VEB Elfe chocolate factory

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ELFE Berlin chocolate factory
legal form KG (until 1945)
VEB (1949 to 1990)
founding 1921
resolution July 1, 1991
Reason for dissolution completion
Seat Berlin-Weißensee , Germany / GDR
management Leonhard Monheim (until 1945)
Gerhard König
(last Elfe director before the dissolution)
Number of employees 298 (in 1944)
600 (in 1965), of
which 430 women
500 (in 1990),
173 (in April 1991)
sales in 1944: 6.24 million RM
in 1990: 25 million bars of chocolate,
1,600  tons of pralines,
4,000 tons of sweets
Branch Confectionery industry

Overview of the former factory area of ​​"Elfe" in Weißensee, after the conversion into a commercial center, status 2011

The Elfe Schokoladenfabrik was a confectionery manufacturer that was founded in 1921 in the then Berlin district of Weißensee as a Trumpf chocolate factory . After the Second World War and the emergence of the GDR , the production of chocolate products as a state-owned company (VEB) was continued under the same name until 1954. After that, the factory was given the new name Elfe ( elves , borrowed from the world of fairy tales) so that there would be no name dispute with the parent company of Trumpf.

Shortly after the German reunification came the "end" for elves. The former halls were rebuilt and renovated or demolished. The only building still preserved in its original form is the Wassili Kandinsky House and is used for other purposes.

History of the company

The chocolate manufacturer Hermann Joseph Monheim - son of the company's founder Leonard Monheim - commissioned his three children Leonhard, Hans and Richard Monheim in 1921, in the then administrative district of Berlin-Weißensee, on a plot of land acquired in 1918 from an Upper Silesian mine and coal owner in the Gustav-Adolf- Road to build a new factory for the large-scale industrial production of chocolate products .

The main plant in Aachen , located there since 1857, had been under the French occupation forces after the First World War . In order to be able to continue to reliably supply its customers, large parts of the production moved to the Berlin branch, which was initially mentioned under the heading “Businesses” as L. Monheim, Chocolate Factory .

It was not until later that the name Trumpf Leonard Monheim chocolate factory came up. The mostly female employees at the Berlin plant did rather monotonous work on the machines or on the assembly line, which is why the entrepreneurial family had a sports field and a swimming pool built for the families of their employees in 1928, and a sports club was founded, which soon included up to 330 people.

View of the factory gate with a waiting delivery vehicle from the Trumpf chocolate factory in Weißensee; around 1932

In the time of National Socialism, from 1939, there were several expansions of the company in order to be able to supply parts of ignition devices for war production in addition to the previous products.

The main owner, Leonhard Monheim, had a house built on the company premises.

When the Soviet army marched into Berlin in April 1945, they also occupied the chocolate factory, among other things. The factory's deep wells were now used to supply their relatives and the Weißensee residents with drinking water. In the cocoa mills, flour, and sometimes sugar, was ground. In the summer of 1945 the company was confiscated according to SMAD order no. 124 with the following reason: "Hans and Richard Monheim are known to have been members of the NSDAP since 1933 from the owners of the Leonard Monheim Trumpf chocolate factory ; the property shares of both were 34.6%. H. and R. Monheim fled to Aachen when the Red Army arrived . Before the start of the fighting, the two named persons gave the order to carry out sabotage measures in the company; the written declarations are available about this. ”The factory was placed under compulsory administration. Most of the machines were subsequently dismantled as a reparation payment .

In 1947 the newly founded art college in Weißensee moved into the administration building on Bühringstrasse, which was added in 1934.

The Berlin property of the Monheim family of manufacturers was expropriated in 1949 , the remaining real estate and facilities became the property of the newly founded GDR in 1949. Although important production facilities had been dismantled, the management, under Soviet supervision, restarted the production of chocolate, chocolate-like confectionery and candies . In the beginning, the Vitalade bars were particularly popular, as they were cheap and could be obtained from the ration cards for less sugar .

In 1954 the name was changed to VEB ELFE chocolate factory . The number of employees was already 600 in 1965, but this was also due to the merger with other confectionery companies such as the former Gustav Cyliax chocolate factory on Kastanienallee in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg .

The VEB Elfe Berliner Schokoladenwerk developed over the decades into the largest confectionery manufacturer in the GDR, followed by Halloren , VEB Kombinat Süßwaren Delitzsch and Argenta . The annual maximum production of Elfe is 28 million bars, but large parts were exported , around 25 percent of them to capitalist foreign countries. In 1988, 28 million bars of chocolate were made.

