Sarotti
Sarotti is an Chocolate - brand that originated in Berlin has in the 1868th The brand has been owned by Stollwerck GmbH in Cologne since 1998 . Stollwerck was taken over by Barry Callebaut GmbH in 2002 and sold to the Belgian Baronie group in 2011 .
history
In 1868, the confectioner Hugo Hoffmann (1844–1911) began making fine pralines , fondants and fruit pies in a back building on Berlin's Mohrenstrasse with the support of an assistant . At the end of the first year, 10 people could be employed. After four years and a move to Dorotheenstrasse , the company switched to industrial production using a steam engine drive.
In 1872 the self-proclaimed “steam chocolate manufacturer” Hoffmann acquired the Felix & Sarotti confectioner and goods store at the Friedrichstrasse / Mohrenstrasse intersection , which he had previously supplied. This was opened by Heinrich Ludwig Neumann in 1852 and mostly sold confectionery products imported from Paris . After the takeover, Hoffmann merged the production facility and the shop in Mohrenstrasse and sold the products under the name Sarotti.
The name Sarotti is of unknown origin, it was registered as a trademark in 1894.
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The company was called Deutsches Chocoladenhaus Hugo Hoffmann from 1881 and went so well that production moved to larger premises in Belle-Alliance-Straße 81 (now Mehringdamm ) in 1883 , the so-called Sarotti-Höfe . Paul Tiede joined the two companies, which still operate separately, as a partner. The production facility was now called Hoffmann & Tiede Factory for fine confectionery, chocolate and marzipan, Sarotti brand , the Felix and Sarotti store .
In the following years the company expanded further. The number of employees rose to 90 in 1889 and 162 in 1893. The production facilities were expanded to include neighboring properties. In 1903 the Sarotti Chocoladen und Cacao Aktiengesellschaft was founded with around 1,000 employees.
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The two entrepreneurs died in 1911 and 1912. Hugo Hoffmann's son Max took over management. In 1913 the new production facility in Tempelhof was opened with around 2,000 employees. During the First World War , production fell and the number of employees fell by half.
The product range ranged from fine chocolate products, pralines, cocoa , marzipan products and fondants to liqueurs . In 1929 the Swiss corporation Nestlé took over the majority of Sarotti AG. In the same year the company gained a foothold in the Rhine-Main area by buying a chocolate factory located in Hattersheim am Main . After the crisis years up to 1935, the company as a whole developed very favorably up to the Second World War .
During the Second World War, the company had to switch to other products, as the raw cocoa stocks available at the beginning of the war were only sufficient for a short time. After the war, 85% of the Berlin plant was dismantled as a repair .
After 1945, Wilhelm Koppe (1896–1975) became managing director of the Sarotti chocolate factory in Bonn under the false name Wilhelm Lohmann . During the Second World War, as SS-Obergruppenführer, General of the Waffen-SS and the police, he was jointly responsible for the Holocaust in western Poland.
It was only four years after the end of the war that the company was able to return to its real purpose with the first deliveries of raw cocoa. In 1949 the headquarters of Sarotti AG were relocated to Hattersheim. Due to the high demand, the renovation and expansion of the production facilities in Berlin and Hattersheim began. In 1962, the construction of one of the most modern chocolate manufacturing plants in Europe began at the Hattersheim production site and went into operation in 1964. In 1969, the company struggled with falling revenues due to a poorly innovative product range.
In 1998 Stollwerck GmbH took over the traditional brand that is only known on the German market. In July 2011 Stollwerck (with the Sarotti brand) was sold to the Belgian confectionery manufacturer Sweet Products / Baronie .
Brand logo
In memory of the founding site in Berlin's Mohrenstrasse, the Sarotti-Mohr was created as a brand figure in 1918, the year of the company's 50th anniversary . It appeared for the first time on packaging in the shape of three moors with a tray. The representation of the Sarotti-Mohren is one of the most famous advertising strategies of the end of the colonial era, when visual advertising was in the making. The images of Africans who were often admired for their exoticism, but were always drawn as "inferior" and "savage", enjoyed great popularity with many German companies. The exotic was intended to remind the German population of their colonies in the empire, but also to serve as an eye-catcher to increase the desire to buy. Two years later, the graphic designer Julius Gipkens was commissioned to develop a new company logo; the entry in the trademark register took place in 1922.
The Sarotti-Mohr became a popular advertising figure through TV spots in the 1960s, with which the brand will be associated well into the 21st century. He was often criticized because some saw racist stereotypes in the figure of the servant . In 2004, therefore, all products were extensively redesigned, the Sarotti-Mohr gave way to the Sarotti-magician of the senses . Instead of a tray or a red and blue flag in hand, the figure throws stars into the air on a golden crescent moon , and the magician has a golden skin color.
See also
- Sarotti factory in Tempelhof : former production facility in Berlin, today a protected industrial monument
literature
- Delicious chocolates from SAROTTI in Hattersheim . In: District Administrator Dr. Valentin Jost (Ed.): Main-Taunus-Almanach 1967 + 1968 . S. 205-208 .
- Rita Gudermann, Bernhard Wulff: The Sarotti-Mohr: The eventful history of an advertising figure . Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-86153-341-3 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
Web links
- Sarotti's website
- History of the Sarotti farms
- Early documents and newspaper articles on the Sarotti in the 20th Century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Baronie (confectionery manufacturer) in the Marjorie Wiki
- ↑ Hoffmann and Tiede . In: Address book for Berlin and its suburbs , 1900, I, p. 601.
- ↑ Hannah Arendt: Eichmann in Jerusalem: A report on the banality of evil [1964] . 12th edition. Munich, Berlin 2015, p. 85 .
- ↑ Past the market . In: Der Spiegel . May 5, 1969 ( spiegel.de ).
- ↑ A new home for the Sarotti-Mohr . Nuremberg newspaper . July 11, 2011. Retrieved August 7, 2011.
- ↑ Joachim Zeller: Picture School of the Herrenmenschen . Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2008, p. 221 ff .
- ^ Rita Gudermann: Excerpt from "Der Sarotti-Mohr. The eventful history of an advertising figure ” (PDF; 165 kB) Ch. Links Verlag . Retrieved August 7, 2011.