Gold arrow

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Handbag by Goldpfeil from the 1970s

Goldpfeil ( Goldpfeil Ludwig Krumm AG or Gold-Pfeil) was a traditional manufacturer of high-quality bags and leather accessories and the largest company in the Offenbach leather goods industry. Goldpfeil recently acted alongside Comtesse as a luxury brand of the former EganaGoldpfeil Group and operated its own branches worldwide. After EganaGoldpfeil went bankrupt, Tchibo acquired rights and licenses to use the Goldpfeil brand , but has not been actively marketing it since 2011.

history

Advertising of the London sales branch Ludwig Krumm (London) Ltd. around 1900

The company's roots go back to 1856, when it was founded as Ludwig Krumm AG Vereinigte Lederwarenfabriken in Offenbach am Main . Originally operated as a manufacturer of wallets , luggage and women's and men's bags with high-quality features quickly became part of the range. In 1881 the company employed 200 people, in 1906 there were already 1,000. The first exports were to Russia and Great Britain.

Between 1911 and 1913, a new company headquarters was built in Offenbach on Kaiserstraße . The building with a sandstone facade in the style of the Baroque late historicism was designed by the architect Philipp Forster and built by the Frankfurter Betonbau-Gesellschaft.

Rise and Expansion

Moritz Krumm, one of the six sons of the company founder Ludwig Krumm, sold Krumm bags in London in the early 1920s . From there they also brought the suggestion to rename the company Goldpfeil , which took place in 1931. The name went back to the luxury train " Golden Arrow ", which at that time stood as a symbol for exclusivity and sophisticated life. According to legend, Heinrich Krumm saw the train in London's Victoria Station and decided to choose its name as the brand for the company. The colors were also adopted from the train: from then on, green and gold were the company's new corporate colors. Until then, it was common practice to only advertise and sell products with the Offenbacher Lederwaren designation of origin .

Delivery van with a body in the shape of a suitcase, 1920s

Major changes in the company took place in the 1920s when Heinrich Krumm took over management of the company from his uncle Moritz. The lost English market was replaced by exports to the USA, where Goldpfeil leather goods were offered in New York department stores Macy’s and Saks Fifth Avenue . In 1924 the family company was converted into a stock corporation , and in 1928 the competitor Gebrüder Langhardt was taken over, as it was particularly well represented in Germany. From that point on, the range of conventional leather goods was more design-oriented. Hugo Eberhardt was brought in as a consultant. Leo Schumacher, who later became a professor at the Offenbach Technical College , became the company 's designer and board member responsible for the entire production of gold arrows .

In the 1930s, Goldpfeil delivered to 56 countries. The first own shops were opened in Germany and operated as a subsidiary under the Gold-Pfeil Lederwaren GmbH company. 20% of all leather goods exported from Germany were from Goldpfeil. In 1931, Goldpfeil's export share was 90%.

During the Second World War , 90% of the production facilities were destroyed. In the following years they were rebuilt. Heinrich Krumm organized a conference on March 17, 1952 in Bonn between West German industrial companies and the Soviet leadership. This opened the door to all later bilateral relations. In addition to its own collections, Goldpfeil manufactured bags under license for renowned fashion houses, for example from 1956 for Christian Dior .

Heinrich Krumm had an accident in 1957 on a trip to the Leipzig trade fair.

The Willi Leibbrand KG, a company owned the 25-percent stake in Rewe, increased in 1969 its existing minority stake in Gold arrow to a majority stake.

From 1980, Goldpfeil separated completely from the medium-priced market segment and concentrated on high-priced products. The leather goods manufacturer from Offenbach, founded in 1889 and former supplier to the royal Saxon court, Mädler , was acquired from the bankruptcy estate in 1984 and henceforth again covered the medium-priced segment.

From 1984 the company's own branch network was expanded to include ten branches in the United States , for example on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills and on Fifth Avenue in New York . From 1993 a new uniform store concept was introduced, which was designed by Helmut Pummer. One of the first stores to be remodeled was on Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills.

