Burgers-Eerste Nederlandsche Rijwielfabriek

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Burgers-Eerste Nederlandsche Rijwielfabriek
legal form NV (AG)
founding 1869
resolution 1961
Reason for dissolution insolvency
Seat Deventer , Netherlands
Branch Motor vehicle manufacturer

Burgers-Eerste Nederlandsche Rijwielfabriek was the first Dutch manufacturer of bicycles . Later the company also produced motorcycles and automobiles .

history

Hendricus Burgers
Advertising (1913/14)

The beginnings

The company was founded by the blacksmith Hendricus Burgers (1843–1903), whose father had the same profession. In 1869 he bought a Velocipede from Pierre Michaux after a visitor from outside had shown him a picture of it. He bought his velocipede from a company Müller in Stuttgart or from HH Timmer in Amsterdam. With this, the then 26-year-old undertook evening driving tests on the outskirts of Deventer , much to the amusement of his fellow citizens. He himself saw a great future in this "machine". In 1870 he set up Burgers-Eerste Nederlandsche Rijwielfabriek , the first bicycle production facility in the Netherlands. In the early years, the company built Velocipede out of wood. The most important customers were initially the apprentices from the three vocational schools in Deventer. The Velociped Club De Zwaluw , which was founded in Rotterdam in 1872, was probably one of his customers. In 1872, Burgers switched to having the wheels made of steel based on the English model.

Reorganization

The sales figures developed so positively that Burgers decided to have a new, modern factory building built. On May 15, 1896 the company was renamed and was now called NV Eerste Nederlandsche Rijwiel- en Machinefabriek voorheen H. Burgers . The start-up capital was 400,000 guilders . The new factory, equipped with the most modern machines, was put into operation on January 1st, 1897 and had a capacity of 5000 to 6000 wheels per year. In the same year the company was represented in 142 sales outlets; In 1909 there were 15 branches and 400 sales outlets. After 1898, the former professional driver Maarten Kingma joined the company and opened a branch in Amsterdam. He had raced on Burgers' wheels and his likeness was now used for advertising. At the time of the company's founder's death in 1903, the company had around 250 employees.

After the death of the company founder

In 1909 Gerard WJ Kilsdonk joined the company as a director and ran it until 1945. After the end of the Second World War , he was imprisoned for having been a member of the Dutch National Socialist movement NSB . The company was managed by the Nederlandse Beheersinstituut for several years . As a result, Burgers lost touch with technical developments and was overtaken by the competition. In 1961 bankruptcy was filed.

Further products

Burgers not only sold bicycles, but also other products such as meat cutting machines, sewing machines and mopeds, but not all of them were produced by the company itself.

In 1899 the first Burgers automobile came onto the market. The company mainly manufactured three-wheeled automobiles with engines from De Dion-Bouton , which it also sold. The small cars had built-in engines from various manufacturers such as Blackburne , De Dion-Bouton, Fafnir , JAP and Minerva . A separate motor was used in a tricycle from 1900. Automobile production ended for the time being in 1906. In 1907 the Star Motor Company and Stuart began importing vehicles that were not very successful . In 1952, the attempt to manufacture motor vehicles again by licensing models from Brütsch was unsuccessful.

literature

Web links

Commons : Burgers-Eerste Nederlandsche Rijwielfabriek  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Georgano: The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile. 2001.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Bedrijfsgeschiedenis. In: burgers-enr.net. February 22, 2015, accessed December 6, 2016 (Dutch).
  3. ↑ a b Hogenkamp, Een Halve eeuw Wielersport , p. 19.
  4. ↑ De Kampioen. from Apr. 1961, Volume 76, No. 4, p. 189 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  5. ↑ Other Burgers producten. In: burgers-enr.net. July 26, 2014, accessed December 18, 2016 (Dutch).
  6. ^ Rutger Booy: Burgers, Deventer - Conam. In: conam.info. Retrieved December 6, 2016 (Dutch).
  7. ^ A b c Harald H. Linz, Halwart Schrader : The International Automobile Encyclopedia . United Soft Media Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-8032-9876-8 .