The Deutsche Reichsbahn (German National Railway) was established in 1920 after World War I by merging the previously independent state railways of the former German Empire into a single national organization. Under the Nazi regime in the 1930s, the German railway system was reorganized to better serve the needs of the economy and prepare for war. It later played a crucial logistical role in transporting troops and supplies to the front lines. Tragically, the Reichsbahn also played an infamous role in the Holocaust by transporting Jews and other “undesirables” to concentration and extermination camps.

The Bahnschutzpolizei (Railway Security Police) was created in 1939 through the merger of the Bahnpolizei (Railway Police) and the Reichsbahnschutz (Railway Security Service). The latter consisted of regular railway employees who, in addition to their normal duties, were also tasked with security functions.

As a rail-based organization, the Bahnschutzpolizei was staffed by personnel employed not by the Interior Ministry but by the railway itself. Their responsibilities included maintaining security on the railways and preventing espionage and sabotage targeting railway infrastructure. During the war, many members of this service operated in the occupied territories of Eastern Europe.

Technically, tram personnel and employees of private railway companies were not part of the Deutsche Reichsbahn. They wore a metal cap badge featuring a winged railway wheel connected to a cogwheel representing the Deutsche Arbeitsfront (German Labor Front), with a swastika inside. When this badge was worn by municipal tramway staff, the lower part of the wheel was further adorned with three lightning bolts on each side.

This insignia was introduced in December 1936.