Mitropa

[alfonso]

Good evening!
I have this tea spoon in my collection and can anyone tell me from which the period. Whether it comes before or after WWII, or DDR.
I was looking on the Internet, but it is not clear from which the period.
Thanks in advance!

[alfonso]

I think that makers logo is Heimendahl & Keller, Hilden/Rhein.

[Sarge]

Pre war or wartime civilian. I doubt there is any way to know which unless factory rekords are available.
Sarge

[alfonso]

Thanks for calling.
But I do not understand how a civilian?
Do not Mitropa tourist railway company?
Greeting

P.S. It's important to me is that it is not DDR. 😰

[HPL2008]

Thanks for calling.
But I do not understand how a civilian?
Do not Mitropa tourist railway company?
Greeting

P.S. It's important to me is that it is not DDR. 😰

Yes; MITROPA was the company responsible for gastronomy in Reichsbahn trains and railway stations, Autobahn rest houses etc.; they even provided the first on-board catering on Lufthansa flights.

MITROPA (an acronym for Mitteleuropäische Schlaf- und Speisewagen Aktiengesellschaft [Central European Sleeping- and Dining Car Inc.] existed from 1916 to 2004. (After the war, they carried on in the GDR and well beyond German re-unification.)

To date the spoon, one would have to know when this particular kind of font for the company name was used to mark its cutlery.

[alfonso]

Thanks, I understand.

[Wilhelm Saris]

The rest-houses for the Reichsautobahnen were a part for the Reichs-Rasstätten GmbH,
who employed these rest-houses (Schwert und Spaten, Nr.7 from July 1939).
Mitropa was not mentioned in the article.

The filling stations were from the Reichsautobahn Kraftstoff GmbH. Their personnel
so-called (Erfrischungsmaiden und Tankwarte) did wear the abbreviation RAK with
their dresses.

[HPL2008]

I should have been clearer: The gastronomy at the Autobahnraststätten wasn't run by MITROPA during the Third Reich era, but in the GDR (since 1961).

(By the way; love the term Erfrischungsmaiden...)

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Bravo Andreas and Wim. I recall the Mitropa Schlafwagen with pleasure, though I never traveled in one. Now all these nice conveyances are gone and replaced
with miserable post modern objects of no poetry.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Erfrischungsmaiden is a very pleasing concept, to be sure.