Marolin - Richard Mahr
The company MAROLIN - Richard Mahr GmbH is a Steinach- based manufactory that makes art figures from papier mâché .
history
In 1900 Richard Mahr (1876–1952) founded the company in his parents' house at 35 Räumstrasse. The only son of the Steinach woodworker Christoph Carl Mahr was born inschichtshöhn , the place where his mother Lisette Mathilde lived. Soon after his birth, his parents moved to Steinach, his father's hometown. Richard attended school here. He learned the profession of figure painter from Rudolf Apel in Oberlind . He followed his apprenticeship with training in the production of anatomical teaching aids in Berlin . A wide variety of jobs followed, including in a porcelain factory.
The house in Steinach was used both for living and working in the first few years. It was a classic family business for this area. The workforce initially consisted of Richard Mahr and his wife. The customers of the products manufactured at that time were the publishing companies based in Sonneberg from home and abroad. Richard Mahr created the models for his first figures himself. The prerequisite for this was excellent training: in plastic shaping through the profession of "model maker for anatomical teaching aids" and as a figure painter in personal union. By 1910 the company had ten employees.
Around 1920, the Steinach-born modeller Julius Weigelt (1901–1982), who had studied at the industrial school in Sonneberg , joined the company. From then on he made the models for the entire range of figures on his own. While Richard Mahr's models still belonged more to the Nazarene style of the 19th century , Weigelt's models are more based on a local and folk style, as it was popular from the 1920s and was represented by Josef Bachlechner in Tyrol , among others . Julius Weigelt thus made a major contribution to the success of the Mahr company.
In 1924 Mahr decided to build his own company building. This was done by adding one floor to Mahr's parents' house and adding a workshop and warehouse building with seven window axes . The company's development led to an expansion of the company building in 1936. The annex, comprising 14 window axes, was then the largest and most modern industrial building in Steinach.
With the start of the Second World War , the company's steady expansion ended. In 1940 the production of the Marolin figures was stopped. Shortly afterwards, a pharmaceutical plant from the Westphalian region occupied part of the work rooms. All other premises were confiscated for war production. The women in the workforce - most of the men were drafted for military service - assembled height gauges for the aircraft industry. After 1945 the company seemed to be able to build on the success of the pre-war years due to the rapid restoration of the old business relationships. The formation of the two German states should, however, severely impede further business development. The transition to public property was prepared by a law passed by the GDR on the taxation of the private economy, which worked with tax rates of up to 90% . The state-run planned economy had intended all production for export to western countries.
On June 6, 1958, the roof structure of the company building as well as the crate shed, large parts of the storage rooms and the garage superstructure burned. The flames, smoke and, above all, the extinguishing water destroyed large quantities of blanks and the entire stock. The living quarters of the Mahr family on the first floor had to be completely cleared.
In the following years, the production of nativity figurines faded more and more into the background. Due to a lack of demand, a start was made early on to destroy the mother forms of Christian figures that did not belong to the closer Christmas story.
In 1963, the range of the Mahr company was expanded with the takeover of toy animal production from Lineol in Brandenburg . However, the figures pressed from a plastic hot mass also had a disadvantage: The strong cracking during the manufacturing process resulted in extensive repair work. Taking into account the high susceptibility of these game figures to breakage, the decision was made in 1967 to downsize the original Lineol models and to have the figures made from plastic using injection molding technology. From this point on, the lifelike modeled animals and figures made of polyethylene developed into the company's most important export item.
Under massive pressure from the state, state participation was enforced at the beginning of 1972, but this only existed for a few weeks. The expropriation followed in April . During this time, the now "nationally owned company" was incorporated into the also nationalized company Christoph Berger. The company, now trading under the name VEB MAROLIN-Plastik, remained relatively independent until 1975. In the VEB PLAHO Steinach he finally lost his independence as part 8 of the company. Until 1974, VEB MAROLIN-Plastik had its own stand at the Leipzig Trade Fair and initially took part in the International Toy Fair in Nuremberg for the last time .
Few investments were made between 1972 and 1990 . Existing means of production were removed. The damage to the structural substance, which was caused by neglect and inadequate repairs, has not yet been completely repaired despite extensive reconstruction measures after the reprivatisation.
When Richard Mahr died in 1952, his two daughters Paula Kaiser and Jenny Weigelt inherited in equal parts. Her husbands Friedrich-Wilhelm Kaiser and Alfred Weigelt (both of whom had worked for the company as businessmen for years) were to continue the business. But shortly after his father-in-law, Friedrich-Wilhelm Kaiser also died, so that Alfred Weigelt took over the management alone. Renate, the daughter of Alfred and Jenny Weigelt, née Mahr, married Walter Greiner, a graduate economist who joined the company in 1963 as an authorized signatory and technical manager. Their daughter and great-granddaughter of the company's founder Evelyn Forkel, joined the company in 1990 and has been the sole managing director since January 1st, 1999.
After the re-privatization of the run-down business in June 1990, the rebuilding began with the remains of paper mache figures. By chance the old, long-lost recipe of the original MAROLIN mass was discovered on a cellar door while cleaning up. This was the start of the revival of this traditional craftsmanship. Toy animals and nativity figures made of plastic and figures made of paper maché are part of the company's range.
literature
- Elisabeth Roth, Klaus Guth: Culture as a way of life . Essays and lectures: Folk culture on the border. Contributions to folklore, cultural and social history: BD 1. EOS Verlag 1995, ISBN 3-88096-795-4
Web links
- www.marolin.de company website
Individual evidence
- ^ Elisabeth Roth, Klaus Guth: Culture as a way of life BD 1, p. 328.