Haus Neuerburg (company)

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Administration building of the cigarette factory "Haus Neuerburg" in Cologne
Advert in September 1919
"Haus Neuerburg" cigarette factory in Hamburg-Wandsbek, component 1926–1928, facade detail, architect Fritz Höger
"Haus Neuerburg" cigarette factory in Hamburg-Wandsbek, east wing 1924

Haus Neuerburg was a leading company in the cigarette industry based in Cologne .

history

Haus Neuerburg emerged from the tobacco processing company of Johann Neuerburg (1805 - 1890). The son of a tobacco-growing landowner from Wittlich first learned the red tanning trade before he bought a house on Wittlich Burgstrasse in 1853 and settled there. Together with his sons, he founded a tobacco factory for the production of pipe and rod tobacco, which was entered in the commercial register in 1866 and, after moving to Friedensstrasse in 1920, existed until 1957.

Beginnings in cigar manufacturing

Johann Neuerburg's son Heinrich I (1839 - 1901) moved to Trier in 1865, where he and a partner founded the Vogel & Neuerburg cigar factory in 1873 . Business developed very well, so that branch plants were built in Zell (Mosel) , Trier-Pfalzel and Löwenbrücken in quick succession . In 1900 the company had around 600 employees. Driven by the growing demand for cigarettes, Johann Neuerburg's sons Heinrich II and August founded the Haus Neuerburg cigarette factory in 1908 , for which they registered a word mark at the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA) on July 6, 1908 . Most important trademark of the company was after the Cologne patrician family of Overstolzes named and patented in 1917 by brand Overstolz . When Haus Neuerburg was relocated to Cologne in 1918, a third center for the German cigarette industry was established here alongside Dresden and Berlin .

Market leader in cigarette production

Due to the massive increase in cigarette consumption, the new Neuerburg company also grew rapidly. In 1917 the brothers gave up cigar production completely, in 1919 they began to convert their parents' parent company in Trier to cigarettes and took on brother Hubert († 1922 in a car accident) as an equal partner. This was followed by new branches in Dresden (1919), Herzig (1922) and Wandsbek (1924), the commercial building on Gülichplatz in Cologne (in two construction phases between 1921 and 1929) and the Merkur store (raw tobacco center) and a tobacco factory in Hamburg. From 1927 Haus Neuerburg took over some of its most important competitors with the Waldorf-Astoria in Stuttgart, Zuban in Munich and Halpaus in Dresden. The company also participated in the successful Eckstein works in Dresden . With a monthly turnover of RM 15 to 20 million and more than 500 million cigarettes sold, it now took second place among German industrial companies, just behind the market leader Reemtsma cigarette factories , whose owner Philipp Reemtsma tried hard and successfully to maintain good relations with the National Socialists . As early as 1932 Reemtsma had agreed with Adolf Hitler that advertisements should be placed in Nazi organs.

From January 1934 to 1944, Philipp Reemtsma donated a total of 12.4 million RM to various Nazi organizations and to the Prussian Prime Minister Hermann Göring , his former pilot comrade; Reemtsma became a military economist in 1939. Reemtsma and Neuerburg cultivated a peaceful coexistence with clearly defined market segments . In 1934, at the request of Philipp Reemtsma, Hermann Göring had investigations into bribery and tax evasion against Reemtsma put down. Due to a change in the Tobacco Tax Act, Reemtsma also received 22 million RM. Göring settled with 3 million RM. bribe, Reemtsma also sponsored in the following years and was compensated for his favors with consideration totaling more than RM 12 million.

Takeover by Reemtsma

In 1928 Reemtsma and Neuerburg had a market share of around 85% on the German cigarette market. Since September 1928 there was a pool contract between Reemtsma and Neuerburg , which provided for price agreements. The successful marketing and lobbying work put Reemtsma in a significantly better position.

