Weimar Porcelain Manufactory

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Weimar Porcelain Manufactory Betriebs-GmbH
legal form GmbH
founding 1790
Seat Blankenhain , Thuringia
management Turpin Rosenthal
Number of employees 64 (2018)
Branch porcelain
Website [1]

The Weimar porcelain factory was a German company in Blankenhain 1790-2018 porcelain made.

Porcelain painting

history

founding

On June 8, 1790, the manufacturer and ceramist Christian Andreas Speck asked Friedrich Graf von Hatzfeld to build a porcelain factory in Blankenhain . On July 1, 1790, the concession to manufacture porcelain in Blankenhain was approved by Count Friedrich von Hatzfeld in Vienna . The fireproof production site was to be the shooting house, built in 1780, which Speck acquired. The clay from Tannroda , quartz sand - and sand containing feldspar came from Schwarza and from the area around Blankenhain for the production of porcelain . The mass was ground and slurried in our own mill on the lake pond.

The conditions for the production of porcelain were good, only the rulers changed during that time. Political stability only returned after the Battle of Leipzig in 1813 and the Congress of Vienna . Speck managed to come to terms with the respective authorities so that porcelain production was not impaired. In 1797, Speck presented its first porcelain products at the Leipzig trade fair . At the beginning of the 19th century, tableware was made for the middle class household. In 1816, 155 workers were employed by Speck. In 1817 the factory burned down almost completely. After that, the reconstruction proceeded quickly. Christian Andreas Speck died on December 30, 1830 at the age of 69.

Period of instability

After the death of Christian Andreas Speck, the District Chamberlain Gustav Vogt acquired the factory. In March 1836, Vogt sold the porcelain factory to Gottfried Sorge for 17,000 Reichstaler , presumably due to a lack of specialist staff. Sorge was paying significantly more for the china factory than it was actually worth, so he soon had to file for bankruptcy. Gustav Vogt bought the factory back from the bankruptcy estate and then sold it to Mr Streitbarth for 8,300 Reichstaler. Streitbarth entered into a business relationship with H. Kästner from Weimar in 1841. Both streamlined production, but shut down the factory for the time being in 1847 before they sold the manufacture to the Fasolt family.

modernization

The Fasolt family came to Blankenhain from Selb and first modernized the business. After Viktor Fasolt's death in 1856, his widow Elisabeth Fasolt took over the business. In 1879 she handed over the management to her sons Max and Karl Fasolt. The main events in this phase were the introduction of the new factory brand, the Saxon Rautenschild, the construction of three large furnaces for incandescent and smooth firing and the purchase of a new steam engine to operate the mass mill on the factory premises. Further innovations and modernization measures fell during this time, which was characterized by a constantly increasing degree of mechanization of the company. An important point was the establishment of the Weimar-Blankenhain rail link in 1887, which was a great advantage for the factory, which at that time was already mainly producing porcelain goods in large numbers. This made transport cheaper and production figures rose steadily.

Before the First World War

As proof of the company's lively export activities, the diamond shield brand was given the addition "Germany" in 1900. During this time, the production numbers increased constantly. The collaboration with Eichler turned out to be positive, and the increasing influence of the Dux porcelain manufactory also bore fruit. Technical experience, staff and models were exchanged and delivery bottlenecks were eliminated. Both companies suffered a setback when the First World War broke out . Exports ceased and the employees were drafted.

Weimar cobalt painting

In 1917 the Hamburg merchant Ernst Carstens acquired the porcelain factory in Blankenhain from Duxer Porzellanmanufaktur AG and ran it as “E. Carstens KG ”and added a crown and a laurel wreath to the factory mark.

At the beginning of the takeover, raw materials and heating material were scarce, plus the consequences of the German inflation from 1914 to 1923 . Export markets had to be newly acquired and built up. The Carstens family succeeded in revitalizing the export markets through a stylistic renewal of the range and a price reduction. The name Carstens is associated with the introduction of the Weimar cobalt painting , famous since then . As early as 1926, the cobalt porcelain was produced in Blankenhain, which is presumably due to Carstens' good contacts in Bohemia . Carstens followed the artistic trends of Art Nouveau and geared production to customer requirements. In the meantime, Weimar porcelain and its style were known and appreciated in England, Belgium, Finland, Holland, Spain, Switzerland, the USA and in the countries of the Islamic Orient.

