TRACKS, BALLS AND CUPS: VERY BRIEF HISTORY OF MITROPA
Today in Berlin: 24 November, 1916
While in 1916 the First World War was raging through Europe with increasing ferocity - and it definitely wasn’t done yet in the ferocity department - the fighting countries faced not only mass-scale death and destruction. They also dealt with serious business implications.
That wars are money-gobbling events needs no explanation. But they also bring about other acute problems. Like a question: can an enemy-country railway company organise your quality on-board passenger service? Serve wine or tea and light refreshments for breakfast? The answer was of course, nein.
To that purpose German, Austrian, and Hungarian governments (or the villains in the official World War One story) initiated a little refurbishment. Together with a group of banks and almost a dozen railway authorities they decided to push the French-Belgian company in charge of the railway sleeper and dining service out of their collective markets. It was to be replaced by a German enterprise.
And so, on November 24, 1916 reps of the above bodies gathered at the main assembly hall of Berlin’s Deutsche Bank building in Mauerstraße 38 and officially founded a new company, Mitteleuropäische Schlafwagen- und Speisewagen-Aktiengesellschaft (MSG) or “Central-European Sleeper- and Diner PLC”. Soon it would become famous as MITROPA.
MITROPA (an acronym for Mitteleuropäische Schlafwagen- & Speisewagen AG) took over from the French-Belgian CIWL (short for Compagnie International des Wagon-Lits) which operated, among others, the world-famous Orient-Express. Not to be outdone or left behind, MITROPA got its own luxury train, the Balkan Zug, which from January 15, 1916 operated between Berlin and Constantinopol (the last one ran on October 15 exactly two years later).
In the late 1920s MITROPA would go one up and open their own modern-looking restaurant at Berlin’s main airport, newly vamped-up Flughafen Tempelhof.
Over the next decades MITROPA was to become one of the biggest players in the field of transportation and travel service in Europe. Not only did they provide service on board - you could find MITROPA’s restaurants on most of the great German railway stations.
After the war, MITROPA would be mostly associated with East Germany: unlike many other companies (most, to be honest), it could hold on to its status of the Aktiengesellschaft (Public Limited Company). West Germany set up its own company: Deutsche Schlafwagen- und Speisewagen-Gesellschaft (DSG) with their main seat in Frankfurt am Main.
In East Berlin you could enjoy their service in railway station restaurants, in smaller Kneipen and on board of Berlin’s tourist boats travelling up and down the Spree and across the Müggelsee lake. You can still find the company’s traces in Berlin and beyond.
By the way, MITROPA‘s classic logo - originally with an eagle and after World War Two without - was designed in 1928 by a brilliant German graphic artist, Karl Schulpig. The same many who also created the logo of Berlin‘s other Berlin legend, the dairy products company, Bolle.
Fun fact: without MITROPA, there would not be UEFA Champions League. In 1927 the company invested in its own international football tournament, the MITROPA Cup. Football teams representing different countries would meet and participate following a set of rules, which would later be emulated and developed in other international competitions such as Champions League.
Why did MITROPA bother? Well, you have to go where your clients are. And as a railway and catering service company they knew you could pick them up straight from the platform, on their way to the next big game. This way, unlike in football itself, everybody won.
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