Klingenberg Brothers
| Gebr. Klingenberg GmbH
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| legal form | GmbH |
| founding | December 28, 1865 |
| Seat | Detmold , Germany |
| management | Alex Hofmann (from 1910 to 1959) |
| Number of employees | approx. 200 (before the First World War) |
| Branch | Printing and finishing |
The company Gebr. Klingenberg GmbH in Detmold in East Westphalia-Lippe was a printing company and in its heyday the largest employer in the then residential town of Detmold. On December 28, 1865, the merchant Wilhelm Klingenberg was granted the license to set up a book, art and music shop by the Princely Lippe government . Over the next few decades, this developed into a large-scale graphic company with international status. In 2002 the company was wound up for economic reasons.
history
prehistory
Lippe's first printing press was located in Lemgo , at that time the largest city in the county , around 1560 . Several citizens of Lemgo had previously formed a printing community in the Hanseatic city, headed by a journeyman printer named Johannes Schuchhenn . On July 25, 1664, the brothers Albert and Henrich Meyer founded the Meyersche printing and court bookstore . Nine years later, Albert was the sole managing director because his brother Henrich passed away. On February 16, 1676, Simon Heinrich , Count and Noble Herr zur Lippe, granted the following privilege :
Albert Meyern and his descendants at the Lemgoer Trückerey with this gracious privilege and freedom, and want everyone to have the witness, what in this our county of song and other books, corpse pedigrees, gifts, calendars and other things, as they took likes to hang up and to truck vorkömpt, nowhere other than to the aforementioned Lemgo by Albert Meyern. Likewise, what in our country schools and other schools, in which cities and on the flat country need school, song and other books and can get Albert Meyern from him, should not be bought outside the country, but from him.
It was expected that consistories , pastors, mayors and city councilors would monitor compliance with this Count's ordinance. In addition, Albert Meyer had to vow to do a flawless job. With this privilege, fixed prices were set for book printers and booksellers. In 1684 a printed church ordinance by Count Simon Heinrich appeared, which was one of the most important publications of the printing company. In the years 1728 to 1754 Johann Heinrich Meyer expanded the publishing business and received a renewal of the privilege from Count Lippe on April 18, 1754 , because this print shop and bookshop had been in good condition and pile for some years for the common use and special convenience and has been preserved up to this point. He was also asked to submit the planned printed matter to the government chancellery for censorship .
Johann Heinrich Meyer died on August 27, 1754, leaving no male descendants. His daughter Margaretha Elisabeth married Christian Friedrich Helwing, the headmaster of the Lemgoer Gymnasium, who was 15 years his senior . He resigned from his rector's office and trained as a printer in order to get into his mother-in-law's business. From 1755 the publishing house developed into a center for enlightening journalism. In 1758 Helwing was elected mayor of Lemgo. Under his leadership, the Meyersche Druckerei took over the printing of the Lippische intelligence papers from 1767 to 1842, as well as the Lippische Landesverordnung . At the beginning of 1800 Helwing died and his son Gottlieb Leopold Helwing took over the business from 1800 to 1821. After his death there were disputes between the widow Caroline Helwing and Detmold printers and booksellers, probably the reason for the relocation of the main business from Lemgo to Detmold in 1842. The managing director was now the son Christian Leopold Maximilian Helwing.
Foundation and first years
Wilhelm and August Klingenberg were born the sons of a bookbinder. On December 28, 1865, the trained businessman Wilhelm Klingenberg was granted a concession by the Princely Lippian government to set up a book, art and music store at the local location, with reservation, however, of the special rights that Meyer's court bookstore is entitled to by virtue of its privileges been granted . A year later, on January 29, 1866, Wilhelm Klingenberg asked the government to enter a trade in the company register and to make a public announcement. Shortly afterwards August Klingenberg received the power of attorney in the book, art, music and paper shop from his brother Wilhelm .
Prince Leopold III. zur Lippe changed the no longer up-to-date concession of the Meyerschen Druckerei und Hofbuchhandlung from 1754 to the effect that they no longer had an exclusive right to operate these two trades. On May 16, 1871 it was documented that Wilhelm Klingenberg had bought the business locale, the business and the company of the Meyersche Hofbuchhandlung . At that time, a lithographic art institute was already attached to it, which was located on the corner of Lange Strasse and Exterstrasse in Detmold. With the purchase, Wilhelm Klingenberg also took over the Lippische government and advertising paper , to which an unofficial political section was added later.
