Max giant

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Max Riese (* 1868 in Mönchengladbach ; † November 13, 1943 in Rhöndorf ) was a German chemist , entrepreneur and inventor of the Penaten cream .

Live and act

Max Riese was born in Mönchengladbach in 1868. His actual dream of being a pharmacist did not come true , so he became a druggist. He opened his first own drugstore in Düsseldorf , later he moved to Cologne , at Ehrenstrasse 79. Riese was already there together with the druggist Otto Schmithausen, the owner of the drugstore at the Bürgerhospital, under the company "Palliativ", factory of hygienic products Schmithausen & Giant like in a pharmacy , produced ointments and remedies with simple means and looked for a skin cream that protects the sensitive skin of babies. His wife, Elisabeth Riese, b. Knapp ran a stationery shop in the same building.

In 1898 Max Riese built a house in Rhöndorf, today's district of Bad Honnef , on Am Sperrbaum No. 5, where he moved with his family and continued the drugstore there.

On September 17, 1904, he registered the “skin preservative Penaten Crème” with the Reich Patent Office in Berlin . The brand name goes back to Elisabeth Riese, Max Riese's wife, who dealt intensively with Roman history and suggested naming the cream after the penates , ancient patron gods of a household.

Over time, the space in the drugstore, where the pots were still filled by hand with spatulas, was no longer sufficient to meet the increasing demand, so that in 1908 Riese founded the company “Penaten, Factory Pharm “Founded. Max Riese originally planned to produce 10,000 cans a month. In 1928, however, the company was already delivering 30,000 pieces a month, and in 1939 even 6,019,000 cans (around 500,000 per month). In the time of National Socialism , Max Riese became a member of the NSDAP and increasingly withdrew from the company, which his sons Alfred and Max jr. continued.

After a short, serious illness, Max Riese died in Rhöndorf in 1943 at the age of 75. In addition to his wife, three sons, Alfred Riese, he left behind the doctor Max Riese jr. and the lawyer Erich Riese, as well as four grandchildren. He was buried on November 16, 1943 in the forest cemetery in Rhöndorf.

Rhöndorfer Straße 60, former Penaten building in Penaten turquoise

Penaten Pharmaceutical Factory Dr. med. Riese & Co. GmbH

The company was continued by the sons Alfred and Max. The third son, Erich Riese, died during the Second World War . In early 1945, two days before the end of the Second World War , the plant was badly damaged. Production was resumed as early as August 1945 by working at four locations, in Rommersdorfer Strasse, Kirchstrasse, Bahnhofstrasse and in the former Rhöndorfer Hof. In October 1945, Alfred, who had been responsible for the commercial area until then, and Max Riese jr. as a product developer in the laboratory, the Cologne-based financial expert Fritz Frankenberg as a managing partner in their company.

The doctorate doctor Max giant put his signature "Dr. med. Max Riese ”as part of the trademark, but lost his license to practice medicine due to his non-medical work in the company's development laboratory . The company was now called "Penaten Pharmazeutische Fabrik Dr. med. Riese & Co. GmbH ”.

In the early 1950s, the management had the first three factory buildings built on Rhöndorfer Straße. The product range was expanded to include powder, shampoo, soap and bath additives to form a complete range for baby care.

Fritz Frankenberg died in 1966, followed by his son Helmut Frankenberg.

In the 1970s, an administrative building with a facade in the Penaten colors was built.

After Max Riese jr. his daughter, Dorothee Althoff-Riese, became a member of the management. On November 20, 1974, Helmut Frankenberg was killed in a plane crash, in 1975 Alfred Riese died. In addition to Dorothee Althoff-Riese, Elfriede Keymer-Riese and Christa Frankenberg now ran the company's business, later Pia Frankenberg, the daughter of Helmut Frankenberg, and Alfred Nolden, a great-grandson of Max Riese, pictured as an infant on one of the company's advertising displays in 1949.

In 1986 the company was taken over by the US company Johnson & Johnson , at the end of 2000 production of the Penaten cream was relocated to Italy and France and the Rhöndorf site was closed.

In 2013, Alfred Nolden supported the establishment of a collection of penates in the local history museum of the Rhöndorf community and local association .

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Greven's address book for the municipality of Cologne, including: Cologne and the suburbs Bayenthal, Deutz, Ehrenfeld, Lindenthal, Nippes, Riehl, Sülz, Zollstock, etc. as well as for the surrounding area especially Mülheim am Rhein and Kalk. 45th year, Greven's Cologne address book publishing house, Cologne 1899, Part II, p. 364.
  2. ↑ Greven's address book for the municipality of Cologne, including: Cologne and the suburbs Bayenthal, Deutz, Ehrenfeld, Lindenthal, Nippes, Riehl, Sülz, Zollstock, etc. as well as for the surrounding area especially Mülheim am Rhein and Kalk. 45th year, Greven's Kölner Adreßbuch Verlag, Cologne 1899, Part II, p. 397.
personal data
SURNAME Giant, max
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German chemist, entrepreneur and inventor of the Penaten cream
DATE OF BIRTH 1868
PLACE OF BIRTH Mönchengladbach
DATE OF DEATH November 13, 1943
Place of death Rhöndorf