4711

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4711 logo and house number at the new headquarters at Glockengasse 4, Cologne; new logo version from 2011

4711 (seven-eleven) is a brand of perfume , the Company Mäurer & Wirtz GmbH & Co. KG belongs. Since 1799 at the latest, a cologne made according to the recipe that later became known as 4711 was sold by Wilhelm Mülhens in Cologne. This scented water is still produced today and can be called Original Eau de Cologne . 4711 is a well-known brand name that has been protected by trademark law since 1875 at the latest. Mäurer & Wirtz has meanwhile expanded 4711 into an umbrella brand under which various fragrances are offered.

The 4711 parent company in Cologne's Glockengasse is, although it is not the original building, a tourist destination . It houses an exhibition room that can be viewed once a week as part of a public tour; a carillon can also be heard every hour .

history

Legend and beginnings

4711 Molanus bottle around 1885

According to legend, in 1792 the merchant Wilhelm Mülhens received the recipe for an " aqua mirabilis " from Franz Maria Carl Gereon Farina, a Carthusian monk , as a present for his wedding. What is certain, however, is that Wilhelm Mülhens had been based in Glockengasse in Cologne since 1797 and had been selling "Eau de Cologne" since 1799.

At the time of the French occupation, the house in Glockengasse was given the conscription number "4711" as the house number (see corresponding section ), which became the company's trademark in the 1830s. Initially, the "aqua mirabilis" was not sold as a perfume, but as an internally applied remedy. In 1810, however , Napoleon Bonaparte issued a decree which demanded the disclosure of all secret recipes for remedies to be used internally. In order to evade the obligation to publish, Wilhelm Mülhens issued his eau de Cologne from then on as an “externally applicable agent”, whereby it was marketed for the first time as a scented water as we know it today. Even today's manufacturers consider it not only as a fragrance, but also as an "aroma therapeutic" that should be inhaled, "so that the essential oils can also work."

The water was produced in one of the first German rescue centers , the Düsseltal rescue center for orphans . This institution for orphans was co-financed by Köllnisch Wasser. However, the water itself was produced on the Düssel in Düsseldorf. Rosebuds and the saying For God and the orphans adorned the labels of the scented water bottles from Düsseltal .

Peter Joseph Mülhens , a son of the founder, was at his father's side from 1825 and later became the sole managing director. Between 1820 and 1840 the network of national and international agencies was expanded and the distribution of Eau de Cologne expanded to India and Indonesia . In 1854, Mülhens began building the new office building in Glockengasse.

The iconic shape of the cologne bottle dates from the 1820s. It is a Molanus bottle named after its inventor . Their angular shape made it easier to store, transport and apply labels . Mülhens took up this new invention, but put a goiter between the bottle shoulder and the cap , which allows the alcoholic contents to expand when heated. In this bottle, 4711 is still offered today. The well-known label was established under Peter Joseph Mülhens. It shows Cologne Cathedral on one side and Bonn Minster on the other , with a Gothic band above it with the inscription " Dieu et mon droit ". Due to the church representations and the inscription, Mülhens moved its eau de Cologne closer to the holy water . Peter Joseph Mülhens also established blue-gold as the company colors and expanded the product range to include other fragrances, skin creams , soaps and powders .

Name dispute

Franz Maria Farina company letterhead 1878

The company was initially called "Franz Maria Farina, Glockengasse 4711, Cöln", which is why the company was involved in legal disputes about the use of "Farina" in the brand name until 1881. Various owners of the name rights, including the Farina family , sued to prohibit the Mülhens' from using the name "Farina". Johann Maria Farina is said to have been one of the first to produce a “Cologne water”, and the family name was at times synonymous with aqua mirabilis from Cologne. Above all, the Johann Maria Farina company across from Jülichs-Platz sought to be able to use the name exclusively. The Mülhens company took on people with the name Farina as business partners several times in order to be able to use the name, first in 1803 Carl Franz Maria Farina from Düsseldorf; However, after three Farina companies filed a lawsuit in 1832, after the use of the name was prohibited, a Franz Maria Farina from Milan was won as a business partner. In 1862 Peter Joseph Mülhens had his company entered in the commercial register under “Franz Maria Farina in Glokkengasse 4711 across from the post office”. By judgment of the Kgl. Higher Regional Court of Cologne on April 27, 1881, Ferdinand Mülhens , managing director since 1872 and owner of the company since the death of his father Peter Joseph Mülhens in 1873, was finally prohibited from using the name "Farina", although the exclusive use fell to the French perfume manufacturer Roger & Gallet. Ferdinand Mülhens then set up the company as the Eau de Cologne and perfumery factory Glockengasse No. 4711 across from Ferd's horse mail. Enter Mülhens in the commercial register; in France the name was “No. 4711 Eau de Cologne ".