In 1874 the publishing house and printer were completely destroyed by fire. The reconstruction took place immediately and the next year new company buildings were built on Leopoldstrasse and Hornsche Strasse.
German Empire and World War I (1875–1918)
While there is neither a view nor a floor plan of the burned-down building complex, there is a site plan of the new factory from 1875. The third-party properties on Hornschen Strasse that were drawn there were bought over the following years and used to expand the printing plant. The neighboring grammar school on Leopoldstrasse was also acquired in 1905 for 125,000 marks after the grammar school Leopoldinum (Detmold) had been relocated to a new building.
On October 19, 1883, the Meyersche Hofbuchhandlung was sold to the bookseller H. Deneke from Braunschweig in order to concentrate fully on the printing business. On April 5, 1886, Oskar Münsterberg joined the company now trading under the name Gebr. Klingenberg OHG as the third partner , but left the contract voluntarily a few years later. After that, he unsuccessfully initiated a lawsuit against the Klingenberg company because he felt he had been cheated of the capital he had brought in. After various other changes on the owner side of the company, the previous authorized signatory Theodor Staehle and the Cologne businessman Willy Hofmann were accepted as shareholders.
In the last two decades of the 19th century, the Klingenberg printing company primarily supplied the cigar industry in northern Germany, Westphalia , Berlin , Saxony , Bavaria and Württemberg . Worldwide business relationships existed with cigar manufacturers in Cuba , the USA and Canada .
By 1900 the company's business was apparently so successful that major investments in the expansion of the factory buildings and machinery were possible. The printing press room was enlarged as early as 1899. Two years later, the City of Detmold's magistrate approved the construction of a new central factory building on Hornschen Strasse.
The new partner Willy Hofmann took over the management in 1904 and a year later his brother Alex Hofmann , who was nine years younger, was appointed authorized signatory. On June 4, 1909, the only 39-year-old Willy died and a year later Alex was appointed managing director of the previously open trading company that had been converted into a family limited company. Kommerzienrat Wilhelm Klingenberg died on March 12, 1910 and on October 21, 1913 his brother, Kommerzienrat August Klingenberg, followed him to the grave.
In the years 1912 to 1913 a new machine house for several steam engines with a 40 meter high factory chimney was built. These machines served as a drive for the lithographic presses. A large warehouse and archive for used lithographic stones was set up in the basement. Soon after the start of the First World War in 1914, the high number of young men called up for military service led to a labor shortage. Of course, a print shop was not considered to be an important military operation. Klingenberg tried to counter this bottleneck by increasing the number of women employed. As the war continued, the lack of food imports and the lack of agricultural labor had a negative impact on the supply situation for the population. The result was considerable price increases and supply shortages that could only be insufficiently alleviated by management measures.
Weimar Republic and Third Reich (1919–1945)
Until the mid-1920s there were noticeable losses in sales to the cigar industry. While 146,000 workers were still employed in the German cigar industry in 1913, there were only 76,000 in 1925 and in January 1926 that number had shrunk to around 8,000. In addition, the currency collapse that began in World War I had an impact on the economic situation. The inflation in the early 1920s and a tobacco tax increase affected the business negatively and led to large items are sold to cigar box labels and equipment at bargain prices had. It was not until April 1925 that all printing machines were fully used again. Exports in the cigar industry in particular ensured satisfactory earnings. Without the customers abroad, production would have had to be reduced by up to a third. Around 1928 the old gymnasium of the former grammar school on Leopoldstrasse was converted, which was integrated into the company as a storage room.
In November 1927, a three-week strike in the cigar industry resulted in significant losses for the operation. Wage increases in the cigar industry led to an increase in the price of end products, which made new packaging necessary. Some of the cigar accessories in stock had to be destroyed. The worsening order situation, especially in export, resulted in a reduction in weekly working hours by around 6 hours, so that work was no longer carried out on Saturdays.
