Company history About the exact founding year of the "Solinger Verzinkerei und Zuckerformenfabrik Ewald vom Hofe Nachf. there are no records. The later owner Hermann Barche, however, dated the foundation of the company by Gebr. Hartkopf to the year 1841 as a result of his research. In 1866 it was taken over by the iron and metal wholesaler Peter Holzrichter from Barmen. His son-in-law, the businessman Ewald vom Hofe from Lüdenscheid, managed the Solingen business until 1873 when he took it over completely and ran it under his own name. The sugar loaf mould industry was established in Solingen in the 1840s and 50s as an alternative to the crisis-ridden cutlery industry. The first Solingen commercial register, the "Verzeichnis der im Handelsgerichtsbezirk Elberfeld bestehenden Handelsfirmen" of 1864 (STAS Library IV K 4, 1864), lists three sugar loaf form factories for Solingen. According to the annual reports of the Chamber of Commerce (STAS Library GA 583), this branch of production experienced a good development until the 1870s. Production was mainly for the Rhenish sugar industry, but also for export to almost all European countries, mainly Austria and Russia. But when in the late 1870s the main export countries drastically increased customs duties and lump sugar was introduced in Germany, the production of sugar loaf forms became anachronistic. The annual report of the Chamber of Commerce of 1880 (ibid. p. 21) predicted that most of the 200 employees would have to find a new job. The reports from the following years clearly document this decline. As early as 1883, a quarter of the workers formerly employed (ibid. p. 19) were sufficient to cover the demand for sugar loaf forms. One possible way out of the crisis was taken by a Solingen entrepreneur who relocated production to Russia (ibid.), another alternative was to convert production to ice cells, which had been the company's main product from the farm since the late 1980s. The wage books, which have been available since 1892, show the increasing demand for personnel. While just under 20 workers were employed in 1892, the number rose to just under 30 by 1896. Obviously, however, the production of ice cells was a seasonal business, so that the permanent core of the workforce was supplemented by day labourers when needed. In the week from 30.11.-7.12.1895, for example, 68 workers were on the payroll (cf. No. 265 ff.). In 1899 the Solingen businessman Hermann Rauh, who was also a partner in the Carl Rauh company, bought the Höffgen-based company, including the residential buildings at Kaiserstrasse 253/255 and almost 11,000 square metres of land between Kaiserstrasse and Kreuzstrasse, and continued to run it under the name "Solingen galvanizing plant and sugar mould factory Ewald vom Hofe Nachf. The change of ownership was also accompanied by a relocation of the company, as Hermann Rauh planned to exploit the property by creating the new Kurfürstenstrasse (cf. STAS, Nachlaß Barche, NA 5). In 1904/1905 the company buildings were moved to Eintrachtstraße. An expansion of the company does not seem to have been connected with this, because the number of workers remained about the same. But the strong seasonal fluctuations in the size of the workforce appear to have diminished. Until the First World War, an average of 25-30 workers were employed. The focus of production was on ice cells, which were also sold throughout Europe, but also other sheet metal products such as buckets, barrels, etc. In addition there were sheet metal and galvanizing works, mainly for other Solingen companies. The First World War represented a breakthrough in the obviously good economic development. Despite partial conversion to indirect and direct war production, the balance sheets for the war years are partly in the red (No. 435) and the workforce declined to about 10-12 men, by the end of 1917 even to 6 men. Also the early years of the republic were economically not very pleasant for the company. In August 1923 the company had to close and was only reopened on 26 February 1924 with 6 employees, when the phase of relative stability of the first German republic also seemed to allow the company Ew. vom Hofe Nachf. a small upswing, until in the world economic crisis again a slump occurred. The balance sheets for the years 1931-1934 show losses (cf. No. 478f.). The war years were marked by rationing of raw materials and a shortage of skilled workers. During the bombing raids on Solingen in November 1944, the company on Eintrachtstraße was also hit. The remaining 5 employees, later only 3, were exclusively occupied with clean-up work until June 1945. The company remained small, the number of employees at the beginning of the century was far from reached. Nevertheless, the start to the "economic miracle" seemed to be off to a good start. For 1951, 12 workers and 2 salaried employees are mentioned (cf. No. 123), but they alone generated an export turnover of more than DM 40,000. The sources for the time after 1945 are rather poor, so that little can be said about the further course of the company. It can only be stated that the company was again in the red at the beginning of the 1960s (see No 127 et seq.). The focus of the portfolio is on the period following the takeover of the company by Hermann Rauh (1899). The following should be emphasized in particular: 1. the wage book series, which is completely preserved from 1892-1953 and contains information on the names of employees, type of employment, wages, (piecework, hourly and daily wages) and deductions (taxes, social insurance) (No. 265-274 and No. 265-274). 50-66); 2. the balance books, which are available from 1912-1935 and then again from 1955-1964 (the latter incompletely filled in) and allow conclusions to be drawn about the economic development of the company (No. 435,478,479,348-350, 127-131); 3. the documentation of customer and supplier traffic. Thus the complete copy book series (correspondence copies) from 1899-1921 (No. 170-193) is available, for the following years numerous individual files. Also complete are the series of invoice books for the period 1905-1955 (no. 90-97) and the current account books for 1913-1940 (special account for each customer and supplier) (no. 476/477); 4. the calculation books, which once include the working calculation books from 1903-1926 (no. 275-280), for later times individual calculations (in no. 373-375) and the total calculation books from 1899-1926 (no. 338, 360, 281-288, 344, 345, 289 and 361) and allow statements about the profit margin. Even after the death of Hermann Rauh on 14.11.1911, the company remained in family ownership. His wife Clara Rauh, née Egen, was heir to the company. She was supported by her son-in-law Karl Barche. The stock was recorded in 1985 by Ralf Rogge.
