Hermann Wiederhold Lackfabriken
The Hermann Wiederhold Lackfabriken were a company in the paint industry . It was founded in Düsseldorf - Derendorf in 1867 . In order to expand, the factory moved to Hilden in 1876 . The family business was run by four generations.
The traditional paints for the painting trade were produced in a business area . For the car paint shop, paints from the Ducolux brand were available in a wide range of colors. Surface protection agents and finishing varnishes for wood and furniture were combined in a further division. Paints for white goods as well as scratch-resistant, water- and alcohol-resistant laminates made of synthetic resin were also produced.
The company had branches in Nuremberg and Etzen-Gesäß near Bad König. The Hermann Wiederhold paint factories were bought by ICI Lacke in 1975 . This was taken over by AkzoNobel in 2008 .
Foundation in Düsseldorf
Johann Jakob Wiederhold (born June 14, 1817 in Niederaula ; † April 7, 1890 in Düsseldorf) had Charlotte, born on May 5, 1845. Married Kämpgen from Heiligenhaus († 1885). They initially lived in Elberfeld and moved to Düsseldorf- Pempelfort in 1865, first to Kaiserstraße 4 until 1870 and later to Jacobistraße 8.
On May 27, 1867, the master tailor and businessman Johann Jakob Wiederhold and the colourist and dyer Wilhelm Volger from Münster founded the trading company Wiederhold & Volger . On August 28th, this company then applied for the establishment of a varnish boiler in Derendorf. The boiler house was built on a leased plot of land at Derendorf 67 (later Schloßstraße 78). The partner Wilhelm Volger left the company before 1870, which was now called JJ Wiederhold, varnish, paint and sealing wax factory . The young company's customers were painters, to whom Johann Jakob Wiederhold delivered his paints directly with close personal ties.
Since there were no expansion options in Derendorf, Johann Jakob Wiederhold submitted a building and concession application in Hilden on April 16, 1876, in which he asked for permission to build on a 26-acre property on Benrather Chaussee (today Düsseldorfer Straße 100 ) to build a boiling house "the English kitchen", which he was granted on September 17, 1877. The JJ Wiederhold company then relocated from Düsseldorf to Hilden.
Construction under Hermann Wiederhold (the elder)
In the year after the Pechsiederei was established in Hilden, the company founder sold the business to his son Hermann Wiederhold (the elder) on May 1, 1878 (born May 11, 1852 in Elberfeld; † October 10, 1905 in Hilden). He ran the initially still small business as Hermann Wiederhold Lackfabrik until his death. Initially, Dutch linseed oil was used as the raw material .
From 1891, the factory buildings and the factory premises were expanded again and again. The invention of chemical varnishes led the original artisanal varnish preparation into the field of chemical research. The first chemical laboratories were set up at Wiederhold in 1892. In 1886 Hermann Wiederhold (the elder) published the first catalog of his products. With the growing demand for car paints , the Wiederhold Lackfabrik gained in importance and reputation from 1900. She was now wholesaling auto paints.
Hermann Wiederhold (the elder) married Amalie b. Kopp (born June 25, 1857 in Bendorf, † March 1, 1923 in Hilden). She received power of attorney in 1903 . They had six children: Hermann (the younger) (* May 13, 1881, † June 26, 1936) He received power of attorney in 1903; Elfriede (born August 20, 1882; † March 29, 1940); Martha (February 24, 1884 - January 7, 1951); Walter (the elder) (born November 16, 1885; † June 15, 1959) (who was made an honorary citizen of Etzen-Gesäß and Hilden in 1959 and of Singen (Hohentwiel) in 1955 ); Otto (born October 4, 1887; died on September 12, 1915 in "Podherice" (today Paberžė) near Vilna as a lieutenant) and Konrad (born May 1, 1893; † September 15, 1958)
Expansion under Hermann Wiederhold (the younger)
After the death of Hermann Wiederhold (the elder) in 1905, his sons Hermann Wiederhold (the younger) (born May 13, 1881 in Hilden; † June 26, 1936 in Hilden) and Walter Wiederhold (born November 16, 1885 in Hilden; † June 15, 1959 in Berlin) took over the management of Hermann Wiederhold Lackfabriken . Walter had studied paint chemistry at the Technical University of Darmstadt . He joined the factory in 1902 and got to know it from the ground up.
