Koch & Bergfeld
Today's silverware manufacturer Koch & Bergfeld in Bremen was founded in 1829 as a master workshop, making it one of the oldest still active silverware factories in Germany . In the decades around 1900 she made remarkable contributions to the history of the applied arts of Historicism and Art Nouveau . Today, well-known products from Koch & Bergfeld are the silver cutlery of the German embassies as well as the UEFA Champions League trophy and the model of the golden camera for Hörzu magazine . The castle-like building from 1882 was designed by the architect Fritz Dunkel . Together with the gate system and other buildings, it is a listed building.
history
Ascent (1829 to 1874)
Gottfried Koch, born in Bremen in 1804, opened a gold and silversmith's workshop in 1829 after his apprenticeship, a few years as a journeyman in Hanover and the usual wandering at the time . After modest beginnings, some prominent orders around 1833 indicate a rapidly increasing reputation. The collaboration with the stone cutter Ludwig Bergfeld from Burgsteinfurt also fell into this early period (supposedly as early as 1829). Both had already met during their apprenticeship and married a pair of sisters from Hanover. The guild did not yet allow a joint goldsmith's workshop. In fact, “Louis Bergfeld” first appeared in the Bremen address book in 1833, as an engraver, An der Börse 1 . In 1831 he had acquired citizenship, so 1832 will be the beginning of his independent activity. Initially, the purpose of the connection with Koch may only have been tasks that touched on the traditional repertoire of a goldsmith and jewelry merchant, such as the preparation of gemstones, the manufacture of gems or cameos, and the making of engravings on silverware and seal rings. However, his special skills were decisive for further development when it came to producing punches from steel for pressing thin silver sheets. His goldsmith apprenticeship with Gottfried Koch (from 1837) and his accession to the goldsmith's office (the guild) in 1856 are to be seen as pure formalities, but speak for an intensification of the cooperation with regard to the establishment of a joint silver coinage. It was not until 1856 that the partners officially operate as "Koch & Bergfeld". Bergfeld's sons were apprenticed to Gottfried Koch: Georg Daniel from 1849 to 1853, Gottfried from 1853 to 1857. Georg became a master craftsman in 1859 and became a partner in the company in 1860. The workshop also only stamps its work with "Koch & Bergfeld" after the guild was dissolved in 1871.
As early as 1836, Gottfried Koch had moved his workshop and shop to Obernstrasse, which at that time was slowly transforming from an upper-class residential street into a business center. The acquisition of the prestigious house No. 49 (later No. 36, existed as a shop until the Second World War) indicates a flourishing company. Around the middle of the 19th century, the production of silver goods had changed fundamentally: Even larger objects were no longer mainly produced on the basis of individual orders, but a range of goods was kept in stock and offered for sale in sample books. The result of the new, rational production methods (division of labor, use of machines) are multiple and even series production. The reduction in production costs made it possible to attract new groups of buyers.
The workshops were moved to the suburb "Auf den Häfen 51" in 1859 and were now called "Mint". Already at this production facility, extensive hand-operated machinery with drop hammers and screw presses was used , and by 1863 at the latest with at least one steam engine (6 HP). The founders handed over their business to their four sons in 1865. The new owners continued to expand. Above all, the previously handcrafted cutlery production benefited from the switch to machine work. In 1873 the company had "over 132 workers". In the same year she was represented at the Vienna World Exhibition . The success registered there, which was also seen by neutral observers, may have given rise to the extraordinary expansion that followed.
Expansion (1874 to 1918)
The rapidly increasing production due to this fundamental change was now also looking for sales outside of Bremen. Bremen's existing tariff exclusion hindered the development of a larger industry considerably because the goods produced were subject to high tariffs when they were sold in the other German states.
