The Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (German: 'Berlin Transport Company') is the main public transport company of Berlin, the capital city of Germany. It manages the city's U-Bahn (underground), tram, bus and ferry networks, but not the S-Bahn urban rail system.
The generally used abbreviation, BVG, has been retained from the company's original name, Berliner Verkehrs-Aktiengesellschaft (Berlin Transportation Stock Company). Subsequently, the company was renamed Berliner Verkehrs-Betriebe. During the division of Berlin, the BVG was split between BVG (Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe Gesellschaft in West Berlin) and BVB (Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe in East Berlin, also known as the Volkseigenes Kombinat Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe, BVB). After reunification, the current formal name was adopted.
The Berliner Verkehrs Aktiengesellschaft was formed in 1928, by the merger of the Allgemeine Berliner Omnibus AG (the operator of the city's buses), the Gesellschaft für Elektrische Hoch- und Untergrundbahnen (the operator of the U-Bahn) and the Berliner Straßenbahn-Betriebs-GmbH (the operator of the city's trams). On 1 January 1938, the company was renamed Berliner Verkehrs-Betriebe, but the acronym BVG was retained.
In 1933, the State Commissioner for Berlin, Julius Lippert, appointed the NSDAP politician and later Waffen SS soldier Johannes Engel as head of the BVG Supervisory Board. The board of directors and most of the senior staff were dismissed or disempowered. During World War II, the BVG used some 4000 forced laborers, for whom the company built its own barracks camp.
From 1 August 1949, the BVG networks in West Berlin and East Berlin were operated separately. The two operators were originally known as BVG (West) and BVG (Ost), but from 1 January 1969 the eastern operator was renamed as the Kombinat Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe or BVB. After the reunification of Berlin, the two operators were recombined into the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe on 1 January 1992.