Mauxion
Mauxion is a chocolate brand that has existed since 1855 and is now owned by Ludwig Schokolade GmbH & Co. KG. Ludwig Schokolade, in turn, belongs to the Krüger Group based in Bergisch Gladbach . Mauxion was one of the premium brands in the interwar period .
history
Foundation in Berlin and move to Saalfeld
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On June 3, 1855, the then 25-year-old Frenchman André Mauxion (1830–1905) opened a confectionery shop in Berlin as a trained confectioner . This was expanded in 1872 to include its own chocolate production. André Mauxion handed over management to his sons Alfred and Felix in 1895 and retired from the company for reasons of age. As the Berlin factory space became too small, the sons bought the Neumühle near Köditz near Saalfeld / Saale . In the winter of 1900/01, the factory moved from Berlin to Saalfeld. They used hydropower to use new types of conching machines, which Mauxion had designed according to their own plans a year earlier.
On September 5, 1911, the open trading company "André Mauxion in Neumühle bei Saalfeld an der Saale" was converted into the "Chocoladenfabrik Mauxion mbH". When the GmbH is founded, three new shareholders join, including the later sole owner Ernst Hüther. The Mauxion brothers withdrew more and more from the business for health reasons. Alfred Mauxion's power of representation ended on June 28, 1913. Ernst Hüther took over the management of the company and on November 12, 1913 increased the share capital he brought in from 100,000 M to 330,000 M. At this point, the Mauxion brothers left the city of Saalfeld and moved back to Berlin. Six years after joining the Mauxion company, Ernst Hüther took over the factory as sole owner in 1917/1918. Hüther came from Pößneck in Thuringia and had completed a commercial apprenticeship at the chocolate manufacturer Robert Berger (now the Berggold Chocolate Factory ), founded in 1876 . In 1909 he worked in Berlin as the general agent for the Tangermünder chocolate factory.
Development in Saalfeld under Ernst Hüther
The time of the First World War was the first big challenge for the new managing director. When the cocoa deliveries failed to materialize (Germany's sea blockade by the Royal Navy), Mauxion developed a special method for using grain germs. Substitute foods such as nutritional soups and a so-called "morning drink" were made; at times it was 300 quintals a day.
Between 1921 and 1928, most of the old mills were demolished and a modern industrial plant was built. The new buildings were necessary because the company's turnover rose steadily after the First World War. This was also reflected in the number of employees: from 500 in 1920 the number of workers and employees rose to around 1,800 in 1925. In 1924 Mauxion had a turnover of 17.4 million RM. This value could not be reached again until 1933.
At the beginning of the 1920s , chocolate production throughout Germany experienced a rapid boom, which reached its peak in 1924. In the winter of 1925/26 a crisis followed that temporarily brought the plant to a standstill. It was triggered by the numerous new foundations and factory expansions in Germany, which resulted in overproduction. The Mauxion ran into financial difficulties, whereby bankruptcy could only be averted with the support of the Thuringian Ministry of the Interior. After that, sales stabilized. From 1931 (the year of the banking crisis in Germany and Austria ) to 1933, sales fell to less than half of the 1929 level. Given the losses that Mauxion was making, the lending banks, led by Dresdner Bank, tried to acquire ownership to come from company shares. The banks canceled all loans, whereupon Hüther stopped all payments and no longer presented any balance sheets. After attempts to mediate failed, the banks involved put Mauxion in default . Commerzbank opened proceedings against Mauxion and also against Ernst Hüther as guarantor for a partial amount of RM 200,000, which was carried out before the District Court of Rudolstadt . The verdict on February 27, 1936 was entirely in favor of Commerzbank. Thereupon the Thuringian district economic advisor to the NSDAP, Otto Eberhardt, intervened. Under his pressure, the banking consortium gave in. The demands for the replacement of Hüthers from the management were withdrawn. In addition, the banks were ready to significantly reduce their interest claims.
Like many other factory owners, Ernst Hüther tried to be as self-sufficient as possible. Among other things, he had his own bookbinding shop, a sawmill, a box factory, a steam power plant and a car shed built and an orchard. A brick factory was also bought. Hüther also owned numerous houses and company apartments , including the Mauxion Hotel “Roter Hirsch”, the restaurant “Das Loch” and Wetzelstein Castle . He had the “Bergfried” villa built for himself and his family, including a 20-hectare landscaped park with a pond, a porter's house, a garden center and a bell tower with a carillon. A garden colony and a rest home were available to employees. In the 1930s the industrial patriarch Hüther owned thirty-one properties in Saalfeld and more in nearby Pößneck and in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Frankfurt am Main. The city of Saalfeld was inextricably linked with the entrepreneurial family and their chocolate factory, which was the largest employer far and wide.
During the Second World War, the factory was included in the state-controlled war economy. The company had to switch to other products and, in addition to confectionery, manufactured foodstuffs such as malted food, mela food, oat cocoa, soup powder, dried potatoes as well as dried fruit and dried vegetables. From 1939 10.5 cm grenades were produced, and towards the middle of 1940 8.8 cm grenades were also produced. In 1943 a complete production line with complete equipment was relocated from the BMW factories in Eisenach and Munich to Saalfeld, with which aircraft engine cylinders were manufactured on their own account. Ernst Hüther died in August 1944.
