Wiedemann printing house
The Wiedemannsche Druckerei AG is a printing house , which in since 1673 Thuringian Saalfeld is located.
history
17th century
The print shop was founded in 1673 by Johann Ritter († 1714) at Brudergasse 12 as the first print shop in Saalfeld.
On May 27, 1687 Ritter was appointed court printer and received a printing monopoly for the Duchy of Saxony-Saalfeld . In the ducal award document he is referred to as a court printer and he is granted the privilege of
"That everything that in our Princely State Portion of the spiritual and worldly class in tracts, caminibus (poems), sermons, calendars and the like wanted to be printed, wants to be brought to him in our court book printing."
18th century
In 1710 the privilege was transferred to Ritter's son-in-law, Johann Samuel Müller from Saalfeld. After Ritter's death in 1714, Gottfried Böhmer († 1743) from Rudolstadt took over the business. The award document states that Böhmer is allowed
"All kinds of spiritual and secular tracts, writings and books, as the names may have, to be printed both for foreigners and domestic people, but that those in accordance with the spiritual doctrine and nothing again keep or allow God's word and honor, or the high authorities Someone's insult and belittling are enough, so our court printer has to show the material given to him to be printed beforehand to those who have been ordered to be censored and wait for their approval. "
In 1743 it was taken over by Johann Christian Otto Wiedemann, Gottfried Boehmer's son-in-law, 1774 by Johann Michael Gottfried Wiedemann (1774–1810), 1810 by Johann Friedrich Christian Wiedemann (1810–1841), 1841 by Johann Wilhelm Anton Wiedemann (1841–1873) , In 1873 by son-in-law Albert Müller (1845–1895).
19th century
In 1880 it was relocated to a new factory at Georg- (Kelz-) Straße 22. The proportion of color prints that can be burned in was increased.
In 1893 the factory was destroyed. It burned down except for one building that closed off the property to the southeast and contained the photography department. The entire machine park, the fonts, paper supplies and a large warehouse of lithographic stones were destroyed. The fire damage amounted to around 500,000 marks, a particularly high sum for those times. The factory was rebuilt after the fire.
From 1895 the sons Max, Paul and Fritz Müller continued the business.
20th century
On April 1, 1910, the Schlick & Schmidt lithographic establishment was affiliated, which was sold to the Wiedemannsche Hofbuchdruckerei after disputes about heritable building.
In 1913 bankruptcy took place and the takeover by the Jewish businessman Dr. Leo Gutmann. He founded a rescue company as a stock corporation , whose main shareholder was Gutmann himself.
From 1919 to 1921, Wiedemann printed the Saalfeld emergency and inflation money as well as that of other cities, for example Kirchhain .
From 1922 to 1925, the company expanded with a focus on lithography, with the following result:
- 221 employees, 6 lithographic high-speed presses, 14 lithographic hand presses, 10 auxiliary machines
- Printing of postage stamps , ration cards, emergency money in Saalfeld
- Construction of a new paper warehouse.
From 1927 to 1933 new economic problems led to the temporary shutdown and layoff of 134 employees. Hermann Diemert (* 1892 in Oberhochstadt / Pfalz) became the new director in 1928 .
After the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, the previous owner Leo Gutmann had to gradually give up operations. Director Hermann Diemert initially took over 30%, later 100% of the stock. Leo Gutmann left Germany in 1933.
From 1935 to 1937 the printer had to stop paying again. This was followed by repeated bankruptcies and the partial shutdown of the company. Only a little printing work is carried out, instead the production of seed bags for vegetable and flower nurseries takes place.
From 1939 to 1946 the company premises were leased to the Emil Neuffer shoe factory in Pirmasens. Negotiations about a lease were also underway with AEG. Hermann Diemert was under Gestapo observation.
In December 1945 Diemert was expropriated, but still remained operations manager. A laundry was built on the company's premises, initially for the Red Army. The company was later converted into a KG. Furthermore, there were hardly any print jobs.
In 1949 Hermann Diemert went to the West.
In 1951 the plant was designated as Plant III as part of the VEB United Abziehbildwerke Leipzig, Nerchau, Saalfeld . In 1967 it was renamed VEB Technodruck . The name Wiedemann disappeared. The company produced decals in stone printing (up to 40,000 sheets a day). Book and offset printing were handed over to VEB Ernst Thälmann in Saalfeld. At the end of the 1950s there were eight lithographic machines. The company specialized in ceramic colored printing for the porcelain industry. The managers were Erich Gräßel (1949–1975), Hans Scheidig (1975–1980) and Norbert Frank (1980–1990).
After Holdhoff & Co. was dissolved in 1952, its staff and orders were taken over.
From 1971 the changeover to screen printing took place with the last four machines with a drying tunnel (Westtechnik). The company had 62 employees, 70% of them women. The old shed roofs of the machine hall have been removed.
Around 1975 Technodruck was incorporated into the Feinkeramik Kahla combine.
On the night of July 1, 1985, the factory was damaged by arson.
Turning point and situation until today
From 1990 to 1993 the company was owned by the Treuhand and was converted into a GmbH . Since 1993 he has been working again under the name Wiedemannsche Druckerei AG . The owners changed several times and there were numerous layoffs.
In 2000 it was taken over by Könitz Porzellan GmbH .
In 2005, Wiedemannsche Drucker AG had 28 employees, four PLC printing systems with a drying tunnel and a monthly printing output of around 50,000 sheets.