Founding years and 20th century

Advertisement for Ferdinand Mülhen as an imperial and royal purveyor to the court, 1908

Under Ferdinand Mülhens branches were founded in the USA (1875 in New York City ) and in Russia (1880 in Riga ). The expansion of the company could no longer be managed in the Glockengasse. Ferdinand Mülhens therefore relocated part of his 4711 production from Glockengasse to Cologne-Ehrenfeld in March 1874 to Venloer Strasse 241 / Vogelsanger Strasse 66-100, where soap production took place between 1874 and 1943 and 1946 to 1991.

His son Peter Paul Mülhens (1875–1945) became the fourth owner of the company. He modernized the company through the use of technical equipment. In 1908 it was advertised that the court of the Emperor of Austria in Vienna would also be supplied with 4711 . After the First World War , Peter Paul Mülhens rebuilt the lost export relationships and branches. Despite difficult economic conditions, many new fragrances were introduced between 1920 and 1935, such as Tosca (1921) and Sir (1935). In 1928 he was awarded the title of purveyor to the court by King Gustav V of Sweden , in 1930 by the Prince of Wales and in 1955 by King Hussein of Jordan . During the Second World War in 1943, both the parent company in Glockengasse and the production facilities in Cologne-Ehrenfeld were destroyed.

After his death in 1945, Peter Paul Mülhens' widow, Maria Walburga Mülhens , b. Stockhausen took over the management of the company and in ten years rebuilt it into a company with an international reputation. In 1946, production in Ehrenfeld with colognes, soaps and toothpaste , hair and skin creams was temporarily resumed. In 1948 the company started exporting again. In 1962 the management passed to the grandson of Maria and Peter Paul Mülhens, Ferdinand Mülhens (* 1937). In December 1990 the name was changed to Muelhens KG - the designation 4711 was no longer part of the company name.

Sale of the company and takeover of the brand

The bottle from 4711 (the so-called "Molanus bottle")
"Mr. Ice "character for a children's shampoo in the 1960s

In 1994 the Mülhens family sold the company to Wella AG in Darmstadt . Wella has bundled its cosmetics activities and thus Muelhens since 1997 under the umbrella of Cosmopolitan Cosmetics GmbH, until Wella AG itself was taken over by the American detergent and cosmetics manufacturer Procter & Gamble in 2003 .

On July 1, 2005, the fragrance business of Cosmopolitan Cosmetics Prestige, Muelhens and Procter & Gamble Prestige Beauté was merged under the umbrella of Procter & Gamble Prestige Products GmbH . In the summer of 2006, Procter & Gamble announced that they wanted to dispose of the rights to the brands of the Mülhens company ( 4711 , Tosca , Sir Irisch Moos and Extase ) because they did not fit the group's strategy. After several months of bidding the brands and the building Glockengasse Nos. 4 to the to in December 2006 Dalli group belonging Stolberg fragrance house & Mäurer Wirtz sold. The first bottle of 4711 was produced there on May 23, 2007. The company Muelhens GmbH & Co. KG in Cologne remained in the Procter & Gamble group as a production company without its own brands. On January 27, 2010 it was converted into Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Cologne GmbH in the course of the change of legal form. On October 1, 2016, Procter & Gamble was sold to Coty and the former Mülhens company was renamed HFC Prestige Manufacturing Cologne, Germany GmbH.

Mäurer & Wirtz subsequently refreshed the image of 4711 by adding more products to the 4711 range. The traditional Eau de Cologne , Nouveau Cologne and Acqua Colonia are now offered under the umbrella brand 4711 . In 2011 a modernized version of the logo was designed as part of an advertising campaign for 4711 - Nouveau Cologne .

