FA Sieglitz & Co.
| FA Sieglitz & Co.
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| legal form | one-man business |
| founding | 1876 |
| resolution | before 1938 |
| Seat | Lindenau (Leipzig) |
| management |
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| Branch | Fur dressing, fur dyeing (fur finishing) |
The company FA Sieglitz & Co. ran a tobacco dressing and dyeing factory in Leipzig-Lindenau . In a time of rapid development in the fur industry, the fur finishing company was a leader in the development of new and permanent fur colors. The company's products, some of which were outstanding in terms of quality, were in demand around the world.
General
It was not until the 19th century that the task of dressing fur , the tanning of skins for fur purposes , was resolved by the furrier, who now only made fur clothing. The further refinement process, dyeing, was until then largely considered to be a fraud on the part of the customer. Dyeing fur is often about mimicking the look of more expensive types of fur. Also, with the color methods at that time, the color stability was mostly not permanent, and in the worst case, the pelts even stained. The chemical industry now began to develop new dyes, which up to now could not be produced artificially and which were resistant to abrasion and fading.
In Germany, along with the emergence of modern fur clothing, Leipzig developed into one of the world's leading trading centers for fur goods, alongside London and New York. The Leipziger Brühl was until the expulsion of its Jewish fur traders in 1933, a hub of fur from around the world, especially for Russian furs. The fur-dyeing industry developed into a large-scale industry, and the fur-dressing and fur-dyeing factories settled on the flowing water near Leipzig, which was formerly required for tanning. Deliveries to Leipzig were initially made by handcart, horse and covered wagon, and finally by lorry, in such large numbers that the Pelzviertel with Brühl, Nikolaistraße and Ritterstraße was "hopelessly clogged with wagons".
Company history
The company FA Sieglitz & Co. was founded in 1876 with the collaboration of the chemist Karl Friedrich Adolf Sieglitz (* May 2, 1839 in Jena; † December 6, 1933) and the tobacco wholesaler Johann Gottlob Friedrich Erler (January 17, 1820 in Leipzig; † 23 July 1898 in Leipzig), Friedr. Erler . In other respects, too, Leipzig fur traders were mostly the financial backers for the newly emerging fur trimming and finishing companies. In the 1880s Erler also called the Seal -Braunfärberei Erler & Co. in life.
Friedrich Sieglitz acquired his first knowledge of dyeing in the textile industry. He spent his apprenticeship in Jena and Erfurt. In Jena he attended lectures in chemistry and worked experimentally in the university laboratories. He then put the theoretically acquired knowledge to practical use in various German textile dyeing companies. When he returned to Jena at the age of 24, he founded a textile dyeing factory for fabrics and clothes of all kinds. There he also knew a furrier who gave him ideas for the fur dyeing industry, which was still in its infancy at the time. His first attempts at dyeing skins were very successful, and he received his first orders from Leipzig to dye goat skins and lamb skins black . Thereupon he moved to Leipzig. Here he first joined the Alfred Hahn tobacco dye works as technical manager . His first, well-received innovation was the coloring of fox tails.
On April 1, 1876, FA Sieglitz & Co. was founded. Within a relatively short period of time, the two owners “succeeded in gaining a leading position in the world market for German fur dyeing” (1887).
In 1876, the newly founded company rented a barefoot mill . Initially, the water of the Pleiße drained into the Mühlgraben served as operating power . Due to a lack of space and a lot of trouble with the neighbors, they soon moved to Plagwitz, to the newly built factory site on the Weißen Elster , Nonnenstrasse 7 (completed in 1881). In the inner city of Leipzig the unpleasant smells and the water polluting companies were not welcome. While the Lindenau plant was mainly responsible for dressing as well as brown and black dyeing , the rest of the work took place in Plagwitz , which has also been part of Leipzig since 1891.
A dyeing center was not set up in the outskirts of Leipzig, only a certain concentration was formed in Angerstrasse. When the rooms in Barefoot Street soon became too narrow, they also moved here. Otto Erler had acquired the property in earlier years and left it to FA Sieglitz & Co. initially on a lease and then for sale. It was completely expanded and rebuilt and after the installation of new machines in the years 1909–1911, both parts of the company moved to here. Today there is a residential complex there, which with its name "Pelz-Manufaktur" is reminiscent of the former factory.
In order to avoid the frequent refinement failures due to incorrect finishing, Adolph Sieglitz gave a lecture in 1911 to members of the Association of German Tobacco Manufacturers and Dyeing Works . Many dressers, especially the Fuchs dressers, then successfully applied the so-called Sieglitz dressing . In 1921, the Illustrierte-Kürschner-Rundschau said that Adolf Sieglitz was the first to steer the tobacco dye works, "which before him actually only Zobel-Meissner, who was known for his originality in Gerbergasse, had turned into modern channels".
