Noble fur Berger

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Noble fur Berger

logo
legal form one-man business
founding 1938
Seat Berlin and Hamburg
management extinguished
Branch Skinning ; Furs

Otto Berger shows white mink fur

Edelpelze Berger was a well-known specialist fur store of the higher genre with its own furrier and head office in Hamburg . At the end of the 1960s, the company founded in 1938 became the largest fur processing company in Northern Germany through an expansion in Wedel . Awarded several international prizes, Berger also provided feature films and was the subject of a one-hour radio program on German-American radio that is preserved on records.

history

Until 1945

The founder was the furrier and fashion designer Otto Berger (born April 9, 1911 in Kiel ; † February 15, 1993 in Torremolinos ), originally from Kiel . His father was the hairdresser and wig maker Friedrich (Otto) Berger. In addition to his hairdressing activities, the father, together with professors from the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin-Dahlem, dealt with inheritance theory through hair determinations and the development of a color table that is important for research in this area.

Otto Berger attended Oberrealschule I in Kiel and left it with the completion of the secondary school leaving certificate. He had given up his original wish to study architecture in steel and bridge construction after he got to know his parents' furrier business from his friend Christian Blankenburg, which was the largest fur shop in Kiel at the time. He received his training as a furrier, hat and cap maker at the Methmann fur store in Flensburg, and he passed the assistant examination with distinction. He then attended the furrier school in Leipzig and passed his master's examination at the age of only 23, also with distinction. His first job as a furrier journeyman after leaving the apprenticeship company was at Pelz-Wehrmeier in Braunschweig, the salary was initially 68 pfennigs an hour. For the first time, the company took part in the innovation exhibition of the furrier trade in Leipzig, with eight of its models, all of which were awarded. He quickly rose to the position of technical director of production at Wehrmeier. He had previously not started a previously agreed position at the Soviet state trading company Sojuzpushnina for two years after he learned that the production facilities were not, as expected, at the company's headquarters in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg again ), but in distant Kazan .

The Chamber of Crafts gave him a special permit to train apprentices at that age and the furriers' guild commissioned him to hold specialist courses for journeymen and master craftsmen. At that time he was already working as a tailor in the very respected Berlin fur salon Martha Bräutigam . Together with his principal, he attended the haute couture shows in Paris and then designed the collections for the Berlin house. He served many prominent customers there; in his radio interview he reported that, among other things, he tried fittings with the empress , the wife of Wilhelm II , the last German emperor. The success of the company was not least attributed to its "very capable foreman Berger".

In January 1939 Otto Berger went into business for himself together with a partner. Right from the start, he also created a wholesale collection for export, with which he also received the foreign currency needed at the time for the international purchase of goods in order to stock his retail business. During a stay with his collection in Stockholm, Sweden, he had the opportunity to avoid military service. However, he did not accept the offer to open a company there with his goods. That was in the war year 1941, on the day it became known that Rudolf Hess had flown to Scotland for peace negotiations and had parachuted there. Shortly after his return, Otto Berger was drafted into the Wehrmacht.

In the year after its completion , Philipp Manes wrote about the shop :

“Berlin only got its first beautiful [fur] shop in 1940, when Edelpelz Berger opened the Weissler shop in Nürnbergerstrasse. took over and rebuilt - created surfaces out of the narrow, low, angled rooms, put no cupboards, just armchairs and tables, put green silk curtains that, divisible as desired, created several sales rooms, worthy of the noble material that was offered here. "

- Philipp Manes, 1941

The business seems to have survived the bombing raids, although the furrier Rudolf Garbe , the only one in Berlin in the penultimate year of the war, made his masterpiece there and received his master craftsman's certificate on April 20, 1944, reported in his memoir:

“But during the examination, the employees of the fur house, the examination committee and I had to go to the air raid shelter three times as a result of the air raid alarm. A somewhat unusual way to come into life as a master. "

- Rudolf Garbe: 80 years - Rudolf Garbe - That was my life

From 1945

Mink. Door handle of the Berger shops (artist: Max Kratz )

Otto Berger had stored a large part of his warehouse in Plauen in Voigtland. Already released from captivity by the Americans in 1945, he managed, with great difficulty, at the last moment, before the Russian invasion, to transport half of the goods there to the West. With this, Berger not only continued his Berlin business, where he at least used the entire building in the end. Instead, he starts a fur wholesale business with the fur merchant Gräulich in Hamburg's office building. The first collection was created on the first floor of the Rolf Horn fashion house on Neuer Wall from a considerable amount of sheepskins with a blue leather side, which were intended for the submarine crews. The first exhibition of the lamb confection took place at Gräulich's in the promenades. The currency reform in June 1948 meant the final breakthrough for Otto Berger, also thanks to its well-stocked warehouse.

