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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'' (German for Central Europe). The railway carriages displayed a distinct burgundy-red livery with the Mitropa logo. Since a 2002 reorganization, when the onboard catering branch was taken over by DB Fernverkehr, the company only provided stationary food services for rail and road customers. The remaining business was sold to Compass Group in 2004 and merged into the Select Service Partner (SSP) subsidiary in 2006. ==History== The company was founded during World War I on 24 November 1916, as ''ドイツ語: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. In those times, Mitropa developed its burgundy-red corporate design, with a modern font and the distinctive 'M' logo styled by Karl Schulpig (1884–1948). From 1927, it also sponsored the Mitropa Cup, one of the first international football competitions for club sides. The company prospered between the wars and managed about 750 coaches by 1940, however, it never came close to the size of CIWL. While from 1933 the corporate management was brought into line in the course of the Nazi ''Gleichschaltung'' process, several employees onboard 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. Based at East Berlin, Mitropa AG was one of the very few stock companies that remained in existence during the Communist era in East Germany. Beside sleepers and dining cars, it ran restaurants at all major stations, on passenger ships, and on Baltic ferries. In 1961 the company took over the East German motorway service areas and opened its first motel in 1971. After German reunification in October 1990, both Mitropa and DSG continued to operate in their respective areas of Germany until 1 January 1994, when Reichsbahn and Bundesbahn were merged to form Deutsche Bahn AG. Mitropa and DSG were also re-merged under the Mitropa logo. This was one of the very few instances, and the most prominent, 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 continued catering to travellers on rail, road, and water and provided services at railway stations. As expenses could not be met, the on-board ship business on the Baltic ferries was sold to Scandlines in 1999/2000. On 1 July 2002, the traditional core business of railway catering and sleepers was handed over to DB Reise & Touristik AG, renamed DB Fernverkehr in 2003, a hundred-percent subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn AG. Sleeper-coaches on Deutsche Bahn trains are managed by City Night Line services. On 1 April 2004 the remainder of Mitropa AG was sold to the German branch of the Compass Group and transformed into a limited liability company (''GmbH''). It operated food services at railway stations and motorway service. Since 2006, Mitropa operates under the name SSP Deutschland GmbH. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mitropa」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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