Georg Leonhard Eichner was born in 1806. He completed a three-year apprenticeship with the Nuremberg sheet-metal worker Stief. Usually, a three-year period of travel and work would have followed, but Eichner had to take over the workshop of the sheet-metal worker Johann Jacob Wilhelm Lunz at Hubnersplatz, when its owner fell ill and died. In all of Nurnberg, there was no other apprentice who could make the tin carriages and tin fountains that were the specialty of this shop. Thus, Eichner was lacking the required years of travel when he wanted to become a "Master" of his trade in 1833 - which would enable him to start his own business. In his application, he explained the reasons for his lack of travel: as a well-known expert specializing in fountains, there would have been no other place but Nurnberg for his continuing education.
It is likely that Eichner presented such a fountain with his application. To prepare for the "master's" exams, he took one year of drawing lessons with the architect Karl Alexander Heideloff at the Nurnberg Polytechnic School. For his exam, he had to draw a "so-called Heron fountain." Mr. Heideloff graded his drawing as "executed in good form, with reasonable cleanliness and with remarkable dedication, which fully warrants the grade "Good" ("B" in the modern American grading scale)." Thus, Eichner was accepted in 1833 as "Master" and citizen with all rights and duties. According to the strict laws governing trades, he was allowed to marry only after receiving his "Master" certificate. He married Anna Margarethe Frauenberger, also of Nurnberg.
Subject ID: 29135
MoreGeorg Leonhard Eichner was born in 1806. He completed a three-year apprenticeship with the Nuremberg sheet-metal worker Stief. Usually, a three-year period of travel and work would have followed, but Eichner had to take over the workshop of the sheet-metal worker Johann Jacob Wilhelm Lunz at Hubnersplatz, when its owner fell ill and died. In all of Nurnberg, there was no other apprentice who could make the tin carriages and tin fountains that were the specialty of this shop. Thus, Eichner was lacking the required years of travel when he wanted to become a "Master" of his trade in 1833 - which would enable him to start his own business. In his application, he explained the reasons for his lack of travel: as a well-known expert specializing in fountains, there would have been no other place but Nurnberg for his continuing education.
It is likely that Eichner presented such a fountain with his application. To prepare for the "master's" exams, he took one year of drawing lessons with the architect Karl Alexander Heideloff at the Nurnberg Polytechnic School. For his exam, he had to draw a "so-called Heron fountain." Mr. Heideloff graded his drawing as "executed in good form, with reasonable cleanliness and with remarkable dedication, which fully warrants the grade "Good" ("B" in the modern American grading scale)." Thus, Eichner was accepted in 1833 as "Master" and citizen with all rights and duties. According to the strict laws governing trades, he was allowed to marry only after receiving his "Master" certificate. He married Anna Margarethe Frauenberger, also of Nurnberg.
In 1834, he founded his shop for the making of tin toys. That same year, his only son, Johann Philipp, was born. During the following years, Eichner received international recognition for his work. At the 1851 world fair in London, only two Nurnberg tin toy makers were represented: J. M. lssmayer and G. L. Eichner. The report of the exhibit emphasized the careful execution of Eichner's tin products.2 Most of his products at the fair were carriages with horses. They were equipped with cranks and levers on the wheel axles that "caused the horses to execute a sort of galloping movement as they rolled along."
A carriage with four horses was especially noted. Inside sat toy figures of Queen Victoria of England and her husband, Prince Albert. Eichner also showed a formal royal carriage and a hunting carriage.
