Last October, Deutsche Bahn (DB) launched a social media campaign with popular comic Anke Engelke in the main role. We watch Engelke, as train conductor Tina, and her team doing their best to navigate everything from defective doors to blocked toilets and broken-down trains — and, at the same time, keep passengers happy.
Upon its launch, a senior DB manager, Michael Peterson, called the nine-part series a “humorous declaration of love to the staff.” Deutsche Bahn has some 230,000 employees.
Engelke’s campaign was feted in the trade press for its media reach, too — with more than sixty major media organizations reporting on it. Within a few days of its launch, the promotion had already got over one million clicks.
But plans to continue what was widely regarded as a successful campaign have been abandoned. Deutsche Bahn told Germany’s tabloid Bild newspaper that a second season of Boah, Bahn, which roughly translates to Wow, what a railway!, did not “suit the times”.
Self-irony: a risky strategy for beleaguered Deutsche Bahn
Marketing campaigns that use self-irony are risky, according to media and communications scientist Peter Vorderer. But the Mannheim University professor told DW that DB probably had little choice given the company’s tarnished reputation.
“Do you have a chance of achieving anything except with self-irony when something is so hated across the board in large parts of the population — where it has become almost a national pastime to complain about it?”, asked Vorderer.
A month before the series was launched, only some 55% of intercity trains reached their stops on time — which DB defines as a delay of less than six minutes. This was the worst monthly timekeeping record since 2024.
Getting trains to where they should be at the right time is not DB’s only problem. Travelers also complain about a lack of hygiene, dysfunctional washrooms and broken air conditioning.
The campaign hit headlines again
The end of the campaign made headlines this month. The Bild am Sonntag newspaper reported on February 8 that it had exclusive information that the Bahn had spent €7 million ($8.3 million) on the clips. The company itself will not confirm the figure disclosed by the Bild newspaper. DB told DW that it was an operational and business secret.
The tabloid newspaper article appeared just over a week after a fatal attack on a ticket inspector in Rhineland-Palatinate, which sparked a renewed debate about safety on the railways.
There were more than 3,000 verbal and physical attacks on DB personnel last year, including security staff. That is the equivalent of an average of eight per day. Sebastian Fiedler, a lawmaker for the governing center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) told the newspaper that it was a “scandal that the board had spent so many million euros on funny ads. For this money, they could have paid for at least a hundred extra security staff for a year.”
The head of the Rail and Transport Union (EVG), Martin Burkert (61), asked rhetorically whether a roll-out of body cams across the board and refurbished employee break rooms might not have been a clearer sign of the railway company’s affection for its workers than the multi-million campaign.
Left Party lawmaker and transport spokesperson Luigi Pantisano said the benefit of the marketing was outweighed by its cost. “I think the campaign is nice and I personally like comedy and I like Anke Engelke and some of the actors. However, you could have done a lot of other things with those 7 million,” Pantisano told DW.
New plain-talking DB boss reportedly dropped ad campaign
Just days before the campaign was launched, German railways appointed a new chair, Evelyn Palla. Deutsche Bahn told the Bild tabloid that Palla and her new marketing chief had taken the decision to discontinue the social media campaign in January.
Palla has already made a mark with radical restructuring plans, including halving the number of top managers to save some 500 million euros.
She has also dampened expectations of any quick fixes. The rise in the number of engineering works planned for 2026 is likely to increase delays.
The state-owned company has suffered from decades of underfunding. According to Germany’s Transport Ministry, roughly half of the country’s rail tracks are in mediocre, poor, or deficient condition. About one-fifth of the infrastructure will need to be replaced in the medium term, while some elements — including signal boxes that are more than a century old — require immediate attention.
DB chief Palla has warned that the nation’s railways are likely to get worse before they get better.
Edited by Rina Goldenberg
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