  • Logo variants
  • 4711 Cologne Logo.svg
  • 4711 Logo.svg
  • 4711-Logo.svg

History of house number 4711

Glockengasse No. 24–28, 1864
1. Cologne address book from 1795, page 103: Widow von Lemmen lives in Glockengasse 4711
New parent company from 1963 at Glockengasse 4, at the corner of Schwertnergasse 1, Cologne
Neon sign for 4711 in Cologne Central Station

On October 3rd, 1794, when French troops were already standing in front of the city, the city council of Cologne approved the proposal of the watch commission to “number all the houses in the city without distinction and to have them illuminated according to Maasgab's remoteness. The lighting is ordered for immediately, the numbering is referred to the dispatch ”, in anticipation of the establishment of a“ general security watch ”. On October 6, 1794, the French occupied the city under Charles Daurier (* June 29, 1761; † May 29, 1833, Brigadier General since May 8, 1794), who as city commander took over the supreme command of the city of Cologne. On October 7th, the council decided with the forty-four that “every citizen captain has to submit a list of the citizens and non-citizens in his flag district within 2 times 24 hours and (...) the numbering point referred their houses to the laudable watch commission which is therefore commissioned with the implementation ". The printer Heinrich Josef Metternich (member of the council) applied for permission to publish an address calendar, which should contain, among other things, the house numbers that have now been affixed, and to collect the necessary information. He emphasized that "through the police facility organized by Your Grace (...) nunmehro all houses in the local city are noted with numbers according to the order of the colonels".

The widow of Wilhelm von Lemmen seel was the resident of the house in Glockengasse, which had been given the number 4711, in the 1st Cologne address book from 1795. Wilhelm Mülhens is only mentioned as a resident in the 2nd Cologne address book from 1797, the job title is "in Speculationsgeschaeften", he is not yet listed among the manufacturers of cologne in the business directory. In 1811 consecutive numbering was abolished and the numbering by street, as is common today, was changed. The house Glockengasse No. 4711 was then given the house number Glockengasse No. 12.

In the preface to the French-language address book from 1813, the publisher Theodor Franz Thiriart claims that there had been no house numbering in Cologne before the French arrived ("inconnu à Cologne avant l'arrivée des armées françaises au bord du Rhin"), and that it was ordered in 1795. This is where the legend begins that the French ordered and carried out the numbering.

In 1854, Peter Joseph Mülhens moved from Glockengasse 12 to the new office building with a neo-Gothic facade in Glockengasse 26–28 opposite the horse mail. The house in Glockengasse No. 12, which was given the number 4711 in 1794, was initially empty and was later sold for demolition. In 1943, the house at Glockengasse 26-28 was completely destroyed by a bomb attack. In 1963 a new building in the style of the pre-war building was erected at a new location on the corner of Schwertnergasse 1 and Glockengasse 4. The neo-Gothic facade has now been continued with arcades around the street corner.

The picture of the French officer riding on the house number 4711 with the curved no. (for French numéro) on the facade of the house in Klöckergasse (Glockengasse) is a product of advertising and was first used in an advertisement by Karl Petau in 1949. A woven carpet that was commissioned in the 1950s was also made from this template . In its scenic implementation, it found widespread use in the 1950s and 1960s. The lettering No. 4711 was only later supplemented with the bell symbol for the Glockengasse attached to the right.

Scent

The recipe of the fragrance, the exact composition of which has been kept secret to this day, contains the following fragrance notes :

The alcohol content is given as over 80%.

Curiosities

The rule of thumb 4711 for the standard size of the human spleen has become established in medical teaching . An average, healthy organ has the following dimensions: width 4 cm, height 7 cm and a length of 11 cm. If these values ​​are exceeded, there is splenomegaly .

literature

  • Wilhelm Mönckmeier, Hermann Schaefer: The history of the house of Johann Maria Farina opposite the Jülichsplatz in Cologne founded in 1709. An economic and commercial history study (= writings of the Rheinisch-Westfälische Wirtschaftsarchivs, Volume 7). Kurt Vowinckel Verlag, Berlin-Grunewald 1934, p. 70 and Appendix 1
  • Ernst Rosenbohm: Eau de Cologne. A contribution to European cultural history. Albert Nauck & Co. Verlag, Berlin Detmold Cologne Munich 1951
  • Gunter Quarg: Cologne water. Eau de Cologne, books - pictures - documents. An exhibition by the Kreissparkasse Cologne, May 9-24, 1984
  • Karl Michael Armer, Ute Kaltwasser: Muelhens. The Culture of Beauty, Two Hundred Years 4711. DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 1992, ISBN 3-7701-3121-5

