S. Roeder
S. Roeder OHG , founded in Berlin in 1841, was a manufacturer of nibs in particular, but also of office items and typewriters in the German Empire.
Founded by Samuel Roeder in Berlin in 1841
.jpg)
In the first decades of the 19th century, starting in Great Britain, the steel nib began to replace the quill as the preferred writing instrument. The pioneer of German steel spring production was the Jewish teacher and paper merchant Samuel Roeder (1812–1872), who began the factory production of steel springs in 1841 in Neue Friedrichstrasse in Berlin-Mitte . Together with a journeyman locksmith with whom he had shared an attic room, he had developed a metal alloy that could be used to make a spring that would not scratch, splash or leave gaping wounds in the paper. The high quality of its products meant that S. Roeder OHG soon dominated the German market alongside competitors such as Heintze & Blanckertz , Brause or Soennecken and was able to build up a widely ramified export network extending beyond Europe.
Expansion of the company by Max Roeder
The marriage with Sophia Friedländer (1817–1882) in 1842 resulted in two sons. While Martin Roeder (1851–1895) gained fame as a composer and choir director in Europe and North America, after the death of his father Max Roeder (1852–1902) took over the prosperous company, which had meanwhile been relocated to Naunynstrasse 55 in Berlin-Kreuzberg , and expanded it . In 1885 he took over A. Ney OHG, which produced metal office supplies and thus completed the range. However, the factory could not withstand the dynamic development of the group of companies for long: As early as 1888, Max Roeder acquired an area of 2,563 m² in Ritterstrasse 123, again in Berlin-Kreuzberg, and relocated his operations there.
_und_Erna_Roeder_(1894-1991).jpg)
Lasting success in the third generation
Just turned 50, Max Roeder died suddenly and unexpectedly in 1902. In his will, he had given his widow Hedwig, born Kalisch (1859-1943) a strong position. She successfully continued the company before the sons, who were still underage at the time of her father's death, joined the company after completing their training and gradually replaced their mother in its management: Hans Roeder (1883–1931) as head of technical operations and the advertising department 1914, Fritz Roeder (1886–1956) as commercial director in 1915 and Curt Roeder (1891–1943) as head of the export department in 1919. This with enormous success: In the twenties, the S. Roeder OHG and A. Ney OHG were one Sales of more than one million Reichsmarks and a return of around ten percent and were the market leader for nibs in the German Empire.
.jpg)
.JPG)
Career break in a model company
In 1931 the Roeder brothers managed to avert their companies from bankruptcy only at the last minute. The cause of losses of almost half a million Reichsmarks in the years 1927 to 1931 was the overall global economic situation, but above all the bad investment in a typewriter that was technically obsolete at the time of its publication and was therefore leaden on the shelves. S. Roeder OHG reached an agreement with its creditors that secured 70 percent of the liabilities. It speaks for the self-image of the Roeder family as honorable merchants and the quickly resuming economic success of S. Roeder OHG - A. Ney OHG was liquidated in the course of the settlement - that they held the other 30 percent on a voluntary basis until 1936 paid back so that all creditors could be satisfied 100 percent. The most serious consequence of the near-bankruptcy, however, was not an economic one, but a personal one: Hans Roeder took his own life on New Year's Eve in 1931, having been chronically ill for a long time and worn down by the failure for which he was largely responsible.
Aryanization by Richard Heim
The consequences of the Annus horibilis 1931 had largely been overcome and the S. Roeder OHG had picked up speed again despite the boycott measures by the National Socialists when Fritz and Curt Roeder were deprived of their life's work as part of a grueling process in 1939. Exerting massive pressure on the two brothers, the engineer Richard Heim (1902–1979), a careerist follower of the regime, took over the company and renamed it Roeder Dreizackwerk Heim KG. The financier and main limited partner of the new company was the Danzig publishing family Fuchs, who had recently had to hand over the Danziger Neuesten Nachrichten , which they had founded, to the National Socialist Franz-Eher-Verlag and who had been looking for a lucrative investment for the money they made. Under the leadership of the new shareholders and with the massive use of forced labor, production was soon converted to war production and relocated to Silesia, which means that after the end of the Second World War the valuable machine park was in Soviet-occupied, soon-to-be Polish territory and was dismantled.
Silent end of 1952
Deprived of their machines and essential sales markets, and also having to fight back modern writing implements, fountain pens and ballpoint pens, the company's situation after 1945 was desolate. All attempts by the former owners, Fritz Roeder, who was exiled in London, and his niece Yvonne Roeder (1926–1989), who lived in the USA, to profitably maintain production failed, so that the traditional S. Roeder OHG was shut down with effect from December 31, 1952 . Hedwig Roeder and her son Curt, his wife Lilly, née Buch (1898–1943), and their daughter Ellen (1923–1943) did not see the quiet end of their family's life's work: They were deported in 1943 and in the Auschwitz extermination camps and Treblinka were murdered.
Commemoration
On December 2, 2017 , stumbling blocks were laid for the Roeder family at the former company headquarters in Berlin-Kreuzberg , Ritterstraße 123 .
Web links
literature
- Bernhard Taubenberger: S. Roeder OHG 1841–1952. Rise and fall of a German-Jewish company . Osterhofener Verlag, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-00-049826-8 .