It was one of the largest railway infrastructure managers by length (33,291 km as of 2019) and transport volume of its network.

[1][2] The company was established in the course of the second stage of the German rail reform as a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn.

DB Netz AG was profitable from route fees but received extensive public funding for maintaining, developing and extending the network of European and federal transportation routes.

[citation needed] Despite being an integral part of Deutsche Bahn AG and one of its major subsidiaries, DB Netz AG had to grant non-discriminatory access to other rail service providers that are in competition to Deutsche Bahn's other major business units.

Therefore DB Netz AG was overseen by the Federal Network Agency.