The management therefore built a large manufacturing and administrative complex in the Neuenlander Feld in 1874/75, on Bremen's territory, but outside the customs borders. In 1885, the still preserved under was listed Asked facade and the door system. Up to the turn of the century the number of machines and workers increased: between 1890 and 1900 the number of employees increased from 400 to 600, between 1900 and 1914 at times to around 800. Before the First World War, the company belonged to Wilkens in Bremen and Bruckmann in Heilbronn to the three large German silver goods factories. In order to provide silver with (partial) gold plating and to silver-plate alpacca, galvanic techniques were available from an early stage. In 1877 an electroplating department was added to the production halls on Neuenlander Feld. There was still no public power grid. A steam-powered dynamo provided the required direct current on site. The Bremen manufacturers mainly silver-plated cutlery; the market for silver-plated body ware has always been only served to a small extent here, unlike with southern German manufacturers.
These decades at the turn of the century were the heyday of the company's entire history, not only in economic and quantitative terms. Artistically, too, they were up to date. In 1885 the company founded a pension and company health insurance fund for the now large workforce.
Before the First World War, North German Lloyd was one of Koch & Bergfeld's largest customers. Silver-plated table utensils and cutlery models were designed and manufactured exclusively for Lloyd. Special design drawings are contained in individual volumes and allow the equipment of the various classes on the shipping company's passenger ships to be reconstructed not only based on drafts but also on the basis of detailed lists of all objects. Production and sales expanded steadily up to 1914. The limits of the regional market had long been exceeded. The distribution channels extended to Colombia and Venezuela, and the upper class in Tsarist Russia was a very important customer field. It is said that a representative drove to St. Petersburg with several large sample cases every year, and the collaboration with Fabergé has also been proven. Founding grandson Gottfried Julius Bergfeld joined the company in 1891 and was a partner from 1901 to probably 1934.
Concentration (since 1914)
The First World War not only brought these trade contacts to a standstill, but also resulted in parts of the factory being rededicated for arms production. The economic problems in the twenties brought the company to the edge of its existence. In 1928 the young Ludwig Koch joined his father Gottfried. The change in company policy that led to a return to traditional craftsmanship and a departure from series production (at least in the body area) can be traced back to him. Expressed in terms of the number of employees, this downsizing meant a decline from 450 employees in 1925 to no more than 175 in 1932/33. The Bergfeld family left in 1934. The individual one-off production in the body workshop was strengthened and the cutlery area was limited to a smaller product range. The taste of the times was taken into account intensively, great emphasis was placed on purity of form and the best craftsmanship, and production methods improved and refined where necessary.
The Second World War then brought production bans, raw materials and labor shortages, truck bumpers and headlight housings had to be manufactured for Wehrmacht vehicles. Despite its proximity to Bremen Airport ( Bremen airport ), the building was fortunately largely spared on the site of bomb damage. The economic collapse in 1945 was, like everywhere in Germany, a total one. Even in the post-war period there was initially no need for luxury goods and in 1945 they were happy to receive a license to produce household and kitchen appliances and “souvenirs for the military government”. In 1948 the currency reform took place and Ludwig Koch died in an accident. Together with three, then two authorized signatories , his widow Ingeborg embarked on the arduous path of recovery until one of his sons, Dr. rer. oec. Gottfried Koch joined the company as managing partner.
The now 125-year-old company slowly benefited from what was later known as the economic boom. A great pent-up demand of the population brought full employment in the Bremen plant. The workforce numbered up to 250 at that time. At that time, the menu size for cutlery was introduced as an intermediate measure between table and dessert size. Koch & Bergfeld was the first manufacturer in Germany to provide its real silver cutlery with a patented hard gloss silver plating. The company and its master's mark “foot shell” for the cutlery and “Bremen key” for the real silver carcass ware were able to re-establish themselves with customers.
In 1967, following a competition from UEFA, the company was commissioned to produce today's Champions League Cup : It was created by Horst Heeren , the long-time head of the Koch & Bergfeld design office. Since then, the trophy has been reproduced as soon as a team has won the title for the fifth time or for the third time in a row and has thus been able to keep the trophy. Otherwise, smaller replicas are also produced here for the teams that won the title but were not allowed to keep the trophy. The development since the end of the 80s is characterized by a juxtaposition of very steady and solid production based on the great craft tradition of the company and a high quality level on the one hand, and a sometimes restless sequence of changes in the management. In 1989 the company was sold to Villeroy & Boch by the founding grandson Gottfried Koch . Villeroy & Boch invested heavily in the plant, also carried out an extensive remediation of contaminated sites - but was not happy with the investment in Bremen. Ultimately, Villeroy & Boch's sales channels - medium-priced - and Koch & Bergfeld's - high-priced - did not go together. A joint distribution failed.