A license agreement with Jil Sander was signed in 1984. In 1988 the Goldpfeil design competition was held. The Goldpfeil Journal - the journal of joie de vivre and exclusive difference - was published as a magazine for customers .

Crisis and restructuring

Goldpfeil branch in Ginza , Chūō , Tokyo , (2006)

In the 1990s, the company fell into crisis as the international luxury segment was dominated primarily by French companies. Management changed 14 times in the 1990s alone. The broad market also shrank, from 45,000 employees in the leather goods industry in Germany, their number had halved by 2002, as did the number of companies.

Finally, in 1998 the Goldpfeil company merged with the Egana Group to form EganaGoldpfeil ( Egana Goldpfeil Accessoires since 2006 ), with Goldpfeil remaining as a company and a brand of leather goods. The brand was in the red. The brand's turnover in 2002 was 65 million euros, less than 10% of the group's turnover. In that year a restructuring was decided. The luxury segment with the traditional Oxford and Tradition product lines was left in Germany, while the medium-priced lines were produced in the Czech Republic and China from now on. The headquarters in Offenbach was extensively renovated and expanded and converted into a center for product development, sample bag making, design and marketing as well as the European headquarters of EganaGoldpfeil. The Stefanie Graf by Goldpfeil line was introduced as a sporty collection . At that time, Goldpfeil was still producing around 6,000 luxury bags per year in Germany.

Decline

After Hans-Jörg Seeberger , owner of EganaGoldpfeil died in 2007, EganaGoldpfeil filed for bankruptcy on August 21, 2008 at the Offenbach District Court . The Fun Fashion Vertrieb GmbH , a subsidiary of the consumer goods and retail company Tchibo acquired many rights to the brand and the products of gold arrow. The city of Offenbach was able to save the last part of the company archive from being disposed of. At Christmas 2009, Tchibo offered purses with the brand name Goldpfeil. In 2010 the range was expanded to include bags, whereby these products appealed to a different price segment than the original traditional brand.

In 2010 the headquarters in Offenbach was sold to the Westphalian property and financial administration . Until the end of January 2011, the former factory outlet, which sold off stocks, still existed. Due to a lack of supplies and still existing demand, many goods were only sold with very small discounts.

range

Bag advertising from 1938

Goldpfeil bags have long been a status symbol, as Ulrike Posche wrote in 2004: “They are almost the age of Bellheim , swing Goldpfeil bags and can be summarized under the gloomy term widow.” In the same year, Wirtschaftswoche wrote : “Labels like Chanel, Louis Vuitton or Goldpfeil arouse desires among wealthy customers. "

Leather goods

Goldpfeil's classic range was leather goods, especially bags and suitcases, jackets and other items. The products were offered in different collections, some of which were:

  • Goldpfeil Sport (until around 1980)
  • Pegasus Club
  • Carraciola
  • Stefanie Graf by Goldpfeil
  • Oxford (upper segment, produced in Germany until the end)
  • Tradition (upper segment, produced in Germany until the end)

The Japanese company NAAS Co., Ltd. from Adachi-ku acquired a license in 2006 to sell school bags for the Japanese market under the name Goldpfeil. These were made in Italy and sold for 90,300 yen .

As a certificate of authenticity, all products were accompanied by a gold card with the inscription Goldpfeil Germany 1856 , on which the model and the dealer were entered.

Clocks

From 2001, wristwatches from the high price segment were part of the company's product range. These were made by the Swiss watchmakers Antoine Preziuso, Bernhard Lederer, Felix Baumgartner, Frank Jutzi, Svend Andersen, Vianney Halter and Vincent Calabrese (all members of the Académie Horlogère des Créateurs Indépendants [AHCI]). The watches were produced in small series with numbers around 100. The price of the watches was in the five-digit euro range, the list price of the Seven Masters was 65,800 US dollars .

Glasses

Spectacle frames and sunglasses were also sold under the name Goldpfeil . These came from the Argenta company in Wetzlar.

