Schumacher & Co.

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Former factory building

Schumacher & Co. Werkstätten für Kunst und Kunstgewerbe was a factory in Osterode am Harz that existed from 1887 to 1929 and mainly produced works of art from marble .

history

The founder of the company was the merchant Gottfried Schumacher (1855–1920) from the island of Rügen , who initially ran the Hamburg branch of a Danish terracotta factory. In Osterode he started making sculptures from plaster of paris from 1887, for which he had specially developed a new material, which he called chromoplasta , but which did not lead to the hoped-for results. With recruited specialists from the plaster figure and porcelain industry, he soon produced “sculptural sculptures” from marmalith , a further development of the plaster mass he had invented. It was primarily marble-like replicas of the works of classical masters, which he soon had large numbers produced.

Schumacher acquired a larger piece of land on Schwiegershäuser Strasse in Osterode and began in 1888 with construction and production in a workshop building. However, even Marmalith did not meet customer expectations in the long run. After a few attempts, Schumacher succeeded in developing a "marble casting" from ground white marble, which enabled the production of durable and washable sculptures. Another of his inventions was Harzylith , an artificial colored marble that could be sawed and polished and from which vases, bowls, table tops, as well as desk and smoking furniture could be made. He also had bronze parts and fittings made.

From 1889 to 1902, the Oldenburg merchant Wilhelm Hullen was a partner in Schumanns OHG "Manufacture and commercial distribution of plastic portraits made from Marmalith". Thanks to the good demand for the manufactory's products, the company soon expanded, and from 1900 onwards, affluent customers were also interested in real marble. Schumacher brought Italian sculptors (including the sculptor Johann Matarrese) and other specialists to Osterode. Other artistic collaborators were the sculptors Herman H. ter Meer , Hermann Dempewolf, Fritz Greiner, Willi Grobecker, Karl Hennecke, Anton Steiger, Anton Umgeher and W. Winkelvoss. With the help of dotting machines, the workers made Art Nouveau sculptures from Italian, Belgian or French marble, later also clocks, flower stands, tables, room chimneys and marble chimneys for gas firing. In 1910 the company had its own model warehouse in Berlin. As a result of the First World War , many newly trained employees were called up for military service, and sales abroad were also discontinued. Buyers' tastes had already changed after the war.

Gottfried Schumacher died on November 26, 1920 on a business trip in Berlin. His two sons Gottfried and Johannes once again led the company to a certain boom. Above all, desk and smoke sets, bowls, lamp shells and clock cases made of marble in the Art Deco style found good sales, but the company got into economic difficulties due to the great inflation in Germany and had to file for bankruptcy. At the turn of 1929/30 the company was closed. Many of the company's sculptors and metalworkers went into business for themselves and were able to work successfully in small businesses for a few years.

The remaining rooms were then used for other purposes, partly as apartments. Because of the high unemployment in the early 1930s, an employment office was located here. After the Second World War , the production rooms were used from 1948 by the businessman Carl Becker and his "Apron Factory Becker KG". The former company complex was later redesigned and equipped with additional apartments.

literature

  • Issue 37/1981 of the "Heimatblätter" of the Osteroder Heimat- und Geschichtsverein

Web links

  • Friedrich Armbrecht: The workshops for arts and crafts. Part 10 of the series "Historical witnesses of the factory town of Osterode". In: Echo am Sonntag from 30./31. August 1986

Individual evidence

  1. DNB 1035135183 , VIAF 302061622
  2. Hans Völkel: Herman H. ter Meer. A life as a dermoplastic artist and artist. Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 2004, ISBN 3-937209-50-6 , p. 86.
  3. Schumacher & Co. In: museum-digital.de

Coordinates: 51 ° 43 ′ 16.6 ″  N , 10 ° 15 ′ 25.4 ″  E