MITROPA

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MITROPA AG

logo
legal form Public company ;
from the end of 2004 GmbH
founding November 24, 1916 (as MITROPA Central European Sleeping Car and Dining Car Stock Company )
Seat Berlin , GermanyGermanyGermany 
Number of employees 1950 (2005)
Branch Railway company , system catering , sleeping car operation , dining car operation

Logo from 1928 to 1949

The MITROPA (complete company name MITROPA Central European Sleeping Car and Dining Car-share company , from 1994 MITROPA AG ) was an entertainment and accommodation company that provided the care of passengers in railway stations and motorway service areas and carried out. It was founded in 1916 to operate sleeping and dining cars . "MITROPA" is an acronym that is derived from " MIT teleu ROP Äische Schlaf- und Speisewagen A ktiengesellschaft".

In 2004 MITROPA was sold. Since 2006, the rest of the company has been operating under the name SSP Deutschland GmbH .

history

History until 1945

Train with MITROPA Dining Car on the Rhaetian Railway in Switzerland (1928)
Mitropa restaurant in Berlin's Ostbahnhof (1956)
Mitropa registered share for RM 1000 from March 1926

The company was founded on November 24, 1916 as MITROPA Central European Sleeping Car and Dining Car Corporation . The aim was to limit the dominance of the Franco-Belgian International Sleeping Car Company (CIWL / ISG). The founders of Mitropa were among others the railway administrations from Germany, Austria and Hungary. With the start of business operations on January 1, 1917, the company received the monopoly to operate dining and sleeping cars in Germany, Austria and Hungary until October 1, 1946. At the beginning of 1917, MITROPA also took over the management of the Balkan train from Berlin to Constantinople , which linked the Central Powers and was supposed to replace the Orient Express of the CIWL. MITROPA took over existing cars and personnel from ISG as well as existing German sleeping and dining car companies. At the same time, however, the German state railways kept their sleeping cars; the last independent courses of the now Reichsbahn were not transferred to MITROPA until 1925.

After the First World War , the MITROPA area was again restricted to Germany and Austria through contracts with the ISG. The company also offered courses in the Netherlands and Switzerland. She also managed the FD Rheingold . In the interwar period, the company also took over other business areas. For example, restaurants were operated on the ships of the Danube Steamship Company and the ferries on the Sassnitz - Trelleborg route. MITROPA also took care of catering in Lufthansa aircraft . MITROPA emulated the Franco-Belgian competition from CIWL, which had also taken over the first management of scheduled flights and ship restaurants on the Danube and the Vistula . Around 1923 MITROPA had acquired a winery in Traben-Trarbach on the Middle Mosel and was able to offer the three house brands MITROPA copper , MITROPA silver and MITROPA gold . Even after the Second World War, the newly founded DSG initially offered these varieties as a MITROPA house brand , but later as a DSG house brand .

From 1922, the MITROPA had four saloon sleeping cars and a saloon dining car. MITROPA bought these cars after the former imperial court train was dissolved and converted both. Despite the renovation, they remained luxury cars. On the outside, these cars received the green MITROPA paintwork and also the inscriptions as a saloon, sleeping or dining car. At that time, the cars were used in the luxury train Berlin-London-Express between Berlin and Hoek van Holland with a connection to the canal ship to Harwich . The MITROPA saloon cars were also used privately, for example by the Reich President von Hindenburg. For this purpose, the saloon cars were placed in scheduled express trains. In 1935 the saloon cars were parked and sold.

From 1926, the MITROPA newspaper was available free of charge in the MITROPA dining car to take away. This magazine had thematic editions for the locations in Berlin, Frankfurt am Main, Cologne and Munich. The newspaper was intended for entertainment on the train journey. Information and cultural tips on the respective region alternated with short stories, travel tips, advertising and puzzles.

From 1927/1928, the company's wagons were painted for the first time in a burgundy red paint scheme and the typical MITROPA emblem. The company logo and the typical font were developed by the commercial artist Karl Schulpig . The company operated its own MITROPA repair shop for rail vehicles in Gotha . During this period, MITROPA also sponsored the first international soccer competition, the Mitropa Cup .

In 1928, MITROPA took over Siesta GmbH, which had made a name for itself by renting the then very well-known Siesta pillows to travelers. The pillows were then rented out under the name MITROPA travel pillows.