As early as 1994, Villeroy & Boch sold the body workshop (everything except cutlery and now fashion accessories) to the workshop's largest customer, the Kiel jeweler Klaus Hansen. He ran the body workshop until the end of 2004, mainly in order to be able to produce his own designs for silver cups and other silverware . Age-related changed the corpus workshop on January 1, 2005. the owner: Florian Flower, scion of the famous Hildesheim silver dynasty flower, former workshop manager Klaus Hansen, acquired the body shop of his employer and renamed it in Koch & Bergfeld Silbermanufaktur Florian Blume GmbH & Co. KG around.
It was not until 1997 that Villeroy & Boch decided to part with the cutlery workshop in Saarland. The cutlery production facility was sold to its plant manager Hartmut Soostmeyer in an asset deal - a classic management buy-out . Soostmeyer died in 2004 - his family decided to sell it on. Since 2006 the company has belonged to the businesspeople Klaus Neubauer and Wigmar Bressel. Today it is called Koch & Bergfeld Besteckmanufaktur GmbH .
In a third step in 2007, after years of negotiations, Villeroy & Boch sold its shares in the historic Koch & Bergfeld GmbH with the spectacular Wilhelminian-style factory in Kirchweg 200, the headquarters of the silversmiths. Today's shareholders again include Klaus Neubauer and Wigmar Bressel.
In the rankings of the best German luxury brands carried out in 2005 and 2007 by the Munich Brand Rating Agency for the magazine WirtschaftsWoche , Koch & Bergfeld came in among the TOP 30. This index takes into account the charisma of the brand, the price achievable on the market for the products and their stable value compared to the level of the respective competitors. In 2009 Koch & Bergfeld was included in the lexicon of German family businesses as one of 1000 of the approximately 1.3 million German family businesses and was named Brand of the Century by a jury (see also literature below). In addition, around 16,000 participants in the White Star Award 2009 reader award from the magazines Schöner Wohnen , essen & Trinken and Living at home (all Gruner + Jahr, Hamburg) awarded the bronze star for the Belle Epoque cutlery with a hammer blow .
Product range
The Koch & Bergfeld cutlery workshop produces both silver-plated and solid silver cutlery (925 sterling silver) according to classic, sometimes historical designs such as "Spaten", "Altfaden", "Kreuzband" or "Bremer Lilie". The silverware manufacturer is the only manufacturer in the world to produce a complete history of the style of cutlery. In addition, products are also manufactured - such as the scaled-down replica of the historical “ Great Dresden Stollen Knife ” from 1730, with the original replica of which is traditionally used to cut the giant stollen during the Dresden Stollen Festival .
Koch & Bergfeld Corpus, the other successor company, is now well-known around the world for its national and international sports and media awards. The Champions League Cup, the League Cup, replicas of the DFB championship trophy and the DFB Cup are just a few of the most famous sports prizes that are produced in the traditional Bremen workshop. The Golden Camera is made here as well as the Charlemagne Prize and numerous other renowned awards. The Koch & Bergfeld Corpus has been open to the public since August 1, 2007 in a "Transparent Factory" in an old warehouse in Bremen's Überseestadt. Anyone interested can observe the creation of gold and silver products there and experience how they are still made today using tools from the early days of the company.
The silver models made by Koch & Bergfeld Corpus are likely to be significant. Ships, vehicles and airplanes as well as buildings of all kinds are reproduced to scale by this traditional workshop.
Since around 1840, 14,000 different pieces of cutlery and designs for more than 300,000 different corpus goods such as cups, mugs, plates, vases, jugs or candlesticks etc. in 250 volumes have been accumulated in the design books of the silverware manufacturer, and the company also has over 3000 embossing sticks. These designs also enable the post-production or repair of older pieces.