When his son was 25 years old in 1859, Georg Leonhard Eichner applied to the magistrate of the town for a concession to start a factory for tin and painted wares under the name of G. L. Eichner & Son. In his application, he gave the following reasons for this move: "I have owned a concession as a sheet-metal worker since 1834. My business is running extremely well, and for 20 years, I have provided continuous employment for 15 male and 6-10 female workers." Eichner mentioned the recognition of his company by the Bavarian King Ludwig I and the medals he had won at exhibitions in Leipzig and Munich, as well as the world fair in London. He also noted that most of his products were sold abroad. His foreign sales had grown so much that he now had to convert his workshop to factory production, a move he intended to do in collaboration with his son. Johann Philipp Eichner, who in 1860 changed his name to Jean Eichner, had enjoyed a "mercantilist" education. He had learned his father's trade from the bottom up. In Esslingen, he apprenticed at the factory for tin and painted wares of C. Deffner. In 1858, he passed his "Master" exams in Nurnberg with flying colors. Now he wanted to join his father's company, to take over the business side, the necessary travels and the search for new samples from abroad. Display cases of Nuernberg manufacturers of fancy goods and toys for the 1876 World's Fair, during test assembly in the St. Catherine's monastery. Foreground: G. L Eichner &Son To convince the magistrate of the need to expand his business, Georg Leonhard Eichner presented his accounts. He owned a house that was paid off,3 the value of which he estimated at 15,000 Gulden. The value of the company was put at 10,000 Gulden. Furthermore, he had savings of 15,000 Gulden. Eichner was not only financially well-off, but also socially inclined. He promised to make sure that his factory employees would be insured in case of illness by a "Krankenunterstuetzungs-Verein" (Sickness Support Association). After his application had been examined by various commissions, such as the "Commission on Trade and Factories of the Town of Nurnberg," Eichner received his concession on March 21, 1860. Only a few days later, he told his loyal customers that his current tin toy workshop now would be called "Blech & Lackirwaaren-fabrik von G.L. Eichner & Sohn" (Factory for Tin & Painted Wares of G. L. Eichner & Son). Around this time, he moved into a new building4 at Egidienplatz 29 with a factory addition at Wolfsgasse 4. During the 1860s, father and son Eichner tried to protect a few of their new products with trade privileges. Among these was a "steam engine designed as a toy and to teach the workings of steam power" in 1866.5 Such a privilege was valid for two years only. Patent taxes and "Stamp Fees" had to be paid. Sometime before 1870, G. L. Eichner left the business. He continued to live in his house at Egidienplatz.6 In 1875, Jean Eichner registered a dancing horse as a trademark, which sometimes can be found on the original packaging of Eichner toys. This horse was the centerpiece of his display case at the 1876 world fair in Philadelphia. In the fall of 1879, Eichner participated at the "Exhibition of the Association of German Tin Workers" in Nurnberg. Only one year later, Eichner had to close his company. His high quality toys were expensive because they were made mostly by hand. Thus, they could not compete with the cheaper, machine-made products from the new tin toy factories. However, his name remained well-known and respected among customers and colleagues even after his bankruptcy. After Eichner moved to Brandenburg in January 1881, his parents remained behind in Nuernberg. His father died on March 16, 1882, his mother five years later on June 20, 1887. Around 1900, the Berlin art journal editor Paul Hildebrandt was one of the first interested in the history of children's toys. He sought to explain the then-current toys based on their history. He considered especially the tin toys as hallmarks of an extraordinary modernity and of the incredible cultural progress of his time. The "Machine Toys" and the "mechanical works of art," as he called the technical and figurative tin toys without modesty, were worthy of the utmost praise, because they opened a whole new world to children, a world that led to the real world. He was one of the first to point out the special aesthetics of the raw material, which could be worked into locomotives, steam engines and figures. He described "children delighting in the gleaming, clean small machines, which had been reproduced with all their working parts." According to their