With the beginning of the Second World War , MITROPA initially had to restrict its business considerably. Meals were only given out against ration cards. Some of the serviced dining and sleeping cars were immediately parked and used for military purposes, such as the command trains of the Wehrmacht. After the occupation of large parts of Central Europe by the Wehrmacht , MITROPA took over earlier CIWL courses, MITROPA sleeping cars came to Bordeaux or Sofia . Ultimately, however, this expansion was only temporary. The remaining dining car services were discontinued in June 1942 at the instigation of Albert Ganzenmüller , State Secretary in the Reich Ministry of Transport, and the operation of the sleeping cars was strictly regulated. The last sleeping car courses were discontinued in 1944. On the other hand, MITROPA took on other stationary services, especially at train stations. For example, during the German occupation of Poland, a MITROPA restaurant for Germans only was opened in Warsaw's main train station . At the end of the war, all Mitropa services were stopped.

Wilhelm Kleinmann was the last director of MITROPA on May 26, 1942. Kleinmann - a member of the NSDAP since October 1, 1931 - developed a busy job with the Reichsbahn with the aim of "cleaning" the Reichsbahn of Jews and Social Democrats and filling important positions with reliable National Socialists. After criticism from Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler and Albert Speer of Kleinmann - mainly because of the inadequate performance of the Reichsbahn during the Second World War in Russia - Kleinmann was deported from the Reichsbahn to MITROPA in 1942. Kleinmann disappeared in the turmoil of the Red Army march into Berlin, and it is believed that he died in an internment camp in Posen .

Development after the Second World War

MITROPA dishes from the GDR
MITROPA - drink glass with shadow play
"Fifty Years of MITROPA" advertising stamp from 1967

As a result of the Second World War and the subsequent division of Germany , MITROPA was also divided. In April 1945, the MITROPA management had already left the city of Berlin with an alternative train heading west to Bad Segeberg. The employees who remained in Berlin registered MITROPA with the responsible authorities again on May 23, 1945 as a stock corporation based in Berlin, Universitätsstrasse 2 to 3a. An initial inventory after the war showed that in the Soviet occupation zone only six of the 45 dining cars and only five of the 48 sleeping cars were operational. Initially, these cars only ran on the trains operated by the four occupying powers. The fleet suffered additional losses due to the withdrawal of more dining and sleeping cars to the western occupation zones .

MITROPA began in the FD trains Berlin-Leipzig, Dresden-Rostock, Berlin-Erfurt and Berlin-Stralsund, which were later to run again, with rather modest management. A soup was first served on the train, in makeshift kitchen compartments, for a token fee. In Berlin, lunch was cooked for children as part of school meals . Gradually, the destroyed train station facilities were reopened. On October 1, 1945, MITROPA opened the first hotel after the war. A former bunker in Berlin-Lankwitz offered up to 240 people overnight accommodation. A MITROPA sleeping car hotel was available from 1950 in Berlin at the Stettiner Bahnhof with 42 sleeping compartments for guests and business travelers. At that time there was also such a place to stay in Leipzig.

After 1945, two MITROPA companies were set up in the western zones. In the American and French zones, the West Direction was established in Frankfurt am Main and the DR's General Direction in Bielefeld was commissioned for the British zone. This in turn handed over the sleeping and dining car operation as Reichsbahn sleeping car and dining car operation to Hamburg-Altona. In further development, on April 1, 1950, the German Sleeping Car and Dining Car Company (DSG) emerged, which operated sleeping and dining cars for the German Federal Railroad in the Federal Republic of Germany. In 1954, the interzone traffic between the DB, the DR, the MITROPA and the DSG was regulated in an agreement .

The cooperation between DSG and MITROPA in rail transport worked well under the circumstances. MITROPA in the GDR used the symbol reminiscent of an imperial eagle in a modified form: The eagle head above the "M" was omitted, the formerly four-spoke wheel, which was reminiscent of a swastika in connection with the eagle , received two more spokes. The newly founded DSG in the Federal Republic of Germany also used the MITROPA symbol until around 1974. However, it was used without modifications and in its original form. At that time, the symbol was also attached to the sleeping and dining cars of the DSG as well as on their menus and on various beverage labels in addition to the abbreviation “DSG”.

MITROPA AG remained one of the few stock corporations in (East) Berlin that was supposed to survive the GDR . From 1960 to 1990, MITROPA was headed by a general manager. Four directorates were assigned, each with one director. The chief accountant was directly subordinate to the general manager. The MITROPA board of directors consisted of the general director, the four directors and the chief accountant. In the GDR, too, the decisive body of MITROPA was the supervisory board. Its members consisted of general directors and senior executives from the transport sector.

