R&M Wegener
The R & M Wegener GmbH & Co. KG is a company founded in 1817 company headquartered in Central Hesse Lauterbach, which currently has 51 employees (as of August 2020) hats and caps manufactures. Between 1964 and 2008, the company provided the Olympic national team with headgear
history
Foundation in Hamburg
The company's development falls in historically troubled epochs. Nicolaus Hinrich Dubbers created a hat factory in Altona's old town in 1817 , which was registered as a trading company in 1867 - together with the partners Johann and Eduard Dubbers and Theodor Ferdinand Wegener, the sons and son-in-law of the founder. His sons, Robert and Maximilian (hence R. & M. Wegener), were later transferred to the technical and commercial management of the company. In 1884 Robert and Maximilian Wegener were registered as partners together with their cousin Nicolaus Hugo Dubbers, a grandson of the company founder.
Move to Hessen
As wages rose rapidly in Altona, Robert Wegener decided to relocate the company to Blitzenrod near Lauterbach in Upper Hesse , where the property of a burned down spinning mill was for sale. Particularly favorable was the presence of strong water power, which is still used today to drive a turbine to generate electricity and guarantee the power supply for all of Blitzenrod. The official relocation of the company took place on March 1, 1884; In May 1885, the company started operations with 50 workers. The company built around eight houses for employee families.
In April 1888, after Nicolaus Dubbers left the company, the company was restructured and called itself from then on Haarhutfabrik R. & M. Wegener . At the age of 59 in 1904, Robert Wegener retired from business life; the two sons Kurt Theodor and Edgar moved up and took over the management in 1914.
In the years between the two world wars, the two brothers built additional, very affordable houses for the working-class families, as the number of employees had risen to more than 250. This, other measures and other social benefits contributed to creating a personal relationship and working atmosphere.
Edgar Wegener fell in World War II , whereupon his brother Kurt took over the complete management of the Blitzenröder hair hat factory. He kept the management of the company firmly in his hands well into old age. He died at the age of 80 on November 13, 1960.
post war period
Klaus Theodor Wegener and Hans Wegener took over management of the company after 1945 . During Klaus Theodor Wegener's visit to Dallas, he learned the specialty production of the Resistol hat and created a good, almost friendly relationship with the Resistol company (now Stetson ). It was thanks to him that the company R. & M. Wegener was licensed to manufacture the Resistol branded hats in 1958.
The brothers, now in the fourth generation, ran the family business until September 4, 1966. That evening Klaus Wegener fell victim to a car accident.
His eldest son, Hans Th. Wegener, has been in charge of the company since 1974 and handed it over to his daughter Theresa Wegener in July 2018. Only a small part of the collection is sold as a private label, also in the attached shop. The company mainly limits itself to developing designs and collections for other brands under their names as commissioned work. She has production facilities in Italy, Poland and China.
According to its own statements, the company recorded a 30 percent drop in sales during the 2020 corona pandemic. The entrepreneur then started a crowdfunding campaign.
Web links
literature
- Anton Dorow: Hutfabrik Wegener: Despite the Olympics and EM, no big additional business , in: Pfälzischer Merkur from June 4, 2012 ( online )