Kaspar Berg sports equipment
The iron foundry founded by Johann Joseph Caspar Berg in 1860 has developed as a sports equipment company Kaspar Berg since 1910 into the largest German sports equipment manufacturer, initially based in Nuremberg-St. Peter, in Nuremberg-Mögeldorf since 1900. The main production areas were heavy and athletics. The Kaspar Berg company was a medium-sized family company. From 1931 the Habelt family took over the management until the end of the company in 1992.
history
From the foundation in 1860 to 1910
Johann Joseph Caspar Berg (1829-1892), the company's founder, set up an iron foundry in 1860, initially in Nuremberg-St. Peter in Regensburger Straße (formerly St. Peter No. 59). From these humble beginnings with a steam boiler, a company for iron structures and bridges arose around 1890. Mechanical engineering was also promoted. After his death, his brother Veit Berg, a partner since 1888, and his three sons Wilhelm, Caspar and Conrad took over the plant, which at the turn of the century moved to a new location in Nuremberg- Mögeldorf on a 27-hectare site with a siding (today's Laufamholzstraße 70) . Modern fabrication now meant the manufacture of parts and molds for machine and locomotive construction as well as the manufacture of turbines. In Nuremberg, the company set an exclamation mark with the construction of the iron structures for the municipal power station. They were also involved in the renovation of the medieval toll hall (around 1500) in 1897.
After Veit Berg's death on November 25, 1902, his widow Marie Berg initially continued the business, which then passed on to her three sons in August 1906. Already in this time the production of weights, dumbbells, stones and balls for heavy athletics began, albeit as a kind of by-product.
Restructuring, reorientation and foundation of Sportgeräte Berg in 1910
With the advent of reinforced concrete (reinforced concrete) , the first significant monument in Germany of which was the Reichstag building in Berlin, which was built from 1884 to 1894 according to plans by Paul Wallot , the Berg company did not do well for the first time. During this time, the iron foundry was transferred to Wilhelm Berg, born in Brooklyn in 1873, as the sole owner (January 1, 1911).
Wilhelm Berg recognized the signs of the times and decided on a turning point: In 1912 he parted with the metal foundry for the construction industry: The James Edward Earnshaw company , which was based in the Franconian metropolis as early as 1863, acquired its rights. As early as 1910, the business focus had shifted towards the production of sports equipment. At the same time, there was also a focus on the manufacture of horse stables. Wilhelm Berg received the license for this branch of industry in 1909 from the Nuremberg Trade Police Office. However, this business already experienced a marked decline in the twenties, as motorized trucking was now gaining ground after Mercedes-Benz started truck production in the Sindelfingen plant around 1925.
Wilhelm Berg consequently recognized that the sports movement that had arisen before 1900 , especially the workers' sports movement since 1893, is now developing into a mass phenomenon and that sports equipment will therefore also experience strong demand in the future. The focus was initially on heavy athletics. And the first success came here in the first year: The Austrian Karl Swoboda set a new weightlifting world record in Frankfurt in 1910 with the mountain dumbbell.
In 1928, Wilhelm Berg received the honorary letter from the German Sports Authority for Athletics , today's DLV, for his great services to German sport .
The expansion of business and participation in the Olympics
So 1910 was the year in which the sports equipment business started. This should make the company world famous. Wilhelm Berg recognized with entrepreneurial cleverness the possibility of establishing himself on the world market and he took this opportunity. Until then, German sports equipment was hopelessly inferior to foreign products. He quickly acquired appropriate know-how around the world, which his employees then implemented. Athletics soon joined heavy athletics, so that for the first time in 1913 an extensive catalog could be presented to customers. It was one of the first product catalogs to hit the market at the time. Thus, spears and of course the Berg discus quickly became world famous.
After a war-related slump, which above all brought international business to a standstill, sales rose rapidly in the 1920s: in 1927 they amounted to 816,000 gold marks , only to be exceeded again in the following year. At the same time, a larger factory building was built, followed by numerous other workshops. At the end of this period, in addition to the previous product range, articles for boxing, gymnastics, ball and winter sports as well as tennis could now also be offered.
A logical consequence of this development was the first-time participation of Sport-Berg in the Olympic Games in Amsterdam in 1928. More should follow with the highlights in Berlin in 1936 and Munich in 1972, and for the last time in 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. The son-in-law of the company owner Max Habelt and, after 1970, his son Klaus were responsible for this.