In the GDR, MITROPA not only managed dining, buffet and sleeping cars, but also a large number of catering facilities, especially in the larger train stations. There were also MITROPA hairdressing salons at many train stations , and at times MITROPA was also responsible for the Intershop stores . From 1954 she took over the catering on the ships of the White Fleet in Berlin and Sächsische Dampfschiffahrt Dresden as well as the railway ferries on the Baltic Sea. On January 1, 1961, the motorway service stations were also transferred to the company.

From the 1960s to 1989 the tourist express , abbreviated TOUREX, operated as a traveling hotel on the Dresden – Varna – Dresden route. The holiday train was in operation from May to October every year. The TOUREX comprised up to 17 cars and had a maximum bed occupancy of 360 people. The travelers on their way to Bulgaria were looked after by 28 MITROPA employees.

In 1971 she opened her first motel in Usadel near Neubrandenburg on trunk road 96 . The company also operated a hotel in Meißen , the airport hotel in Berlin-Schönefeld, a hotel at Hermsdorfer Kreuz and the Rügen hotel in Saßnitz, which opened in 1969 .

An important advertising medium from 1972 onwards was the "rational" dishes made by VEB Colditzer Porzellanwerk . Dining cars, station restaurants and bistros were equipped with it. MITROPA was a member of the European Passenger Timetable Conference; it concluded agreements with a number of companies, railway administrations and travel agencies on the running of dining and sleeping cars and their mutual supply, the management of railcars and the sale of bed tickets. In addition to the agreement with DB / DSG, there were agreements with Sweden , Denmark , Norway , Finland , Bulgaria , Romania , Hungary , Yugoslavia , Austria , ČSSR and Poland .

MITROPA in Switzerland

As early as 1925, MITROPA sleeping cars drove to Bern , Chur , Interlaken , Lugano and Zurich . Dining cars ran on the trains to Arth-Goldau and Zurich stations. In October 1926, a contract for the operation of sleeping and dining cars was signed between SBB and MITROPA. In addition, in 1926 there was a contract for a sleeping car course to Interlaken with the Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon Railway . The SBB also used closed MITROPA sleeping car trains between Basel and Chur. In 1928, contracts with the Bernina Railway and the Rhaetian Railway (RhB) for a dining car followed. MITROPA was thus also present on the narrow-gauge railways in Switzerland. From 1928 to 1949, MITROPA also ran the Alp Grüm train station restaurant and buffet. The Alp Grüm station building is at an altitude of 2091  m above sea level. M. and was the highest business location that MITROPA operated at that time. The activities of MITROPA ended on June 30, 1949 with the confiscation and liquidation of German assets and objects by the Swiss government .

On June 5, 1996, MITROPA Central European Sleeping Car and Dining Car Corporation, Berlin, Basel branch , Switzerland was founded. It should provide "service in day trains, sleeper and couchette car traffic, on ferries, in stationary service companies at passenger stations, in hotels, in rest stops on motorways and roads, at airports". The business of Buffet Suisse SA (formerly Minibuffet AG ), today in liquidation, was taken over on March 1st, 1997. MITROPA Suisse SA Bern was founded on August 21, 1997 (since January 13, 2003 as DB Reise & Touristik Suisse SA). She took over the services of the branch, which was deleted on December 9, 2005. In 2002 this service was taken over again by Passenger Rail AG , today elvetino AG and a 100% subsidiary of SBB .

MITROPA after the reunification of Germany

After the reunification of Germany , the Deutsche Bundesbahn and Deutsche Reichsbahn as well as their rail catering subsidiaries existed side by side until 1994. In September 1991 around 100,000 MITROPA employees were employed in travel services. The MITROPA-Fahrbetrieb operated 81 sleeping cars, 109 couchette cars, 82 dining cars and 42 buffet cars with approx. 700 cooks, waiters and sleeping car attendants. In addition, MITROPA operated 264 train station restaurants , six hotels and 28 motorway service stations during this period  . There were ten airport restaurants as well as 82 restaurants on passenger ships and three ferries. She also ran 13 hairdressing salons, three laundries and more than 270  kiosks , sales outlets and department stores . In 1994 the two railway companies were merged to form Deutsche Bahn AG and MITROPA and DSG to form MITROPA AG .

The new MITROPA AG had four business areas: service on the train, gastronomy and trade at train stations, service on the road and ship catering. The ship catering division was transferred to Scandlines in 1999/2000 . The day-to-day business (mainly the management of dining cars) in the area of ​​service on trains as well as the associated logistics (vehicle maintenance, food storage and deliveries) were integrated into what was then DB Reise & Touristik AG (since November 2003 DB Fernverkehr ). The night-time business (mainly the management of sleeping and couchette cars) was integrated into the group-owned DB European Railservice , which was founded in 2002 . Under the management of Hartmut Mehdorn, the traditional name for on-board catering on Deutsche Bahn trains was thus dropped . Since then, the restaurant staff have been difficult to distinguish from train attendants and train drivers.

