Allach porcelain factory
The Allach Porcelain Manufactory was a company in Munich - Allach that became known as the National Socialist SS company for porcelain .
history
Private sector beginning
Since 1925 the industrialist Franz Nagy sen. in Munich-Allach a 2,000 m² property on which he built a small housing estate. With his business partner, the porcelain painter Karl Diebitsch , he began producing art porcelain there. It was then Diebitsch who established relations with the General SS a few years later . The Allach porcelain factory was located at Lindenstrasse 8, today Reinhard-von-Frank-Strasse 8.
As part of its economic activity, the SS u. a. Construction companies, owned settlements, food companies, research institutes. The companies of the SS included the Apollinaris mineral water factory , the Deutsche Edelmöbelfabrik , the Nordland publishing house , the Reichslehrschmiede and the Allach porcelain factory.
Transition to the SS
In 1939 it was taken over by the SS through expropriation. The manufacture was subordinated to the General SS Department of Administration and Economics . In contrast to other economic ventures, the business was not aimed at generating income. In keeping with the traditional argumentation of the state manufactories, which justified their immensely high subsidies by referring to the educational claim to "create style and taste", the products of the new SS manufacture should also "support education to become a National Socialist".
Production in Dachau
Since the facilities in Allach were no longer sufficient due to the company's rapid expansion, at the end of 1940 part of the production was relocated to the premises of the SS exercise and training camp at the Dachau concentration camp . Eventually the entire porcelain production was relocated there. The ceramics department stayed in Munich-Allach. Franz Nagy worked in the technological development department, the commercial director was R. Dippe, the technical director was Hechtfischer. The artistic director was Theodor Kärner . During the war years, around 25 to 30 civilians and always around 50 prisoners of the "Dachau Concentration Camp" produced decorative porcelain (animal sculptures, the leader's head and other figures) as well as simple utensils such as ointment vessels and canteen dishes. The " Julleuchter " given away by Heinrich Himmler for the Yule Festival was also made there.
Theodor Kärner, professor at the Munich Art Academy since 1938 , designed the large children's frieze candleholder with a surrounding children's frieze, based on the so-called birth chandelier (model number 89) by Carl Diebitsch, which Heinrich Himmler intended as a gift for the birth of the fourth child in SS families was. On the shaft he wore a frieze in relief over the inscription "In the clan eternal chain I am only one link".
Two thirds of the production went to the SS, police and armed forces; the SS were given great discounts. The general marketing concept for the products did not include sales in specialist shops. Rather, it was organized through showrooms in a few cities such as Berlin, Poznan , Warsaw and Lemberg . There was no sales point in Munich. The products were sold very cheaply, at pure dumping prices. Richard Förster's “ Hitlerjunge ” cost RM 15.90 in white and RM 32.45 in color in 1938/39 . and was one of the more expensive figures in the product catalog. However, the system of showrooms also contributed to the fact that Allach porcelain remained largely unknown to the general public despite the low price.
An important task of the manufactory was to produce "city and state presents". Then as now - in accordance with international customs - the political guests staying in Germany and the accompanying diplomatic corps were given art porcelain.
The manufacture had no direct economic purpose; she was considered a "favorite child" of Himmler. He planned to compensate for financial deficits after the war with profits from a large estate and wanted to reserve an "unlimited right of donation" on a permanent basis. The labor deployment of concentration camp prisoners was first mentioned in 1941. No killings are known. The "artistic director" Josef Thorak personally supervised the Dachau prisoners during production.
literature
- Porzellan-Manufaktur Allach-München GmbH: List of products; List 1938/39 . Porcelain Manufactory Allach-Munich, Allach-Munich 1939.
- Gerhard P. Woeckel: The Bavarian animal sculptor Theodor Kärner . In: Renate Lotz; Wilhelm Siemen (Ed.): Theodor Kärner: 1884–1966; Memorial exhibition for his 100th birthday . Museum of the German Porcelain industry, Hohenberg / Eger 1984, ISBN 3-927793-02-7 , p. 11–38 (publications and catalogs of the Museum of the German Porcelain Industry ; 3).
- Joachim Rechenberg: The "belly of the SS" . In: Berlin monthly magazine ( Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein ) . Issue 4, 1997, ISSN 0944-5560 , p. 42-46 ( luise-berlin.de ).
- Gabriele Huber: The Porzellan-Manufaktur Allach-München GmbH: an "economic enterprise" of the SS to protect the "German soul" . Jonas Verlag, Marburg 1992, ISBN 3-89445-132-7 (Zugl .: Heidelberg, Univ., Diss.).
- Rozalija Sokola (Ed.): April 30, 1945 - End and beginning: From the Allach subcamp to the Munich-Ludwigsfeld settlement . History workshop Neuhausen , Munich 2005, ISBN 3-931231-15-1 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Benedikt Weyerer: Munich 1933–1945. City tours on political history. Buchendorfer, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-927984-40-X , p. 221 f.
- ^ Peter Longerich: Heinrich Himmler: Biography. Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-88680-859-5 , p. 270.
- ^ Peter Longerich: Heinrich Himmler: Biography. Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-88680-859-5 , p. 279.
- ↑ Daniel Toporis: What to do? (Excerpt) Speech at the memorial service for the victims of National Socialism, October 26, 2016, Municipal Cemetery Salzburg, in: Zwischenwelt. Literature, resistance, exile. Journal of the Theodor Kramer Society , 4, 2016 ISSN 1606-4321 p. 53
Coordinates: 48 ° 11 ′ 26 ″ N , 11 ° 28 ′ 26 ″ E