While Hermann Wiederhold was mainly responsible for the commercial management of the company, Walter took care of the operation, the technical updates and quality issues. Soon after joining the company, Walter Wiederhold created a well-equipped paint laboratory to monitor incoming raw materials and to test new ones. The laboratory served to increase the quality of previously manufactured paint types, the development of new types of paint and the study of new uses.
In 1911, Hermann Wiederhold Lackfabriken was registered as a limited partnership. Hermann and Walter Wiederhold became personally liable partners .
When the First World War broke out , Walter Wiederhold was drafted on August 2, 1914 and took part in the front line of the campaign until the end of the war. He was not released from the army until 1918 as a lieutenant and adjutant of the Landwehr foot artillery battalion No. 2.
After the First World War, the painting trade was no longer supplied directly, but also through wholesalers with targeted advertising and packaging. The increased turnover made land extensions in Hilden and the constant expansion of production necessary. Hermann Wiederhold was also involved in the Association of German Paint Manufacturers and was its chairman from 1927 to 1935.
Walter Wiederhold's time as head of the company
Partner Walter Wiederhold
After the death of Hermann Wiederhold (the younger) in 1936, Walter Wiederhold was the sole owner of the company.
Limited partners in the time of Walter Wiederhold
In 1938 Margarethe Wiederhold, née Kirberg (born April 14, 1888 - June 24, 1970), wife of Hermann (the younger), and Walter's sisters Hildegard, Gisela (Ilse) and Erika Wiederhold became limited partners.
Walter Wiederhold married Helene, née Sahler, in 1912 (* May 18, 1887, † November 11, 1958). Her three daughters: Lotte-Lore (* July 23, 1913 - August 19, 1953), Marianne (* April 20, 1919 - August 9, 1971) and Ellen Wiederhold (* November 21, 1921 - September 4, 1995 ) became limited partners in 1947.
The only son, Walter Wiederhold (the younger) (born April 8, 1915), died in 1941 in the heavy fighting on the Eastern Front during World War II. He was a lieutenant in an artillery regiment. He was about to complete his chemistry studies and could no longer join the company.
The four adopted daughters of Ellen Wiederhold became limited partners in 1956.
Expansion through research and development under Walter Wiederhold
Extended customer base, quality management, Nuremberg plant, Etzen-Gesäß
Despite difficult raw material, financial and wage issues and the need to obtain foreign currency, the switch to domestic raw materials was successful and technical advancement led to the development of new qualities. New customer groups could be won through application technology and advice to bulk consumers. The company's customers now included construction companies, automobile plants, and in 1920 Wiederhold received approval as a supplier to the Deutsche Reichsbahn. The good cooperation with the Central Railway Office in Munich and the Chemical Research Institute of the Reichsbahn in Munich lasted until after the Second World War , so that Wiederhold also became a paint supplier to the German Federal Railroad.
Nitro paint production started at the Hilden plant in 1927.
In 1922, Wiederhold acquired the Engelhardt paint factory, which was founded in 1861, at the Nuremberg location, and brought it to the same technical level as the Hilden plant. The plant in Nuremberg was completely destroyed by bombs in World War II. Towards the end of the war, he was relocated to Ranna in Franconian Switzerland in 1944 . Immediately after the war in 1964, the relocation from Ranna to Nuremberg and the reconstruction began.
Another branch factory was built in Etzen-Gesäß near Bad König in the Odenwald in 1943 to produce varnishes for the black plate tin industry.
Walter Wiederhold equipped the plant with state-of-the-art operating systems, expanded its capacity from year to year and created a paint chemistry research facility in his laboratory building that was unparalleled in Europe. Each type of paint was tested on the machines commonly used in practice before it went to the consumer. This quality control inevitably led to the quality product. This was a prerequisite for the company Herman Wiederhold Lackfabriken to acquire the sole manufacturing rights for Germany and the “Duco-Lacke” and “Ducolux-Lacke” processes in 1949. These car paints were developed by DuPont in the 1920s .
