Reich Center for Fur Animal and Tobacco Research

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Reichszentrale letterhead and footer

The Reich Center for Fur Animal and Tobacco Research e. V. was located at Leipziger Brühl , one of the three largest world trading centers for fur skins ( tobacco products ) and furs at the time , in addition to the centers of London with Beaver House and the New York Fur District . According to the essential point of its statutes, it was dedicated to the "promotion and research of the care, keeping and breeding of fur animals as well as research into fur-animal skins and their utilization". It was founded on April 9, 1926 and united the scientists, breeders and traders active in the German fur industry.

The founding name was, however, already changed at the end of October 1926, Reichs-Zentrale für Rauchwaren- und Furierforschung . The office of the Reichszentrale was still in 1943 in Steibs Hof , Nikolaistraße 28-32, the office building of the fur trader Friedrich Erler , and in 1930 the library was in the city's own rooms on the second floor of Zentralstraße 3.

institution

By being awarded by the state, the Reichszentrale had the character of a legal association. The organs were the general assembly, the board of directors and the management (administration). The management consisted of the executive chairman and the managing director. These positions were held from the time the institution was founded until the institution Walter Krausse ceased its activities as managing chairman of the tobacco wholesaler Friedr. Erler , and Dr. Paul Schöps as managing director. A curator was responsible for looking after the library ; For over a decade until the end of World War II , the Dr. Rudolf Fritzsche . Once a year, the general meeting was to be given an account of the course of business.

tasks

Around the time the Reichszentrale was founded, fur farms were established to a considerable extent . Above all silver foxes were bred, the temporarily abnormally high fur prices created a kind of gold rush atmosphere. Breeding of mink , swamp beaver , stone marten and skunks was soon added. There was an urgent need for advice for the mostly completely inexperienced breeders. The trade wanted an improvement in the initially poor quality of the German silver fox skins and was interested in increasing the number of skins. During the last World War I had very negative experiences with keeping rabbits ; this should be avoided in the future with a professionalization of the advice for noble fur breeding .

According to the statutes of April 9, 1926, the individual tasks of the Reich Center for Fur Animal and Tobacco Research were:

1. Promotion of studies on fur skins and their recycling.
2. Promotion and research of the care, keeping and breeding

The purpose should be achieved in particular through:

a) Support for all efforts to prevent the fur animals sought after by the tobacco trade from becoming extinct.
b) Collection of material about breeding experiences made with fur animals.
c) Evaluation of the breeding experience with the collaboration of appointed representatives of practical animal breeding and relevant science.
d) Research in the field of fur finishing .
e) Provision of funds for carrying out investigations in the direction of the association's purpose.
Institutes of biology, chemistry, animal breeding, hereditary science and zoology at universities, technical and veterinary universities, forestry and agricultural universities as well as technical colleges and institutes are considered to be particularly suitable for support.
In addition, other offices can receive assistance and support for certain tasks whose solution essentially serves the interests of the association.
f) Suspension of prizes (including contributions to the printing costs) for meritorious work from areas that particularly concern the association.

The Reichszentrale offered the breeders free legal advice, which was rarely used, “although strange business practices were heard. For example, a farmer ordered a pair of silver foxes on a postcard in America for 11,000 RM. In retrospect, it horrified the lawyers ”. Breeding advice was more popular. A research center for fur animal studies had already been created by the Reich Central Office on June 1, 1926. The management had Heinrich Prell taken, a professor at the academy of forestry Tharandt and advisor to the Versuchszüchterei in Hirschegg - Riezlern . It was agreed with the state government that the research center would be affiliated with the zoological institute of the Forest Academy, so that its research capacity could be used for the interests of fur farming. Actually, advising the farmers should only be an ancillary service. However, it turned out that precisely here there was a sometimes terrifying ignorance and great need. Prell designed a stud book and one of his employees, the zoologist Wolfgang Stichel , took over its management. On May 1, 1927, the stud book office was declared an independent institution of the Reich Association of German Silver Fox and Noble Fur Breeders and relocated to Leipzig, where it still belonged to the Reich headquarters.

As a rule, the Reich Central Office did not participate directly in the research. Rather, it saw itself as a central hub within a research network. It brought together experts who dealt with scientific, economic or practical principles of fur farming. The experimental farm near Connewitz , south of Leipzig, was an exception .

