German sleeping car and dining car company
The Deutsche Schlafwagen- und Speisewagengesellschaft (later Deutsche Service-Gesellschaft der Bahn , abbreviated DSG ) was a subsidiary of the Deutsche Bundesbahn based in Frankfurt am Main , which emerged in 1950 from the MITROPA infrastructure in western Germany . It existed until 1994 until it was merged with MITROPA AG, which continued to exist in the GDR, under their name.
history
Due to the division of Germany into four occupation zones in 1945, adjustments were also necessary in the railway sector. A Western Directorate of MITROPA was set up in Frankfurt am Main as early as 1945 for the American and French occupation zones. In Hamburg-Altona, the railway dining car and sleeping car service was set up for the British occupation zone. After the establishment of the Deutsche Bundesbahn, both companies were merged under the name of the German Sleeping Car and Dining Car Company . On April 1, 1950, it officially began operating. The company had 118 sleeping cars, 88 dining cars, 50 kitchen cars and seven Rheingold cars . A large part was not operational due to war damage. In addition to the processing of the inventory, makeshift dining cars were also set up. From 1953, the first new wagons with a dining area were procured from the Deutsche Bundesbahn and operated by the DSG. The first new sleeping cars were procured in 1950, but they were still based on a pre-war design. In 1953 the first 26.4 m sleeping cars were presented. In 1962, full dining cars based on the UIC-X car were procured for the Rheingold, they had a two-story kitchen and were known as the humpback dining car . From 1965 new dining cars were procured for other traffic, again single-story, but with a length of 27.5 m.
The DSG managed sleeping cars , dining cars and half- dining cars, buffet cars, snack bar cars and couchette cars of the Deutsche Bundesbahn, the trains of the US troops in Germany, the German ferries of the Vogelfluglinie and the catering at many train stations in the Federal Republic of Germany (including the West Berlin restaurant in Zoo station). In addition, there were company cars , which were often rented for company and similar outings, and the InterCityHotels that were built in the 1980s and now belong to the Steigenberger Group . Most of the rolling stock used came from the prewar period and the 1960s. In the 1970s, self-service dining cars ( Quick-Pick ) were used on a trial basis .
Until 1955 the DSG limited itself to the traffic in the area of the DB. In 1954, international traffic was also regulated in an agreement with the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits . Since then, the DSG has also served international traffic, especially to Scandinavia, Austria and Switzerland.
In 1966 the DB took over the dining car from DSG, which from then on was only responsible for the management. In 1974, the sleeping cars were also taken over and incorporated into the European sleeping car pool TEN , whereby the management remained with the DSG.
The so-called minibar was used in trains without a dining car . They were small mobile vending cars where passengers could stock up on hot and cold drinks, warm sausages, packaged bread, snacks and sweets. The wagons were stocked at the home station and could be refilled by the sales staff at the respective DSG depots during longer stopping times or at the destination station.
DSG and MITROPA legally merged in 1994, as did DB and DR. In view of the considerable assets owned by MITROPA, DSG was merged into MITROPA. This made the DSG one of the few West German companies that was "swallowed" by a former GDR company.
Corporate Design
Until 1971, the DSG continued the pre-war Mitropa logo, popularly known as the “frozen goose”, consisting of a stylized “M” with an eagle's head over a four-spoke wheel in an oval frame. The design of DSG's own cars was initially based on the old MITROPA, including a font specially designed for MITROPA, the “Schulpig font” by Karl Schulpig . The basic color of the wagons changed from RAL 3003 ruby red to the darker RAL 3004 purple red in the course of the 1950s . The latter color was still the exclusive color code for sleeping and dining cars in the experimental pop paint scheme in the early 1970s.
From 1971 a more modern logo appeared in the form of a square “clover leaf”. This was also attached to DSG's own sleeping car. The more modern cars went into the sleeping car pool in the course of the 1970s and received “Trans Euro Night” labels according to international standards, but initially retained the purple basic color and were only later repainted in cobalt blue. The DSG used the cloverleaf logo until the (re) unification with MITROPA.
Others
DSG owned a number of properties, including an office building in Frankfurt and a vacation home in Traben-Trarbach.
District leaders
The DSG had five district managements (BL) in the cities of Hamburg, Dortmund, Cologne, Frankfurt and Munich, from which the deployment of personnel and the supply of the dining cars, sleeping cars and couchettes were controlled. In Dortmund the BL was located near the main train station (Königswall 25-27). The building still exists, in 2015 you could still see the areas on which the DSG signs were hanging at the entrance area.
literature
- Fritz Stöckl: dining car. 100 years of gastronomy on the rails. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-613-01168-9
- Friedhelm Ernst u. a .: From the F-train to the Intercity. EK-Verlag, Freiburg 1982, ISBN 3-88255-751-6
- Gärtner, Armin: The world of travel and work in the 1970s - couchette coach at the German Sleeping Car and Dining Car Company (DSG) - ISBN 978-3-00-060833-9 Published by the Erkrath-Hochdahl Railway and Local History Museum, Ziegeleiweg 1-3, 40699 Erkrath - www.lokschuppen-hochdahl.de
- Oliver Strüber: Hotel on rails . In: railway magazine . No. 9 , 2019, ISSN 0342-1902 , p. 10-17 .