Germany / Bavaria / Rodach (Bad Rodach)
[1] : Porzellan- und Feinsteingutfabrik Max Roesler, Rodach (July 1894 until ...)
The company was officialy registered on the 24th of July 1894 in the town of Rodach, a small town between Coburg and Suhl which is perhaps better known today as 'Bad Rodach' as it officially advanced to a Spa in the year 1981. The trade register entry states that it was set up for 'fabrication, decoration and sales of porcelain, stoneware and other fine earthenware' and the symbol of a rose derived from the name Roesler was taken as part of the mark designed for their products. During January 1895 the first sculptural samples were lined up for design- and product registration but it still took some time until actual production started as the company still had to employ enough skilled workers; in the year 1900 Max Roesler however already owned about 1,000 different registered designs.
During 1910 Heinrich Pudor mentioned the company of Max Roesler in his article 'Kunstkeramische Werkstätten', praising the individuality and originality of the products and the artistic company profile. In the same year, the company changed into a corporation, namely 'Porzellan- und Feinsteingutfabrik Max Roesler A.G.'. At the end of 1912 the company had 33 salaried employees and a workforce of 372 (270 men and 102 women) as well as 32 young apprentices. Sixty percent of the annual turnover was made on the German market, the other fourty percent came from international trading with Russia, Austria-Hungaria, France, Denmark, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Sweden, England, Australia, Central- and South America and the United States. Part of the success was based on the fact that quite a lot of patterns and designs came from the artist Franz Josef Mayer.
Production was stopped in August 1914 with the outbreak of the First World War as nearly all orders were cancelled and the railroad-based transport were needed for soldiers and military equipment. This got better in the year 1915 as production on a small scale was restarted. But from the 300 males working for Max Roesler around 150 had been forced into military service. Directly after the war, things did not look good at all and in Juli 1919 the banking house run by the Arnold brothers, the 'Bankhaus Gebrüder Arnold' in Dresden took over as new owner. From then on, things began to look better. Orders were pouring in and the maximum production capacity was soon reached. As a side note it is worth a notice that the 'Bankhaus Gebrüder Arnold' also was shareholder of the Porzellanfabrik C. Tielsch & Co. A.G. company in Altwasser (Silesia).
[2] : Porzellan- und Feinsteingutfabrik Max Roesler, Darmstadt (1923 until 1931)
In 1923 the company took over the 'Großherzogliche Keramische Manufaktur G.m.b.H.' in Darmstadt and production started in 1924 after extensive conversion of the facility. During the same period the company also took over the woodworking plant 'Holzwarenfabrik Ludwig Eckhardt' in Hildburghausen to increase furniture production. But the economic upturn did not last long and during 1926 all parts of the business were running badly again. Even the small recovery during 1927 and 1928 did not help to strenghten the company against what was still to come. In 1929, Max Roesler found his company suffocating in the iron grip of the worldwide economic crisis and in 1931 the factory in Darmstadt had to be closed.
[1] : Porzellan- und Feinsteingutfabrik Max Roesler, Rodach (... until March 1943)
The company however never fully recovered from that blow and in 1938 it was finally put up for sale. Through an extensive aryanisation project a Bavarian minister of the interior was able to catch the attention of the 'Siemens-Schuckert Werke' in Berlin who helped the company by using it as a subsidiary for its own production; the Rodach factory still produced earthenware until 1940 but was more and more forced to produce urgently needed porcelain insulators. In March 1943 the 'Max Roesler A.G.' merged with the 'Siemens-Schuckertwerke A.G.', resulting in the 'Siemens-Schuckertwerke Porzellanfabrik Rodach' and the name Max Roesler was erased from the trade register.
For a short period after World War II the factory produced earthenware again, but only to fulfill the basic need of the population. During the period from 1956 and 1957 the ceramic production was finally stopped and the whole factory was converted into a plastics processing plant and renamed to 'Siemens Kunststoffpresswerk Rodach'. In the year 1995 the French company 'Valeo' took over the facility from Siemens and started to produce car air conditioning systems. All that remains of Max Roesler today except for the collectibles still around is his residential building which is nowadays used as administartive building by the city council of Bad Rodach.
Mark Comments:
Please note that the often quoted 'R-V-R' mark is wrong. Both long sides of the 'Rs' make up the two outer long parts of the letter 'M'. Knowing this it is easy to see that it shows 'R-M-R', standing for 'Roesler, Max, Rodach' and so nearly the same as with products from Darmstadt: 'R-M-D' for 'Roesler, Max, Darmstadt'.
Marks
(Picture by David Torreggiani).
(Picture by Ann Walker).
(Picture by Elke Träger).
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