Essen - Ruediger Grube, a top executive at car company Daimler, was nominated Saturday as the new head of German state-owned railway company Deutsche Bahn. The 57-year-old Grube replaces Hartmut Mehdorn, who quit last month after Deutsche Bahn had admitted to illicit surveillance of its employees.

"I look forward to the new task," Grube said after a special meeting convened by Deutsche Bahn's management on Saturday. He is to take over the role on May 1.

Grube also pledged that by June 1 he would "immediately, quickly and unconditionally resolve" the data surveillance scandal which forced Mehdorn's departure, after ten years at the head of one of Germany's last large state-owned corporations.

Deutsche Bahn had been forced to admit that details of up to 170,000 employees were monitored, supposedly to fight corruption within the company.

Grube, whose appointment was proposed by the government, has been a board member of Daimler since 2001.

Grube is to head the holding company as well as Deutsche Bahn subsidiary DB Mobility Logistics, responsible for the railway transport of people and goods.

Deutsche Bahn had plans to privatize, before the financial crisis hit last autumn. (dpa)