Klimsch & Co
Klimsch & Co was a company in the image processing and print preparation industry between 1858 and 1995 - a mechanical engineering company in Frankfurt am Main .
founding
In 1858 Ferdinand Karl Klimsch founded the Klimsch lithographic art institute in Frankfurt am Main. Ferdinand Karl Klimsch was one of the early important artists of the extensive Klimsch family of artists. His company was initially a pure lithographic company in which art prints were produced and sold using the method of the inventor Alois Senefelder . Images from this institution are still preserved today as works of art and are highly valued.
In order to expand its artistic work, the small company began to manufacture printing forms for other printing companies. The rapid development of the new branch made it possible to sell materials and utensils for printing form production on a small scale . In addition, they trained specialists for the new trade in their own company.
The expansion of the entrepreneurial activities was no longer actively pursued by Ferdinand Karl Klimsch, but carried out by the next generations of the Klimsch family.
Printing form production
Karl Ferdinand Klimsch , the son of the company founder, expanded the company (now under the name “Klimsch & Co”) into a supra-regional trading business with materials for the production of printing forms for all printing processes known at the time.
Teaching and experimental workshop
After other family members joined the company, a training and experimental workshop for the graphic arts industry was added. This subject-specific educational institution achieved worldwide renown. Schoolchildren came to Frankfurt am Main from all continents to learn the "art of printing form manufacture". At the same time, the teaching establishment established Klimsch & Co as a center of reproduction technology - as printing form production has been called since the turn of the century around 1900.
Klimsch specialist publisher
The Klimsch Fachverlag, founded by Karl Klimsch, had existed since 1899. The best- known product was the Klimsch Druckerei Anzeiger (also Klimsch's Druckerei-Anzeiger ) published from 1873 to 1944 , which were published collectively as Klimsch Yearbooks (also Klimschs Jahrbuch ) from 1906 onwards. The Klimsch yearbooks were sold all over the world and for decades were considered the only compendia of reproductive technology.
Between the world wars
The company continued to grow in the third generation of the family (under Eugen Klimsch with his brother-in-law Peter Schumacher) and in the fourth generation (Peter Schumacher's sons: Karl Schumacher and Ernst Schumacher ).
As a trained chemist, Peter Schumacher promoted the development of reproduction technology from manual to photo-mechanical technology. Klimsch & Co started its first international activities around this time by founding subsidiaries and partnerships in England and Austria .
The engineer Karl Schumacher developed the first photomechanical devices and in 1928 acquired a machine factory in Leipzig , in which reproduction cameras were manufactured. With the in-house production of - later globally respected - devices and technologies, he established the company's long-term international importance as a market leader. Ernst Schumacher developed crucial grid technologies as well as manufacturing processes for glass engraved grids, which were a prerequisite for the automation of reproductions.
After the Second World War
After the Second World War the importance and size of the company grew to such an extent that a plant for the development and manufacture of repro cameras, for the production of glass grids and chemical products, as well as a sales organization for an extensive trading program of materials that were required in repro technology, were created. The buildings were initially erected on Schmidtstrasse in Frankfurt am Main. Several branch plants were set up in the Frankfurt area.
In 1970 , the fifth generation of the family, the businessman Helmut Holz, as the grandson of Eugen Klimsch, took sole responsibility for managing the company. In addition to primarily operating product development, Helmut Holz initially concentrated on expanding and consolidating its market position as a manufacturer and trading company. Worldwide over 130 exclusive agencies were signed, subsidiaries were founded in New York , USA , and service organizations were expanded in 10 major cities in Germany. The company now has over 1000 employees worldwide. Sales and earnings could be increased disproportionately.
World leader
A number of patents and innovations come from the Klimsch company. For example:
- Patent for single or double page reversal, technically with mirrors or double reversing mirrors
- Patent for the Gradar Grids developed by Klimsch
- Patent for the autofocus focusing mechanism based on a spindle
In total, more than 30 patents were registered on Klimsch, along with other property rights.
The first semi-automatic “repro flow line” through the well-known “Klimsch Expressa” found its way into newspaper companies around the world. “Autofocus” cameras have become the standard of technology. Many hundreds of these high quality devices have been shipped to practically every country in the world.
Products for high-quality color print products were “vertical” or “horizontal cameras” whose torsion-free tripods could be up to 7 meters long. The largest Klimsch device, which was primarily used for geological work to develop oil and natural gas deposits all over the world, but also to evaluate images of the first images of lunar exploration and moon landing at NASA and in Russia, was built using a bridge constructed. The Klimsch Commodore weighed over 7 tons. Many of these devices were used worldwide. Special cameras for semiconductor technology complemented the photomechanical product range.
Klimsch enjoyed the reputation of the highest quality and independent innovative strength in German mechanical engineering . For self-promotion, customer companies used the note: "Produced with Klimsch cameras" to advertise the high quality of their print products. Klimsch cameras also demanded their price, which was between DM 60,000 and DM 1 million.
In his time, Klimsch had risen to become the world market leader, with the result that Klimsch products were installed in practically every country in the world. At its peak, more than 600 people were employed in production in Frankfurt alone.
Digital technology and decline
With the sequential image decomposition by scanners, the introduction of electronic reproduction devices began. In the years up to 1977, Klimsch developed such a flatbed scanner “Klimsch Versatron” in the USA until the product was launched. This initially resulted in a technology competition with the company's own camera program. On the other hand, this development strengthened the company's reputation for its future orientation.
The possibilities of digital technology to resolve an image area into millions of pixels and color palettes, to save them on the computer and to process them in handy programs led in the 1980s to the production of cost-effective and fast print templates within just a few years. In addition, worldwide data transfer was possible without any loss of time. All previously known processes in the repro industry have been replaced by digital technology.
This meant that Klimsch lost its business base. From 1985 the teaching profession for repro specialists was discontinued. The companies in the branch including their suppliers of equipment and materials became unemployed. In Germany alone, hundreds of thousands of employees had to find new jobs.
The "Firma in Klimsch & Co, KG" had to cease operations in 1995.
main building
In the 1950s, the main building of the Klimsch & Co company at Schmidtstrasse 12 in Frankfurt was built by the architects Kaysser and Sohn and Kahl & Hassdenteufel and was used by Klimsch & Co until 1989. Today the building is used as an office park under the name “Communication Factory”.
swell
- ↑ Wilhelm H. Lange: The book through the ages. Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt, Hamburg 1941; Book guild Gutenberg, Berlin, p. 253.
- ↑ Communication factory