The global economic crisis in 1929 and the extremely harsh winter with an influenza - epidemic worsened increasingly difficult economic situation. There was also a 4 percent wage increase, which, however, was almost offset by higher prices. During this time, a number of other well-known printing companies went bankrupt . Many countries reacted to the economic crisis with export restrictions . Business relations with the USA had come to a complete standstill in July 1933, so that working hours had to be reduced to 16 hours a week.
At that time Adolf Hitler had already been Chancellor for six months and ruled with emergency ordinances. In the annual report of April 8, 1933, one week after the boycott of the Jews , the word Jew-baiting appears for the first time . Klingenberg had a large number of Jewish customers and the management was outraged by the increasing persecution of Jews during the Nazi regime . Alex Hofmann placed his hopes in the German government, which should do everything in its power to ensure that such excesses in Germany finally cease . He expected that afterwards foreign countries would regain confidence in German conditions and that the export industry could revive. The management had received a message from Sweden that there were signs with customers there saying Visits from Germans are not welcome . The boycott of German goods was particularly bad for business in the USA , as every cigar label had to be printed in Germany . The decline in export sales forced the management towards the end of 1933 to reduce the number of employees in the printing plant from 500 to 350, who also only worked two shifts two days a week. In 1934 Klingenberg was only able to export to Finland , Denmark , England and, to a limited extent, to Brazil and Argentina , and the financial situation remained tense.
With the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, foreign business came to a virtual standstill. The procurement of operating materials and the increased costs of printing ink, paper, carbon and, last but not least, lithographic stones also brought difficulties. Around 50 young men and women of the employees were drafted into military service or made compulsory. However, there is evidence that there were no foreign forced laborers at Klingenberg.
Post-war period and the end in Detmold (1946–2002)
The company buildings survived the Second World War almost undamaged apart from a few broken window panes. However, repairs to the buildings and roofs were imperative. On April 5, 1945, Alex Hofmann went to the town hall to complain about the repeated "visits" by American soldiers to his company and asked for an off-limits poster (entry prohibited). The American city commander took this as an opportunity to appoint him mayor of Detmold. He held the office briefly from April 5 to June 14, 1945.
In order to better utilize the business, Klingenberg signed a contract with Detmold Ariston Spielkarten GmbH on June 12, 1947 and participated in the share capital . Ariston rented a 565 m² work room on the second floor of the factory building on Hornschen Strasse. The print shop took on all printing jobs for playing card production and processing and also provided office supplies and transport facilities.
An important investment was not made during this time, namely the switch to a more modern, more economical printing process. Offset printing had developed since the beginning of the 20th century and gradually replaced stone printing . Klingenberg failed to invest in time and to switch to the new process both in reproduction and in printing. At the beginning of the 1950s, 24 of the 35 old lithographic printing machines were still running in the machine room and only two new offset printing machines had been installed. Economic difficulties were not long in coming.
On February 10, 1959, Alex Hofmann was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit by the District President Gustav Galle . After his death in summer 1959, there were frequent changes in the management of the Klingenberg company. On October 17, 1959, Else Hofmann, Johannes Hempel and Christian Wichmann were appointed new shareholders. Wichmann only remained in office for two years and was replaced by Georg Posselt on June 23, 1962, and Else Hofmann left the company a few months later.
The difficult economic situation made it necessary in 1969 to sell the shares in the Klingenberg company to the Gundlach group of companies from Bielefeld . At the same time Willi Schöss von Gundlach took over the management together with Johannes Hempel von Klingenberg. After Hempel's death, Willy Günther took over his duties. Willy Schöss retired in October 1979 for reasons of age and Bernhard von Schubert joined him as managing director. In 1979 the entire company moved to a new building in Hansaweg in the west of Detmold. The old factory complex on the corner of Leopoldstrasse and Hornsche Strasse stood empty for almost two years. When the building threatened to be demolished, the former factory was occupied on November 2, 1980, because the destruction of the historic factory buildings was to be prevented. On January 12, 1981 at 4 a.m., a strong police presence cleared the building, which has now been demolished against the protests of some Detmold citizens. The neoclassical house Münsterberg , which is a listed building and whose owner Oskar Münsterberg was once a partner in the printing company, also belonged to the company complex . In 1986 this house was moved around seven meters in a spectacular action.
