The similarity in name to the former East German petrol station network is coincidental.
The fact that our company, Minol Messtechnik, shares its name with the former state-owned enterprise (VEB) Minol still puzzles many people in the eastern German states. And there's no end in sight, as the old VEB Minol logo still appears on classic cars and model railway carriages. After all, the Minol oriole was a defining feature of East German gas stations for over thirty years, and it remains firmly in the memories of many older citizens.
Where does the similarity in the Minol name come from?
Minol Mineralölimport Stuttgart was founded in 1948 by Werner Lehmann Sr. The name Minol was derived from the first syllables of "Mineralöl" (mineral oil). The first Minol gas station in Stuttgart opened in 1950.
Independently of this, the VEB Kombinat Minol was founded in 1956 in what was then East Germany, with its eponymous brand name and apparently the same idea behind the name. VEB Minol supplied the entire GDR with fuel and enjoyed a very high level of brand recognition there.
The identical name of the state-owned enterprise (VEB) Minol in the East and Minol in the West was purely coincidental and not intended by either side. Because there were absolutely no points of contact between the two brands due to the Iron Curtain until 1989, the identical name was completely insignificant for decades.
Only after reunification did some initial friction arise, but this resolved itself almost automatically with the dissolution of VEB Minol in the former GDR in 1993. Furthermore, our company, Minol Messtechnik, had already transformed itself decades ago from a gas station operator into a manufacturer of measuring instruments and a provider of heating cost accounting services.
To prevent the trademark rights for gas stations from lapse, the successor company of the former buyer of Minol VEB still operates – or rather, once again operates – four gas stations under the Minol brand name. "Our" Minol also operates a gas station in Pleidelsheim to protect the trademark rights for gas stations.
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