First on one floor, but then soon with the help of two brothers of the Reemtsma family , both of whom are his customers, he opens the retail shop on Neuer Wall 21–33, which in future remained the center of the company. As a specialty for Germany, in America it had long been standard in the larger fur houses, he had modern fur preservation rooms installed, in which the customer goods were stored at + 2 degrees Celsius in the summer months. In addition to the workshop on Amsinckstrasse in Hamburg, he set up a larger production facility with a fur warehouse in Wedel , Schleswig-Holstein, to which he probably relocated the entire production in 1968. His workshop manager Rolf Giese reported that not only furs were worked there, but also fabric and poplin coats, some of which were lined and trimmed with fur.

In the 1950s Otto Berger still had both exclusive fur shops for fine fur with furriering, in addition to Hamburg also in Berlin-Charlottenburg on Nürnberger Straße 13. There were also temporary branches in Düsseldorf and in the Maritim Hotel, Timmendorfer Strand . The later head in Hamburg was Theodor Boucher, the Berlin house was headed from 1956 by Adolf Doll, previously head of the Berlin company Adolf Doll & Sons. In 1963, in the year of his 25th company anniversary, Otto Berger stated that he had 25,000 high-quality mink skins alone . He was the first to bring the extremely short-haired Lakoda Seal fur , which was highly topical for a time, to the German market.

  • Berlin

  • Neuer Wall, Hamburg

  • Maritime, Timmendorfer Strand

  • Copy, Amsinckstrasse, Hamburg

Otto Berger (center) with colleagues in the industry in London (around the 1960s)
Otto Berger (left) at the business anniversary of a Hamburg tobacco shop (1969)

Edelpelze Berger was the first European company to receive the SAGA Design Prize (1967), a handcrafted model of a Viking ship made of sterling silver as a trophy . Otto Berger registered the Watersilk trademark as a trademark for particularly high-quality South West African karaku skins (Swakara Persians) . Numerous Berger models are captured in photographs, for example by FC Gundlach , some of which can still be viewed in museums today. An outstanding industry event was also when the first time an item skins of protected sea otters today went on sale after 55 years in 1966, Seeotterfell is considered the most durable fur at all. Otto Berger received three of the man-length skins in advance from the government in Alaska to use to make a coat.

In September 1975 Otto Berger and Edelpelze Berger GmbH separated. & Co. KG, Hamburg . Otto Berger's departure left "a jumble of protected names and trademarks". The reasons for leaving were described in Hamburg as "mysterious". Otto Berger was particularly bitter because the trademarks "Berger-Modell" and "Berger International" remained with the company. At the time it was unclear where the “Persianer Watersilk” brand would remain, for the “Black Diamond Mink” brand he remained the sole license holder for the Federal Republic of Germany.

In the first decades after the Second World War, Hamburg was the seat of the most prestigious German master school for the furrier trade (afterwards Frankfurt am Main). The company was the springboard for many, later very successful furriers. It was considered a very special qualification to have passed his master's examination at Otto Berger and the Hamburg master school for fashion.

On June 14, 1973 bankruptcy proceedings were opened against the assets of Otto Berger KG, Wedel / Holstein, with branches in Berlin, Hamburg and Timmendorfer Strand , but were discontinued due to lack of assets . On July 10, 1973, the following was newly entered in the commercial register: Edelpelze Berger GmbH , Hamburg, Neuer Wall 11, changed on November 12, 1974 to Verwaltungsgesellschaft Edelpelze Berger mbH. In November 1974 the deletion of Otto Berger GmbH in Wedel / Holstein, ABC-Straße 16 was announced.