The irregularly published series of publications "Writings of the Reich Central Office for Fur Animal and Smoke Research" offered specialists the opportunity to publish. The regular authors included Heinrich Prell , Reinhard Demoll , Paul Schöps and Curt Sprehn . For nine years, the Reichszentrale published the magazine “Deutsche Pelztierzucht”, renamed “Die Furztierzucht” in 1926, until it was ousted by competition from Demoll's “Der deutsche Pelztierzucht”.

The archive and the library almost completely contained general and special works from the tobacco trade, dressing and dyeing, skinning and fur making, mammal studies, animal breeding and the like, as well as all specialist journals.

history

At the end of the 19th century, a separate fur fashion developed outside of the regional costumes. For the first time, fur jackets and coats were worn with the hair facing outwards. The invention of the fur sewing machine and the beginning of fur breeding at the turn of the 20th century made it possible to significantly reduce the cost of fur production and to increase the range of products on offer.

Leipzig tobacco shop with silver fox skins (before 1936)

From 1925 on, advertising took place in furrier and hunting magazines in particular, which promised fantastic profits if one started a silver fox breeding or at least participated in one. A "silver fox movement" was literally triggered. In 1960 a GDR textbook said in retrospect: “The unemployed, technicians, merchants, civil servants, artists, single women, officers, farmers and industrialists joined the circle of fur breeders individually or in groups. They entered with name and money, but not with advice and action. "

Robrecht Declercq described the development of fur farming since it began in the early 1920s in Germany as spectacular. In the mid-1930s, around 20,000 of the previously rare and therefore valuable silver fox skins were sold annually from here alone, four times the world supply before the First World War. It was foreseeable, however, that “the farmers who were still inexperienced and exposed to all sorts of temptations” would make many mistakes and the skins would not meet high standards. With the right guidance, it was possible to achieve better pelts in breeding than in the wild. Analogous to the state research institutes for fur animal studies in the USA and Canada, this became the task for Germany of the Reich Center for Fur Animal and Tobacco Research, founded on April 9, 1926. She received her legal capacity when she was awarded by the Saxon Ministry of Economic Affairs on April 24, 1926; According to the statutes, supervision was carried out by the Leipzig Chamber of Commerce . The seat of the Reich headquarters for fur animal and tobacco research was the fur center of the Leipziger Brühl , one of the three largest trading places in the world for fur skins, which is where the idea for its foundation was born. The real implementation of the establishment of the Reichszentrale is thanks to the initiative of Werner Krausse from the Friedrich Erler company , who was otherwise very active in the branch organization. Krausse was, among other things, the originator and advocate of the creation of a higher tobacco product school and had particularly advocated the creation of a tobacco store in Leipzig, which, among other things , should have housed the museum for fur animals and tobacco products. He became the founder and head of the Reich headquarters. In 1929 the head of the Reich headquarters was Paul Schöps . Philipp Manes wrote, apparently different, that when the Reichszentrale was founded in 1926, “the most ardent supporter of the idea, Dr. Paul Schöps, “was subordinated.

In the fur center around the Brühl, there was little understanding for the long lack of commitment by the Leipzig University to the subject of fur breeding, especially since the Tharandt Forest Academy and the neighboring University of Halle “showed exemplary commitment”. It was not until ten years after the founding of the experimental breeding facility for silver foxes and four years after fur farming was expanded to include mink, swamp beaver and other fur animals at the Animal Disease Institute, a department for parasite science and fur animal diseases was set up at the university.

The institute received aid to carry out its work from the Reich Ministry of the Interior, the Prussian Ministry of Agriculture, the Saxon Ministry of Economics, the City Council of Leipzig, the Leipzig Chamber of Commerce and from individual associations, of which in 1931 the Reich Association of German Tobacco Companies and the Reich Association of German Silver Foxes and fur breeders were named, as well as through contributions from members. The initial budget was 20,000 Reichsmarks, of which the companies made 3500 marks available (the Fur Merchants Association 2000 marks and various companies 1500 marks). The main sponsors were the Leipzig Chamber of Commerce and the Saxon Ministry of Economics. In 1927 the total budget rose to 28,000 marks, of which 6000 marks came from funds from the fur industry.