In addition to Adolph Sieglitz and Friedrich Erler, Erler's sons, Max and Paul Erler worked in the company in the later years. In 1933 the plant (Angerstrasse) was opened by Dr. Arthur Erler, son of Otto Erler, and Dr. Karl Sieglitz, son of Adolph Sieglitz. According to the Leipzig address books, Erler and Sieglitz not only relocated their company, but also their residence to Nonnenstrasse 7 in the 1880s. Erler remained registered there until the end of his life.
The company FA Sieglitz & Co. is no longer included in the specialist directory of the fur industry from 1938.
The refinements by FA Sieglitz & Co.
Lynx skins that were sent to London for sale by American collectors and were then bought again by American companies were dyed black at Sieglitz and then imported back to America. In 1886 more than 35,000 of the 65,000 lynx skins sold there were dyed.
There was also no competition in the processing of American white fox skins . When the article was dyed black, the shine of the hair and the softness and elasticity of the leather were retained, so that it almost corresponded to the undyed fox. It was also possible to give the fur a color that was deceptively similar to that of the silver fox : “In this wonderful imitation you can see not only the beautiful dark brown basic color, but also the white hair tips peculiar to the silver fox reproduced in such a natural way that one can see one here must consider artificial coloring to be completely excluded. It is due to this mastery that the fur of the white fox, which ten years ago was worth about 4 marks, has now risen fivefold in price. "
The dyeing of foxes was particularly difficult at first. "Father Sieglitz", as he was later called, created an imitation black fox called the Sittka or Alaska fox. Unfortunately, they were initially olive-gray-green and after ten days the skins had their first red and crooked tips, and the skins "faded". He could improve it and it worked. A fur refiner wrote in retrospect: “The development reached a high point when the Sieglitz company succeeded in dyeing red foxes black. H. Developing the famous Alaskan black fox color, since the black (silver) fox was one of the most expensive and rarest fur systems before the silver fox breed began. At an auction in London in 1900, a completely black specimen fetched the outrageous price of 10,000 gold marks! It was bought by a Parisian furrier who made a necklace with eyes made of diamonds. A grand duke is said to have bought it ”.
He was also successful in imitating the blue fox, which was also popular at the time, in the "artistic coloring" of the white Siberian rabbit , partly in the blue tint that was modern at the time, partly in a " civet-like design", as well as an "enchantingly beautiful" imitation of the chinchilla fur . Around 3,000 hare skins were dyed in various shades every day.
Raccoon fur was once a popular item thanks to its durability, mainly for fur travel blankets , but it had apparently gone out of fashion for that too . Thanks to a new refinement from FA Sieglitz & Co., it was now rated higher than before. The firmer upper hair was removed mechanically from the fur, so that the soft undercoat emerged, making it similar to the beaver fur, which was also plucked. Dyed black, dark or light brown, it was "excellently suited" for the main articles of the fur industry at the time, for fur trimmings (the combination of hats, scarfs and muffs in particular) and trimmings on textiles. Raccoon skins , American opossum skins, were "sheared using ingenious machines and dyed in the most varied and effective shades".
The machines were no longer operated by hand, the skins no longer tumbled with the feet. Instead, it was driven by two compound steam engines with an output of 20 and 30 horsepower .
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Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Richard Franke: 25 years - 250 years - 2500 years - from the beginnings of finishing to the key industry of the tobacco industry . In: Felle - Farben - Fantasy - A portrait of the German fur processing industry . Rifra Verlag Murrhardt, 1973, pp. 13-14.
- ^ A b c d e f Paul Schöps: Adolph Sieglitz: Nestor of the rough goods processing industry. For his 90th birthday today . In Der Rauchwarenmarkt No. 52, Berlin and Leipzig, May 2, 1929
- ↑ German biography: Erler, Johann Friedrich Gottlob . Retrieved May 5, 2018.
- ↑ a b c d Without indication of the author: Adolf Sieglitz 93 years . In: Der Rauchwarenmarkt No. 50 ?, 1932, p. 2.
- ↑ a b c d e f g Paul Hirschfeld: Die Rauchwaarenfärberei von FA Sieglitz & Co. In: Leipzig's large industry and wholesale trade in their cultural significance . Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1887. Last accessed May 5, 2018
- ^ A b Walter Fellmann: The Leipziger Brühl . VEB Fachbuchverlag, Leipzig 1989, p. 100, 103.
- ↑ Vera Denzer, Andreas Dix, Haik Thomas Porada: Leipzig: A regional history inventory in the Leipzig area . Böhlau Verlag, Cologne 2015, p. 384. Last accessed on May 5, 2018.
- ^ Philipp Manes : The German fur industry and its associations 1900-1940, attempt at a story . Berlin 1941 Volume 2. Copy of the original manuscript, p. 21. ( G. & C. Franke collection ).
- ^ Address books Saxony Digital .
- ↑ Guide through the Brühl and the Berlin fur industry , Werner Kuhwald Verlag, Leipzig 1938.
- ↑ W. Künzel: From raw fur to smoking goods . Alexander Duncker Verlagsbuchhandlung, Leipzig, undated (approx. 1937), p. 8 (for the technical term “wither”).
- ^ 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. 399 ( → table of contents ).