supporters, mechanical tin toys were a welcome replica of a technical world. They were "the pride and pinnacle of toy production." Ernst Paul Lehmann 1893 On September 1, 1881, Ernst Paul Lehmann and Jean Eichner founded the "Blechspielwaaren-Fabrik von Lehmann & Eichner" (Tin Toy Factory of Lehmann & Eichner) in the Prussian town of Brandenburg upon Havel. Lehmann was born on June 9, 1856, in Berlin, while Eichner came from Nuremberg. With the background of economic expansion, Ernst Paul Lehmann and Jean Eichner got together in Brandenburg: two personalities of very different origin, but with a shared business idea. Ernst Paul Lehmann, barely 25 years old, was working as an accountant at a Berlin company, which probably produced tin wares. Berlin, a giant city with 4 million inhabitants, was the industrial center of Germany. The manufacture of white metal wares for house and farm was an important economic activity here. Starting in the 1870s, companies like the "Blech-Emballagen-Fabrik" (Tin Container Factory) of Gerson and the "Spezialfabrik fuer Englisch patentierte Blech-Lackierwaren" (Special Factory for Painted tin Wares Based on English Patents) of Adolf Guttmann were among the best-known in all of Germany.A report on the "Blech- und Lackirwaaren-lndustrie" ("Tin and Painted Wares Industry") of Berlin explained a few years later: "Starting small, this trade has become surprisingly important in a remarkably short period of time. It employs a considerable number of people and steam machines. Most of the manufactured goods are so-called household items, designed for daily use." Apart from normal housewares such as buckets, bowls, basins, and towel holders, so-called "Galanterie-Waren" (fancy goods) were manufactured from tin in Berlin. This consisted primarily of items such as writing utensils, lighters, pencil boxes, clock holders, and tins for coffee, tea, sugar and cookies. A new industry: Blech-Emballagen-Fabriken 0. F. Schafer and Gerson of Berlin, advertisements from: Illustrierte Zeitung fur Blechindustrie. XII. Jg. (1883), No. 22 Lehmann was interested in packaging technology as well, using tin, cardboard, and paper as materials. As an inventor, he was intrigued by the tins, jars, and other containers that were used by various industries. In 1880, he obtained patents for tin containers, including one for a tin with a flip-out lid that acted as a spout. "Paul Lehmann from Berlin (Bruderstrasse 39)" exhibited his portable copy press, his candleholders and patented tins and lids at the first "Allgemeine Deutsche Patent-und Musterschutz-Ausstellung" (General German Patent and Trademark Fair) in Frankfurt/Main in May 1881. The catalog of the fair indicates that he was represented by the "Patent Office" of J. Brandt, Berlin. His useful ideas for packaging received awards in Frankfurt and were noted by the experts in the field. At the time, white metal packaging was a relatively new business within the metal-working industries. Lehmann was able to sell the use of his patents for a limited amount of time to various tin manufacturers. His licensing fees allowed him to finance his partnership in the new company. Today, we can only surmise to whom Lehmann sold his patents for marketing. The partners had to be companies who were keen on patent protection for their goods. Not many tinware companies attended the patent fair with their 1700 exhibitors. However, insiders noted the large and varied program of the Berliner Blech-Emballagen-Fabrik Gerson."Most of the products were trademarked, often even designed by artists. The factory showed trademarked new tins for tea and preserves, tobacco and cigar cases, as well as tins for chemical and pharmaceutical uses. In addition, they offered innovative decorated sheet metal with numerous patterns as supplies for manufacturers of lamps, lanterns, and toys. It is certain that Lehmann, who worked in the same field as Gerson, was in con-tact with the owners Georg H. Gerson and Ludwig Goldstucker. For example, starting in 1888, he ordered printed sheet metal from Gerson for the first toys of his own production. In 1887, Gerson had relocated his factory from Berlin to Brandenburg, which made business between the two companies even easier. For the new company, Ernst Paul Lehmann contributed the necessary capital, which he had earned with his inventions. The much older Jean Eichner (46 years) possessed the knowledge and connections of the traditional Nurnberg tin toy manufacturers. His father, Georg Leonhard Eichner22 had founded a tin toy factory in 1834. His toys had obtained several awards at world and industrial fairs, for example, at the 1850 German Industrial