Artur Kunz

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Artur Kunz created the advertising slogan for his company in 1957

Artur Kunz (* 26. April 1916 in Kolodzeiken (Town Pomierken) circle Löbau / West Prussia ; † 6. August 2018 in Hannover ) was a German entrepreneur of the drink rather alternate end industry and owner of the company Margonwasser in Burkhardswalde .

Life

Artur Kunz, born in West Prussia, learned food technology, was drafted into the Wehrmacht and was taken prisoner by the Americans during the Second World War . In view of the approaching Eastern Front, his family decided in 1944 to leave East Prussia, where they had moved after the First World War, and found a new home with relatives in Maxen in Saxony. On June 18, 1945 Kunz was released from captivity and made an adventurous way to his family in Maxen. According to his own admission, he found out about a mineral water company in Burkhardswalde that had stopped production.

He succeeded in being commissioned by the owners of the Gössel community of heirs, who lived in the Soviet occupation zone and who held three quarters of the inheritance, to rebuild and reopen the Gössel Health Wells. The company, which was active as a mineral water bottler, had almost completely given up the manufacture and bottling of mineral water in 1940 and finally in 1943.

In August 1945, the start of production was approved by the district administrator of the Pirna district and, due to the incomplete clarification of the inheritance situation, Kunz was initially appointed as a temporary manager and a trustee to regulate the financial situation. Even then there were first attempts to get the company into the hands of the state, but Kunz was able to ward them off.

Despite these difficulties and considerable problems with the plants, which had been inactive for years, Kunz and his brother Walter succeeded in resuming operations with the bottling of mineral water on August 1, 1945. The company now operated as Gössel Gesundbrunnen Artur and Walter Kunz KG .

Artur Kunz's original concept envisaged the production of 10,000 bottles of mineral water per month, which was still exceeded in the opening year 1945 (in 1939 less than 100,000 bottles of mineral water were reported as annual output). In 1946 the bottling exceeded the one million mark in bottles, in 1947 the two million mark (this corresponds to around 10,000 hl filling capacity, compared to 500 hl in 1939): Compared to the capacity existing before the Second World War - and this under the conditions the post-war period - the delivery twenty-fold.

In 1948, the owners had considerable problems with the procurement of essences and sugar for the production of sweet drinks - that is, the production of drinks instead of just bottling mineral water: Nevertheless, in July "Margon hot drinks with a rum flavor" (based on sweeteners) and a " Artificial lemonade approach 1: 9 with raspberry flavor ”in production. Walter Kunz 'death in 1948 led to the company name Gössel-Gesundbrunnen, owner Artur Kunz . In 1953 several products were launched: "Margon lemonade syrup" in the flavors lemon and raspberry and the lemonade base "Margon Orange". The apple drink “Margon Apfelröschen”, which was developed and which had to be discontinued in 1964 by the state's instructions, proved to be extremely popular. In 1957 the advertising slogan "Margon water - sparkling fresh" was created, which helped to make the brand even better known and received an entry as a trademark. In the same year, the first illuminated advertising plant in Dresden was with this slogan and has been at the partially dismantled ruins of Dresden hotels "Excelsior" at the Prague street attached (then implemented before the blast at the still existing site on the so-called Margon house where they - in the meantime refurbished in accordance with listed buildings - still lights up today).

By 1952, Kunz succeeded in purchasing the shares in the Gössel community of heirs, including the shares now in the Federal Republic and Bulgaria, and becoming the sole owner of the company. Despite the pressure from government agencies, Kunz retained his independence and in 1955 he succeeded in purchasing a fully automated bottling plant in Hamburg. In 1958, however, he was finally forced to have state participation: any other way of making further investments had been blocked by the economic policy of the GDR.

In 1958, around 70,000 hectoliters of beverage output were achieved per year, in 1963 it was 163,000 hectoliters, in 1981, the year Artur Kunz left the company, finally 250,000 hectoliters as the company's output, which is now 500 times the output for which it was originally designed when it was commissioned in 1945 . 1966 followed as brands "Margon Tonic Water" (the only quinine-containing drink that was available in the GDR), "Ginger Ale" and "Bitter Lemon".

In 1972 Artur Kunz was forced to sell his shares to the state and only became manager of the state-owned company. In 1981 he left the company when he reached retirement age and from January 1st of the same year the company traded as “VEB Margon Dresden” and became part of the “Dresden Beverage Combine”. In the Müglitztal there remained an operating point called "VEB Margon Dresden, operating part Margonwasser Burkhardswalde".

When it was time to transfer companies back in 1990 as part of German reunification, the now 74-year-old Artur Kunz took over the company again after it was re-privatized. With Gerolsteiner Brunnen as a partner and financed by the Sächsische Aufbaubank , investments were made in new filling systems and in environmental protection measures in the first few years. In 1994 the now 13th well was put into operation as a further development.

Nonetheless, Artur Kunz sold his shares in 1995 and the company became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gerolsteiner Brunnen GmbH & Co KG .

His autobiography was published in 2001: At that time, Germany's largest mineral water producer at the time had already made extensive investments in the Müglitztal. Between 1991 and 2001, more than 116 million marks were invested in "Margon Brunnen GmbH" in modern filling and laboratory technology, cleaning, disinfection and chemical systems were installed, and storage capacity was expanded to 8,000 square meters. In 1994 Margon was the first well in the new federal states to receive the certificate for the quality management system according to DIN ISO 9000.

Although sales of 37.5 million marks were achieved in the 1999 financial year and 743,000 hectoliters of soft drinks (almost 1500 times the production volume in 1939 and three times that of 1981) were mainly sold in Saxony, the long-established company ran into economic difficulties that year . After various intermediate stages, the location in the Müglitztal was closed in 2005, a development that Artur Kunz was no longer able to influence.

Artur Kunz was married and had four sons and a daughter. He died in 2018 at the age of 102, his grave is in the Weesenstein cemetery .

literature

  • Artur Kunz: “Margon water sparklingly fresh”: My life as an entrepreneur in the GDR. Margonwasser, Gesundbrunnen, Knop-Verlag, Bremen 2001, ISBN 3-934363-03-9.

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