Mrs. Marianne Peres, née Höltgen (1900-1981) [oo Kurt Peres ( 1951)], and her daughter Ina Tückmantel have handed over the documents listed below Fi 10 No. 1-54 to the City Archives on 6 November 1979. The materials were in inscribed envelopes or with content labels. During processing, they were combined into larger units of description. Only double copies of newspapers were collected. The city archive of Ina Tückmantel received the numbers 55-78 in January 1989, the numbers Fi 10 No. 79 - 92 and Fi 10 No. 98-100 as well as the family Bible (FA 414) in the following years until 2001. Wolfgang Eduard Peres ( 2002) in Heidelberg, son of Kurt Peres from his 1st marriage, meticulously dealt with the history of the company and the Peres family until all ramifications. His scientific legacy lies in the Rheinisch-Westfälischen Wirtschaftsarchiv in Cologne, stock 204. W.E. Peres is the author of the article on Daniel Peres in the Neue Deutsche Biographie 2001, where he also outlines the further history of the company. An impression of his tireless spirit of research may be conveyed by his inquiries and by the copies of sources and adaptations sent to the City Archives. They are annexed to the stock under numbers Fi 10 No 93-97. Have been archived elsewhere: - Cemetery and funeral order for the Evangelical parish of Solingen, Solingen: Alb. Pfeiffer 1912, 32 p. Library: KA 1748 - Reider price list agreed between the Fabrikantenverein and the Reiderverein, Solingen: Richard Theegarten, n.J. Inventory of Solingen price lists: Wi 16 Nr. 121 - Minimum prices of table knife blades, fixed by the members of the table knife racket and blacksmith association on 15.2.1887, Solingen: Robert Koch. Inventory of Solingen price lists: Wi 16 Nr. 122 - Statutes of the Scissors Manufacturers Association of Solingen; Solingen: Richard Theegarten 1881 (?) Library: A 6/18 - Dass. (only changed Management Board), Solingen: Roland Koch. Library: A 6/18 - Statutes of the Association of Solingen Factory Associations, Solingen, Solingen: Richard Theegarten n.a.; 9 p. Library: A 6/19 - Directory of the organs and members of the employers' association of the upper circle Solingen e.V., seat Solingen, 1925/1926 21. S. Library: A 6/20 - Family Bible. Library: FA 414 - Benjamin Kingsbury: Treatise on Barber knives ... Leipzig: no year (ca. 1800). Library: KA 7004 - Flyer for the election Norddeutscher Bund 1867; runoff Trip/Beseler. Stock posters: P 1306 - photo of Franz Peres (1914); company staff (1922), printed company view. Collection Picture archive 1151 (A 3); 1422 (A3); 1423 - 9 maps of the possessions at Kasernenstr./Neumarkt; partly with further surroundings; 1840-1877 Collection maps VII A 88 a-i 1985/2003 Aline Poensgen
The history of the development of the collection After the town unification in 1929, the old registries of the formerly independent towns were first accommodated in the newly established Solingen town archive under the direction of Richard Erntges in the new administration building Cronenberger Straße (formerly WKC). None of the formerly independent cities had previously had their own archives. Erntges - with the help of auxiliary staff - developed these six stocks according to a uniform file plan. Therefore there are gaps in the systematics in all files of the formerly independent cities. In most cases, the individual classification group titles also served as file titles, usually only differentiated according to "generalia" (usually without local subjects) and "specialia" (the files created by the respective city administration for the local occur. Some files, which according to the file plan or tape count had originally once been available, were included in the directory by Erntges because he probably had the hope that the files could possibly appear again. To date, this has not happened, so that in these cases we have to assume cassations before 1929. In the search book you will find the note "empty" in these files. For reasons of completeness, the data records from the "Historical Archive" were also duplicated into this collection, the term of which ends after 1808. Likewise a part of the files (above all school chronicles and trade or restaurant concessions) ends only after 1930, thus correctly belongs to the stock SG. A further distortion has been omitted until today due to time reasons. May 2008 Ralf Rogge
The history of the development of the collection After the town unification in 1929, the old registries of the formerly independent towns were first accommodated in the newly established Solingen town archive under the direction of Richard Erntges in the new administration building Cronenberger Straße (formerly WKC). None of the formerly independent cities had previously had their own archives. Erntges - with the help of auxiliary staff - developed these six stocks according to a uniform file plan. Therefore there are gaps in the systematics in all files of the formerly independent cities. In most cases, the individual classification group titles also served as file titles, usually only differentiated according to "generalia" (usually without local subjects) and "specialia" (the files created by the respective city administration for