Tempo (brand)

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Logo of the registered word and image trademark
Pack of speed tissues (2006)

Tempo is the first German brand for paper handkerchiefs . Today it belongs to the Swedish group Essity .

In the course of time, the brand name became independent in Germany as a generic name and paper handkerchiefs from other brands were often referred to in everyday language as "Tempo handkerchief" or "Tempo" for short.

History of the brand

The Rosenfelder brothers as inventors of products and brands

The disposable paper handkerchief made of cellulose was the product idea of ​​the two leading owners of Vereinigte Papierwerke AG , Oskar Rosenfelder (1878–1950) and his brother Emil Rosenfelder (1861–1945 / 1946). On January 29, 1929, they registered the Tempo trademark with the Reich Patent Office in Berlin. The trademark was registered on September 18, 1929 and published in the trademark gazette on October 15, 1929. The trademark number is 407752. The origin of the brand name Tempo corresponded to the zeitgeist of the 1920s. Both brothers felt the time was fast moving and so came up with the brand name.

The main plant of the United Paper Works was in Heroldsberg near Nuremberg , where hygiene products were already being manufactured before 1929. In the years up to 1933, first home workers and later welfare workshops in Nuremberg took on the folding of the handkerchiefs. With the continuous use of processing machines , the production volume could be increased to 150 million units in 1935.

Aryanization of the company 1933–1935

Oskar and Emil Rosenfelder were of Jewish origin and were among the most respected entrepreneurs in Nuremberg until the National Socialists came to power . Under the pretext that he had embezzled canteen money, the NSDAP threatened Nuremberg shortly after Hitler came to power Oskar Rosenfelder and demanded 12,000  Reichsmarks from him. Rosenfelder paid half and was allowed to leave for the time being. A little later, Julius Streicher raged against the Rosenfelder brothers in his anti-Semitic propaganda paper “ Der Stürmer ”. The Nazis forced the brothers to sell the company. Together they owned just under 56% of the shares, with the remainder owned by other Jewish shareholders.

Just before they were arrested, the Rosenfelders managed to flee from the Nazis to England in August 1933. You had previously tried to transfer the ownership and disposal rights of the German company by setting up a company in England. However, the Nuremberg Public Prosecutor opened proceedings for alleged foreign exchange offenses and applied for the confiscation of domestic assets, which the Nuremberg-Fürth Regional Court followed shortly afterwards. An absentee was appointed and Deutsche Bank , which had recently granted the brothers a loan, was now looking for a buyer for the block of shares that had been deposited as security for the loan. In accordance with the National Socialist goal, the Aryanization of the company was initiated and the share package went to one of the greatest entrepreneurs in the Nazi era for a fraction of its actual value: Gustav Schickedanz .

The Fürth entrepreneur and NSDAP city councilor, founder of the Quelle mail-order company , who was "" considered a "favorite of the Gauleitung", as the Nazis put it, "bought this block of shares in 1934 at a price of 110%. The actual value would be 140% With the purchase, Schickedanz had become significantly dependent on the local NSDAP party sizes, which he compensated for with a party donation of 20,000 Reichsmarks. In 1935, Schickedanz acquired the remaining shares in the company thus the trademark rights to Tempo .

In order to meet the increasing demand, Schickedanz bought the paper mills in Forchheim . In the year of the outbreak of World War II , the production volume was 400 million pieces. During the Second World War, production was initially severely restricted and later completely stopped because the Tempo handkerchief was not included in the list of goods essential to the war effort.

After the Second World War

Gregor Schöllgen comes to the conclusion in his book, which is criticized due to the non-transparent and scientifically incorrect sources, that official post-war investigations have shown that Schickedanz, in contrast to other entrepreneurs of the time, despite everything, when he acquired the company behaved correctly and even generously, which allegedly even earned him criticism from the local National Socialists.

The damaged Jewish owners who were driven out of the country saw it completely differently. B. Oskar Rosenfelder: "... Gustav Schickedanz [was] able to get the majority of shares into his possession completely free of charge [...], and even achieve a considerable profit, at the time so-called Aryanization ..." "Schickedanz was initially banned from working after the end of the Nazi regime" and was classified as a follower in 1949, “whereupon he was able to work as an entrepreneur again relatively quickly. In 1951, the mail-order company paid the Rosenfelder heirs several million Deutschmarks in compensation ”.

