Wendt & Kühn
| Wendt & Kühn KG
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|---|---|
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| legal form | Limited partnership |
| founding | 1915 |
| Seat | Grünhainichen |
| Number of employees | 196 |
| Website | www.wendt-kuehn.de |
Wendt & Kühn KG is a Grünhainichen- based manufacturer of painted wooden figures and music boxes in the tradition of the Ore Mountains , which meanwhile have museum and collector character.
Company history
The company was founded on October 1st, 1915 by Margarete "Grete" Wendt and Margarete Kühn . In the same year, with the support of her parents, Grete Wendt acquired the Carl Weber toy and mail order company, which was built around 1830, and converted it into a manufactory . In the spring of 1916, the company was first represented with its products at the Leipzig trade fair . The work received a great deal of attention , including from the German Werkbund . Numerous orders followed. The local labor shortage in the First World War was compensated for in 1917 with French and Russian prisoners of war who worked as turners in the factory. Due to the great demand for grave crosses , grave monuments and grave crosses made of wood were produced in a separate department of the manufactory during the war. After the war in 1919, Grete Wendt's brother Johannes joined the company as a co-owner and took on the accounting duties . A year later, Olga "Olly" Sommer, a graduate of the Dresden School of Applied Arts, was hired as a designer. After their marriage in 1920, the company founder Margarete Kühn left the company; However, the name Wendt & Kühn was continued due to the popularity. After Margarete Lohrisch-Kühn left, the focus was increasingly on figurative woodwork. In 1923, Grete Wendt designed three angels as a Christmas present - with a torch, with a violin and with a flute - with green wings and the characteristic eleven white dots. These angels have been part of the company's product catalog since 1925 and are protected by trademark law as Grünhainicher angels .
Most of the designs for figures and music boxes originated in the 1920s and 1930s. At the end of the 1920s, the company achieved around 75% of its sales with exports . Some figure designs, such as the Dutch figures, the fish women or the Lucia train, reflect the focus on the international market. In 1930 Olly Sommer married Grete Wendt's brother Johannes. After stagnating sales as a result of the economic crisis in the early 1930s , the company expanded again in the following years. She also produced commissioned work for promotional gifts and Christmas presents for companies - including for the Wanderer-Werke Chemnitz , Volksfürsorge Versicherungsgesellschaft Hamburg, Brotunion Chemnitz and Krausswerke Schwarzenberg . After the outbreak of the Second World War , the company's economic situation worsened again: In addition to a shortage of workers and materials, the product ranges - despite the great international success - did not correspond to the National Socialist zeitgeist. Ultimately, the company also produced models of ships and military vehicles for officers' schools during the war. Johannes Wendt was arrested in September 1945 and died at the end of 1945 in POW camp 437 in Tscherepowez .
In 1946, due to the referendum in Saxony, 50% of the company was expropriated . Margarete Wendt was able to buy back the nationalized company shares on June 4, 1947. In 1954, Hans Wendt joined the company and took over management in 1957. The company was nationalized and renamed “VEB Werk-Kunst Grünhainichen” in 1972. The initials “WK” for “Werk-Kunst” and “Wendt & Kühn” were retained. Hans Wendt was able to continue running the company as operations director; Grete Wendt left the company after the nationalization. Olly Wendt worked in the manufactory well into the old age of 87.
After the reprivatisation on July 1, 1990, Hans Wendt started the new beginning of "Wendt & Kühn KG" in Grünhainichen. In October 1997 his son Tobias Wendt joined the company. From January 1, 2002 until the end of 2010, he managed the company. Since then the company management has been in the hands of Florian Wendt and Claudia Baer, born Wendt.
Wendt & Kühn KG is still based in the half-timbered house in Grünhainichen , which was acquired shortly after the company was founded . The company currently employs around 200 people, including around 80 figure painters and 4 painters who are specifically responsible for the distinctive faces of the figures.
The company's products are sold in two of its own shops - at the company's headquarters in Grünhainichen and Seiffen - as well as 750 authorized specialist dealers in Germany and 250 commercial agencies abroad (as of 2016).
range
The first works that Grete Wendt had designed before the company was founded are included in the company's range. The early Wendt & Kühn figures include the figure group Beerenkinder (1913), the designs that the artist presented for the Werkbund exhibition in Cologne in 1914 and the 28th angel that Grete Wendt designed for her brother in 1914 and sent to the front for Christmas Has. This angel, which is still produced in various sizes today, will have a decisive influence on the design of the figures for over 100 years. Characteristic features of the figures are the figures designed by Grete Wendt, composed of several rotating shapes, which conveyed a greater liveliness compared to the figures with tablet arms customary at the time. In the first few years the company still mainly produced painted chipboard boxes based on Margarete Kühn's designs.
To date, more than 2500 figure designs and drawings handed down by the company founder Grete Wendt and the designer Olly Wendt form the basis of the range. Just like 100 years ago, the figures are handcrafted by skilled workers in the workshops in Grünhainichen in Saxony .
More figures are added to the range every year. Their prototypical production based on the original designs of the creators is the top priority at Wendt & Kühn. It was and is above all the Grünhainichen angels with the characteristic eleven white dots on the wings that define the traditional Wendt & Kühn brand. They are known around the globe in almost 150 different variants, mostly as musicians.
Furthermore, the colorful and figurative music boxes, wall clocks, candlesticks, chipboard boxes as well as the margarite angels, flower children, Easter figures and wall calendars with figures of the year are produced. The range currently includes around 400 figures. In the last few years exclusive, limited collective editions ( tone color white and the annual gold editions ) have been added to the company's sales range.
