Sommerhuber
| Sommerhuber GmbH
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|---|---|
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| legal form | GmbH |
| founding | 1491 |
| Seat | Steyr |
| management | Rudolf Christian Sommerhuber |
| Number of employees | approx. 120 |
| Branch | Hafner, tile and tile layer and ceramist |
| Website | www.Sommerhuber.com |
Sommerhuber GmbH is a company that produces tiles for tiled stoves and tiled fireplaces as well as thermal ceramics for the spa area. The company is at home in Steyr . The company is a former purveyor to the court .
history
The roots of the Sommerhuber ceramics factory can be proven to go back to 1491, when the Wärmprecht pottery was first mentioned in records. In 1843, Josef Sommerhuber (1817–1881) married a journeyman hauler into the house, so that the name Sommerhuber passed to the craft business. His son Rudolf (1858–1935) took over the business after his father.
Furnaces for the nobility, bourgeoisie and peasants were produced in the baroque, renaissance and gothic styles. Sommerhuber was allowed to equip the imperial castles in Persenbeug and Nieder- Wallsee , as well as the offices in the entire monarchy.
A true-to-original copy of a Renaissance furnace from Ambras Castle was installed for Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Konopiště Castle near Prague. Customers abroad were Prince Arnulf of Bavaria , Prince Joachim of Prussia and Duke Albrecht of Bavaria . Sommerhuber also furnished the royal Cotroceni Castle in Romania.
In 1900 Sommerhuber was appointed supplier to the Imperial and Royal Court for this service. The company received the Silver Medal at the Paris World Exhibition in 1900 . In 1910 he was appointed purveyor to the court of Prince Ludwig von Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha .
Rudolf Sommerhuber worked together with well-known artists such as Saibl , Barwig , Obsieger and Michael Powolny and had the tiles designed by them. This tradition is continued today through collaboration with artists such as Gerald Brandstötter .
The collapse of the monarchy in 1918 hit Sommerhuber as an important sales market collapsed. Nevertheless, the company was able to hold its own. During the Second World War, the company had to stop production and was largely spared from the war. Nevertheless, the resumption of production after 1945 only made slow progress due to a lack of raw materials.
In 1973 the company received the Bavarian Craftsman Award in gold at the craft fair in Munich.
New products such as the ceramic electric night storage were developed. The oil crisis of the 1970s resulted in a rapidly increasing demand for wood-burning tiled stoves.
In 1980 the new factory was built in Resthofstrasse, where the Sommerhuber manufacture is still located today. The production of interior ceramics and tile wholesale, which began in the 1980s, were given up again for economic reasons. From then on, Sommerhuber concentrated on thermal ceramics.
The company has been headed by Rudolf's great-great-grandson Christian (IV.) Sommerhuber (* 1959) since 1993.
Since 1998 the Sommerhuber manufactory has devoted itself increasingly to the development of large ceramics (with a length of up to 135 cm). Since 2005, the enJOY product line has also offered thermal ceramics for the spa area in the form of electrically heated heated loungers, seats and benches as well as ceramic foot basins.
The Sommerhuber manufactory currently employs around 120 people.
literature
- Ingrid Haslinger: Customer - Kaiser. The story of the former imperial and royal purveyors . Schroll, Vienna 1996, ISBN 3-85202-129-4 .
- Rudolf Christian Sommerhuber: The sun of winter. My story of the Sommerhuber ceramics factory . Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-7067-0045-0 .