In December 1947, production in Heroldsberg and Forchheim was resumed, sales and thus the production volume continued to grow. In 1955, the United Paper Works sold more than a billion handkerchiefs for the first time. The strong demand led to the establishment of further production sites in Glückstadt (1958), Neuss (1962 51 ° 12 ′ 34.1 ″  N , 6 ° 43 ′ 3.5 ″  E ) and Gelsenkirchen (1972). The expansion of the production facilities in 1977 allowed the production of more than ten billion handkerchiefs. Between 1985 and 1987 the entire production was relocated to Neuss.

Development since 1986

The corporate form of the United Paper Works changed in 1986 from a limited partnership to a stock corporation.

From April 1989 the company appeared under the name VP-Schickedanz AG, which was bought by the US company Procter & Gamble in 1994 . In March 2007 this company sold it to its Swedish competitor SCA for EUR 512 million . The sale has been approved by the European Commission . Since the middle of 2017, the Tempo brand has been part of the Essity company , which was spun off from SCA.

The production volume rose to more than 20 billion tissues in 2004 after the takeover.

Product development

1929 to 1949

From 1929 to 1939, 18 paper handkerchiefs each in blue, red and green printed glassine packs were sold. In 1939 the production of red and green printed packs was stopped and the pack content increased to 20 tissues.

1950 to 1959

In the 1950s, the Tempo packaging was revised several times. In 1950, Tempo packs were developed with a removable narrow side that also served as a storage container. In 1953 the so-called “break pack” is introduced. It was an easily divisible pack with two by ten handkerchiefs.

1960 to 1969

The introduction of the "Tempo handle" in 1963 was intended to make the handkerchief more practical. A year later, multiple packaging was offered in stores for the first time. The first multiple packaging was the 6-pack. In addition to the sale of handkerchiefs, table napkins in two sizes and several colors as well as cosmetic tissues were also sold from 1967. From 1969 kitchen rolls added to the Tempo product family.

1970 to 1979

In the 1970s, more multiple packs came on the market: 1970 the 10-pack, 1971 10-pack with menthol and the superpack with 18 handkerchief packs , 1978 the supply pack with 42 packets. From 1973, yellow, red and orange handkerchiefs were offered in addition to white. The so-called Z-fold of the handkerchiefs was introduced in 1975, which should enable an even easier unfolding. A fundamental change in the appearance of the packaging occurred with the switch to flexible film packaging in 1978.

1980 to 1989

From autumn 1988 the foil packs were resealable.

1990 to 1999

Since 1990, oxygen-bleached cellulose has been used exclusively for the production of handkerchiefs. In 1995, two new Tempo products were introduced: Tempo Plus with aloe vera and Tempo menthol with a “breath-free feeling” . A year later, the smaller Tempo Compact format was launched. The Tempo-Box was introduced in 1999 as a plucking box containing 100 tissues. As of 2006 there are only 80 handkerchiefs in a Tempo box . In 1999, Tempo packets with cartoons were sold for the first time . The first packages were designed by the comic artist Uli Stein .

2000 until today

The current product range includes:

  • Tempo classic
  • Tempo plus
  • Tempo Aromathera
  • Tempo ice
  • Tempo kids
  • Tempo Cleans
  • Tempo box
  • Tempo special editions: Tempo Fashion
  • Tempo gentle and free
  • Tempo toilet paper soft & safe
  • Tempo toilet paper extra gentle & extra strong

At the beginning of 2015 the toilet paper was labeled back on ZEWA .

In May 2017, sales of a limited “Black Edition” started, which the manufacturer offered in 2016 due to high demand for an April Fool's joke .

Marketing and sales

Tempo handkerchief

Tempo plagiarism, exhibited in the Plagiarius Museum in Solingen

The first advertisement for Tempo handkerchiefs appeared on December 29, 1929 in the Berliner Illustrirten Zeitung . The benefits of the paper handkerchief were shown to consumers based on everyday situations. The paper handkerchief was placed by emphasizing hygiene through single use - in contrast to the handkerchief - in advertising .

