DEROP

Brief History

DEROP (Deutsche Vertriebsgesellschaft für russische Ölprodukte AG) was established, probably in the 1920s, to distribute Russian oil products in Germany. (Similar sales organistaions were set up at a similar time in Sweden, ender the Nafta name, and in the UK as ROP.) In 1935 BV, the German benzole producer best known for its Aral products, acquired DEROP to add fuel oil and LPG to its product range, as well as a number of zapfstellen under the DEROP brand.

A few Derop maps were issued in the 1930s, prior to the acquisition by BV-Aral. This example (left) has a very plain cover, promoting Deropol lubricants as well as Derop petrol, and was produced by BZ (Berliner Zeitung). Derop also sold a 15 page softback atlas of Germany by Stritzke & Rothe similar in design to the ones sold by Nitag and several of the Uniti members. As well as listing all Derop outlets, it included photos (below) of a cluttered depot in Berlin and of a Derop tanker refuelling the "Graf Zeppelin". Image left courtesy of Jon Roma

Follow this link for Aral maps.

In the 1930s a few companies such as Shell started publishing street plans for major towns. However service stations supplied by firms such as Derop had to offer generally available maps to their customers and this example of a street plan of Leipzig, edited by Councillor Albert Zimmermann, was neatly stamped with a red Derop on its cover. Internally, a street plan of Leipzig in black & white (other than highlighting the main through routes in red) is surrounded by 27 small adverts. Three relate to petrol or oil companies, but none to Derop. The three are for BV, Monopolin (which was marketed by most independent petrol distributors, in this case the locally-based Olus Gesellschaft Hromada & Co listing six filling station locations) and a local distributor of Spidolin lubricants, that appears to be called Kröfurol - these can all be seen on the adverts page.