In early 2004, Deutsche Bahn announced that it would sell the company. At that time, Mitropa had 1950 employees. On April 1, 2004, MITROPA AG and the remaining business units were sold to Compass Group Deutschland GmbH, based in Eschborn . At the end of 2004 the company MITROPA AG was transformed into MITROPA GmbH . In 2005, the company employed 1950 people nationwide in the field of stationary catering and retail for travelers at 46 train stations and 34 motorway service stations and truck stops. In 2003 MITROPA GmbH achieved a turnover of 120 million euros.

Within the Compass Group, MITROPA GmbH was added to the subsidiary Select Service Partners . In 2006 Select Service Partners was separated from the group and now operates as SSP Germany .

Sleeping car

Dining car

  • On the siding : Former buffet car from the City Express trains (from 1976)

  • Restored MITROPA dining car (built from 1936) on a special trip on the Rennsteigbahn (2008)

Collectibles

Mitropa AG participation certificate for 100 RM from October 1926

Like many other companies, MITROPA was also dependent on proportionate external financing . As a result, profit participation certificates were issued in 1926 , which today are depreciated as historical securities . In the GDR, MITROPA issued various vouchers in the train station restaurants. There were also vouchers, vouchers, deposit and tokens issued by the MITROPA-Rügen-Hotel-Saßnitz. All of them bear the MITROPA logo, which was used from 1949, and mostly a corresponding validity note. But other items with the MITROPA logo, especially tableware, are also very popular with collectors today.

Organizational structure in 1925

The organization and operation of MITROPA was guaranteed by the numerous offices in Germany and abroad. As an example, an overview of the size of the company in 1925.

Directorate

  • Directorate for all MITROPA companies: Berlin NW 7, Universitätsstrasse 3 to 3a

Subsidiaries of the management

  • Central Purchasing Department: Central warehouse: Berlin, Fruchtstrasse 80/82. Preparatory kitchen: Berlin, Fruchtstrasse 80/82. Garage: Berlin, Madaistraße 5
  • Central beverage warehouse department: Berlin, Görlitz passenger station, reception building
  • Main warehouse for printed matter: Berlin NW 7, Universitätsstrasse 2 to 3a
  • Uniforms main warehouse and laundry: Berlin, Palisadenstraße 77 II
  • Company health insurance fund: Berlin NW 7, Prinz-Louis-Ferdinand-Straße 1
  • Technical warehouse: Berlin, Lehrter Hbf., Arrival side
  • Gotha workshop: Kohlenstrasse 8

Other departments

  • Main department Berlin-West: with the branch departments Berlin Anhalter Bahnhof, Berlin Potsdamer Bahnhof, Berlin Schlesischer Bahnhof, Berlin Lehrter Bahnhof and Berlin Görlitzer Bahnhof
  • Eichkamp department near Berlin: With the Insterburg branch and the Breslau inspector post
  • Department Berlin Stettiner Bahnhof
  • Altona department: With the Hamburg and Hanover branch
  • Dresden department
  • Frankfurt am Main department: With the Basel Bad Bahnhof (Switzerland) branch and the Wiesbaden inspectorate
  • Cologne department: With the Dortmund branch and the Saarbrücken inspectorate
  • Leipzig department
  • Main department Munich: With the branch departments Munich Hbf., Würzburg and Stuttgart
  • District office for Austria in Vienna and the MITROPA travel agency in Vienna
  • Representation for the Netherlands: Amsterdam office, Hoek van Holland branch and Vlissingen branch

Web links

Commons : Mitropa  - collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

  • Gottfried Krüger-Wittmack: 75 years of MITROPA. Hermann Merker Verlag, Fürstenfeldbruck 1992, ISBN 3-922404-28-6
  • Tilo Köhler: You will be placed! The story of Mitropa. Transit-Verlag, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-88747-177-6
  • Oliver Strüver: Sleeping and dining on long journeys . In: Eisenbahn Magazin . No. 4 . Alba Publication GmbH & Co KG, April 2016, ISSN  0342-1902 , p. 6-15 .
  • Albert Mühl: 75 Years of Mitropa - The History of the Central European Sleeping Car and Dining Car Corporation. EK-Verlag GmbH Freiburg 1992, ISBN 3-88255-674-9

