Despite the economic crisis, the German railways flourished between the two world wars. This was also the case for sleeping and dining car company Mitropa. Founded during the First World War as the German counterpart of Wagons-Lits, it entered a period of prosperity after the war, despite the restrictions it was subjected to.
Mitropa was a catering company best known for having managed sleeping and dining cars of different German railways for most of the 20th century. Founded in 1916, the name "Mitropa" is an acronym of Mitteleuropa.
The history of this company during the interwar period was very interesting and the prosperity of the company was undeniable. All posters of this company proves that art deco was very popular in Germany too, despite the Bauhaus and other avant-garde movements.
The company was founded during World War I on 24 November 1916, as Mitteleuropäische Schlafwagen- und Speisewagen Aktiengesellschaft. Its founders included different railway companies of the Central Powers, i.e. Germany and Austria-Hungary, who discontinued the service provided by the 'enemy'-owned Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits (CIWL). From the establishment of business activities on 1 January 1917, Mitropa held the monopoly on cross-border dining and sleeping car services, including the Balkans Express from Berlin to Constantinople, introduced to replace the CIWL Orient Express trains.
After the war, CIWL was able to take over most routes in Central Europe, while Mitropa maintained most of its routes within Germany and Austria as well as routes to the Netherlands, Scandinavia and Switzerland. From 1928 the company ran diner cars on the Bernina and Rhaetian Railway lines as well as on the pullman coaches of the Rheingold luxury train competing the CIWL Edelweiss service. Mitropa also catered Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaft passenger ships and the Baltic ferry link from Sassnitz to Trelleborg.
While from 1933 the corporate management was brought into line in the course of the Nazi Gleichschaltung process, several employees on board were organised in a clandestine trade union movement and made use of their professional activity to smuggle secret messages and material across international borders. In World War II the company's business was seriously limited, while on the other hand Mitropa temporarily ran former CIWL services in territories controlled by the Wehrmacht, including a restaurant at Warsaw Main Station (Dworzec Główny) in occupied Poland. Dining car services discontinued in 1942 by order of State Secretary Albert Ganzenmüller, the last sleeping car connections were terminated in 1944.
In the Cold War and the Division of Germany, Mitropa became the catering company for the Deutsche Reichsbahn, the national railway of East Germany. The Western section of Mitropa split off and named itself German Sleeper and Dining Car Company (Deutsche Schlafwagen- und Speisewagengesellschaft, DSG) to manage the sleeping and dining coaches on the Deutsche Bundesbahn railway lines in the Federal Republic.
Text by: Cătălin CREȚU
Photography: Deutsches Plakat Museum
© The Bunget 2017
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