the local occur. Some files, which according to the file plan or tape count had originally once been available, were included in the directory by Erntges because he probably had the hope that the files could possibly appear again. To date, this has not happened, so that in these cases we have to assume cassations before 1929. In the search book you will find the note "empty" in these files. For reasons of completeness, the data records from the "Historical Archive" were also duplicated into this collection, the term of which ends after 1808. Likewise a part of the files (above all school chronicles and trade or restaurant concessions) ends only after 1930, thus correctly belongs to the stock SG. A further distortion has been omitted until today due to time reasons. May 2008 Ralf Rogge
Carl Richard Müller was born on 2 June 1889 in Knauthain near Leipzig. After finishing school, he learned the profession of gardener from 1903-1906 and then worked in several German and Swiss towns. From the beginning of 1908 until October 1909 he had a job as a gardener at the cemetery on Casinostraße in Solingen. In 1910 and 1911 he did his military service as a naval artillerist in the German colony of Tsingtau in China. At the end of his service he concluded a contract of several years with the company Hernsheim, which traded and planted in the German colonial area of New Guinea/Bismarck Archipelago on the equator north of Australia. In 1912 he worked on the Bismarck Archipelago and the Solomon Islands Bougainville. After an eventful year in which he was able to realize his childhood dream as a planter in the South Seas for the first time, but also lost some illusions about life in the colonies, the employment contract was terminated prematurely (apparently after differences with the company) and Müller returned to Germany via Australia. Severe malaria attacks tortured him on his way home and in Germany, but his homeland could not keep him in the long run. From summer 1913 to spring 1914 he sought his fortune in Argentina, but found no satisfactory job and decided to apply for immigration to Australia. At the end of June 1914 he had the necessary entry papers and boarded the German steamer Roon in Antwerp with the destination Freemantle. When the world war broke out in August 1914 and Great Britain took the side of the German opponents, the ship had to break off the voyage to Australia and seek refuge in Dutch India. From 1914 to 1940 he worked at four different stations, from 1927 on Tandjongdjati in southern Sumatra, where he cultivated coffee and rubber, and in 1939 the Belgian owners appointed him manager. The climax of his career was followed by a sudden end. The invasion of the Netherlands by the Wehrmacht on 10 May 1940 turned German citizens into enemies in the Dutch colonial empire. For Müller and many others the period of internment began - until the end of 1941 in the Dutch camp Alasvallei in northern Sumatra, then under British control in the camp Premnagar near Dehra Dun in northern India at the foot of Hima-laya. Only in autumn 1946 the prisoner Carl Richard Müller number 56134 was released and arrived in Solingen in December 1946. Here he found work in the nursery Diederich in Wald, to which he also remained faithful as a pensioner with casual work. In 1966 he had to give up his independent life because of bad health and moved to the Eugen-Maurer-Heim in Gräfrath. There he died on 21 March 1973. The estate has preserved some of Müller's adventurous life. Müller and other prisoners used the enforced inactivity during the long internment years for writing and for lectures in their own circle. Of these works, pieces have been preserved which are of particular interest for research into German colonial rule and European planting in the South Seas. Müller's autobiographical manuscripts about the years 1912-1940, which he thought he could summarize as the "ro-man of a fortune-seeker" (documents 11 and 12 with the addition of the photographs in documents 6 and 7 and cards in documents 17 and 26), are to be mentioned first and foremost. In addition there are numerous essays by Müller on plant cultures, economic and technical problems on the plantations and abstracts on the nature and fauna of Indonesia, mainly Sumatra (documents 13 to 16). Work done by fellow prisoners on their experiences in Indonesia and Australia can be found in file 23, including a report on detention in Sumatra with a shorter annex on time in India. Relatively little is known about camp life in Dehra Dun; Müller, however, kept a booklet titled "Männerworte" (Aktenstück 5), in which 22 fellow prisoners registered themselves with words of remembrance. The photographs of Müller's life in Solingen after 1946 are primarily preserved, of which the works for Diederich may be of local historical interest (file 8). Furthermore, the collection contains a file of the Social Welfare Office of the City of Solingen. The stock was handed over to the City Archive by the Social Welfare Office in a suitcase, which was separated from the above documents at the time of recording. The stock was recorded for the first time in September 1998 by Anika Schulze, developed by Hartmut Roehr in 2007.