The cutlery workshop, body production and the historic Koch & Bergfeld company are now three independent and autonomous companies.
designer
Since the expansion in the early days , an increased division of labor had led to the establishment of an own design office. Its first director was Heinrich von Cammer from 1874 to 1903. He cultivated a manner in which delicate vessel shapes with a tendency towards elongated, strongly constricted profiles and graphic, delicate tendril motifs predominate. He was followed from 1904 to 1909 by the Art Nouveau artist Hugo Leven . The style of his time in Bremen is characterized by a juxtaposition of stereometric ornaments in the sense of the Viennese secession style and naturalistic animal reliefs. Gustav Elsaß headed the studio from 1909 to 1945. He created powerful, remarkable designs from the 1930s. In the second half of the century, Horst Heeren determined style and high standards of craftsmanship for many years.
Outside artists also had their designs realized in Bremen. As z. For example, the Weimar court jeweler Th. Müller had to implement the ideas of the famous Henry van de Velde for his own cutlery and large silver body parts, he largely made use of the production expertise at Koch & Bergfeld. Likewise, let Albin Müller his service for the Brussels World Fair in 1910 finished here. The large council silver parts from 1913 were designed by Rudolf Alexander Schröder . In addition, the artisan production of other individual items was also used. In order to recruit enough young people, we continued to train in our own studio. A prominent graduate was Wilhelm Wagenfeld (who completed an apprenticeship here before studying at the Bauhaus from 1914 to 1919). In 1929 Bernhard Hoetger was brought in to design a cutlery. More recently, Paloma Picasso has been involved with designs.
Brands
Until the dissolution of the goldsmith's Office, the silver are body pieces from the guild master Gottfried Koch canceled . From around 1881 to 1978 the trademark of the foot shell with three feet on a high shaft was the preferred brand.
Stamp by Koch & Bergfeld (overview)
The master's marks used by Gottfried Koch from 1829 to around 1833, around 1833 to around 1850 and around 1850 to around 1860 with solder number 13 and Bremen city mark ( key coat of arms )
Scheme of silver stamping at K&B after 1888. Model number (= around 1905), factory mark ("Fußschale"), hallmark 800, as well as imperial stamp: half moon (= silver) and crown (= German Empire)
Model numbers
The stamped model numbers on the silver objects were initially assigned consecutively in the order of the designs intended for production. In 1942 a new count began. The following data refer to the first executions of the respective drafts, the further executions of which can in part also be later. Cutlery has its own, not stamped number sequence.
| Month - year of execution |
Model number |
|---|---|
| 12-1876 | 4385 |
| 10-1878 | 5372 |
| 12-1879 | 5876 |
| 10-1880 | 6377 |
| 6-1881 | 6837 |
| 10-1882 | 7700 |
| 12-1883 | 9045 |
| 9-1884 | 9791 |
| 12-1885 | 11109 |
| 2-1886 | 11437 |
| 1887 | 13743 |
| 5-1888 | 14747 |
| 12-1889 | 17101 |
| 2-1890 | 17200 |
| 6-1891 | 19277 |
| 1892 | 20742 |
| 1893 | 22028 |
| 12-1893 | 23711 |
| 6-1894 | 26496 |
| Month - year of execution |
Model number |
|---|---|
| 10-1896 | 28795 |
| 1897 | 28886 |
| 2-1899 | 33271 |
| 1900 | 34334 |
| 1901 | 38893 |
| 9-1902 | 40658 |
| 5-1903 | 42343 |
| 7-1903 | 41026 |
| 1907 | 52303 |
| 1908 | 52630 |
| 3-1910 | 58042 |
| 12-1910 | 59871 |
| 6-1911 | 61286 |
| 1912 | 62356 |
| 1914 | 68219 |
| 1915 | 68011 |
| 10-1915 | 68764 |
| 1916 | 69594 |
| 1918 | 70807 |
| Month - year of execution |
Model number |
|---|---|
| 10-1919 | 71977 |
| 1921 | 73587 |
| 1922 | 74232 |
| 1925 | 76828 |
| 1927 | 79395 |
| 1930 | 80774 |
| 6-1930 | 80993 |
| 11-1931 | 81760 |
| 11-1932 | 82056 |
| 6-1933 | 82307 |
| 7-1933 | 100,000 |
| 1-1934 | 200,000 |
| 1-1935 | 300,000 |
| 1-1936 | 400,000 |
| 1-1937 | 500000 |
| 1-1938 | 600000 |
| 1-1939 | 700000 |
| 1-1940 | 800000 |
| 1-1941 | 900000 |
| Month - year of execution |
Model number |
|---|---|
| 1942 | 1000 |
| 1945 | 3000 |
| 1948 | 5000 |
| 9-1950 | 6089 |
| 11-1951 | 6600 |
| 4-1952 | 6730 |
| 6-1955 | 8099 |
| 1960 | 9881 |
| 3-1965 | 11027 |
| 1970 | 11929 |
| 1975 | 12567 |
| 4-1979 | 13207 |
| 12-1985 | 14456 |
| 4-1991 | 15066 |
| 11-1995 | 15414 |
| 6-1998 | 15641 |
| . | |
| . | |
| . |
literature
- Alfred Löhr: Bremen silver. From the beginnings to Art Nouveau , manual and catalog for the special exhibition in the Focke Museum , 1981 (with a contribution by Reinhard W. Sänger).
