Der Mitropa-Pokal und die Legende mit den roten Schlafwagen. Fußball, Raumkonstruktion und europäische Eisenbahnverkehrsgeschichte in den 1920er/ 1930er Jahren

The Mitropa Cup founded in 1927 was the most important professional football tournament of the interwar period. It was organized by the international Mitropa Cup committee, which was formed of leading protagonists from Central Europe such as Hugo Meisl. This Central European Cup was played out between different combinations of the leading clubs from the participating countries: Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Yugoslavia, and Switzerland. German teams did not take part in the Mitropa Cup, because the DFB did not accept professional football teams at that time. With this sport historical background the study shows in which way the Mitropa Cup (as well as other tournaments) profoundly influenced the construction of economic and social space, and how it influenced the perception of the German Mitropa company. While it has been claimed that Meisl and his comrades could build on the sponsorship of the German restaurant and sleeping car company Mitropa, the parallel investigation of railway history through primary sources and sport history proves that no such relationship has existed, and furthermore, because of an international treaty the Mitropa was not allowed to provide services beyond Germany and several defined destinations. Thus, the discursive and spacial significance of both the Mitropa Cup’s football-based definition of Central Europe, and the Mitropa company as one of the two European players in sleeping and restaurant car services (the other being the French-Belgian CIWL/ISG), forms a historical coincidence.