PM&M [Germany / Lower Saxony / Farge (Bremen-Farge)]

Due to a lack of natural resources, the region around Bremen cannot be described as a typical earthenware production area. As Bremen was (and still is) a large seaport, potteries there depended on transport from England delivering everything needed for a small community of facilities, some of which produced fairly nice earthenware. However, the market itself showed no particular interest, and the first potteries soon closed. Around the year 1800, the last factory, located in Lesum near Bremen and owned by Johann Christoph Vielstich, closed. More and more cheap imports from England were released onto the market by companies based in seaports and distributed throughout Germany.

The situation changed dramatically around 1850 when Germany introduced the Customs Union, drastically increasing duty on nearly all imported products. Until then, the cheapest earthenware available in Germany was imported from England, where it had been invented in 1725. The almost endless supply of underpaid workers in England meant that companies there could produce and export earthenware at a much lower cost than German companies could manage.

The new duties, of course, ruined the market for English salesmen, but they enabled German manufacturers to compete directly with British manufacturers and slowly regain ground in their own home market. The timing could not have been better. Demand for cheap tableware was high at that time, especially since earthenware manufacturers had developed mixtures that could easily rival the quality of much more expensive porcelain.

The German strategy of raising duties paid off perfectly, as it became cheaper to import the necessary raw materials from England and produce items locally. One person who was keeping a close eye on this market was Bremen shipowner W.A. Fritze, who saw an opportunity to earn money not only by transporting raw materials for other companies, but also by producing items himself - using the raw materials he had imported from England, of course.

As his position as a shipowner required his constant presence, Fritze decided to transfer responsibility for the new business to his son, Johannes Fritze, who was given a large sum of money to get started. It did not take long for Johannes Fritze to arrange a meeting with Simeon Sowerbutts, a British earthenware dealer and wholesaler who owned Simeon Sowerbutts & Co. in Bremen. Sowerbutts' experience in earthenware production and knowledge of facility technology would be a great help, and he knew that trade with England was going to cease completely.

However, they still needed more funds and local support, so the two men decided to contact the mayor of Farge. He owned a large iron and copper wholesale business, and he was English himself: James Bethuel Boyes. They came to an agreement very easily, deciding to found a stoneware factory in Farge and choosing the name Witteburg to commemorate the destruction of the Witteburg Castle in 1227. The castle had belonged to the Archbishop of Bremen (Gerhard II) and served as a toll-collecting station.

Construction of the factory, which was entirely overseen by Englishmen under the direction of Simeon Sowerbutts, involved levelling a large area, including a former railway oil facility located next to the River Weser, and cost an impressive 11,000 Goldthaler (a former gold coin currency). The factory finally opened on 1852-10-16, featuring two normal kilns and three smaller glazing kilns.

As technical director of the factory, Sowerbutts instantly started solving the few problems that every new facility faced, using his contacts to acquire specially skilled workers from England. By 1853, the factory supported a workforce of 150 people, half of whom were either English or had lived in and around Bremen for some time. In order to support the imported skilled workers and make life easier for the other English workers in the area, the company built its own working-class housing estate. This estate is still officially named the Kolonie ("colony") and was nicknamed Englische Reihe ("English Row") by the townsfolk.

For the first four years, the German workers were carefully instructed by their English colleagues and foremen, some of whom later returned to England, while others stayed in Bremen. One example of someone who stayed in Bremen was the copperplate engraver Richard Taylor, who, together with his son Richard Taylor Jr. (who later also became mayor of Farge), was actually responsible for most of the decorative styles on Witteburg products.

The reason Taylor was so vital to achieving success is obvious: decorations during that period were transferred via tissue paper that had previously been printed with the design. The printing plates, and of course the designs themselves, were made by copperplate engravers. During the initial phase of the company, not only did Witteburg products have to compete with the still-incoming English products in terms of price (even though the odds had changed in their favour), they also had to resemble the imported goods that customers had previously loved. The decorative styles used on items from England were modified versions of Chinese and Japanese designs, and Richard Taylor and his son were quite capable of supplying the Witteburg factory with such designs.

It is easy to imagine that, especially during the first years, all designs showed a significant Japanese and Chinese influence. In fact, some pieces were produced until 1920. Most of these pieces were marked with the somewhat confusing Weser addition (see the marks section of this document). Today, no one can say for sure whether this was actually the name of the decorative style or simply a statement that the Witteburg factory was located on the Weser River (which flows through Bremen), just as some pieces from other manufacturers display Rhein to indicate the River Rhine, as is the case with items from Franz Anton Mehlem (located in Poppelsdorf near Bonn).

Naturally, a greater variety of decorations were also used, particularly in the later years, when the company had become more established and the market had changed in such a way that more and more people wanted something different. The local museum still owns an impressive collection of the original transfer sets used by the factory.

As a side note, the increasing success of the Witteburg factory even convinced investors and businessmen from Bremen and Vegesack to found the Norddeutsche Steingutfabrik in 1869. However, due to the war of 1870/71, they started production two years late and soon fell behind expectations, despite producing crockery similar to that of the Witteburg factory. In some cases, items can only be distinguished by the base marks used, which is a result of the first factory directors (Scherenberg and Springer) both being former Witteburg employees. Initially, the situation of the Norddeutsche Steingutfabrik was dire, but they soon caught up with the Witteburg factory.

[2] Steingutfabrik Witteburg AG (1898 until 1914)

The business itself was constantly growing, and on 1898-04-22 the company was transformed into a stock corporation and began experimenting with various types of products. As shown in a 1900 catalogue (which includes 270 pictures), the range of products had increased drastically over the years to include match holders and strikers, inkwells, cuspidors, lamp bases, shop window displays, and small advertising signs.

However, a short time later, it was decided to focus on one project only, as the market was changing once again, with an increasing preference for porcelain items. A total change in production finally came in 1905, when three new kilns were built to enable large-scale production of colourfully glazed wall and floor tiles. However, from 1907 onwards, the whole business declined constantly, and when the first signs of the First World War became visible in 1914, the board of directors decided to shut down the factory completely.

[3] Steingutfabrik Witteburg AG (1919 until 1957)

The factory was left locked up under the supervision of a few watchmen until 1919, when the Norddeutsche Steingutfabrik bought the entire factory. After modernisation under new management, work resumed in the factory at the end of the same year. Over time, until 1939, the factory was slowly converted into a facility specialising in floor tiles, but production had to be halted during World War II. Following the war, demand was so high that the facility was reopened almost immediately.

The action did not last long, as work was stopped again in the first months of 1952 due to the deteriorating economic situation in the area. A few months later, the town of Bremen and the Norddeutsche Steingutfabrik joined forces to help the many unemployed people, and the facility was reactivated on 1952-10-08, offering work to 130 people for 48 hours per week. This was a significant achievement; by contrast, the neighbouring Spinnbau GmbH textile machinery company had to put 200 of its 900 employees on short-time working.

However, time was running out for the factory in Farge. In 1957, Norddeutsche Steingutfabrik decided to restructure the entire company, resulting in the consolidation of the main business and its subsidiaries, Bremer Wandplatten Fabrik GmbH (founded 1912) and Grohner Wandplatten AG (founded 1906), under the name Norddeutsche Steingutfabrik Grohn AG. This marked the end of the Witteburg facility, which was closed and demolished a year later. The former premises later became home to the 345 MW hard-coal-fired Farge power plant.

Marks