Vocabulary:

The name Strupp-Konzern stands for an investment group founded by Dr. Gustav Strupp together with his brothers Meinhold and Louis, who together had inherited the bank house B.M. Strupp from their parents. Strupp (born 1851) and his brothers had taken over business affairs in 1872 and in the year 1905, the former small local bank had advanced to the official Bank of Thuringia under the name of 'Bank von Thüringen vormals B.M. Strupp A.G., Meiningen'. Strupp had a very good eye for opportunities and invested greatly in the German porcelain industry which of course due to its rapid growth needed enormous amounts of money and so the bank located in the small town of Meiningen (Thuringia) became the largest investor in German porcelain history.

When hearing the term 'investor', many people tend to think of somebody that perhaps invests a million here and there. Well, you're in for a shock because when we talk of Strupp, we are not talking about a million or two - that would have been peanuts. The names involved and companies 'owned' by the Strupp Group actually represent the 'Who's Who' of German porcelain manufacturing business and many companies known today would have never reached their status if Strupp hadn't invested in earlier stages. The idea Strupp followed was simple: as to secure their interests, the Strupp brothers only invested in companies that accepted to leave all vital decisions in the hands of (depending on company size) a certain number of directors and advisors that were presented through and paid by the Strupp group.

One of the first facilities that received massive funding was the today relatively unknown facility of 'Kloster Veilsdorf', a location with a long tradition and very interesting history that will be explained elsewhere. Fact is that the business was taken over and refounded and then drastically modernized. It was followed by the 'Porzellanfabrik Königszelt' from Königszelt (Silesia) in December 1886 and based on these two companies alone the Strupp group expanded in a way that even today can only be described as very impressive indeed. During the following years up until 1914 the number of employees working in Strupp-funded companies reached the impressive total of 11,000 people and the largest facility acquired was that of the 'Porzellanfabrik Kahla' which in 1922 was the largest porcelain manufacturer worldwide, requiring around 125,000 tons of raw materials per year. The documents available describing business for 1922 are the most comprehensive and it can be seen that the total business value of the included companies and subsidiaries topped a whopping 94 million Reichsmark in issued shares alone. The whole group by then included the following companies (next to others):

• Porzellanfabrik Arzberg (Arzberg, Bavaria)
• Porzellanfabrik Gebr. Bauscher (Weiden, Bavaria)
• KERAMAG (facilities in Meiningen-Flörsheim, Wesel and Ratingen)
• Porzellanfabrik Lorenz Hutschenreuther (Selb, Bavaria)
• Hutschenreuther Kaolin Fischern (near Schirnding, Bavaria)
• Porzellanfabrik Kahla (Kahla, Thuringia)
• Porzellanfabrik Paul Müller (Selb, Bavaria)
• Porzellanfabrik Rauenstein (Rauenstein, Thuringia)
• Porzellanfabrik Schomburg (Rosslau, Saxony-Anhalt),
  including the 'Hermsdorf-Schomburg Isolatoren G.m.b.H.' (better known as 'Hescho'),
  largest producer of porcelain insulators and owner of various patents (e.g. 'TriDelta' array).
• Porzellanfabrik Schönwald (Schönwald, Bavaria)
• Porzellanfabrik Kloster Veilsdorf (Veilsdorf, Thuringia)
• Kemmlitzer Kaolin (Kemmlitz, Saxony)
• Tonwarenfabrik Schwandorf A.G. (Schwandorf, Bavaria)

As the whole group greatly relied on the charismatic Strupp brothers and their talent of organization and knowledge of the financial world, it became obvious that it could not go on forever as the founders were by now growing old. Instead of trying to continue and perhaps risking failure, the whole investment group was slowly downsized from 1925 onwards and finally dissolved completely in 1927, with everybody involved receiving their fair amount of profit. As said, many German porcelain manufacturers known today would never have been able to expand or even continue business if it hadn't been for the three brothers from Thuringia who for a short time were the wealthiest and most influencial people in Germany.