Flower Manufactory
Flower factories were specialized production companies during the transition from predominantly individually crafted to industrial goods production.
The work process
The so-called Italian flower manufacture - the method had been invented in Italy and was widespread there as well as in France - was able to bring relatively inexpensive products onto the market with cheap raw materials and poorly paid workers. The starting material for the production of the silk flowers were waste materials from the silk production, namely the skins of the cocoons , which were left over from the reeling of the silk threads. The hides were sorted, cleaned and colored according to a secret color recipe. This material was then used to create flowers and smaller leaves, while fine paper was used for larger leaves. The petals were cut by hand from the prepared cocoons with slightly heated iron punches , the most important and most expensive tools of the manufacture.
The organization of work corresponded to the type of centralized manufacture. Each worker performed a specific task and passed their workpiece on to the next stage of manufacture until the flowers could be packed in flat cardboard boxes and taken for sale. More than half of the production was exported . All work steps took place in the premises of the manufactory.
Manufactories in Berlin
The first Prussian manufactory for artificial flowers, an item that women's fashion demanded at the time, was established in Berlin in 1769 on the Gertraudenbrücke by Madame de Rieux, the widow of an excise officer . The entrepreneur, whose company still officially traded under the name of her husband, had brought women workers into the country from Paris, whose knowledge of the production processes contributed to a rapid flowering of the manufacture. As early as 1769 it had 40 employees, but initially did not receive any of the usual state aid to promote domestic production because the company's chances of success were assessed as low.
On January 22nd, 1771, Mr. de Rieux recommended in a newspaper advertisement his “Fabrique” for flowers, “which are known by the names of Italian flowers” and stated “that he did not get so far in it alone that they were best for them Flowers made in Italy, like France, are exactly the same, but that the colors he uses far surpass foreign flowers in beauty and liveliness, and since he also offers the flowers made here at a considerably lower price than other foreign ones Flowers can only be bought, so this, as well as the above advantages, makes him hope that his fabrique will be preferred to the Italian and French factories ... "
In 1773 the official attitude towards the flower factory changed. The meanwhile ill widow Rieux had left Berlin, her commercial manager Martin Friedel applied for and received a permit to continue the business, in which around 100 workers were employed at the time. The concession for Friedel was connected with a rent subsidy of 150 Reichstalers , help with the procurement of the raw material, waiver of all fees and other facilities. Such support corresponded to the prevailing mercantilist economic policy of the time, which aimed to stimulate productivity within the country's borders, increase exports, reduce expensive imports and thus increase the financial wealth of the state through a positive trade balance .
In 1783 Friedel had around 150 employees, including accountants and other administrative employees . The company had a warehouse in Berlin and was represented at the trade fairs in Leipzig and Frankfurt (Oder) . Friedel's former accountant Siegmund Otto Treskow founded another flower factory in 1781 on the Stechbahn , a street near the Berlin City Palace ; it was also very successful. In 1783 Treskow employed 30 workers, in 1791 there were already 130. In 1830, the commercial address book for Berlin named 16 larger and smaller flower manufacturers with a total of over 300 employees. The entrepreneurs made relatively high profits because they had little expenditure on raw materials and simple means of production and paid low wages. Often children were employed, not infrequently girls under eight years of age who worked at least twelve hours a day.
Today the term “flower factory” is often used by flower shops to indicate an above-average quality standard.
literature
- Erika Herzfeld: Prussian Manufactories. Verlag der Nation, Bayreuth 1994, ISBN 3-373-00119-6 .
- Leopold Freiherr von Zedlitz (ed.): The latest conversation manual for Berlin and Potsdam for the daily use of the locals and strangers of all classes. Berlin 1834.
Web link
- Article about flower factories in Berlin from the "Latest Conversations Handbook" from 1834 ( Memento from December 12, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Erika Herzfeld: Prussian Manufactories. Verlag der Nation, Bayreuth 1994, ISBN 3-373-00119-6 .