The business premises were initially in the house of the fur trading company Friedrich Erler & Co. The research center was operated by permanent staff. Paul Schöps was in addition to his managerial position in the Reichszentrale in-house counsel and co-owner of the Erler company. In 1926 Schöps founded his own specialist publisher for fur literature, which existed until the 1970s. The journal "Das Pelzgewerbe", which is published several times a year, appeared from 1950 to 1973. Here, in the tradition of the Reich Central Office, contributions from various fields of the fur industry were brought together.

In November 1927, the Reichszentrale called for cooperation and donations in kind for a fur museum that was to be created, which was initially temporarily housed in the building of the Reichszentrale on Zentralstrasse. Eight years later, the now substantial collection moved to the Savièr School. It was placed under the custody of the city and administered as the “Municipal Fur Museum”. The library, the archive and the German furrier school were conveniently located in one building.

The rather tight funding had a corresponding effect on the organization. A more or less permanent group of eleven experts dealt mainly with fur farming. Firmly belonging to the Leipzig Reich headquarters, they remained connected to their home countries. Five experts worked simultaneously in an academic institution in Leipzig or one of the neighboring cities. The zoologist Reinhard Demoll and the breeder and agricultural scientist Heinz Henseler lived in Munich, the renowned genetic researcher Erwin Baur , who was the most influential in the research network, worked in Berlin-Dahlem. The Reichszentrale gave new impetus to research into fur farming, a large part of the expenditure flowed directly into this area. In 1927 the Zoological Institute in Tharandt received 6,000 marks, Director H. Prell received 1,200 marks for his research in America. By not paying for entire projects, but only giving grants, such as reimbursing travel expenses, many research projects could be set in motion.

Silver fox breeding was initially financed almost exclusively by reselling breeding animals, often at unrealistically high prices. Often insufficient attention was paid to the coat quality. The Reichszentrale organized the first silver fox fur auctions and at the same time provided a sobering assessment of the proceeds from the fur that could be achieved on the market. Only the best qualities, which hardly existed in the first auction, achieved cost-covering prices. However, the market launch of German fur farming coincided with the Great Depression of the 1930s, which deeply shook the high profit expectations, together with increasing production.

Largely a representative of the tobacco trade, the management of the Reichszentrale not only had German fur breeding in mind, but above all it was about rebuilding Leipzig's relationship with world markets, which had been lost during the First World War. This was especially true for the former main supplier Russia. The experts at the Reichszentrale rightly saw great, previously untapped potential in the Soviet Union for fur farming. In 1929, the state zoo farm Puschkino was put into operation near Moscow under the scientific direction of the German Fritz Schmidt , who looked after it for six and a half years. In addition, the German Friedrich Joppich worked alongside his work in his home country between 1928 and 1931 as a technical advisor in setting up the farm. It was the central Russian apprenticeship and training farm, at the same time connected with a large breeding farm for the delivery of high-quality breeding animals to other newly established businesses and a comprehensive experimental farm. Robrecht Declerq commented: "Instead of protecting their research findings from international interest, the Leipzig network shared them with the Russians".

Even before the University of Leipzig , the Reich Center for Fur Animal and Tobacco Research placed the emphasis on practical fur animal research, whereas in 1923 at the newly created Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, no one dealt with fur animal breeding and fur animal diseases. The Reichszentrale set up an experimental farm in the Connewitz Forest for breeding silver foxes . The site was made available by the City Council of Leipzig, who expected it to be an additional attraction for the Deer Park . The establishment of the experimental farm coincided with an increase in the institute's budget to almost double the previous amount, to 41,976 marks. In 1928 almost half of the budget was spent on the infrastructure of the research institute, 14,736 marks were paid to associated professors and institutions. However, the proximity to the local recreation area turned out to be a disadvantage, as the many day trippers constantly worried the animals. In Dölitz, the veterinary faculty later created its own research institute.

Probably the world's most important and largest self-presentation of the fur industry was the International Fur Exhibition in Leipzig in 1930, of which Werner Krausse was also co-creator. Almost all of the material was on display for the duration of the exhibition. There was a reading room for the library, and the collections were divided between the various departments. The exhibition group on fur farming was carried out by the Reich Center for Fur Animal and Tobacco Research.