Fair in Leipzig and at the first large World Fair in London in 1851. These awards - together with others in Munich (1854), Vienna (1873), and Nurnberg (1879) - illustrate Eichner's success. A rare photograph from Eichner's participation at the 1876 World Fair in Philadelphia has survived.23 It shows a display case full of tin toys made by _„_G. L. Eichner & Son." The photo was made during the preparations of the fair by Nuremberg companies, when they assembled their stands at the St. Catherine convent in Nuremberg for a dry run. The photo shows the typical Eichner program with horses, carriages, and a tramway with the inscription "Philadelphia". Despite the international renown, the younger Eichner had to declare bankruptcy in 1880. To pay for his debts, the entire factory and all its stocks were sold. How‘ëever, Jean Eichner continued to look for entrepreneurial opportunities. The city registers of Nurnberg noted that "the man has gone to Brandenburg" on January 29, 1881.24 His wife Babette Maria followed three weeks later. There must have been a reason for Eichner, whose home was Nuremberg , to move to Brandenburg. Either he found interesting employment in his field of expertise, or there already were plans to start a new company together with Lehmann. In any case, there was no tin toy manufacturer in Brandenburg who could have employed Eichner. It is possible that he knew Lehmann from various trade fairs, for example the "Ausstellung des Vereins deutscher Blecharbeiter" (Fair of the Association of German Tin Workers) in Nuremberg in 1879, where Eichner displayed some of the wares his company made. Lehmann traveled a lot during his life, and it is safe to assume that he did so during his youth as well. At the time, the German economy was characterized by a "can do" spirit, and in that spirit, Lehmann and Eichner met and started their new company at Plauer Strasse 6. This was the first toy manufacturer to start in Brandenburg. Soon other toy manufacturers followed.26 This was the starting point for a company that played an important part in the industrial development of Brandenburg and that, over the course of the . next 120 years, contributed significantly to German toy history. Business card of Lehmann & Eichner, Brandenburg 1881 _„_ 1884 Little was known about the early years of _„_Lehmann & Eichner." However, following the German reunification, the old archives of E. P. Lehmann Patentwerk have become accessible once again. Fortunately, several of the companies books have survived. Starting in 1881, the daybook, the credit ledger, and the balance ledger30 contain substantial information and exact numbers, dates and facts on the activities of the company. With the founding of the company on September 1, 1881, Lehmann contributed 2500 marks. Eichner only contributed 633 marks, but also wares, which presumably came from his former Nurnberg factory. They agreed to distribute earnings and losses, 5/8ths to Lehmann and 3/8ths to Eichner. That probably represented the share of the initial capital each contributed. The founding of the company required quite a bit of capital at first. At first, ..Lehmann & Eichner" obtained their tools and raw materials mostly from Berlin, where they bought their first balance press in 1881. Metals such as sheet metal, lead, wires, zinc, and copper were obtained from Jacob Ravene Sohne & Co. as well as J. E. Degner, both located in Berlin. Between 1882 and 1884, the money spent on supplies varied between 1800 and 4800 marks a year.32 Production numbers were low, but they increased slowly. The monthly wages of metal workers and painters give some insight into the development of the production. As soon as one year after the founding of the company, additional workers were employed, including carpenters for the making of shipping crates. Starting in mid-1883, Ludwig Bluhm appears in the books. For many years, he remained at Lehmann in his position as the executive secretary. Fritz Boulan was hired in 1884 as a foreman. He, too, continued to work at Lehmann for a long time. This completed the management of the company. It is possible that Eichner brought former employees of his Nurnberg factory to Branden-burg. The knowledge and abilities of the experienced pattern makers and workers represented an invaluable resource, which would have been difficult for a new company to obtain elsewhere. Beginning in April 1884, the monthly wages for the workers decreased rapidly. The company had reached a low point in its history. This development also is obvious in the balance ledger, which illustrates the economic status of the company during its first years. The balance ledger