In December 1975 Peter Friedrich became managing director, who had previously worked primarily with fur at Karstadt and other companies. He had the shop, which had barely changed since 1955, remodeled and for the first time took on models by foreign fur designers as well as accessories from leading fashion designers such as Guy Laroche and Pierre Balmain in addition to work in his own workshop . In 1977 the company name was precious furs "Arven" GmbH & Co. changed. In 1982 Otto Berger mentioned in a private letter that the managing director S. Arndt "will liquidate our company for March 31, 1982, ie the settlement will certainly take until the end of this year, but we are no longer active". In mid-May 1978, Arven International , including the Neuer Wall 41 store, was taken over by Boecker , a supplier of textile and fur clothing. The company precious furs Berger GmbH was at the time continued under the management of Susanne Arndt, based in Hamburg, Gaensemarkt 43rd

Works

Web links

Commons : Edelpelze Berger  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Adra production: The Berger story. The portrait. Otto Berger tells how it all began . German-American radio recording. 1967 or 1968. On two long-playing records, record 1. Based on a family-owned tape copy.
  2. ↑ a b c Without information about the author: A passion for quality for 25 years . In: Rund um den Pelz , No. 12, December 1963, Fulde Verlag Cologne, pp. 42–43.
  3. ^ Philipp Manes : The German fur industry and its associations 1900-1940, attempt at a story . Berlin 1941 Volume 1. Copy of the original manuscript, p. 151 ( G. & C. Franke collection ).
  4. ↑ a b c d e Adra production: The Berger story. The portrait. Otto Berger tells the story from 1938 to around 1968 . German-American radio recording. 1967 or 1968. On two long-playing records, plate 2.
  5. ^ Advertisement in the magazine Hermelin 1957 No. 7–8, Hermelinverlag Dr. Paul Schöps, Berlin - Leipzig - Vienna, p. 42 ( Fine fur fashion & clothing wholesale ).
  6. ^ Philipp Manes : The German fur industry and its associations 1900-1940, attempt at a story . Berlin 1941 Volume 4. Copy of the original manuscript, p. 149 ( → table of contents ).
  7. ↑ Published 1994, p. 62. ISBN 3-925722-08-4 .
  8. ↑ Without an author's name: Adolf Doll turns 65 . In: Die Pelzwirtschaft , Berlin and Frankfurt am Main, July 1963, p. 28.
  9. ↑ Otto Berger, Viking ship made of silver by David Andersen . --- Company press release on the occasion of the award ceremony .
  10. ^ Advertisement from 1972 .
  11. ↑ Without mentioning the author: Otto Berger (separated from Edelpelze Berger GmbH. & Co. KG since September) - “I'll go on!”. In: Winckelmann Pelzmarkt No. 303, September 19, 1975, p. 10.
  12. ↑ bankruptcy proceedings. About the assets of Otto Berger KG, Wedel / Holstein, ABC-Straße 16, ... In: Die Pelzwirtschaft No. 8, CB-Verlag Carl Boldt, Berlin August 20, 1973, p. 57.
  13. ↑ bankruptcy proceedings (according to § 204 KO). In: Die Pelzwirtschaft No. 11, December 17, 1973, p. 48.
  14. ↑ From the commercial register. New entries . In: Die Pelzwirtschaft issue 12, December 28, 1973, p. 44.
  15. ↑ From the commercial register . In: Die Pelzwirtschaft No. 6, CB-Verlag Carl Boldt, Berlin, June 30, 1975, p. 29.
  16. ↑ deletions . In: Die Pelzwirtschaft No. 11, November 22, 1974, p. 61.
  17. ^ "HE": Generous modernization at Edelpelze Berger . In: Die Pelzwirtschaft No. 9, CB-Verlag Carl Boldt, Berlin, September 25, 1976, p. 108.
  18. ↑ From the commercial register. New entries. Edelpelze Berger GmbH & Co., Neuer Wall 41, 2000 Hamburg . In: Die Pelzwirtschaft issue 12, December 21, 1977, CB-Verlag Carl Boldt, Berlin, p. 60.
  19. ^ Letter from Otto Berger to Rifra-Verlag , April 17, 1982.
  20. ↑ Without an author's name: Boecker takes over Arven International . In: Winckelmann Pelzmarkt No. 440, June 26, 1978, p. 5.
  21. ^ Susanne Arndt: reply . In: Winckelmann Pelzmarkt No. 478, February 23, 1979, p. 2.