Building at the former headquarters

former head office of Goldpfeil in Kaiserstraße (Offenbach am Main)

The new building for the Ludwig Krumm leather goods factory was built between 1911 and 1913. The designing architect was Philipp Forster II. The company building was badly damaged in the war in 1944 and rebuilt from 1948 onwards. The reinforced concrete construction is clad in sandstone on the five-storey facade and designed symmetrically . The high ground floor above a high plinth is made of rusticated ashlar and arched windows. The upper floors are divided horizontally by protruding cornices and vertically by pilaster strips . The slightly protruding central risalit was originally crowned by a curved gable. This gave the building a neo-baroque character. The flat reliefs on the parapets of the upper floors and pilaster strips are clearly influenced by Art Nouveau . The fifth floor is designed as a low mezzanine floor . The flat gable roof with dormers was destroyed in the war and was replaced by a high barrel roof in the 2000s .

The building has a high urban impact. As one of the largest leather goods companies with once up to a thousand employees, it is also of importance for Offenbach's industrial history. The building is a listed building .

The Goldpfeil factory building is part of the Route der Industriekultur Rhein-Main project .

Web links

Commons : S  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Hugo Eberhardt:  Krumm, Heinrich. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 13, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-428-00194-X , p. 121 f. ( Digitized version ).
  2. ↑ Handbook of German stock corporations : Volume 49, Part 3, 1944.
  3. ^ Karsten Rudolph: Economic diplomacy in the Cold War. P. 37.
  4. ↑ Manager: Successful debut. In: spiegel.de. November 1990, p. 151 , accessed June 25, 2015 .
  5. ^ Concurrence et marché : Volume 39, issues 1-6, 1969 Handelsblatt.
  6. ^ Heinz Stehle: Inheritance and family law corporate security. P. 32.
  7. ↑ Goldpfeil opens Boutique at 711 Fifth Ave. 711, New York; the golden arrow lands on target. In: thefreelibrary.com. PR Newswire Association, November 5, 1992, accessed June 25, 2015 .
  8. ^ Stores of the year: Volume 7, Retail Reporting Bureau (New York, NY).
  9. ↑ D. Moebel interior design, 1988, p. 86.
  10. ↑ a b Ulrich Reitz: And bye, Goldpfeil goes. In: welt.de. November 24, 2002, accessed June 25, 2015 .
  11. ↑ a b Lothar R. Braun: The last light of life of the leather goods legend Goldpfeil is extinguished today on Kaiserstrasse. In: op-online.de. January 29, 2011, accessed June 25, 2015 .
  12. ↑ Tchibo: purses and handbags, shoulder bags and shopper bags. From: shoppic.org , August 24, 2010, accessed June 26, 2015.
  13. ^ WGF AG: Acquisition of the Goldpfeil company headquarters in Offenbach and further real estate transactions. In: internet-intellellect.de. December 22, 2010, accessed June 26, 2015 .
  14. ↑ a b Ulrike Posche: Female takeover: how women in Germany take power . Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt 2004, ISBN 3-593-37415-3 , pp. Blurb .
  15. ↑ Wirtschaftswoche , Volume 58, Issues 41–46, 2004 p. 75.
  16. ↑ European jeweler, Volume 100, p. 70.
  17. ↑ Goldpfeil Watches. In: prestigetime.com. December 19, 2008, archived from the original on December 19, 2008 ; accessed on June 26, 2015 (English).
  18. ^ A b State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (ed.): Kaiserstraße 39 In: DenkXweb, online edition of cultural monuments in Hesse .
  19. ↑ Local route guide No. 9 of the Route der Industriekultur Rhein-Main. (PDF; 519 kB) In: krfrm.de. KulturRegion FrankfurtRheinMain gGmbH, December 2005, accessed on November 14, 2015 .

Coordinates: 50 ° 6 ′ 11.6 "  N , 8 ° 45 ′ 34.1"  E