shows the profits and losses, as well as the assets and the success at the end of a business year. During the first two and a half years of their collaboration, "Lehmann & Eichner" were able to increase their sales, but they did not make any money. In 1883, for example, their profits of 4487 marks were outweighed by losses of 9958 marks. The company could survive only because Lehmann put up more of his money. Until the end of 1883, he paid a total of 31,258 marks into the accounts of the company. Not much is known about the toys produced by Lehmann and Eichner. Not a single toy has survived that can be attributed to the company. A business card of Messrs. Lehmann & Eichner indicates that they specialized in "painted items with figures, carriages of all types, etc., for domestic sales and export." It is likely that the toys resembled those Eichner had produced in his Nurnberg factory in previous years. He always had admired the French tin toys. While in Nurnberg, he often got inspiration and models from Paris. He then proceeded to copy the models. Almost no toys at the time were protected by trademarks or patents. Every manufacturer could copy the toys of the competition without legal consequences. It appears likely that business at Lehmann & Eichner was similar to what it was before under the influence of Eichner. There is little data to illuminate the early years of the company.Deliveries of lead wheels indicate that vehicles were produced. Between 1881 and 1883, the wheels were obtained from Paul Ellinger in Nurnberg, and later also from Fritz Haselbach in Berlin. Brushes for the painters also came from Nurnberg, in this case from Schuster & Rehlen. Clearly, there were plans to make their own lead wheels, because in October 1883, Lehmann ordered several dies for casting wheels from W. Holzapfel in Berlin. For the tin carriages, figures were obtained from Louis Kohler in Sonneberg/Thuringia. Bells, which presumably were attached to the vehicles, came from Carl Brull in Furth. But as early as 1882, there are indications for a new product line. Reinhard Hildebrandt, a Brandenburg maker of wood figures, was paid several times for models of tigers and lions. This seems to have been the start of Lehmann's love for animals and figures made from tin. If there were assigned roles for each of the two business partners, Lehmann probably took care of production and finances, while Eichner contributed the good name of his company, his experience, and his knowledge on the distribution of toys. Lehmann probably knew very little about the opportunities for selling toys. The credit ledger shows how much the new company benefited from Eichner's foreign contacts.36 This ledger shows the credit and debt for each customer and supplier. It shows the names of all business contacts and all sales and purchases based on their quantity and value. However, the types of wares sold are mentioned only rarely. During the first four years, a large portion of the toys went directly to British wholesalers in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, and Glasgow. The majority of sales were to London firms such as H. Nathan & Co., W. Payne & Son, D. Hyam & Co., and Wayne & Gerstley.37 It appears that C. F. Stahlecker & Co. were the London representatives, because they had a separate commission account. Only a few toys were exported to other foreign countries. There was only one buyer each in Vienna, Paris, and Chicago.38 While the company was successful exporting toys to England, the sales remained small. Each of the wholesalers bought toys valued between a few hundred and 2700 marks annually. Sales to German wholesalers and dealers were equally mediocre. As to be expected, some toys were sold to Nurnberg and Berlin, where merchants selling toys all over the world were located. Eckart & Co, J. J. Landmann, and A. Wahnschaffe were most important among the Nurnberg wholesalers.39 In Berlin, Max Mittag had been purchasing large quantities of product, and taken more on commission. Other customers in the capital were F. Gaebler, August Weisse, Carl Pflugbeil, and Gustav Sohlke.40 Finally, numerous smaller sales went to Magdeburg, Frankfurt, Leipzig, Konigsberg, and Stettin, as well as customers in Brandenburg itself. H. Lippmann of Hamburg, supplier of white metal to Lehmann & Eichner, advertisement from: lllustrirte Zeitung fuer Bleehindustrie, XIII. Jg. (1884], No. 14 To obtain new customers and visit old ones, Ernst Paul Lehmann traveled to London, Rotterdam, Bremen, and Hamburg in January 1882.41 The wholesalers in London and in the North Sea port cities were important for the small Brandenburg company, because they