The medium-sized family business in the Habelt era since 1931
After Wilhelm Berg's death on January 25, 1931, his son-in-law Max Habelt, born in 1905, took over the management. Habelt joined the company in 1928 as a technical businessman. He was also a co-owner of this oldest German sports equipment factory. His nephew Dr. Oscar Rupprecht as managing partner. Among them, Berg advanced to a world-renowned company, whereby Habelt benefited from the fact that he himself was an active athlete as a rower, rider, tennis player and skier and was therefore very familiar with the subject. At the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, a disc developed by the company was approved internationally. In the legendary boxing match between Max Schmeling and Joe Louis in 1936, the German wore Berg boxing gloves. At that time it was the leading German sports equipment company. In the wake of the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, sales rose from 1,039,000 marks to 1,275,000 marks in 1938, before the outbreak of World War II suddenly plummeted returns. The number of employees also rose from 113 in 1935 to 159 in 1939.
During the Second World War 1939-1945 Max Habelt was called up for military service. Ski poles, seal skins, two-finger and ski gloves were now made for the Wehrmacht . The company became an important war operation. This winter equipment was needed especially in the vastness of the western Soviet Union. The production facility in Mögeldorf largely escaped the massive Allied bombing of Nuremberg city center from 1943 onwards, but productive income nevertheless fell to 400,000 marks by 1945. In the same period, the number of employees stagnated at 100.
The activities from the post-war period to the cessation of production in 1992
After the end of the war, Max Habelt quickly had the war damage repaired and new modern workshops were built. Nevertheless, sales fell further in 1946 and 1947 to 300,000 and 371,000 marks, respectively. Windows and doors were now manufactured against purchase certificates. With the currency reform things went steadily upwards: the pre-war production figures were almost reached as early as 1950, sales exceeded the mark of 2 million DM in 1954, four years later it was 3.3 million DM. The sixties up to 1965 saw a further increase 7.1 million DM! In 1963 the first guest workers , Greeks, came to the plant.
Now table tennis and gymnastics equipment were also made thanks to new wood processing techniques. Here the demand had exploded, especially since the sports movement had experienced an unexpected boost in all countries after the war. This expansion was reflected in the renewed expansion of the company premises in Mögeldorf after the currency reform.
The Berg company was also involved in other sporting highlights: Bubi Scholz , one of the most famous boxers of the post-war period, knocked out his opponents with the products from Nuremberg, while athletics star Martin Lauer of the 1950s and 1960s jumped over mountain hurdles. And the Berg company delivered according to the principle "The best is just good enough for the athlete". The highlight for the company's history up to then was without a doubt when the German national soccer team under Sepp Herberger won the 1954 FIFA World Cup in Switzerland with a Berg soccer ball. The national coach from Weinheim-Hohensachsen is said to have "grabbed" the ball after the game. This ball is now an exhibit in the Sepp Herberger Foundation . They remained the supplier of the FIFA World Cup until 1966, before the competitor Adidas from Herzogenaurach was officially commissioned to do so from 1970 .
Despite this competition, Berg managed to secure equipment for the Olympics in Munich in 1972. At that time, in the run-up to the major sporting event, new workshops and administration rooms were built under the aegis of Klaus Habelt, Max Habelt's son. At that time, especially the devices for discus and hammer throwing were further improved. In the javelin throw the German Klaus Wolfermann won with a product from the company, in the high jump it was Ulrike Meyfahrth .
At that time there was also a branch in Vienna. But from now on things went steadily downhill. As early as 1972, the increasing competition was clearly felt. More and more companies pushed onto the market, orders for international competitions were only possible with generous sponsorship. The medium-sized family company from Nuremberg could no longer compete with the large corporations.
The oldest sporting goods manufacturer in Europe had a good reputation with athletes, clubs and municipalities, but business was getting worse and worse. In 1987 Berg was taken over by the Fritzmeier Group , a former manufacturer of skis, and production was discontinued in 1992. The company was dead.
Company overview
Start-up
The Kaspar Berg company was a medium-sized company and, despite its gigantic spatial expansion, was basically not a large operation, but an agglomeration of small to medium-sized handicraft businesses such as iron foundries, saddlery, carpentry and many more. These were located under a company roof on a site and with the same business purpose, the production of sports and training equipment. Today, cross-material production of training equipment is possible again under one brand thanks to the digital planning and specification options. Steffen Römer acquired the trademark rights of the Kaspar Berg company and re-founded the company in Mannheim in 2017.
