From 1835 onwards, the railway in Germany developed into an indispensable means of transport. It remained so until the early 1960s, when mass motorization marked the end of the "good old days" of the railway. Its share in passenger transport has since shrunk to less than one-tenth. Meanwhile, it is competing, more poorly than well, with low-cost airlines and long-distance buses, and due to a lack of political decisions, it cannot leverage its systemic and environmental advantages. Johann-Günther König tells the story of the increasingly crisis-ridden relationship between people, politics, and the railway. Criticism of the railway is not just a contemporary phenomenon. As early as 1836, it was noted: "The step to the carriage is too high to get on and off." Currently, it is not only delays, train cancellations, and operational disruptions of all kinds that damage the reputation of the market leader Deutsche Bahn.