Bidtelia

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Historic Bidtelia ceramic company sign

The ceramic factory "BIDTELIA" Meißen GmbH is a company based in Meißen that has been producing ceramic paints and glazes for a wide variety of applications since 1861 . Today it produces ceramic paints and glazes as well as ceramic filters in two business areas . The company name Bidtelia refers to the former company founder Johann Georg Julius Bidtel (born August 31, 1825 , † January 21, 1891 ).

history

Before 1945

The pharmacy owner Julius Bidtel founded "Bidtelia" on March 14, 1861 and initially manufactured pharmaceutical and photographic chemicals. In 1869 he built a factory on the right bank of the Elbe in the Meissen district of Cölln and produced superphosphate there . Bidtel dealt in his laboratories with the development of chemicals for the ceramic industry. From 1885 ceramic paints, glazes and fertilizers were part of the range. As the main purchasers of ceramic colors and glazes Julius Bidtel had in Meissen from the Brothers Teichert founded stove factories in their sights. He was successful, because during this time the interest in colored stove tiles grew and the once late classical white porcelain stove went out of fashion .

In 1888, Bidtel's son-in-law, the chemist Emil Theodor Felix Ohm (* July 10, 1858 , † November 14, 1939 ; doctorate 1891) initially joined the company as an authorized signatory . After the death of Julius Bidtel in 1891, he took over the management and after the early death of his wife Auguste Elisabeth Ohm in 1905, he took over the factory as sole owner. A range change followed. The focus was now almost entirely on the manufacture of ceramic paints and glazes, and the manufacture of fertilizers was finally given up in 1900. The company was able to grow from 1891 onwards by purchasing land. Felix Ohm concentrated more and more on a corresponding ceramic development and further development of products. He registered numerous patents, for example for non-soiling paints. Another larger furnace industry factory was added in Meißen in 1888, and from 1891 onwards it also produced industrially manufactured wall tiles. Here, too, more and more colored glazes prevail. The Art Nouveau with its aesthetic possibilities also helped the glazed colored wall tile breakthrough.

Ohm was able to inspire with further developments of effective running glazes in delicate pastel tones or softly shimmering artificial glazes. At that time, the Bidtelia also had its own construction chemistry testing department, which was headed by well-known sculptors such as Richard Kuöhl . In this department, artists such as Theo Schmuz-Baudiß , Karl Groß and Wilhelm Kreis did their technical studies. Felix Ohm's developments were also based on the old Near Eastern building ceramics. Demand and sales grew. While Bidtelia only had a production of around 10 tons of ceramic colors and glazes in 1900, in 1939 it was already 600 tons of glazes and 35 tons of color bodies that were produced. At that time the entire German ceramic industry was supplied. Deliveries to European countries and overseas in 1939 amounted to almost 40 percent of total sales. Felix Ohm dies in November 1939. His last development work related to the rediscovery of oriental building ceramics with lively turquoise colors and the ancient Egyptian colored engobe technique in a modern technical perfection.

After 1945

After the end of the Second World War , the entire company was expropriated in 1945 and should be completely dismantled. While the dismantling was still in progress , the order was canceled and the building was rebuilt. As early as 1955, production had returned to pre-war levels. The company, now operating as “VEB Keramisches Glasuren- und Farbenwerk Meißen” , added other products such as copper oxide , copper carbonate and nickel oxide to its range. In 1974 two private, now nationalized, ceramic companies were assigned to the company. In 1983 there was a merger with the "VEB Filterwerk Meißen" , a company that manufactured ceramic filters, to the "VEB Keramisches Farben- und Filterwerk Meißen" . On January 1, 1993, the company was privatized as the "BIDTELIA" Meißen GmbH ceramic factory . Today the traditional as well as a supplemented color body and glaze range are still produced. In addition, the manufacture of decorative ceramics was added as a new line of business in 2001.

  • Buildings with ceramic paints and glazes from Bidtelia

  • House entrance with ceramic jewelry in Brauhausstrasse

  • House opposite the Bidtelia in Meissen

  • Ceramic window front on the large garage in Brauhausstrasse Meißen

  • Bidtelia factory wall with a ceramic marabou

  • Ceramic details on the Bidtelia factory building

  • Detail of the facade on Fabrikstrasse in Meissen

  • The former Villa Ohm in Meißen

Others

Attention was drawn to the various buildings in Meißen, once called “open-air sample cards”, which can still be seen in the cityscape today with their brightly colored glazes. On the observer they not only look Art Nouveau, but also oriental at the same time. The individual buildings were and are not only samples of the product range, but also test objects of Bidtelia . The factory building, the chimney, the officials' house with a large garage, the factory wall or the building on the Elbe called "Ohm's Villa" were built using colored building ceramics. The facades, roofs and walls have remained weather-resistant products to this day, the colors of which have hardly lost anything of their former luminosity and shine in over a hundred years. However, some objects were lost in the 1950s and 1990s and some urgently need restoration. The following can still be experienced today:

  • The "Ohm'sche Villa" (1899) in Hafenstrasse 27, now operated as a hotel.
  • The Art Nouveau factory complex of the "Bidtelia" in Fabrikstrasse and Brauhausstrasse along with the chimney and the factory wall (both 1903) with a relief-like sculpture (marabou).
  • The former office building, Fabrikstrasse (1911).
  • The former civil servants' house with large garage (both 1936), Brauhausstrasse 20.
  • Residential building, Brauhausstrasse 21.

Numerous Art Nouveau ornaments can be found as sculptural reliefs in the most varied of shapes on the facades of the buildings. The oriental effect of the two ceramic advertising surfaces with the inscription "Bidtelia" on the factory premises on Brauhausstrasse is also remarkable .

literature

  • Günter Naumann: The Bidtelia - a traditional Meissen company for the production of ceramic colors and glazes , in Keramos, No. 181 from 2003, pages 95 to 106.
  • Günter Naumann: City Lexicon Meißen . Sax-Verlag, various articles, Beucha 2009.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Extract from the commercial register from 1900
  2. ^ Extract from the commercial register from 1905
  3. ↑ Günter Naumann: Die Bidtelia - A Meißner company rich in tradition for the production of ceramic paints and glazes , in Keramos, No. 181 from 2003, pp. 95 to 106.
  4. ^ Günter Naumann: City Lexicon Meißen . Sax-Verlag, various articles, Beucha 2009.
  5. ^ Günter Naumann: City Lexicon Meißen . Sax-Verlag, Beucha 2009, pages 36 and 37.
  6. ↑ Günter Naumann: Die Bidtelia - A Meißner company rich in tradition for the production of ceramic paints and glazes , in Keramos, No. 181 from 2003, pages 100 to 102.
  7. ^ Günter Naumann: City Lexicon Meißen . Sax-Verlag, Beucha 2009, pages 252 and 253.

Coordinates: 51 ° 9 ′ 48.8 ″  N , 13 ° 29 ′ 20.1 ″  E