On February 20, 1984, Rolf Merker was appointed managing director alongside Willy Günther. In 1992 the Klingenberg brothers in Detmold celebrated their 125th anniversary. This date was not correct, however, because the founding date was erroneously set to the year 1867 instead of 1865, as it later turned out. The 100th anniversary was wrongly celebrated in 1967. On the occasion of the 125th anniversary there was a special exhibition in the Lippisches Landesmuseum Detmold from October 31 to December 6, 1992. Ten years later the Detmold operation was shut down for economic reasons. The Lippische Landeszeitung ran the headline on October 19, 2002: Only a few names remain . This includes the Klingenbergstrasse in Detmold.
Two other companies in Germany now bear the name Klingenberg, namely since 1991 the company Gebr. Klingenberg Buchkunst Leipzig GmbH and Klingenberg Berlin GmbH . The Klingenberg Berlin GmbH now part of the Gundlach Group , the Gebr. Klingenberg Arts Leipzig GmbH was June 30, 2009 to the Messedruck Leipzig GmbH sold. The current business with 55 employees was transferred to the buyer. The company should continue to operate at its current location and function. After the bankruptcy in December 2012, Messedruck Leipzig ceased business operations in February 2013.
Production and Products
Lithography, stone and offset printing
When the company was founded in the 1860s, lithographic printing was the only printing process that allowed larger editions of colored printed matter. The lithographic printing is based on an invention by Alois Senefelder from the year 1798. It belongs to the flat printing process , in which the printing and non-printing parts are in one plane. The pressure carrier is a limestone slate that is quarried in Solnhofen in Bavaria. The printing areas are applied by the lithographer with greasy ink the other way around, while the non-printing areas are wetted with water and repel fat. When the stone is colored with greasy printing ink, only the drawing takes on color, but not the moistened non-image area. A specially coated chromo paper is placed on the stone and peeled off under pressure in the lithographic press.
A student of Senefelder, Gottfried Engelmann, received a patent for the development of chromolithography in 1834 . This process was used to produce multi-colored, high-quality prints, which often consisted of up to sixteen different colors and were precisely printed on top of one another. The task of the chromolithograph was to achieve so-called halftones with the help of the dotting technique , which later produced the colored image in the overprint.
Klingenberg successfully specialized in printing cigar box decorations in this process and became the market leader in Europe in the second half of the 19th century. At the beginning of the 20th century, Ira W. Rubel in the USA and Caspar Hermann in Germany developed offset printing almost simultaneously . This involves printing from zinc or aluminum plates that are stretched around a cylinder . The print image is then transferred to the paper via a second cylinder with a rubber blanket. The offset machines, which work much faster than lithographic printing, also allowed longer print runs.
In the mid-1950s, Klingenberg was gradually converted, albeit far too late, to the modern and more economical offset printing process. Many printing companies had already taken this step before the Second World War. The new process also required the previous lithography to be converted to photomechanical image reproduction . The print templates were no longer created entirely manually, but with the use of a repro camera. However, the photographic recordings still had to be revised manually. In the 1960s, the procedure was improved and manual interventions were reduced. In the course of the 1970s, electronic devices such as clischographs and scanners were increasingly used in reproduction, which led to shorter working hours and better quality.
Cigar and Liebig pictures
In Klingenberg's heyday there were up to 35 stone printing machines driven by steam engines in the printing press room. A large number of cigar box decorations were printed here, in which the company had specialized. The flourishing cigar industry at the end of the 19th century had a growing need for these products. The wooden cigar boxes were covered with a picture of the outside and inside cover and border strips, while the cigars themselves were given abdominal ties. These printed matter were not finished after printing, but were varnished and usually got an embossing. After all, they had to be cut or punched, packed and shipped all over the world.
The outside and inside cover pictures often had recurring motifs. Men smoking cigars or elegantly dressed women who were shown smoking cigarillos were depicted here. In addition, there were allegories, figures from Greek mythology, views of tobacco factories, tobacco plantations, depictions of cities and landscapes, images of cigars, etc. These templates were designed in the Klingenberg studio according to customer requirements.
