JC König & Ebhardt
JC König und Ebhardt was a printing company that was founded in Hanover in 1845 and went bankrupt in 1999 . Thanks to technical innovations, JC König und Ebhardt was a leading printing company for a long time, which made a decisive contribution to Hanover's reputation as a printing center. It is considered to be the world's first accounting book factory and was the most important for almost 150 years. The company employed internationally renowned artists as graphic designers.
Printing technology
JC König und Ebhardt was one of the leading accounting book factories. It had agencies in around 800 German cities and had factories in London and Vienna . It was the first company in Germany to work with the two-color letterpress high-speed press, in 1878 with the wire stitching machine and in 1879 with the high-speed ruling machine. In addition to an extensive range of products for offices and administration, the company printed securities such as stocks and banknotes . König and Ebhardt employed numerous well-known graphic artists and illustrators for their art prints and chromolithographs. Among them were Heinz Keune , Hermann Hirzel and Heinrich Mittag . Postcards, calendars, posters and advertising material for industry and trade were also produced.
history
König und Ebhardt was founded in 1845 by the chicory coffee and mustard manufacturer Johann Christoph König (1783–1867) and his stepson (sole owner from 1847) Heinrich Ebhardt (1808–1899). Initially, it only served as an auxiliary printer for labels and forms for personal use in the cichory and mustard production. But as early as 1850, the company applied as a “ factory of lined handbooks ” and was also active outside of Germany. Participation in trade and industrial exhibitions resulted in the golden medal of the Hanover trade exhibition in 1878.
The former authorized signatories of König & Ebhardt, August Edler and Bernhard Krische, founded their own business books factory Edler & Krische in Hanover in 1856 as competition .
In 1867, the authorized signatory and factor, Heinrich Meineke (1832-1892) took over the technical management of the company as a new partner. With Heinrich Meineke and the members of his family who followed him, a new branch of the family takes on a formative role in the company. In the same year the chicory and mustard factory was spun off and handed over to Ebhardt's son Hermann. Heinrich Ebhardt built new, soon-to-be-expanded company buildings on Schloßwender Strasse on Königsworther Platz to cope with the increasing production of the business books factory .
In 1880 Felix Berthold (1859–1909), Heinrich Meineke's son-in-law, joined the company as his successor.
Around 1900 the British purveyor to the court Raphael Tuck & Sons had chromolithographic postcards produced here under the brand name " Oilette ", which were primarily intended for the US market.
On March 17, 1911, the company ceremoniously presented the city of Hanover with a book designed by Heinrich Mittag , which later marked the beginning of the city's Golden Book .
In 1913, König & Ebhardt was listed in the membership directory of the Deutscher Werkbund .
During the air raids on Hanover in World War II , around 70% of the Hanoverian facilities on Königsworther Platz were destroyed. After the war, the partially damaged company complex was rebuilt and successfully built on earlier sales. Since the company headquarters could not be expanded, but on the other hand the range of goods was expanded, the buildings on Schloßwender Strasse were sold to the State of Lower Saxony for use by the University of Hanover . Today, among other things, the regional data center for Lower Saxony has its headquarters in the historic company complex.
In 1982 König & Ebhardt moved into new, larger premises in Hanover-Bornum and in some cases employed up to 480 people. In 1999 the company went bankrupt .
The former company building in the direction of Königsworther Platz was built as an extension in the 1890s. The long building facade made of red clinker stone is on Schloßwender Straße. Around 1975, the University of Hanover added an unventilated copper roof to the building as a prototype for long-term research, including for thermal insulation .
Monument Foundation
Heinrich Ebhardt was appointed Kommerzienrat in 1881 and founded the Gutenberg Fountain with the bronze Gutenberg statue by the sculptor Carl Dopmeyer in 1891 . In the same year, the street running towards the fountain between Breite Straße and Friedrichstraße (today “ Friedrichswall ”) was named after Ebhardt. During the Second World War, the bronze statue was brought to the Port of Hamburg together with others to be melted down for "war- related purposes". In 1949, the statue returned war-damaged. Today it stands on a brick plinth in front of the former company headquarters on the corner of Schloßwender Strasse and Königsworther Platz . The original base of the former fountain is now part of the night watchman fountain on the Linden market square .
The grave of Heinrich Ebhardt, whose bust was also created by Carl Dopmeyer, is located in the Engesohde city cemetery .
literature
- Heinz Schmidt-Bachem : Contributions to the industrial history of paper, cardboard and film processing in Germany / Sources, research, documents, materials , Düren 2009, can be downloaded as a PDF via the TOBIAS-lib university publication server of the Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen document
- Lower Saxony yearbook for regional history. Published by the Historical Commission for Lower Saxony and Bremen , Volume 7, 1971, pp. 14–31
- Albert Lefèvre: The contribution of the Hanoverian industry to technical progress ; in: Hannoversche Geschichtsblätter, New Series, Volume 24, 1970, pp. 274f.
- Helmut Zimmermann : The Hanoverian Portraits second episode . Illustrations by Rainer Osswald, Hanover 1984
- Ludwig Hoerner : agents, bathers and copists. Hannoversches Gewerbe-ABC 1800-1900 . Published by Volksbank Hannover, Hannover 1995, p. 91 u.ö.
- Waldemar R. Röhrbein : König & Ebhardt. 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 , p. 360.
- Waldemar R. Röhrbein: Ebhardt, Georg Wilhelm Heinrich. In: Dirk Böttcher , Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein, Hugo Thielen: Hannoversches Biographisches Lexikon . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2002, ISBN 3-87706-706-9 , p. 102f.
- König & Ebhardt, Hanover: Commemorative publication for the 50th anniversary of the company JC König and Ebhardt, Hanover, Vienna branch, London, 1845 - 1895 , Hanover 1895
Web links
- Lebensraum-linden.de about the two fountains
- Website with figures on the company's history
- europeana : König & Ebhardt
Individual evidence
- ^ Klaus Mlynek : Golden Book. In: Stadtlexikon Hannover , p. 225
- ↑ For more details, see the specialist journal bausubstanz 15. (1999), No. 2, pp. 24–26, ISSN 0179-2857
Coordinates: 52 ° 22 ′ 46 " N , 9 ° 43 ′ 23.8" E