dining Mitropa style

Two postcards of Mitropa dining car interiors, one dated 1957, the other from the same era, plus a Roco model in HO scale.

The company was founded during WW1 in November 1916, as the Mitteleuropäische Schlafwagen- und Speisewagen Aktiengesellschaft. Being a mouthful, the first word was contracted to become the operating name. Its founders included different railway companies in the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires, who discontinued the service provided by the French-owned Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits or CIWL - see earlier posts - who they were at war with. After the war, CIWL was able to take over most routes in Central Europe outside of Germany, while Mitropa maintained most of its routes within Germany as well as routes to the Netherlands and Scandinavia. The company thrived between the wars and managed about 750 carriages by 1940, but never came close to the size of CIWL.

After WW2 and the division of Germany, Mitropa AG became the catering company for the Deutsche Reichsbahn, the national railway of East Germany. Mitropa AG was one of the very few stock companies that remained in existence during the Communist era. The Western section of Mitropa split off and named itself Deutsche Schlafwagen- und Speisewagengesellschaft (DSG) to manage the sleeping and dining cars of the Deutsche Bundesbahn in the West.

After the reunification of Germany in October 1990, both Mitropa and DSG continued to operate in their respective areas of Germany until 1 January 1994, when the Reichsbahn and Bundesbahn were merged to form Deutsche Bahn AG. Mitropa and DSG were also merged under the Mitropa logo. This was one of the very few instances  in which a West German company was "taken over" by an East German one, as Mitropa was the surviving entity after the merger. The new Mitropa initially catered to travellers on rail, road, and water and provided services at railway stations. As expenses could not be met, in 1999-2000, the on-board ship catering business was sold to Scandlines. On 1 July 2002, the traditional core business of railway catering was handed over to DB Reise & Touristik AG, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn. In 2004 the remainder of Mitropa was sold to the Compass Group and Mitropa AG became Mitropa GmbH. It operates food services at railway stations and Autobahn service stations. Sleeping cars on Deutsche Bahn trains are managed by CityNightLine.