Craigzmom
Traveller
0 comments
Posted 11 months ago
Who should I contact to find history of the German railway, specifically servicing Magdeburg in the 1860’s and 1870’s? I’m looking for possible records of employees. I also want to find out what a Packmaster’s job was.
MisterSteve
Traveller
1089 comments
the term Packmeister had slightly different meanings through time (and railway companies). It could be a checked baggage clerk at a large station but in other cases they rode on trains in charge of keeping track of what was loaded and unloaded. In the latter case that's very similar to the person you see at airports as baggage and cargo is loaded - the one watching those throwing stuff on and off loading belts, with the radio and lists of what should be there!
As for your history, not easy especially if you arenlt in Germany and don't speak german. Germany didn't really exist until political changes in 1864-71 but the various railways carried on almost as though that never happened so the Magdeburg area was part of the Royal Prussian Railways (KPEV) right up until 1920 when almost all German railways were nationalised into one company "Deutsche Reichseisenbahnen " - a name which didn't last long and became Deutsche Reichsbahn (predates the term 3rd Reich but continued with th ename through that period). Even after 1945 that name carried on in East Germany until German reunification when the railways of east and west were merged into DB. All of this is given to explain why Google searches will throw out a large amount of stuff that won't be relevant. And any KPEV archives that existed will have gone to DR at first and after that it's anyones guess, Records kept in Berlin and other large cities, especially in the east could have been destroyed in 1945 and of those that survived a lot were seized by the americans and taken as intelligence (so staff files for 1870 may still be in boxes in CIA depositories!) . Anything still in Germany might be in the Federal Archives who have a large and difficult to follow website.
nltrainer
Traveller
1404 comments
As above: IF there is, it will of course be ´nur DEutsch¨.
So the very best is to post again-in that lingo, on the best known and wide ranging forum: drehscheibe-online.de. I think there is even a specific Geschichte subforum in it. Give it some time to respond.