Mannheim versus Deutsche Bahn (German Rail)

I am a born Mannheimer and worked there as Director of the Regional Association – as one of the youngest directors in the whole of Germany. The Regional Association covers a region with 2.3 million residents. It is four times as large as Greater Zurich. Almost 100,000 businesses are at home there – that is equivalent to the entire economic power of French Switzerland. As Director for Local Transport at the head of a circa 30-strong administration team, I was responsible for planning and development within this area. We were faced with a huge challenge, as German Rail was planning to bypass this region completely. Their plan was to construct a new high speed ICE track from Frankfurt to Stuttgart without stopping at the Mannheim-Heidelberg-Ludwigshafen conurbation. German Rail was planning a new line, with integration into the European high-speed rail network, from Frankfurt to Stuttgart missing Mannheim completely. The challenge was to demonstrate that you cannot simply drive through this area but that you simply have to stop there. After a two and a half year struggle it came to the showdown, to the most significant central event.

I had to square up to one single person: Hartmut Mehdorn, German Rail’s Chief Executive. We had to present our positions in front of a select jury at an authority something similar to a court of law: an auditorium, glaring lights.

First Hartmut Mehdorn, the boss of 251,000 employees, stepped up to the microphone and presented his concept for a new line straight passed this region. But he had made one mistake. He had failed to read the book, Forget Everything about Public speaking. Otherwise he would have known that his PowerPoint presentation with three, four projectors one beside the other and his heavy barrage of factual arguments and technical details would not be able to move the jury. As an insignificant young Association Director, my only chance was to tell a story. A story WITHOUT PowerPoint. I told the story of our country, Germany. Germany that has been characterized by many small centers since Roman times and the Middle Ages, in total contrast to France where they only have three or four large towns. It makes sense there only to use the TGV to connect these towns directly, as in so doing one can reach 60, 70 percent of the population. But in Germany it is different. Here you cannot just bypass a region with 2.3 million residents.

We had a two and a half years struggle behind us, and many, many citizens’ initiatives. Now we were curious to see if we could succeed in gaining a victory over the gigantic Deutsche Bahn AG. The day passed and four weeks later a letter arrived at my office from the authority responsible.

I opened the envelope and looked inside. I said to my secretary: ‘Open a bottle of bubbly! We’ve done it. German Rail was forced to backtrack: the new ICE line is definitely getting a stop in Mannheim.

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