The company was founded during World War I on 24 November 1916, as Mitteleuropäische Schlafwagen- und Speisewagen Aktiengesellschaft (German for Central European Sleeping and Dining Cars Incorporated).

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 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[1] competing with the CIWL Edelweiss service.

While from 1933 the corporate management was brought into line in the course of the Nazi Gleichschaltung process, several employees on board were organised in a clandestine trade union movement and made use of their professional activity to smuggle secret messages and material across international borders.

[2] 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.

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.

The movie Europa by Lars von Trier, set in the American Zone of Occupation in Germany in 1945, involves a company called Zentropa which runs dining and sleeping cars.

In the movie Goodbye Lenin the lead character, Alex Kerner (Daniel Brühl), instructs his sister's boyfriend Rainer (Alexander Beyer) to lie about his employment as a manager at Burger King and claim that he is a food purchaser for a Mitropa restaurant.