- Carl W. Schümann (Ed.): Silver from Bremen. 150 years of cutlery from Koch & Bergfeld zu Bremen . Wienand Verlag, Cologne 1990, ISBN 3879090963 . (With pictures of all older cutlery samples)
- Reinhard W. Singer: The German silver cutlery. Biedermeier, Historicism, Art Nouveau (1805–1918) . Verlag Arnold, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-925369-10-4 .
- Bernhard Heitmann : craft and machine power. The silver manufacturer Koch & Bergfeld in Bremen . Museum for Arts and Crafts, Hamburg 1999, ISBN 3923859422 .
- Lutz Ruminski: 925 silver cutlery by Koch & Bergfeld , 1st edition 09/2008, ISBN 978-3-9805772-9-8 .
- Florian Langenscheidt / Peter May (ed.): Lexicon of German family businesses . Verlag Deutsche Standards, Cologne 2009, ISBN 978-3-8349-1640-2 .
- Florian Langenscheidt (ed.): Brands of the Century - The top group of outstanding products and services made in Germany . Verlag Deutsche Standards, Cologne 2009, ISBN 978-3-8349-2044-7 .
- Wigmar Bressel, Pascal Johanssen, Olaf Salié (eds.): German Manufactory Guide . Daab Verlag, Cologne 2015, ISBN 978-3-942597-38-8 .
- Achim Todenhöfer: Die Silberwarenfabrik Koch & Bergfeld , in: Denkmalpflege in Bremen, Issue 13, 2016, pp. 81–90 (on the building and its history).
Web links
- Homepage of the cutlery workshop of Koch & Bergfeld
- Homepage of the body workshop of Koch & Bergfeld
proof
- ↑ Monument database of the LfD Bremen
- ↑ at the time see Alfred Löhr: Bremer Silber , p. 21, note 15.
- ↑ Bremen address book from 1857
- ^ Wolfgang Scheffler: Goldsmiths of Lower Saxony. Dates, works, signs. , de Gruyter, Berlin 1965, vol. 1.
- ↑ The section is based on the representations by Singer and Löhr in: Alfred Löhr: Bremer Silber , pp. 17–21, 23, 239–243.
- ↑ Even after the founding of the empire in 1871, Bremen and Hamburg and their ports remained outside the imperial German customs area. However, in order to make the customs border shorter and clearer, certain peripheral zones of the Bremen state territory were added to the German customs territory, and a. the Neuenland and neighboring areas. That was advantageous for Koch & Bergfeld, as they exported more to the rest of the empire than to Bremen and overseas.
- ^ Alfred Löhr: Electroplating in the Bremen silver goods industry , in: Jörn Christiansen (Hrsg.): Bremen becomes bright, Bremen 1993, pp. 267-273.
- ↑ The section is based on the representations of Singer and Löhr in: Alfred Löhr: Bremer Silber , pp. 20–21, 23, 240–246.
- ↑ For the company history between 1914 and 1945 see Heitmann: Handwerk und Maschinenkraft , pp. 17-18.
- ↑ For the company history up to 1997 see Heitmann, Handwerk und Maschinenkraft , p. 19.