Wilhelm Kratz (collector)

Wilhelm Kratz (* 1873 in Frankfurt am Main ; † 1945 ibid) was a Frankfurt needle manufacturer and faience collector.

Life

The 30-year-old Wilhelm Kratz had been a partner in the family business since 1903. The factory located on Burgstrasse in the north end of Frankfurt produced medical needles and he had successfully developed improved products made of stainless steel and brought them to market. He founded a faience collection at a time of new knowledge in historical research. He married Johanna Waag and moved into the town house in Steinlestr in 1922. 23. The couple had four children.

Faience collection

In the course of his life, Wilhelm Kratz brought together an unusually extensive collection of faience with more than 800 objects . In 1925 he presented this collection to the public for the first time. In the 1930s he bought a villa in Kronberg im Taunus for his extended family . Wilhelm Kratz died in the summer of 1945 and left a meticulous compilation of this collection. It was acquired by the City of Frankfurt in 1954 for the Frankfurt Historical Museum . It is exhibited there today and offers visitors the opportunity to bring the development stages of the diverse production at the Porzellanhof back to life together with the imagery of early Chinese porcelain.

literature

• Petra Schmied-Hartmann: Frankfurt Chinese. The Frankfurt faiences of the needle manufacturer Wilhelm Kratz (1873-1945) . In: Frankfurter Collectors and Donors (= writings of the Historisches Museum Frankfurt Volume 32). Frankfurt 2012, pp. 209-221.