Web links

Commons : 4711  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Trademark register .
  2. ↑ a b Klaus Müller: History of the City of Cologne, vol. 8. Cologne from French to Prussian rule , p. 236.
  3. ↑ a b c 4711 - a Cologne fragrance brand conquers the world , accessed on August 31, 2012.
  4. ↑ a b c Page no longer available , search in web archives: Website on the history of the brand accessed on January 31, 2012.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.4711.com
  5. ↑ G. Viertel: Beginnings of the rescue house movement under Adalbert Graf von der Recke-Volmerstein (1791–1878). Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne 1993;
  6. Jump up ↑ A. Count von der Recke-Volmerstein: Düsselthal Abbey, Count von der Recke's institutions for destitute orphans and Jewish proselytes. Ritchie, Edinburgh 1836
  7. ↑ German Confederation 1833. Oteripedia June 18, 2018
  8. ^ Düsseldorf districts. Zeitwohnen Düsseldorf presents: Düsseltal. Zeitwohnen Düsseldorf.de
  9. ↑ a b Entry: Mülhens KG in Deutsche Wirtschaftarchive , 3rd edition, Volume 3, Cologne 1994, ISBN 3-515-06211-4 , p. 201 ( limited preview in the Google book search)
  10. ↑ a b c Ulrich S. Soénius :  Mülhens, Peter Joseph. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 18, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-428-00199-0 , p. 300 f. ( Digitized version ).
  11. ↑ Official website for the Molanus bottle ( Memento from January 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) accessed on January 31, 2012.
  12. ^ Ulrich S. Soénius:  Mülhens, Wilhelm. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 18, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-428-00199-0 , p. 299 f. ( Digitized version ).
  13. ↑ a b Ulrich S. Soénius:  Mülhens, Ferdinand. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 18, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-428-00199-0 , p. 301 f. ( Digitized version ).
  14. ↑ No. 4711 White Rose-Glycerin-Soap , Mülhens & Kropff, New York, Smithsonian Institute USA (Eng.).
  15. ↑ a b c Ulrich S. Soénius:  Mülhens, Peter Paul. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 18, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-428-00199-0 , p. 302 f. ( Digitized version ).
  16. ↑ RWWA 162-101-1 of the archive holdings Dept. 162 Muelhens KG
  17. ↑ Mäurer + Wirtz buys traditional fragrance "4711" dpa, December 12, 2006 11:55 am CET.
  18. ↑ Cologne District Court File number: HRA 2283 Deletions February 9, 2010
  19. ↑ Spiegel.de : 4711 is in German hands again.
  20. ^ Message from Coty Inc. to its customers regarding the takeover of parts of the business of Procter & Gamble ( Memento of November 22, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) from May 2017.
  21. ↑ Nouveau-Cologne.com ( Memento from July 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  22. ↑ Historical Archives of the City of Cologne , inventory 10 (Council minutes) No. 241 Bl. 216v.
  23. ↑ Historical Archives of the City of Cologne , inventory 10 (Council minutes) No. 241 p. 225v.
  24. ↑ Historical Archives of the City of Cologne , inventory 350 (Franz. Verw.) No. 306, pages 3–6.
  25. ^ Rheinisch-Westfälisches Wirtschaftsarchiv (RWWA) Section 33, 1. Cologne address book: Charitable… address calendar of the city of Köllen, Cologne 1795, page 103.
  26. ↑ RWWA Abt. 33, 2. Cologne address book: Directory of the city-Cologne inhabitants. Thiriart and Compagnie, Cologne 1797, page 179.
  27. ^ RWWA Dept. 33, Itinéraire de Cologne, 1813.
  28. ↑ RWWA Abt. 33, Itinéraire de Cologne, 1813, page 12.
  29. ↑ Julia Kaun: The rider in the Glockengasse . In: Kerstin Theis; Jürgen Wilhelm (Ed.): France on the Rhine . Greven Verlag, Cologne 2009, ISBN 978-3-7743-0409-3 , pp. 118-130.
  30. ↑ RWWA Dept. 33, 160 Years No. 4711, Cologne 1952
  31. ↑ TV advertising 1962 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NM_K6y4EdNE .
  32. ↑ Introduction to ultrasound diagnostics (PDF; 10.1 MB), sonography of the spleen.

Coordinates: 50 ° 56 '18.48 "  N , 6 ° 57' 8.2"  E