Another product of this time were the so-called Liebig collector's pictures . The name of these small-format images came from Justus Liebig , who produced a popular but relatively expensive meat extract for making broths and soups. Collective pictures were added to the meat extract packs to promote sales, an unusual but successful idea at the time, very popular in wealthy circles. The first Liebig pictures appeared in Germany as well as in other European countries in the 1860s. With the purchase of the meat extract you were also the owner of a Liebig picture, which soon developed into coveted collector's items. The need for Liebig pictures grew increasingly and numerous print shops were busy with the printing. From the 1880s on, Klingenberg also took part in the printing of these collective pictures.
According to F. Dresers Liebigbilder catalog , Klingenberg printed the series National Trachten , which appeared in German, French, Italian, English and Dutch. Other series showed events from natural history, cultural and contemporary history and ethnology.
Offset printing products
Most of the orders in the post-war period came from the food and spirits industry, but also from the cigar industry. These were mainly multi-colored labels for bottles and cans, plus posters, calendars, printed advertising and cardboard boxes. In the 1970s, large-format photo wallpapers were produced, which consisted of up to eight parts. The corresponding reproductions were bought from suppliers. In the 1980s, when the new premises in Hansastrasse were occupied, orders from the automotive and cigarette industries were added.
Internal structures
staff
The list of members of the company health insurance fund shows how many employees were employed in the print shop in 1891. The directory shows 131 men and 141 women, with the women usually doing auxiliary jobs and officially designated as factory workers. The majority of the men were skilled workers and the lithographers formed the largest group with 22 workers. The proportion of apprentices in lithography was astonishingly high at 30 people. The employees from administration and sales are not included in this list; at Klingenberg they were called travel agents . There were also secretaries and stenographers who had to have foreign language skills in English, French or Spanish.
While the majority of the male workers employed at the end of the 19th century lived in the urban area, many women factory workers came from the surrounding villages and had to walk several kilometers before and after work. Of the 131 men, only 67 were under 22 years of age, but 118 of the 141 women were under this age limit. The low age of the women was probably due to the fact that they married relatively early at the time and married women tended to stay at home and take care of the household. The skilled workers usually joined the company at the age of 14 after leaving school and completed a four-year apprenticeship as a lithographer or lithographer. Most of them remained loyal to the company for their entire life and, if health permitted, they would celebrate their fiftieth work anniversary. Rather rare exceptions, however, were sixtieth job anniversaries, which were celebrated accordingly.
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| Employees 1967 to 1992 | ||||
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| job | July 1967 | July 1977 | July 1987 | July 1992 |
| Lithographers | 7th | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| Lithographers (female trainees) | 4th | - | - | - |
| printer | 24 | 16 | 18th | 25th |
| Printer (male trainee) | 3 | 1 | 5 | 7th |
| Printing form manufacturer (female apprentices) | - | - | 1 | - |
| various skilled workers (locksmiths, bookbinders) | 7th | 8th | 4th | 4th |
| Auxiliary worker | 17th | 14th | 13 | 16 |
| Unskilled workers | 45 | 34 | 18th | 6th |
| Commercial clerk (male) | - | 3 | 8th | 9 |
| Commercial clerk (female) | - | 17th | 3 | 5 |
| technical workers | - | 7th | 7th | 7th |
| total | 107 | 103 | 78 | 81 |
In 1967 the commercial and technical employees who were not listed in the employee directory are missing.
Company benefits
In 1901, a company-owned savings bank and a relief fund were founded, which bore the name of W. Hofmanns Pensions- und relief fund . Kommerzienrat Willy Hofmann had brought this fund into being through a foundation from his private assets. The company health insurance fund was founded in 1898 and paid employees sick pay. Nothing specific is known about the amount and duration of payment. However, if employees were ill for a longer period of time, the company management reserved the right to only pay half of their wages until further notice.
A factory library had existed since 1893, from which all employees could borrow a book free of charge for four weeks. In the factory rules it says: Anyone who tore a book, heavily soiled ... that a further lending of the same is excluded, has to pay for the value. If dog ears, other soiling, handwritten comments and the like are attached, the borrower must pay monetary compensation in accordance with the damage. The money goes to the library and is used to repair and buy new books.
