Hannoversche flag factory

The flag factory (right) on Thielenplatz , about in the middle of the picture the piano factory of violin virtuoso Wilhelm Gertz , in Lavesstrasse the Overlachsche Haus and on the far left a building of the Tivoli entertainment establishment ;
Postcard No. 101 from Georg Kugelmann

The Hannoversche Fahnenfabrik was a factory for the production of flags . The family business, first in Hanover and later in Mellendorf , temporarily employed more than 300 people.

history

Imperial period until 1945

The company was opened during the early days of the German Empire in 1876 , on Georgsplatz in Hanover as “Franz Reinecke's art workshops for flags, paraments, etc. Tapestry ”. The business moved several times, including at the Thielplatz where painted or embroidered flags and theater - decorations were made.

Already in the early years the company produced a comprehensive delivery of banners, flags , banners and textile decorations for major events, at first mainly in Hanover. Something like that

1879 for the opening of the Technical University (today: University of Hanover in the Welfenschloss )
1883 for the "Luther Celebration", the 400th birthday of Martin Luther
or from 1889, for example, to the visits of the emperor to Hanover .

Around 1914: Form from the company at Heinrichstrasse 14 in Hanover

In 1896, Franz Reinecke built his own factory building with an office building at Heinrichstrasse 14 , where around 300 employees were soon working, for example in the dye works , bleaching or flag printing : Franz Reinecke developed the term "chemical", which was still in use at the end of the 20th century Steam pressure method for flags ”.

From 1897 the company also supplied the Imperial Navy . After the publication of Reinecke's "Flag Handbook " in 1901 and 1903, the company founder became an expert in the Reichsmarineamt for the exact execution of flags of all countries.

In the meantime the company had already won numerous prizes, for example

1883 a gold medal at the world exhibition in Boston ,
1890 the first prize for art and industry in Bremen ,
1900 a gold medal at the World Exhibition in Paris 1900 and
1902 Awards at the fishing exhibition in Vienna .

In addition, the company was given the title of purveyor to the court by the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg , but the company also supplied imperial and royal standards and supplied flags for royal houses at home and abroad.

In 1910 the company set up its own sales office in London and sold thousands of flags for the coronation celebrations of King George V of Great Britain and Ireland .

In 1925, the founder's son, Otto A. Reinecke , took over the company and introduced the textile film printing process . In the early 1930s, he finally moved the company to its last location in Mellendorf near Hanover, where the company enjoyed a further boom. After Otto A. Reinecke's death, his wife Franziska took over the company and managed it through the National Socialist era . As with the air raids on Hanover in World War II , the company buildings in Mellendorf were also destroyed - after 1945 the company was idle for several years.

Reconstruction and specialization

In the 1950s, the granddaughter of the company founder, Sigrid Reinecke , married her husband, Friedrich Freiherr von Schuckmann . Since during the reconstruction in the 1950s, the need for flags from business and merchant shipping increased again, the couple, later also with their son Joachim Freiherr von Schuckmann , ran the “Hannoversche Fahnenfabrik, vorm. Franz Reinecke ”into a new era. In their "color kitchen" and together with domestic and foreign color manufacturers, the company developed textiles made of synthetic fibers until the first Perlon flags were convincing due to their durability and color fastness and were soon protected under the brand name "NAUTEX" and became an internationally recognized name among experts .

The first flag of Lower Saxony , which the newly founded state of Lower Saxony hoisted in the Lower Saxony state parliament , was made of Perlon material from the Hanover flag factory. In 1954, the Hamburg-American Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft HAPAG ordered its first shipping company flags from Mellendorf. Advertising banners for airplanes were also delivered, as were later printed and processed polyester flag cloths. Other buyers were the Hanover Fair , but also numerous shooting clubs that waved their flags at Europe's largest march to the Hanover shooting festival . At sporting events such as car and motorcycle races, the start and finish tapes came from the Mellendorf production facility, as did numerous city and community flags .

Characteristic for the renowned company was its consistently strong craftsmanship . The company had trained hundreds of apprentices, some stayed in the “ graphic studio ” as permanent draftsmen, colorists or printers, women of the time more as embroiderers or seamstresses .

One of the company's specialties was the conservation or restoration of historical flags, for example in museums . Some clubs had their old flags reconstructed from order books from the turn of the 20th century .

Nonetheless, the Hanoverian flag factory , which was largely specialized in handicrafts and, with its numerous employees, was heavily wage - intensive , survived the recent globalization only just over the turn of the millennium. The company was finally no longer able to withstand the price pressure from “cheap imports from Southeast Asia ” - at the end of 2008 the company closed.

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ Waldemar R. Röhrbein: Hannoversche Fahnenfabrik ... (see literature)
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r Franz B. Döpper (author): Hannover and his old companies , 2nd improved edition (see literature)
^ Hugo Thielen : Leibniz University Hannover. In: Stadtlexikon Hannover , p. 394f.
↑ ^a ^b see this form for the letter of March 4, 1913
^ Klaus Mlynek: Schützenwesen. In: Stadtlexikon Hannover , p. 553ff, here: p. 554

Fonts

Franz Reinecke: Taschen-Signalbuch , flag printing company Hannoversche Fahnenfabrik F. Reinecke, Hanover, 1901; Preview over google books

literature

Franz Reinecke: 75 years of memoirs 1851–1926 Franz Reinecke Hanover, career of the company 1876–1926 , Hanover, 1926
Franz B. Döpper (author): Hanover and its old companies ,
- Hamburg: 1984, p. 124f.
- 2nd improved edition, in the series German cities in the mirror of economic history , Volume 2, published by the Association of German Economic Historians eV, Au in der Hallertau: PRO HISTORICA Gesellschaft für Deutsche Wirtschaftsgeschichte mbH, ISBN 3-89146-00 8-2 , p. 92f.
Waldemar R. Röhrbein : Hannoversche Fahnenfabrik Franz Reinecke. In: Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein (eds.) U. a .: City Lexicon Hanover . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2009, ISBN 978-3-89993-662-9 , pp. 259f.

Web links

Commons : Hannoversche Fahnenfabrik - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

52.3745444 9.7442905Coordinates: 52 ° 22 ′ 28.4 " N , 9 ° 44 ′ 39.4" E

[SLH-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ Waldemar R. Röhrbein: Hannoversche Fahnenfabrik ... (see literature)

[Alte_Firmen-2] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r Franz B. Döpper (author): Hannover and his old companies , 2nd improved edition (see literature)

[3] Hugo Thielen : Leibniz University Hannover. In: Stadtlexikon Hannover , p. 394f.

[Vordruck_1913-4] see this form for the letter of March 4, 1913

[5] Klaus Mlynek: Schützenwesen. In: Stadtlexikon Hannover , p. 553ff, here: p. 554