In 1928 the protected Weimar Porcelain brand was registered. Worth mentioning are the recurring wage wars in the history of Weimar Porzellan. However, Carstens ran his business with an "iron hand" so as not to go under in the global economic crisis. The dumping prices for exporting production could only be realized with poor wages. As a result, the factory was often on strike. The longest strike lasted three months in 1929. After Carstens' death, his widow and her two sons continued to run the factory until the company became public property on July 18, 1948 .

The state-owned company

Dining service by VEB Weimar-Porzellan Blankenhain, autumn fair 1953

During the time as a state-owned company , efforts were made to build an efficient, modern company. Large investments in buildings, machines and facilities were made. A new production hall (1962), modern electric cobalt tunnel kilns (1963) and the conversion to roller production in the turning shop (1963-1965) were financed. When it was integrated into the Feinkeramik Kahla combine , Blankenhain lost its independence as a porcelain factory. Apart from the advantages of belonging to a large corporation and collectivization, artistic creativity suffered. The artistic profile of the production was geared towards the tastes of the mainly eastern export markets. This meant a return to well-tried shapes and decors in order not to lose the foreign exchange-earning markets.

After the turn

In 1992 the Herbert Hillebrand Bauverwaltungs-Gesellschaft mbH, based in Kerpen-Horrem, acquired the porcelain factory from the Erfurt Treuhandanstalt and continued to run it as “Weimar Porcelain GmbH” as the “Hillebrand family company” until the spring of 1995. In April 1995 bankruptcy was filed, until June 1995 Weimar Porzellan was managed by a bankruptcy administrator. In June 1995 the city of Blankenhain, British American Ltd. bought and Optima Immobilien GmbH raised shares from the bankruptcy estate of Weimar Porzellan. British American Ltd. and Optima Immobilien GmbH sold their shares in the course of 1995/1996 to three executive employees of the company, who thus owned 51% of the shares. The city of Blankenhain still held a 49% stake in Weimar Porzellan. In 2006, Weimar Porzellan was again taken over by the Hillebrand GmbH brothers and sisters, Katharina Hillebrand was the managing director and the three executives, who were also in 199? until 1996 in the management.

In January 2007, Könitz Porzellan bought the company Weimar Porzellan. The managing director and owner is Turpin Rosenthal, who is in the 6th generation in the porcelain industry. In 2018 the company filed for bankruptcy again and was closed on December 31, 2018. KARACA Porzellan Deutschland GmbH holds the trademark rights of the traditional brand.

Varia

  • In 1886, the then owner of the Weimar porcelain factory, Elisabeth Fasolt, financed the production and installation of the glass windows in the choir and the southern extension of the Blankenhain church .

Web links

literature

  • White gold from Blankenhain - On the history of VEB Weimar-Porzellan. Published by the Standing Commission for Culture of the Weimar City Council and the Weimar-Land District Council, 128 pages, Weimar 1981
  • Porcelain from Blankenhain since 1790 - From the collections of the Weimar City Museum in the Bertuchhaus. Text: Barbara Engelmann, design of catalog / photos: Jürgen Postel, publisher: Stadtmuseum Weimar. 31 pages, Weimar 2010, without ISBN
  • Volker Zelinsky: The Art Ceramics of the Carstens Group - Examples for the implementation of abstract modernity in everyday culture 1919-1939 , 420 pages, Hamburg 2018, ISBN 978-3-00-061224-4

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Weimar Porzellanmanufaktur website , with a brief history of the manufactory on which this article is based.
  2. ↑ Weimar Porzellan files for bankruptcy with MDR, April 20, 2018
  3. ↑ Deep sadness: After almost 230 years, the Weimar-Porzellan Thüringer Allgemeine factory closes , article from December 15, 2018, accessed on January 1, 2019
  4. ↑ DPMAregister
  5. ↑ http://d-nb.info/890970327 , accessed on February 14, 2020
  6. ↑ http://d-nb.info/1002110653 , accessed on February 14, 2020