In 1924 there was a bathing establishment in the factory with five bathtubs and five showers for employees and their families. At that time, many people had no bath or shower facilities in their apartments, which is why the company management had set up this bathing department for their employees. The bathing establishment existed until the 1950s.
The factory regulations from 1914
In the factory regulations of 1914, the company management regulated part of the internal behavior. For example, the reasons that led to a dismissal without notice were listed. These were based on the statutes of the Reichsgewerbeordnung :
- The presentation and disclosure of false working papers and certificates
- A dissolute lifestyle
- Refusal to work, unauthorized leaving of the workplace
- Careless use of fire and light
- Assault or gross insult against the employer and his family members
- Intentional and unlawful damage to property
- Offense against morality
- Inability to work or contagious diseases
- Selfish use of work material
- Communication of operational events
- Endangering the operational order and safety
- Shutdown of operations for more than six days due to fire or water
Working hours and vacation
Around 1894, around 51 to 52 hours a week were worked at Klingenberg. In 1914 working hours had been reduced to 47 to 48 hours a week. The times given here were spread over six days a week and were pure working hours excluding breaks. After the Second World War, the 48-hour week was back, which was reduced to 45 hours on October 1, 1956. In the following years there was a gradual reduction in working hours until the 37-hour week was reached in the 1990s.
In 1957 a works meeting appealed to the workforce to fill their working hours with work performance . The company management urged the employees to start work on time and condemned premature leaving. The beginning and end of work as well as the lunch break were announced by the shrill whistle of a steam whistle , which could be heard all over Detmold. It has been observed again and again that workers left their workplaces before the end of the working day and even passed the factory gates while they were already moving.
literature
- F. Drewers: Liebig pictures catalog. Hamburg 1903.
- Vera Schleef, Imke Tappe: 125 years of the Klingenberg brothers . Lippisches Landesmuseum, Detmold 1992.
- Ernst Weißbrodt: The Meyersche bookstore in Lemgo and Detmold and its predecessors. Detmold 1914 ( Paderborn University Library ).
- Jürgen Zeidler: lithography and stone printing. Ravensburger Buchverlag, 1994, ISBN 3-473-48381-8 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Westphalian Economic Archives
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Vera Schleef, Imke Tappe: 125 years of Gebr. Klingenberg . Lippisches Landesmuseum, Detmold 1992.
- ^ Bone glue & gold rush: Bookbinders from the 18th century to the age of e-books (= research contributions to craft and technology, 27). LWL-Freilichtmuseum Hagen, Hagen 2014, ISBN 978-3-926190-30-7 , p. 42.
- ^ Ernst Weißbrodt: The Meyersche Buchhandlung in Lemgo and Detmold and their predecessors: Festschrift for the 250th anniversary of the company on June 12, 1914. Meyer, Detmold 1914.
- ^ A b Christian Kuhnke: Lippe Lexikon , keyword: Klingenberg . Boken Verlag, Detmold 2000, ISBN 3-935454-00-7 .
- ^ City of Detmold (ed.): Detmold in the post-war period. Documentation of an urban history project. Aisthesis Verlag, Bielefeld 1994, ISBN 3-925670-94-7 , p. 68.
- ↑ Andreas Beckschäfer: At the door to your own story. Lippische Landeszeitung, February 23, 2011.
- ↑ Martin Hostert: Only a few names remain. Lippische Landeszeitung from 19./20. October 2002
- ↑ Gundlach Group
- ↑ Leipziger Druckerei Gebr. Klingenberg Buchkunst sold. July 7, 2009, accessed April 30, 2013 .
- ↑ Lippische Landeszeitung: Economy No. 150 of July 2, 2009
- ↑ Messedruck Leipzig is closed. February 12, 2013, accessed April 30, 2013 .
- ↑ a b c d Jürgen Zeidler: lithography and stone printing. Ravensburger Buchverlag 1994, ISBN 3-473-48381-8 .
- ↑ a b Factory regulations of the Klingenberg company from 1914
Coordinates: 51 ° 55 ′ 54.4 " N , 8 ° 52 ′ 52" E