Hannoversche button factory Gompertz & Meinrath

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Gompertz & Meinrath (also: Hannoveranische Knopffabrik Gompertz & Meinrath or "Gompertz & Meinrath GmbH, Hannoversche Knopffabrik") was a factory for the production of buttons . After the world's first production of Galalith buttons , the company played an important role in the development of fashion buttons . The first location of the company , which was founded in the 19th century and later also produced in England , was Eichstrasse in the Hanover district of Oststadt .

history

founding

In 1876 Leopold Gompertz , after acquiring a chemical-technical process, founded a button factory on Eichstrasse in Hanover, where he took on his brother-in-law Albert Meinrath in 1877 . From then on the company was called "Gompertz & Meinrath GmbH, Hannoversche Knopffabrik". She no longer made buttons from natural materials, but made them from an artificial mass on the basis of shellac ;

After a competitor in 1880 the iron -echte Steinnußknopf arose, produced by the firm of Jacob Frank in Linden , advanced Gompertz and Meinrath 1882, the range through the production of "masters" buttons of mother of pearl .

“The actual birth of the fashion button” was in 1902: During a visit to a business friend in Vienna, Erich Gompertz saw a cigarette holder made from the material Galalith, which was still little known at the time . In the same year he manufactured the world's first button made of milk stone in his button factory in Hanover, which was then “groundbreaking for the entire button industry in all countries”. Now, multi-shaped “fantasy buttons” for women's clothing have been added to the buttons that were previously only produced for pure purpose. With the new material, the company was able to achieve great sales successes at home and abroad.

In 1913 a new production facility was put into operation on Stader Chaussee .

During the Weimar Republic , the company set up a branch in England in 1932. In the meantime the sons of the company founders, Erich Gompertz and Rudolf Meinrath , had taken over the management of the company. In the seizure of power by the Nazis in 1933 the later resistance fighter was Auguste Breitzke of Gompertz & Meinrath set. As the harassment and coercive measures against Jewish companies increased, the two company managers fled in 1935 and emigrated to London . One of their employees, Edith Maybaum , also fled the same year and presumably to London. Today (as of 07/2012) they and others are sought internationally by family members through the Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR).

reconstruction

After the end of World War II took Ludwig My Rath , a grandson of the company founder, in 1948, the English button factory, while the German factory in the years of reconstruction under Erich Gompertz soon were able to record good sales again and was able to win the overseas markets for the Hanoverian buttons .

Nevertheless, the company based in the capital of Lower Saxony was listed for the last time in the address book of the city of Hanover in 1961 . However , it was only deleted from the city's commercial register in 1973.

Others

Erich Gompertz received the Federal Cross of Merit in 1958. He is buried today in the Stöcken cemetery in Hanover. Temporary factory director was "Biedermann ..." (* July 17, 1887 in Strasbourg; † July 23, 1954 in Hanover), former Lieutenant Colonel of the Air Force a. D., temporarily residing at Podbielskistraße 56.

Archival material

Archives from and about the Hannoversche button factory Gompertz & Meinrath can be found, for example

literature

Please refer

References and comments

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Waldemar R. Röhrbein: Gompertz & Meinrath GmbH, Hannoversche Knopffabrik. In: Stadtlexikon Hannover , p. 226
  2. ^ A b Association of Jewish Refugees: Search Notices / M , last accessed on July 26, 2012
  3. ↑ a b c d Heinz Lauenroth : Gompertz. In: Hannover: Face of a Lively City , passim ; partly online via Google books
  4. ^ Helmut Zimmermann : Eichstrasse. In: The street names of the state capital Hanover , Verlag Hahnsche Buchhandlung , Hanover 1992, ISBN 3-7752-6120-6 , p. 69
  5. ↑ Theodor Unger: Guide through the city and its buildings. Commemorative publication for the fifth general assembly of the Association of German Architects and Engineers' Associations , reprint: Th. Schäfer, 1991; P. 246; on-line
  6. ↑ Note: After Helmut Zimmermann, today's Vahrenwalder Straße, renamed in 1953, was originally an old country road , which was named Stader Straße from 1845 (and not Vahrenwalder Chaussee )
  7. ↑ … Hannoversche Geschichtsblätter , New Series 46–47 (1992), p. 157; partly online
  8. ^ Hans Friedrich von Ehrenkrook: Genealogical Handbook of the Adels , Volume 20, CA Starke, 1959, p. 540; partly online
  9. ↑ Compare the information in the Lower Saxony Archival Information System Arcinsys Lower Saxony

Coordinates: 52 ° 22 '50.1 "  N , 9 ° 45' 0.7"  E