DB is still 100% owned by the federation, it’s only organised privately. Trouble is they expected it to turn a profit, to do that DB had to run its infrastructure into the ground, invest abroad, get into fucking trucking, you name it. Don’t get me wrong there’s nothing wrong with operating rail/road interface warehouses, but when a rail company is building a logistics warehouse without rail connection you know something’s deeply fishy. Meanwhile, the Autobahn network got plenty of tax money pumped into it. And those DB profits.

The failure is 110% political, decades of car-brained infrastructure ministers, “but won’t someone think about the car producers and their workers”. Bipartisan issue. In US terms: UAW and Blackrock vs. Amtrack. Guess who’s winning the lobby battle, difference being in Germany people actually like trains.