By the time the National Socialists came to power in 1933, German fur farming had reached a considerable level. Since the state funds for the Reich Center for Fur Research had already been severely reduced in 1932, the tobacco merchants Paul Hollender and Walter Krausse tried to incorporate the Reich Center of the University of Leipzig. There, however, they refused to establish the institution within the university. Although the Reichszentrale remained independent under the National Socialists, it no longer played a role. Neither the companies nor public institutions were willing to finance the research institute. Declercq noted that booming success may also have contributed to the decline, as businesses no longer needed advice. In contrast to the Weimar administration, the National Socialists showed understanding for the potential inherent in fur farming. State dirigism and the focus on German self-sufficiency favored cultivated fur and the Leipzig fur market more and more. In 1935, RAVAG, a Leipzig fur trading company, discovered that German products were now playing a bigger role on the world market.

The Brühl was almost destroyed in the bombing raid on Leipzig on December 4, 1943, and the fires burned for a week and a half. Only nine buildings survived from what was once the “World Route of Furs” and only a few of the parts of the collection of the Reich Center for Fur Animal and Tobacco Research and the Fur Museum could be saved, partly with the help of the boys of the St. Thomas' Choir . Of the former 794 tobacco companies on the Brühl, there were still 170 after the war.

After the war, the German Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Berlin took care of the problems of fur farming in the GDR . For this purpose, in 1952 she set up the experimental station for fur animal research in Appelburg . For Western Europe, scientific research on fur farming was largely carried out by the University of Copenhagen , Denmark, where the currently world's largest fur auction house, Copenhagen Fur, is located. As of 2019

Web links

Commons : Reich Headquarters for Fur Animal and Tobacco Research Leipzig  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Walter Fellmann: The Leipziger Brühl . VEB Fachbuchverlag, Leipzig 1989, pp. 130-134, 157, 191-192.
  2. ↑ a b c d Gottlieb Albrecht: The Leipzig fur market with special consideration of its tobacco trade . Inaugural dissertation at the Thuringian State University Jena, Bottrop 1931, pp. 36–38 (→ table of contents) .
  3. ^ Research and teaching in the tobacco and fur subject . In: Der Rauchwarenmarkt No. 1/2, January 2, 1943, p. 10.
  4. ^ A b Paul Schöps: The Reich Center for Fur Animal and Tobacco Research - Your Institutions for Practice and Science - A Review . In: Winckelmann Pelzmarkt No. 601, Winckelmann Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, July 17, 1981, pp. 7-9.
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Robrecht Declercq: World Market Transfomation - Inside the German Fur Capital Leipzig 1870-1939 . Routledge, New York and Abingdon-on-Thames, 2017. ISBN 978-1-138-66725-9 .
  6. ^ Gottlieb Albrecht: The Leipzig fur market with special consideration of its tobacco trade . Primary source: Activity report for the years 1926 to 1927 of the Reich Central Office for Fur Animal and Tobacco Research , Leipzig 1928, p. 2.
  7. ↑ a b c Wolfgang Stichel: Short story of the fur farming economy . In: IPA - international fur exhibition, international hunting exhibition Leipzig 1930 - official catalog . Pp. 128-136.
  8. ↑ Let's get involved . In: Der Rauchwarenmarkt No. 87, Leipzig, July 23, 1931.
  9. ↑ a b collective of authors: Handbuch der Furztierzucht . VEB Deutscher Landwirtschaftsverlag, Berlin 1960, pp. 9, 11.
  10. ↑ Wolfgang Bohne: Development tendencies of the fur industry . Inaugural dissertation at the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Leipzig, 1930, p. 40 ( → table of contents ).
  11. ^ Philipp Manes : The German fur industry and its associations 1900-1940, attempt at a story . Berlin 1941 Volume 2. Copy of the original manuscript, p. 121.
  12. ↑ Ludwig Brauser: Dr. Paul Schöps 70 years old . In: Rund um den Pelz No. 1, January 1965, p. 38.
  13. ↑ Alexander Tuma: Pelz-Lexikon. Fur and Rauhwarenkunde, Volume XX . Alexander Tuma, Vienna 1950, p. 139–140, keyword “fur farming” .
  14. ^ Robrecht Declercq: World Market Transformation - Inside the German Fur Capital Leipzig 1870 and 1939 . Taylor & Francis, Routledge, New York and London, May 25, 2017, p. 117. Last accessed October 5, 2018.