Products (selection)
- Beerenkinder , 1913, Grete Wendt
- Lichterengel (28th angel), 1914, Grete Wendt
- Knauldamen , 1920–1937, 16 variants
- Chandelier spider , early 1920s
- Grünhainicher Engel (musician angel ), from 1923, Grete Wendt
- Lippersdorfer Engel , from 1923, Olly Sommer (later Wendt)
- Lunar family , 1925, Olly Sommer (later Wendt)
- Schoolchildren , 1925, Grete Wendt
- Dutch woman with two churns (spools of thread), around 1925
- Margaritenengel , from 1925, Olly Sommer (married Wendt)
- Däumling in seven mile boots (for the Volksfürsorge Hamburg), late 1920s
- "Lindbergh" music box , 1928, Grete Wendt
- Flower children , 1929–1937, Grete Wendt
- Place card holder, 1930–1933, Grete Wendt
- Children's room angel clock , 1931
- Christmas Train Music Box , 1932, Grete Wendt
- Gift angel , 1936, Olly Wendt
- Hans Kunterbunt , 1937
- Engelberg with Madonna , 1937, Grete Wendt
- Bread cart (for the Chemnitz Bread Union), 1937
- Brocade angel for Johannes Wendt, 1945
- Light-bearing angels with curly wings, after 1945, Grete Wendt
- Hamburg carpenter , after 1945
- Jan Kimm (for Iduna Germania Hamburg), 1959
- Cradle group music box , 1950s
- Angel with candle holder , 1964, Olly Wendt
- Angel Gold Edition , Annual Angel , since 2009
- Edition Klangfarben Weiß , since 2015
Appreciation
The figure group Engelgruppe with Madonna was awarded the gold medal and the Grand Prix at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937 . The two artists, Hans Wendt, and the company's products were subsequently awarded several high prizes.
The Museum of Saxon Folk Art in the Jägerhof (Dresden) presented a comprehensive exhibition to mark the company's 100th anniversary from June 20, 2015 to January 10, 2016. In addition, on October 3, 2015, the company opened a “world of experience” to mark its 100th anniversary. On 270 square meters on the ground floor of the historic half-timbered house, which serves as the company headquarters, not only wood art is sold, but the entire process of the handicraft from the forest to the showcase is shown.
In 2016, the Federal President Joachim Gauck presented the Japanese Emperor Akihito , Empress Michiko and Crown Prince Naruhito with an angel orchestra with Wendt & Kühn angels as a gift.
An oversized music box with typical Wendt & Kühn figures decorates the center of Grünhainichen every year at Christmas time. The figures are exhibits in numerous folkloric and local history museums, including the Manufactory of Dreams in Annaberg-Buchholz , the Museum of Saxon Folk Art in Dresden, the Saxon-Bohemian Ore Mountains Museum in Marienberg , the Ore Mountains Toy Museum Seiffen and the Christmas and Toy museum exhibited at Scharfenstein Castle .
literature
- Cordula Bischoff, Igor Jenzen: 100 years of Wendt & Kühn. Dresden Modernism from the Ore Mountains . Chemnitzer Verlag, 2016, ISBN 978-3-944509-31-0 .
- Cordula Bischoff: 100 years of Wendt & Kühn. Dresden Modernism from the Ore Mountains. In: Communications from the Saxon Heritage Protection Association, issue 2/2015, pp. 13-16
- Ehrhardt Heinold: Heavenly messengers from the Ore Mountains. The world-famous angels from Wendt & Kühn. 2nd edition, Husum 2008
- Wendt & Kühn KG (ed.): Our story - workshops for fine figural woodwork and music boxes , Plauen 2010
Web links
- Simply heavenly! 100 years of Wendt & Kühn. MDR Saxony. 2014, accessed January 3, 2016 .
- Official website of the company
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wendt & Kühn KG (ed.): Our story - workshops for fine figural woodwork and music boxes . Plauen 2010, p. 24 .
- ↑ Wendt & Kühn KG (ed.): Our story - workshops for fine figural woodwork and music boxes . Plauen 2010, p. 25 .
- ↑ Cordula Bischoff, Igor Jenzen: 100 Years Wendt & Kühn - Dresden Modernism from the Ore Mountains . Ed .: Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. Chemnitzer Verlag, Chemnitz 2016, ISBN 978-3-944509-31-0 , p. 66 f .
- ↑ Wendt & Kühn KG (ed.): Our story - workshops for fine figural woodwork and music boxes . Plauen 2010, p. 27 .
- ↑ a b c d Wendt & Kühn KG (ed.): Our story - workshops for fine figural woodwork and music boxes. Plauen 2010, p. 118-122 .
- ↑ Time table from Wendt & Kühn (accessed on January 3, 2016)
- ↑ Lived tradition at Wendt & Kühn | Wooden figures & angels made of wood - Wendt & Kühn Grünhainichen. In: www.wendt-kuehn.de. Retrieved December 29, 2016 .
- ↑ a b c Chemnitzer Verlag und Druck GmbH & Co. KG: An orchestra for the imperial family. In: Freiepresse.de. Retrieved December 28, 2016 .
- ↑ Wendt & Kühn KG (ed.): Our story - workshops for fine figural woodwork and music boxes . Plauen 2010, p. 17 .
- ↑ Wendt & Kühn KG (ed.): Our story - workshops for fine figural woodwork and music boxes . Plauen 2010, p. 30 .
- ^ Website for the exhibition ( Memento from January 2, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) on the website of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
- ↑ Sebastian Münster: Angels continue to give wings with a new concept , September 30, 2015, accessed on October 14, 2015.