Egg cup "Chicken"

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Egg cup "Chicken"
Color examples of the “Chicken” egg cups in the collection of the Museum of European Cultures

The "Chicken" or "Chicken" egg cup is a product of the Sonja Plastic brand . The egg cups from plastic was from the 1970s, a popular product in the GDR and is now considered a design classic.

design

The egg-shaped container stands on a small, flat plate on a small base, which is elongated on two sides: towards the front in a detailed chicken head, towards the back in suggested tail feathers. The egg cups were originally produced in white, pastel yellow and pastel blue, but other colors were added over time. As Axel Drieschner, curator of the Documentation Center for Everyday Culture of the GDR , notes, the egg cups "Chicken" deviated from what is considered typical GDR design - functional, multifunctional and geared towards durability - and put a playful design above functionality.

history

The “Chicken” egg cup was designed by Josef Böhm for the Sonja Plastic brand, which is produced in the small town of Selva in Saxony . The company, originally founded as a button factory by Wilibald Böhm, began producing household goods from the post-war period , from 1972 as VEB Plaste und Chemie Wolkenstein . The "Chicken" egg cup was developed for export, but was soon also sold in the GDR at a retail price of 0.82 marks . He achieved sales figures of up to 50,000 per year. From 1990 the company was privatized again and operated under its original name Wilibald Böhm GmbH , but continued the name Sonja Plastic . It continued to produce in Wolkenstein and was able to build on its successes from GDR times.

The egg cups and other products from Sonja Plastic are now sold by reifra Kunststofftechnik GmbH . The egg cup is popular beyond Germany as a cost-effective design product and as an Ostalgie object. At times, plagiarism was in circulation, but the original product - recognizable by the embossed company logo - could not be displaced from the market. In 2009 almost 15% of sales were made with exports abroad.

Examples of the “Chicken” egg cup can be found in the Industrial Design Collection , the GDR Museum Berlin , the Museum of European Cultures and the House of History .

Web links

Commons : Egg Cup "Chicken"  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Arnd Zschiesche, Oliver Errichiello: Success Secret East. Survival strategies from the best brands - and what managers can learn from them . Gabler, Wiesbaden 2009, ISBN 978-3-8349-1615-0 , pp. 161-164 .
  2. ^ A b Günter Höhne: The hen or the egg ... In: Blog of the DDR Museum Berlin . March 30, 2015, accessed March 20, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Vanja Budde: The GDR could be pretty trendy. In: Deutschlandfunk Kultur . August 14, 2017, accessed March 20, 2020 .
  4. ↑ a b Chicken Egg Cup. In: Foundation House of the History of the Federal Republic of Germany. Industrial design collection, accessed on March 26, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Lifestyle collection area. Industrial design collection, accessed on March 26, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Egg cup "Chicken" in the collection of the DDR Museum Berlin , accessed on March 20, 2020.