By April 1934, Reemtsma gradually transferred RM 20 million and another RM 5 million to Neuerburg in order to prepare for a merger . On January 1, 1935, the “HF & Ph.F. Reemtsma KG ”, in which the Reemtsma brothers (Hermann and Philipp Fürchtegott) held 69%, Hermann and August Neuerburg 21% and Ernst Friedrich Gütschow (General Director of the Jasmatzi Group ) held 10% as limited partners . In this KG, the "Reemtsma Cigarettenfabriken GmbH" went up, with the conversion, the second largest German tobacco manufacturer Neuerburg was integrated into the Reemtsma Group. The acquisition cost Reemtsma RM 51 million, payable out of profits. The market share of Reemtsma-Neuerburg in 1930 totaled 82.4%. This merger lasted until it was blocked by the Allies and subsequently broken up in 1948.

New start and takeover by Reynolds

After the destruction of the war and the unbundling of the industrial monopoly structures, which only left the Neuerburg office building in Cologne and the newly acquired Baden-Baden branch ("Batschari factory"), the new establishment in Cologne in March 1950 brought rapid success. Heinrich II Neuerburg's sons Walter (1912–1986), Paul (1916–1960) and Hermann (1917–1957) continued to run the company. Reemtsma took over “ Roth-Händle ” in September 1958 (with a minority stake from Haus Neuerburg).

In March 1960, after the death of Paul Neuerburg, the RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company acquired 51% of the shares in the Neuerburg house for US $ 10.2 million under the company "Reynolds-Neuerburg GmbH"; the remaining 49% followed in 1963. The name Haus Neuerburg was initially retained under the umbrella of the American group . In 1968 the Cologne cigarette factory Haus Neuerburg KG offered the Reynolds brand Camel for the first time on the German market and then throughout Europe, whereby Haus Neuerburg was able to consolidate its market share in 1969 to 4%. Since 1977 the company has been run as Reynolds Tobacco Cologne, Trier, Berlin and taken over by Japan Tobacco International (JTI) in 1999 together with the American parent company .

Brands

Today the Overstolz brand is manufactured by Japan Tobacco International in Trier.

Today's building use

The factory in Wandsbek was built in three construction phases. The part built by Fritz Höger between 1926 and 1928 is a listed building. The factory produced until 1988. Since then, the site has been used by Deutsche Telekom as an administration building.

The Cologne building of the former company headquarters is mainly used today by municipal offices.

literature

Web links

Commons : Haus Neuerburg (company)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hans Günther Hockerts / Franz Menges, New German Biography: Schinzel-Schwarz , Vol. 23, 2007, p. 112
  2. ↑ Klaus Petry, Neuerburg , in: Neue Deutsche Biographie 19 (1999), p. 112 f.
  3. ↑ Ulrich S. Soénius / Jürgen Wilhelm, Kölner Personen-Lexikon , 2008, p. 390
  4. ↑ Trademark research & trademark protection tmdb.de via Haus Neuerburg
  5. ↑ Erik Lindner, Reemtsma, Philipp Fürchtegott , in: Neue Deutsche Biographie 21 (2003), pp. 254–255
  6. ^ Rudolf Vierhaus, German biographical encyclopedia , article Reemtsma, 2007, p. 237
  7. ↑ Michael Werner, Stiftungsstadt und Bürgertum , 2011, p. 415
  8. ^ Wilhelm Blase, Die Rohtabakversorgung Deutschlands , 1933, p. 29
  9. ↑ Annika Klein, Corruption and Corruption Scandals in the Weimar Republic , 2014, p. 422
  10. ↑ Tino Jacobs, Rauch und Macht: The company Reemtsma 1920 to 1961 , 2008, p. 144
  11. ↑ handelsregister.de. Hamburg District Court, HRA 56790. Accessed March 15, 2020 .
  12. ↑ Kurt Pritzkoleit, On a Wave of Gold: Der Triumph der Wirtschaft , 1961, p. 212
  13. ↑ Erik Lindner, The Reemtsma. History of a German family of entrepreneurs , 2007, p. 126 f.
  14. ^ Hans Günther Hockerts / Franz Menges, New German Biography: Schinzel-Schwarz. Vol. 23 , 2007, p. 113
  15. ^ Hans Günther Hockerts / Franz Menges, New German Biography: Schinzel-Schwarz. Vol. 23 , 2007, p. 113
  16. ↑ Tino Jacobs, Rauch and Macht: The Reemtsma Company 1920 to 1961 , 2008, p. 248

Coordinates: 50 ° 56 ′ 14.8 "  N , 6 ° 57 ′ 27.4"  E