After the Second World War
After the Second World War, Huether's heirs tried to convert the factory back to the manufacture of civilian products. On July 16, 1945, however, the expropriation of the Mauxion chocolate factory was announced. The Hüther family, who owned it, then fled across the green border to West Germany in 1947. It was not until June 1, 1948, that the expropriation was legally enforced and the chocolate factory was converted into VEB Mauxion.
In the West
The Hüther family began to rebuild the company under the direction of Werner Hüther (1909–1962), Ernst Huether's eldest son, from the property that remained in the west, the recreation home created in 1933 for the Mauxion employees in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. In 1949 it was initially possible to bring products onto the market under the old brand name with the usual quality and features. The Hüther family had some of the products manufactured by Schoko-Buck in Stuttgart. In 1954, after a legal dispute, Hüther's heirs were awarded the rights to the Mauxion brand . In the east, the chocolate from Saalfeld was then no longer allowed to be sold under the name Mauxion. In 1955 the company's 100th anniversary was celebrated with a lot of advertising. However, since no burden compensation was paid for losses in the eastern zone for two decades, the heirs soon lacked capital and Mauxion ran into financial difficulties. In 1958 there was an out-of-court settlement in which the company and the trademark rights were transferred to Leonard Monheim AG . After Monheim AG was sold to Suchard in 1986, the Mauxion brand was incorporated into the newly founded Ludwig Schokolade GmbH.
In the East
At the beginning of the 1950s, chocolate production at VEB Mauxion was resumed. After the name Mauxion was no longer allowed to be used in the GDR from 1954, the chocolate factory in Saalfeld was renamed VEB Rotstern in 1955 . The factory in Saalfeld was the largest chocolate factory in the GDR. In 1966, as part of the centralization of the GDR economy, the VEB Rotstern was merged with the Berggold Pößneck plant to form the VEB Thüringer Schokoladenwerke.
After German reunification
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In January 1991, Stollwerck took over the chocolate factory in Saalfeld. The plant now supplies chocolate under the names Stollwerck, Sprengel and Waldbaur , while the Mauxion brand is still produced by Ludwig Schokolade.
Products
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In the 1920s and 1930s, cocoa powder and bars were mainly produced. There were also pralines, desserts and chocolate milk in a 0.25 liter bottle, called a “chocolate drink”, which was closed with a cardboard disc.
advertising
In the heyday of the 1920s and 1930s, the Mauxion company was known for its lavish and sensational modern advertising campaigns. The company's advertising logo was the crenellated tower, composed of Ernst Hüther's initials (the lying E and the standing H). Other trademarks were the characteristic block letters and the blue ribbon. Advertising films advertised Mauxion chocolates in cinemas and advertisements appeared in daily newspapers and magazines. Mauxion products were advertised at stations, streets and squares. The Mauxion airplane, the flying “chocolate box”, circled over large cities with its advertising banner on the one hand, and advertising texts in the air on the other. A free balloon with advertising was also in use. Chocolate boys, called "Mauxion boys", advertised the chocolate drink. The chocolate machines with the “Maux-Bub” were typical.
Model companies in the German economy
Mauxion was described as a model company as early as 1931. Even during the National Socialist era, Mauxion was regarded by the German Labor Front ( DAF ) as a model National Socialist company; both Ernst Hüther and his son Werner joined the NSDAP on May 1, 1937.
literature
- Ingo Lokies: The Saalfeld chocolate manufacturer Dr. Ernst Hüther. A consideration of his financial circumstances and the economic situation of the Mauxion company, Saalfelder Christmas booklet, Saalfeld 2018
- Peter Rudolf Meinfelder: Dr. Ernst Hüther (1880 to 1944) - entrepreneur and builder, yearbook of the district of Saalfeld-Rudolstadt, Saalfeld 1996
- Claudia Streitberger: Mauxion Saalfeld , Sutton Verlag, Erfurt 2007, ISBN 978-3-86680-200-1
Web links
- Official website of the company
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Almut Wagner: Chocolate from Saalfeld 1945 to 1990 , Sutton Verlag, Erfurt 2012, ISBN 978-3-95400-006-7 , p. 7
- ^ Ostthüringer Zeitung: The descendants of Karl Ernst Hüthers leave eight paintings to Saalfeld , May 6, 2017
- ↑ Der Spiegel: Chocolate, Hard Bread , July 21, 1986
- ↑ Walter Schwädke: Schokoladenfabrik Mauxion mbH Saalfeld-Saale (Model companies of the German economy, Volume 19) , Organization Verlagsgesellschaft S. Hirzel, Berlin 1931
- ↑ Karin Hartewig: Art for everyone! (Hitler's aesthetic dictatorship) , BoD - Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2017, ISBN 978-3-7431-8900-3 , pp. 169–170