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Albert Mühl: 75 years of Mitropa - The history of the Central European sleeping and dining car stock company. EK-Verlag GmbH, Freiburg 1992, pages 162 to 168
  2. ↑ Dirk Suckow: The Mitropa Cup. How professional football re-measured Central Europe . In: Mitropa. Annual booklet of the humanities center for the history and culture of East Central Europe at the University of Leipzig . 2016, ISSN  2191-1401 , p. 25-30 .
  3. ^ DB Museum (ed.): In the service of democracy and dictatorship: The Reichsbahn 1920–1945 (=  history of the railroad in Germany . Volume 2 ). 2nd Edition. Nuremberg 2004, ISBN 3-9807652-2-9 , pp. 108 .
  4. ↑ Werner Sölch: Orient Express. The heyday and decline of a luxury train . 4th edition, Alba Verlag, Düsseldorf 1998, pp. 67-71.
  5. ^ Alfred Gottwaldt : Dorpmüller's Reichsbahn: The era of the Reich Minister of Transport Julius Dorpmüller 1920–1945. EK-Verlag, Freiburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-88255-726-8 , p. 195
  6. ^ Władysław Bartoszewski : 1859 dni Warszawy. Wydawnictwo "Znak", Kraków 1974
  7. ^ Alfred Gottwaldt, Diana Schulle: "Jews are prohibited from using dining cars" The anti-Jewish policy of the Reich Ministry of Transport between 1933–1945 , Teetz 2007, ISBN 978-3-938485-64-4 , p. 105.
  8. ^ Albert Mühl: 75 years of Mitropa - The history of the Central European sleeping and dining car stock company. EK-Verlag GmbH, Freiburg 1992, page 94
  9. ^ New Germany, May 28, 1946, "Mitropa Enterprises Again"
  10. ↑ Berliner Zeitung, June 23, 1946, "The Mitropa Hotel in Berlin"
  11. ↑ Berliner Zeitung, June 18, 1950, "Schlafwagen-Hotel"
  12. ^ Albert Mühl: 75 years of Mitropa - The history of the Central European sleeping and dining car stock company. EK-Verlag GmbH, Freiburg 1992, pages 92 to 95
  13. ↑ Various menus from DSG and advertising brochure from Orenstein & Koppel AG Dortmund (wagon construction) from 1974
  14. ↑ Klaus Bossig: special vehicles of the Deutsche Reichsbahn. EK-Verlag GmbH, Freiburg 2008, page 144
  15. ↑ TOUREX train conductor with information for travelers, 1981, publisher: MITROPA and DR
  16. ↑ History of the motel  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed November 21, 2011@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.motel-usadel.com  
  17. ↑ Virtual Museum of Dead Places , with an article from the magazine Der Deutsche Straßenverkehr, 11/1971, accessed on November 21, 1971
  18. ↑ https://www.winzer-meissen.de/download/Winzerkurier_04-14_web.pdf
  19. ^ Albert Mühl: 75 years of Mitropa - The history of the Central European sleeping and dining car stock company. EK-Verlag GmbH, Freiburg 1992, pages 85 to 90 and 191 to 196
  20. ^ Bankruptcy proceedings at the Bern-Laupen court. (No longer available online.) Canton Bern, August 21, 1997, formerly in the original ; Retrieved January 14, 2010 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / be.powernet.ch  
  21. ^ Entry in the commercial register of the Canton of Bern. (No longer available online.) Canton of Bern, September 29, 2008, formerly the original ; Retrieved January 14, 2010 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / be.powernet.ch  
  22. ↑ Entry in the commercial register of the Canton of Bern  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / be.powernet.ch  
  23. ↑ Elvetino Portrait ( Memento of the original from March 22, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.elvetino.ch
  24. ^ Albert Mühl: 75 years of Mitropa - The history of the Central European sleeping and dining car stock company. EK-Verlag GmbH, Freiburg 1992, page 108
  25. ↑ a b Report DB AG wants to sell Mitropa . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , issue 4/2004, ISSN  1421-2811 , p. 146.
  26. ↑ Annual Report 2004 p. 73
  27. ↑ The traditional name Mitropa disappears. ECONOMY.ONE GmbH (Verlagsgruppe Handelsblatt GmbH), June 30, 2006, accessed on January 14, 2010 .
  28. ^ Henning Huschka: Replacement money and money-like documents in the GDR , (collector's catalog), H. Gietl Verlag & Publication Service GmbH, 2nd edition 2013
  29. ^ Company organization from the MITROPA course book winter 1925/26