Today, training equipment is again being produced in Germany by various partner companies under the Berg brand, and concepts for equipping professional training rooms are being developed and offered.
Business areas
- Iron foundry: later also iron construction and bridge construction as well as mechanical engineering (until 1912); weights, dumbbells, stones and balls for heavy athletics since 1900.
- Sports equipment factory (since 1910): first weightlifting dumbbells (heavy athletics), then also spear and discus (athletics).
- Second World War: winter equipment (skis, skin ...) for front use.
- Post-war period: production of windows and doors
- Since the currency reform 1948 to 1992: In addition to the previous scope of services in heavy and track and field athletics, table tennis and boxing equipment. Equipment for games (balls etc.). Supply for the Olympic Games until 1988.
- From 2017: Manufacture of heavy athletics and boxing articles for equipping professional training facilities and training rooms in companies and private households as holistic concepts from a single source.
Production statistics
| 1927 | 816,000 marks |
| 1936 | 1,039,000 marks |
| 1939 | 1,263,000 marks |
| 1946 | 300,000 marks |
| 1948 | 652,000 DM |
| 1954 | 2,083,000 DM |
| 1958 | 3,300,000 DM |
| 1961 | 4,000,000 DM |
| 1963 | 5,100,000 DM |
| 1965 | 7,100,000 DM |
| 1933 | 63 |
| 1936 | 150 |
| 1940 | 99 |
| 1945 | 109 |
| 1948 | 103 |
| 1956 | 140 |
| 1964 | 143 |
honors and awards
Bronze medal "Exhibition for Sports & Personal Care Collection and Association", Leipzig 1906.
Honorary letter from the DSB for Wilhelm Berg, Munich 1928.
Gold medal of the weekend work community Baden-Pfalz eV, Ludwigshafen 1928.
Gold medal for the presentation at the World Exhibition “Arts et Techniques”, Paris 1937.
Silver medal of the Bavarian Athletics Association for the 100th anniversary, Munich 1960.
Gold medal of the Bavarian Athletics Association for services to athletics to Max Habelt, Munich 1965.
literature
- Christof Neidiger, Kreuzbrave, blond-haired family fathers, The Nuremberg family of the composer Alban Berg in sources of the city archive, in: Norica 2/2006, pp. 28-35.
- 100 years 1860-1960 Kaspar Berg Nürnberg, Nürnberg 1960.
- "Northern Bavaria" (NB) (Nürnberger Nachrichten, Nürnberger Zeitung) from January 15, 2009.
- Sports equipment for the youth of the world, in: Nürnberger Nachrichten in December 1968.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Christofer Neidiger, "Kreuzbrave, blondhaarige Familienväter" The Nuremberg family of the composer Alban Berg in sources of the city archive, in: Norica 2/2006, p. 31.
- ↑ Brochure 100 years of mountain sports equipment, Nuremberg 1960, pp. 2-3.
- ↑ Neidiger, Berg family, p. 32.
- ^ Nuremberg address book 1863 ..
- ↑ Brochure 100 Years, p. 3 and Neidiger, Berg family, p. 32.
- ^ Fred Raithel, Motor und Mensch im Landkreis Böblingen since 1900, Böblingen 1991, p. 54.
- ↑ Brochure 100 Years, p. 6.
- ↑ Brochure 100 Years, p. 5. Bergs Sportalbum 1913-1914 (StadtAN E 9/534 No. 57).
- ↑ StadtAN E 9/534 No. 50.
- ↑ Typescript for Max Habelt's 60th birthday, Nuremberg 1965 (StadtAN E 9/534 No. 50).
- ↑ Berg product catalog from 1985 (StadtAN E 9/534 No. 57)
- ↑ StadtAN E 9/534 No. 50.
- ↑ StadtAN E 9/534 No. 50. There also typescript 60th birthday of Max Habelt.
- ↑ Brochure 100 Years, p. 7. Typescript 60th birthday of Max Habelt.
- ↑ Neidiger, Berg family, p. 34.
- ^ NB ("Nordbayern") = (Nürnberger Nachrichten and Nürnberger Zeitung) from January 15, 2009.