Johann Baptist Beha

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Johann Baptist Beha (1815–1898)

Johann Baptist Beha (* 1815 in Oberbränd ( Eisenbach ), † 1898 ) was a German watchmaker and manufacturer of carved Black Forest table and wall clocks. Through his work he had a strong influence on watch production in the Black Forest .

Life

Beha was trained by his father, the master watchmaker Vinzenz Beha (1764–1868), in his workshop. The father was known for the quality of his clocks and had been making cuckoo clocks almost entirely from wood since 1801. From 1839 to 1845 Johann Baptist created around 365 watches there, which he sold for his own account.

Own workshop

At the age of 30 he started his own business in Harzerhäuser near Eisenbach. He attached great importance to both the solid quality of the movements and the design of the watch cases, which he had regional wood carvers made according to his own designs. Even if the watches were therefore in the upper price segment, they sold well.

Beha, like many watchmakers of his time, stayed abroad for some time. He traveled to England several times to study and establish business connections. In addition, he conducted real “market studies” in order to increase his sales opportunities. Later, his export was directed mainly to England and Russia. He brought many ideas with him from his stays abroad and constantly improved his watches.

Cuckoo clock

He further developed the design of the Bahnhäusle clock by Friedrich Eisenlohr (architect) . Between 1845 and 1850 he built spring-driven cuckoo clocks with a worm and string. From 1863 he replaced the stone weights with weights in the form of pine cones. He obtained the carvings for the clocks from the Schwarz brothers in Bubenbach. At that time, Black Forest clocks almost exclusively had wooden movements, but this type of construction was the expected standard for the English export market. The main importers of his watches were Morath Brothers in Liverpool, Bohringer in Belfast, and Camerer Kuss & Co. in London, which were also the most important exporters to India.

Times of crisis

After the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876 , Beha accepted his two sons Lorenz (1865–1941) and Engelbert (1866–1949) as partners in his company, and the company was re-established as "Johann Baptist Beha & Sons". Just one year later, the company got into a financial crisis for the first time when Johann Georg Beha, a relative who ran the business in Russia, went bankrupt . Many of the watches that had already been sold had not yet been billed and Beha & Söhne suffered heavy losses. In 1872, Beha & Söhne still had 24 employees and numerous home workers, but within a decade the workforce shrank to 9, including family members, in 1881/1882.

Many manufacturers from the Black Forest , such as Junghans and Kienzle , but also smaller companies, had reacted to the growing demand of the new middle class for inexpensive watches by changing their manufacturing processes and reducing the variety of offers in the middle to the end of the 19th century. In the heyday of the Black Forest clock, large-scale production with simplified clockwork constructions (“American movement”), the use of cheaper materials and, above all, simpler carvings found its way. The Behas remained true to their production method and continued to produce high quality, high-priced clocks, because they did not believe in the success of the mass-produced cuckoo clock. In addition to the expensive production, there was a wide range. According to the company catalog around 1890, the range comprised more than 130 different housing models. So there was no corresponding return.

Continuation by the sons of Beha

Johann Baptist Beha died in 1898. The business was continued by his sons in Eisenbach and the range was expanded again. The production program consisted of "cuckoo and quail" clocks, cuckoo clocks with echo, trumpeter clocks and calendar clocks. The housings were now obtained from Peter Werle in Dittishausen and August Tritschler in Furtwangen.

Beha continued to run its own warehouse in Saint Petersburg and sold the watches to various countries from there. But with the outbreak of the First World War , the camp was closed. In Germany, production was completely converted to armaments. After the war, the company struggled through the economically weak 1920s and tried to compensate for the lost export market, but came under increasing financial pressure. Production came to a standstill again, particularly during the Great Depression. During the National Socialist era , production continued to a very limited extent until 1938, despite the rationing of brass and copper, but the export market could not be served due to foreign exchange management . The Second World War finally interrupted production, which was finally stopped in 1956.

Awards for Beha watches

The company was honored for the quality of its products at regional trade fairs in Villingen in 1858 and Karlsruhe in 1861. Beha received more attention at international exhibitions such as the World Exhibition of 1862 in London and the World Exhibition of 1867 in Paris (both honors). At the World Exhibition in Vienna in 1873 , Beha was the only watch manufacturer from the Black Forest to be awarded a gold medal. The company received a meritory medal from the United States Centennial Commission for the watches shown at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876 . Further awards followed at exhibitions in Karlsruhe 1877, London 1885, Freiburg 1877, Chicago 1893 and Strasbourg 1895.

Clocks as exhibits

Cuckoo clock from the Beha workshop, model 509

Due to the quality of the clocks produced, some pieces are preserved in museums today. B. in the British Museum and in the German Clock Museum in Furtwangen. Exhibitions are dedicated to his work. Some of his clocks can also be seen in the permanent clock exhibition in the Wolfswinkelhalle in Eisenbach.

Beha watches are sold at auctions and by antique dealers.

literature

  • Hans-Heinrich Schmid : "Lexicon of the German watch industry 1850 - 1980: company addresses, production program, company logos, brand names, company histories." (3rd expanded edition 2017); Editor: German Society for Chronometry eV; ISBN 978-3-941539-92-1
  • Karl Kochmann: Black Forest Clockmaker and the Cuckoo Clock , 2005. (English)
  • Wilhelm Schneider: Early cuckoo clocks by Johann Baptist Beha in Eisenbach in the Black Forest , in: Old clocks and modern time measurement, volume 3, 1987.
  • Wilhelm Schneider: Early cuckoo clocks. Development history of the Black Forest cuckoo clock from 1750-1850 , DRW-Verlag, Regensburg, 2008. ISBN 3871817325

Web links

Commons : Johann Baptist Beha  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Hans-Heinrich Schmid: Lexicon of the German watch industry 1850-1980 . Sponsorship Association for a Living Clock Museum, Villingen-Schwenningen 2005, ISBN 3-927987-91-3 .
  2. ↑ Fritz von Osterhausen: Callweys lexicon . Callwey, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-7667-1353-1 .
  3. ↑ a b Johann Baptist Beha. (No longer available online.) In: enittel.de. Formerly in the original ; Retrieved August 2, 2012 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / enittel.de  
  4. ↑ A good nose for good watches. In: Rüdiger Gramsch: Where the hour strikes. Out and about with Hansy Vogt on the German Clock Route. Silberburg Verlag GmbH, Tübingen 2017. ISBN 978-3-8425-2010-3 . Pp. 61-71.
  5. ↑ Information in the exhibition catalog of the 1872 World Exhibition
  6. ^ Karl Kochmann: Black Forest Clockmaker and the Cuckoo Clock , 2005, p. 239
  7. ^ Wilhelm and Monika Schneider: Black Forest Cuckoo Clocks at the Exhibitions in Philadelphia 1876 and Chicago 1893 . NAWCC Bulletin, April 1988, p. 116
  8. ^ British Museum - Search object details. In: britishmuseum.org. Retrieved August 1, 2012 .
  9. ↑ Cuckoo clocks by Joh B Beha & Sons from Eisenbach - German Clock Museum Furtwangen. In: leo-bw.de. Retrieved August 2, 2012 .
  10. ↑ Watch exhibition
  11. ↑ (en) Centurion Auctioneers: Johann Baptist Beha.
  12. ↑ (en) Antique Clocks Guy: Johann Baptist Beha
personal data
SURNAME Beha, Johann Baptist
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German watchmaker
DATE OF BIRTH 1815
PLACE OF BIRTH Oberbränd
DATE OF DEATH 1898