  • Silky soft! Absorbent! Hygienic! No more washing! - first imprint on packs 1929
  • So remember it forever, folks - you have to have a pace today (1929)
  • There is a curse on cold nights! The TEMPO handkerchief helps. (1950s)
  • Tempo with a special kick - quickly developed, just one move (1963)
  • You can count on it (1990s)
  • Love can shatter in cases of runny nose / on a damp handkerchief / he should therefore use a Tempo handkerchief to blow his nose /.
  • Bacilli ride the tram / I get Tempo handkerchiefs.
  • Tempo. I feel strong with you

The original Tempo lettering from 1929 was last revised in 1951.

Tempo toilet paper

The introduction of the Tempo toilet paper product was accompanied by a television, print and internet campaign under the slogan “Finally ... now Tempo is also available as toilet paper!”, Which alludes to the long brand tradition.

Others

In October 2017, the environmental protection organization Greenpeace Switzerland criticized with an approved campaign on Basel's Münsterplatz that Tempo paper handkerchiefs and toilet paper are partly made of wood from boreal forest areas worthy of protection , and asked Essity not to do so.

literature

  • Eugen Roth : The little book on the handkerchief. Nuremberg 1954
  • VP-Schickedanz AG (Ed.): Tempo, 50 years, documentation of a branded product that is always young. Nuremberg 1979.
  • VP-Schickedanz AG (ed.): Tempo, 60 years, the story of a groundbreaking idea. Nuremberg 1989.

Web links

Commons : Tempo Handkerchief  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Trademark register
  2. ↑ In the written language, according to Duden 2019 , the term was rarely used and its meaning was given as “Short form for Tempo® handkerchief”: Tempo®, das. Duden .de, accessed on July 25, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Rosenfelder, Oskar. German biography, accessed February 1, 2019 .
  4. ↑ DPMA trademark register, register information RN407752 : Word mark Tempo , registered on September 18, 1929.
  5. ↑ a b c d Uwe Ritzer: A German story . In: sueddeutsche.de . January 25, 2019, ISSN  0174-4917 ( sueddeutsche.de [accessed January 28, 2019]).
  6. ↑ https://museen.nuernberg.de/fileadmin/mdsn/pdf/Dokuzentrum/Presseinfos/2012/2012_11_12_pi_arisierung.pdf
  7. ↑ https://www.cicero.de/wirtschaft/quelles-d%C3%BCstere-vergangenheit/39923
  8. ↑ https://www.cicero.de/wirtschaft/quelles-d%C3%BCstere-vergangenheit/39923
  9. ^ The Dresdner Bank and the German Jews. (on Google Books)
  10. ^ Dieter Ziegler: Review of: Schöllgen, Gregor: Gustav Schickedanz. Biography of a revolutionary. Berlin 2010, in: H-Soz-Kult, March 24, 2011
  11. ↑ http://www.hsozkult.de/publicationreview/id/rezbuecher-15087
  12. ↑ Burkhard Strassmann: Speed ​​limit - fine cloth . In: Zeit Online , November 25, 2004, accessed July 8, 2018
  13. ^ Gregor Schöllgen, Gustav Schickedanz: Biography of a Revolutionary, Berlin-Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-8270-0948-7
  14. ^ Gregor Schöllgen : The Quelle founder and his company in the Third Reich . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . July 24, 2009, ISSN  0174-4917 , p. 12 .
  15. ^ State Archives Nuremberg, Spruchkammerakten Schickedanz (SprK Sch) 472 / 1-5.
  16. ↑ Eckart Dietzfelbinger: Why brown spots do not remain a blemish: Comments on the Gustav Schickedanz case. In: transit. Journal of Politics and Contemporary History. No. 2, Nuremberg 2008, p. 32
  17. ↑ Zewa manufacturer buys Tempo. In: Spiegel Online , March 12, 2007, accessed July 8, 2018
  18. ↑ Swedes are allowed to take over Tempo handkerchiefs - sale of Softis. Süddeutsche Zeitung, September 6, 2007, archived from the original on May 6, 2009 ; accessed on January 29, 2019 .
  19. ↑ http://www.zewa.de/toilettenpapier/soft-und-stark-3-lagig
  20. ↑ http://www.tempo.net/de/produkte/tempo-toilettenpapier/3-lagig-oft-und-stark/
  21. ↑ You can now blow your nose with black handkerchiefs! In: derwesten.de. May 12, 2017. Retrieved August 23, 2017 .
  22. ↑ Greenpeace activists demand with a huge lumberjack picture: No handkerchiefs from forests worth protecting! In: greenpeace.ch , October 17, 2017, accessed on October 24, 2017