Déjà-vu: DB Schenker in East and South East Europe

A company is more than just the sum of its assets and liabilities; it is also strongly influenced by the politics of the time. Eastern and Southeastern Europe had been Schenker's home market since its foundation in 1872. Then came the two world wars, which changed the political map, and after 1945 Europe found itself divided by an Iron Curtain. All of Schenker's branch offices on the other side of the curtain were lost to state monopolies. The turning point came in 1989 with the collapse of the Socialist planned economies: like others, Schenker also turned to the task of reconstructing what it had lost. The challenges were enormous: political uncertainty, lack of legal security, lack of infrastructure, considerable training requirements. It took a long pioneering effort against many obstacles before DB Schenker could grow to again become one of the region's leading logistics service providers.