were key to opening important overseas markets. Already there was a representative of Lehmann & Eichner in Hamburg.42 Furthermore, the largest suppliers and stocks of English white metal were located here. Afterward, Lehmann went to Magdeburg and Leipzig, where Lehmann & Eichner had business contacts from the earliest days of their company. Magdeburg was home to the supplier Carl Hans Blume and to the customer J.H. Schmidt jr. & Co. Leipzig with its fairs, where the international merchants congregated, was a given - any manufacturer had to be represented here. Starting during the first year of the company, Lehmann went to the Easter Fair in spring and the Michael's Fair in fall, both in Leipzig. Rent for rooms at the fairs is a regular entry in the books. In the early days, Lehmann shared a stand with Moritz Gottschalk from Marienberg. It appears that the program of the doll house manufacturer from Sachsen worked well with the tin toys from Lehmann & Eichner on the stand. In the 1880s, the Leipzig Fair still ran for several weeks. It was pre-dominantly a sales fair, where large amounts of everyday products were sold. Lehmann & Eichner maintained a ware-house in Leipzig, as well as a representative who received commission payments.43 Only after 1894 did Leipzig change to a fair where manufacturers showed only samples of their products and buyers then had to place orders.44 To house their collections, the manufacturers rented rooms, where samples were stored. These rooms often were located in the traders' courtyards, which had accommodated the fair in the old days. Often, hotel rooms were used as well to house the samples during the fair. Every year, more and more exhibitors came to Leipzig with their samples. During the 1890s, large fair houses and fair palaces were built in the inner city to accommodate them. Next to the fairs, exhibits of industrial arts and crafts gained increasing importance during the second half of the 19th century. There were the country and world fairs, which provided an overview of the economic and cultural development of the participating countries. In addition, there were numerous specialized fairs for individual professions and trades. The "Organization of German Tin Workers" organized a biennial fair, usually in conjunction with a general meeting of its membership.45 The organization's goal was to present the newest machinery to work tin as well as show tin products made by small manufacturers and large industries alike. The fourth fair of this type was held in Berlin on the grounds of the Philharmonic Concert Hall in Bernburger Strasse between May 10 and June 8, 1883.46The "Illustrirte Zeitung fur Blechindustrie" (Illustrated Journal of the Tin Industry), the journal of the organization, reported in great detail on the preparations as well as the actual event. With an area of 1,500 square meters (16,000 square feet), the luxurious rooms of the "Philharmonic Society" were the backdrop for 295 firms from all over Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Lehmann & Eichner participated and exhibited their wares.47 However, the reports of the fair don't mention them, but only the Nuremberg companies Georg Philipp Reulein with doll bathrooms and stoves, as well as Simon Gunthermann with merry-go-rounds and horse trams.48 Tin toys, grouped with "painted items and toys" were only a very small part of the fair among the displays of machines and tools, fixtures for gas and water pipes, bathroom fixtures, and other appliances for kitchens and houses. Together with small miscellaneous tin wares, toys were grouped with lamps, lanterns, birdcages, dog muzzles, coffee tins and bread baskets. Despite their varied business activities, the partnership of Lehmann & Eichner did not meet expectations. The partnership ended when Jean Eichner died on April 14, 1884 in Charlottenburg near Berlin. He was survived by his wife and eight children. Eichner's death led to a new chapter in the history of the company. Now the sole owner of the company, Ernst Paul Lehmann discontinued the production of toys for several years. One of the reasons for this decision was the lack of export orders after the death of his partner. Exports to England stopped almost abruptly in May 1884,1 a clear sign that during the first years of the company, Eichner's name carried more weight than Lehmann's. Furthermore, the tin toys of Lehmann & Eichner were not protected by patents. They could be copied in Germany and abroad. Finally, the poor economic situation of the company necessitated a change of direction: the year 1884 ended with a loss of more than 10,000 marks.
Subject ID: 29135
Subject ID: 29135