Laboratory, production facilities and factory view
Laboratory tasks
In 1952, more than 100 scientists and technical staff worked in the various laboratories for application technology and quality control testing centers. They analyzed the quality of the raw materials, the fineness of the paint, the gloss and the opacity of the varnishes and colors. The lightfastness was tested on the Xeno weathering device .
The tests with printing inks for offset and letterpress printing were carried out in a separate department.
The paint application methods were also tested: application with a brush ; Spray painting with spray gun , hot spraying, electrostatic spraying; Application by means of lacquer rollers; the dip painting process; drumming or pouring in painting lines. The behavior when sanding down car paint before repairs was also checked.
Specially named production facilities
On the occasion of the ceremony for the company's 85th anniversary in 1952, the following were particularly emphasized in the commemorative publication on the facilities of the Hilden factory:
- For enamel lacquers, grinding partly in huge ball mills for very high grain fineness.
- Ten individually driven three-roll - sprinter with adjustable speed for grinding lacquer enamels with the highest possible degree of dispersion of the color bodies.
- Production of oil , black and synthetic resin paints in high-quality stainless steel tanks with direct or indirect heating, either under pressure or vacuum.
- Then filtration in special centrifuges and press through a widely branched pipe system.
- Large stationary kettles for varnishes, stand oils , resin esterification and lacquers, some with dissolver agitator.
- The individual color tones of the DUCOLUX qualities are set and shaded in mobile, dust-proof sealed mixing containers with agitators and individual drives .
- Distillation system for cleaning and separating solvents.
- Spray tower for resin drying.
- Stand oil system for 15 m 3
- Three underground tank systems that held a total of 1200 m³.
- Three-pass high-pressure steam boiler (12 t / h).
- Automatic can filling and carton packaging.
- Filling and testing station for Ducolux spray cans.
Factory view
During the celebration of the company's 85th anniversary, Walter Wiederhold was made an honorary citizen of the city of Hilden in 1952 and was awarded the Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany . His employees Walter Wiederhold presented a model of the Hilden plant.
Walter Wiederhold died on June 15, 1959 in an accident in Berlin. After the death of her father, his daughter Ellen Wiederhold took over the management of the family company Hermann Wiederhold Lackfabriken .
Under the direction of Ellen Wiederhold
In addition to her work as a managing partner , she was mayor of Hilden for 25 years from 1969 to 1994 .
Under Ellen Wiederhold, the first daytime luminous colors were developed in the factory laboratories between 1958 and 1969 . Daylight red according to RAL 3024 increased the early recognizability of fire engines from 1969 and significantly reduced the number of accidents during emergency trips.
Product range in 1960
In the memorial by Hermann Koch: In memorium Walter Wiederhold , those surface protection agents and finishing varnishes are described that Hermann Wiederhold Lackfabriken produced at the time. They were products for all branches of the paint processing industry.
Paints for the painting trade
Tin lacquers and tin printing inks
Sheet metal lacquers: as protective lacquers, punched enamel lacquers for external lacquering for packaging purposes (boxes, cans (e.g. skin cream can)); for decorative packaging (decorative tins, cigarette tins, canned fish, tubes); for food packaging; for technical packaging or for posters.
Sheet metal paints as a primer paint for printing inks.
Gold and silver lacquers as almost water-white clear lacquers: as interior protective lacquers and surface protection in cans, fish cans, tin bottles or for technical use; and as a top coat for metals printed with text and images.
Color lacquers and anti-corrosion lacquers for apparatus and machines in process engineering ; Construction industry and agriculture as well as for tank systems.
Lacquers for aerosol containers . The cans were then printed with inks.
Car paints
The brand names DUCO and AUTO-DUCOLUX denote high-quality body paints and vehicle paints. They were applied in a wide variety of colors in high-throughput auto paint shops.
Refinish paints for the artisanal painter that were applied with a spray system.
Special coatings for the Federal Railroad
Special coatings for passenger cars, dining cars, sleeping cars, locomotives and freight cars of the Federal Railroad. The Federal Railroad issues special regulations for their composition, which the wagon factories as suppliers of the Federal Railroad also adhere to. They have proven themselves under all climatic conditions.
Stoving enamels for white goods
Special stoving enamels for refrigerators, dishwashers, washing machines and dryers.
Metallic paints
Paints with a metallic effect, e.g. B. typewriters, office machines, optical devices.