The cocoa beans required for chocolate production had to be purchased on the world market for currency , which is why efforts were made early on to develop cocoa-like products from local foods. In the summer of 1984 GDR chemists had found such a substance from crushed red beets (patent specification DD 226 763 A1). Another substitute soon became available from heated grain germs and sugar (patent specification DD 245 355 A1). At first, experiments were carried out with cocoa shells, but the result did not pass the taste test. At least the East German buyers noticed that the chocolate mass on the bars was seldom smoothly stirred, but rather had the consistency of fine sand. Details of the contents were never published.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall , many suppliers from western Germany came to the GDR market; Their products were cheaper, tastier and more varied, especially in the chocolate sector, although the DM had not yet been introduced. The Elfe confectionery produced in 1990 could no longer be bought, the perishable pralines and chocolate bars were stored in the shipping boxes. The production facilities were shut down at the beginning of April 1991, some were scrapped or sold abroad (Turkey, Scandinavia). The workers and employees lost their jobs. In an interview for Der Spiegel magazine , one of the last workers said: "This will be the end of June 30th for me, after 30 years". In 1990 and 1991 the management tried to find partners in the West. All talks failed, however, because the big manufacturers such as Nestlé , Trumpf Schokolade or Hachez saw the existing chocolate manufacturers in the GDR as competition. The interest focused on the existing customer base and the new markets.

Some packaging for Elfe products from the Leipzig City History Museum can now be purchased on the Internet.

A buyer from Oschersleben / Groß Germersleben , state of Saxony-Anhalt , had some of the last Elfe chocolate products sent to him by cash on delivery in 1991.

Products (selection)

  • Block chocolate (bitter ~ and whole milk ~)
  • Chocolate with fine waffle slivers (bitter ~ and whole milk ~)
  • Milk chocolate with love pearls
  • Milk chocolate with sultanas, hazelnuts or oranges
  • Creck sweet bar
  • Fondant nests and Easter figures
  • Santa Clauses and Easter Bunnies
  • Marzipan, cream and truffle pralines
  • dominoes
  • Chocolate hearts with cream filling
  • Christmas tree hangings
  • Candies, more than 12 types.

Building complex

Former administration building (center) in Bühringstrasse as part of the art college, 2011
Partial view of the Wassili Kandinsky House, 2011

According to the ideas and experiences of the Monheim family, several multi-storey brick buildings were built on the previous agricultural area in Gustav-Adolf-Straße, which were suitable for the administration, production and shipping of chocolate products. A place to live for Leonhard Monheim's family was also built here. Another office building was added in 1934, and from the summer of 1935 a separate power station supplied the factory with electricity and heat. In 1947 one of the office buildings became the seat of the Berlin-Weißensee School of Art .

After production was discontinued in 1991, the entire area became the property of the trust company . Concordia Bau und Boden AG, a real estate company from the Rhineland, acquired the approximately 60,000 square meters in order to create a new office district at this point. The redesign and construction plans were supplied by Storr-Consulting from Munich together with the Berlin architect Günter Stahn .

In April 1992 the striking chimney was blown up. The existing buildings - if they were not ready to be demolished - were completely renovated, and six commercial buildings in a block structure with clinker cladding were added. Concordia has invested around DM 600 million . Each individual building was given - as it is called in "good Bauhaus tradition" - its own name, each of which honors an important artist:

Two more new buildings had been added by 2015:

  • Florence-Henri-Haus after the French photographer and painter Florence Henri and
  • Werner Graeff House after the German visual artist ("artist engineer") Werner Graeff .

The entire complex became a service and trade center (DGZ) , the new access and access road took on this name: DGZ-Ring and other traffic routes on the site were given new names, also after famous artists. - The Physiotherapy Academy found a home in the historic Elfe factory building . This gave up the location in 2016 and the Berlin Bilingual School moved there in the late summer of the same year .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d rubber. Gold strips. Large lathes,…. Pp. 77-89.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h Bennewitz: Die Industrie in Weißensee , ... p. 102.
  3. ↑ a b Bilingual school moves to Wassili-Kandinsky-Haus in the DGZ . In Berliner Woche , Sept. 22, 2016, accessed on Nov. 24, 2017.
  4. ↑ a b c Keyword-like presentation of the history of the VEB Elfe on the homepage of a stamp dealer ; Retrieved Nov. 28, 2014.
  5. ^ Residents> Monheim, L. In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1922, II, p. 2159.
  6. ↑ Business Directory> Chocolate . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1925, II, p. 610.
  7. ^ Residents> Monheim, Leonhard . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1943, IV, S. 2013 (residential address is identical to the address of the chocolate factory).
  8. ^ Chocolate in the German Democratic Republic; Retrieved Nov. 24, 2017.
  9. ↑ Susanne Koelbl: Der Spiegel 17/91: A secret sweet table . The search for the stuff chocolate is made of , accessed on Nov. 23, 2017.
  10. ↑ Then everything collapses . In: Der Spiegel . No. 19 , 1990 ( online ).
  11. ↑ a b c d e Elfe chocolate paper , accessed on Nov. 23, 2017.
  12. ↑ a b Manufactured in the 1960s, sorting and packaging as student work during the winter holidays
  13. ^ View of the Elfe factory complex in Berlin-Weißensee. In: Berlinische Monatsschrift , 1999.
  14. ↑ History White Lake on berlin-weissensee.de (Website of the association Weißenseer Heimatfreunde); Retrieved Nov. 24, 2017.
  15. ↑ a b Antje Berg: An office town is being built on the site of the former chocolate factory . In: Berliner Zeitung , February 4, 1995.
  16. ↑ SAfP homepage accessed on Nov. 28, 2014.