Pfandmarke - Berlin (Mitropa) ND

Reverse

Reeded outer ring.

Script: Latin

Lettering:
20
PF

Edge

Plain

Comment

Menzel: LLL

Mitropa, later SSP Deutschland, was known as an operator of dining and sleeping cars in Germany for most of the 20th century. Mitropa stopped doing this in 2002, since then it has only operated station and roadside restaurants. The name Mitropa is an acronym for Mitteleuropäische Schlaf- und Speisewagen Aktiengesellschaft.
Mitropa was founded on November 24, 1916 during World War I. Its founders were the railway companies of Germany and Austria-Hungary who had severed their ties with the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits (CIWL) (which was enemy owned). The equipment initially consisted of equipment that mostly came from various private companies such as the DESG, NSG, Kromrey, Scheidling and Riffelmann or had been taken over or confiscated from the CIWL. After the First World War Wagons-Lits was able to resume its services in most countries of Central Europe, but Mitropa continued to operate in Germany and on the routes between Germany, the Netherlands and Scandinavia. Around 1940 Mitropa operated 750 carriages.