Anti-rust coatings
Anti-rust paints for iron and steel in construction systems in heavy industry, in the mechanical industry, in bridge construction, crane construction, etc.
Corrosion protection for light metals.
Ship color ı
Weatherproof and seawater-resistant paints under all climatic conditions.
The sailing ship " Gorch Fock " was painted with Wiedox paint from Wiederhold. Ship superstructures were made weatherproof with Wiedox-Polar-Weißlack. Tankers received Wiedarit underwater and Bottopan paints to protect against algae , barnacles and balanids .
Aircraft paints for gliders and powered aircraft
Furniture lacquers
Weather-resistant colored paints as surface protection for wood as white and colored pigmented paints for garden furniture, children's furniture, kitchens, hall cloakrooms, small furniture.
Clear lacquers (alkyd resin lacquers, acid-hardening lacquers, Desmodur, Desmophen lacquers and polyester lacquers) to emphasize the natural structure of the wood fibers.
Stoving enamels for metal on furniture: Coating of sheet steel that is hygienically perfect and offers easy cleaning options.
Polishes, stains and similar surface finishing agents.
Insulating varnishes
Electrical insulating varnishes: insulating impregnating varnishes and wire varnishes.
Coating of molding compounds
Plates and coating films made of plastic for molding compounds such. B. Pressboard .
Printing inks for the paper sector
Printing inks for letterpress, offset, gravure and anil printing.
Injection rubber
Injection rubber from the Wiedox brand as a leveling compound for smoothing painted surfaces.
Period between 1960 and 1975
Sales and expansions
In 1961, Wiederhold employed around 2,400 people in the Hilden, Nuremberg and Etzen-Gesäß plants and in 1966 had sales of 155 million D-Marks. The annual turnover of the paint factory Wiederhold rose to 280 million marks by the beginning of the 1970s. The Hermann Wiederhold paint factories took over on 16 August 1960, the family Zweihorn in Cologne-Ehrenfeld with at that time 70 employees. It produced wood stains . The complete range of products for the industrial sector (furniture, packaging and printing industry) as well as for the trade (joiners / joiners, painters, car painters) was brought together at just one location and later expanded to include the do-it-yourself sector.
In 1964, Wiederhold set up its own large factory warehouses in Hamburg and Frankfurt am Main .
In the branch in Nuremberg, the product portfolio was expanded in 1965 with screen printing inks and in 1970 with tampon gravure inks for pad printing .
Gisela (Ilse) Seiffert (born September 3, 1913 - April 3, 1996), daughter of Hermann Wiederhold (the younger), became a commanding officer in 1966.
Major fire in 1961
On December 15, 1961, at around 11:30 a.m., a forklift driver had driven off the filling nozzle of a container hanging from the ceiling. The easily flammable solvent it contained spilled onto the truck and ignited on its engine. After that everything happened very quickly - eight minutes later the major alarm was triggered. From December 15 to 17, almost 2000 firefighters, police officers and soldiers fought against the flames of the major fire in the main building of the plant (with laboratories) and in part of the manufacturing plant. The major fire injured 19 people and caused several million D-Marks in property damage. After the major fire, the plant fire brigade was set up in Hilden and Nuremberg in 1962 . The Hilden vehicle came from the inventory of a military airfield. As of 2005, the Hilden municipal fire brigade took over the fire service at Wiederhold.
Ellen Wiederhold also mayor
On November 29, 1969, the Hilden City Council elected Ellen Wiederhold (CDU) as honorary mayor. In the period that followed, up to 1994, she was re-elected four times for a further term. Despite being mayor, Ellen Wiederhold remained a member of the management for a few years.
Sale to ICI paints and varnishes
On August 15, 1975, the Hermann Wiederhold paint factories were taken over by the British chemical multinational Imperial Chemical Industries ICI Lacke und Farben . Wiederhold's turnover in 1975 was around 280 million marks. The British chemical multinational ICI (turnover: 18 billion marks) initially acquired a 70 percent share in the family company Wiederhold (Wiederhold capital of previously nominally 20 million marks). In Hilden in the Rhineland, after five family tours of the Wiederhold family, command was transferred to ICI manager Quintin Knight from Slough, UK. Ellen Wiederhold remained a member of the management.
