin. And finally, the long-awaited reunification happened: The BVB and BVG were reunited on January 1, 1992, under the name Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG). In 1994, the BVG was also transformed into a public law institution. However, the fall of the Berlin Wall also brought new challenges: connections and routes that had been closed down for almost 30 years had to be re-established practically overnight. But the BVG overcame this hurdle too. 

Since the turn of the millennium, a lot has happened at the BVG. In 2004, for example, the so-called metro network was established. MetroTrams and MetroBuses have been running along these routes for 24 hours a day since 2005, taking party-happy Berliners from Berghain straight to their offices. 

Speaking of offices, the BVG headquarters found its new home in the Trias building near Jannowitzbrücke in 2008. The previous locations on Potsdamer Straße and Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße were given up. A lot has also happened in the BVG’s branding in the last decade: 2015 saw the launch of the ‘Because we love you’ (weil wir dich lieben) image campaign, the success of which has since extended far beyond the borders of Berlin. In addition, a passenger record of 1,126 billion passengers was set in 2019.