ICI was now one of the market leaders on German soil with Wiederhold. Worldwide, the British chemical company was one of the giants in the paint and paint business with around 900 million marks. With the sale, the “Ducolux” brand was also transferred to ICI.
In 1976, ICI concentrated exclusively on the production of screen and pad printing inks at the Nuremberg location, while the paint production was completely relocated to the main plant in Wiederhold in Hilden.
Resold to AkzoNobel, PPG, Coates Brothers
In 2005, the Dutch paint and varnish group AkzoNobel bought the Zweihorn brand in order to achieve market leadership in the craft of professional paints.
In January 2008 AkzoNobel took over the former Wiederhold plant from ICI. In 2017, around 190 employees worked there, 45 of them in production - spread over three shifts. AkzoNobel started an extensive investment program. In addition to production, Zweihorn also has a development laboratory for metal and wood coatings in Hilden. The location is firmly integrated into the global group structure.
The Wiederhold screen printing inks division in Nuremberg was acquired by Coates Brothers Plc (then part of the TOTAL group ) from ICI in 1989 . In 2000, Sun Chemical took over the Coates Group from the French mineral oil company TOTAL.
The Wiederhold repair paint division at the Hilden location was transferred to PPG Industries Lacke GmbH . The "PPG Automotive Refinish in Germany" division is based in Hilden at Düsseldorfer Straße 80. This is where the PPG Training & Technology Center of PPG Germany Sales & Services GmbH is located.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Address book of the Lord Mayor's Office Düsseldorf 1867 , part I, p. 167, part IV, p. 25.
- ↑ Address book of the Lord Mayor's Office Düsseldorf 1873 , Part I, p. 139.
- ↑ Official Journal for the Düsseldorf District (1867) , p. 476.
- ↑ Address book of the Lord Mayor's Office Düsseldorf 1870 , Part I, p. 160.
- ↑ a b Address book of the Lord Mayor's Office Düsseldorf 1875 , Part II, p. 70.
- ↑ a b c d e Wolfgang Wennig: History of Hilden Industry , Hilden City Archives 1974, pp. 83 ff, 184.
- ^ A b c d e Walter Wiederhold: Hermann Wiederhold Lackfabriken Hilden 1867–1952 , Festschrift, Hilden 1952.
- ^ A b c d Hermann Koch: In memorium Walter Wiederhold In: Hildener Jahrbuch Vol. 8/1960, pp. 10–47., Verlag Fr. Peters, Hilden 1962.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Hermann Wiederhold Lackfabriken (ed.): 100 years of Hermann Wiederhold Lackfabriken 1897 to 1997, chapter Die Zeit and Wiederhold, Hilden 1967
- ↑ Kai Dohnke: The paint story: 100 years of color between protection, beauty and the environment . Dölling and Galitz, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-933374-64-2 , p. 1999 .
- ↑ Ducolux color map on artnet. Retrieved December 27, 2019 .
- ↑ Johannes Jentzsch: Triple jubilee at the Wiederhold works, honors for Walter Wiederhold , In: Hildener Jahrbuch No. 5 1947–52, pp. 121–152, Verlag Fr. Peters, Hilden 1953.
- ^ Work Zweihorn from Wikipedia
- ↑ a b c Coates Screen Inks GmbH celebrates its 20th anniversary at the new location. Retrieved December 27, 2019 .
- ↑ Michael Kremer: Fire in paint factory Wiederhold: Wise out of damage. Westdeutsche Zeitung , December 14, 2011, accessed on July 19, 2020 .
- ↑ Felix Spiss: Cracks in the paint. Zeit Online , September 15, 1975, accessed July 19, 2020 .
- ↑ Zweihorn® | About us | AkzoNobel. Retrieved December 27, 2019 .
- ↑ Barbara Jenni: AkzoNobel is celebrating 150 years of industrial history in Hilden - production volume is to be increased significantly over the next five years. AkzoNobel Paints & Coatings, July 10, 2017, accessed December 27, 2019 .
- ↑ Alexandra Rüttgen: Hilden: PPG invests in a modern color laboratory. Rheinische Post , May 19, 2015, accessed on July 19, 2020 .