The history of the development of the collection After the town unification in 1929, the old registries of the formerly independent towns were first accommodated in the newly established Solingen town archive under the direction of Richard Erntges in the new administration building Cronenberger Straße (formerly WKC). None of the formerly independent cities had previously had their own archives. Erntges - with the help of auxiliary staff - developed these six stocks according to a uniform file plan. Therefore there are gaps in the systematics in all files of the formerly independent cities. In most cases, the individual classification group titles also served as file titles, usually only differentiated according to "generalia" (usually without local subjects) and "specialia" (the files created by the respective city administration for the local occur. Some files, which according to the file plan or tape count had originally once been available, were included in the directory by Erntges because he probably had the hope that the files could possibly appear again. To date, this has not happened, so that in these cases we have to assume cassations before 1929. In the search book you will find the note "empty" in these files. For reasons of completeness, the data records from the "Historical Archive" were also duplicated into this collection, the term of which ends after 1808. Likewise a part of the files (above all school chronicles and trade or restaurant concessions) ends only after 1930, thus correctly belongs to the stock SG. A further distortion has been omitted until today due to time reasons. May 2008 Ralf Rogge
The beginnings of the settlement of the "Wauler Dorps", as the older people still call the village centre today, probably date back to the 10th century. The construction of the front courtyard belonging to Deutz Abbey and the construction of the parish church in the 11th century created the conditions for the parish of Wald. His territory included the later communities of Gräfrath, Wald and Ohligs. In the following years new settlements around the Walder church could have created a small town. But the development of the monastery founded in 1187 in Gräfrath led to a settlement there, which was granted freedom rights in 1402. Thus Gräfrath, and not Wald with its parish church, became the urban centre in the parish of Wald. Only after the sale of the monastery property, which surrounded the church from all sides except in the west, and the extension of the country road, which connected Wald and Gräfrath with the Rhine port of Monheim, did the "Wauler Dorp" get a rounded village centre at the beginning of the 19th century through new buildings around the church. In 1808 Wald became an independent municipality, in 1816 the mayor's office Wald had 2767 inhabitants. Their municipality stretched from Weyer in the west to Foche in the east. In the southeast, Wald am Schlagbaum and Mangenberg bordered Solingen. By the middle of the 19th century the population had grown to 5278 inhabitants. In 1856 Wald was granted town rights and the main source of income for the Walder population for centuries, as in the entire Solingen region, was the production of small-scale cutlery. But with the umbrella manufacture industry, Wald was already able to make the leap into the factory age at the beginning of the 19th century. In the course of the high industrialization further modern metal enterprises were added starting from 1870. Tool factories, iron and metal foundries, lock and key factories, drop forges and factories for bicycle parts were established. The Walder railway station, built in 1887, played a particularly important role in the economic upswing, although it was only located on the side line from Solingen to Vohwinkel, known as the "Corkscrew Railway". Not even the neighbouring cities of Cologne and Düsseldorf could be reached directly. For industrial freight traffic, however, it was of extraordinary importance at the turn of the century. New factories and new jobs led to a rapid increase in the Walder population. In 1910 the town had 25311 inhabitants. The urban lifeline of the city was the main street between the railway station in the east and the Catholic church built in 1831/33 in the west. The Protestant church Wald formed the centre of urban life. Trade, services (Walder Bank, savings bank, post office) and administration (town hall) were concentrated in their vicinity. Since 1899 the tram has been winding its way through the narrow town centre. With the steady increase of individual motorized traffic, the solution of the problems on the roads in the "Wauler Dorp" became more and more urgent. In particular, the narrowness of the "Walder Schlauchs", as the part of the main street between the Protestant church and the junction of the Poststrasse - today Wiedenkamper Strasse - is popularly known, caused city planners and architects headaches even before the 1929 city unification. In order to relieve the main road of through traffic, a bypass was planned that would lead from the Catholic church to the railway station. This project could not be realised due to the world economic crisis and the Second World War. It was not until 1961 that the narrowest section of the Walder Hauptstraße, now known as Friedrich-Ebert-Straße, was relieved of through traffic by the construction of a small bypass. For this purpose, a large part of the historic buildings around the Protestant church were demolished, the "Walder Rundling" disappeared. The "Walder Schlauch", called Stresemannstraße since 1962, was converted into a pedestrian zone in 1978. At the same time, the renewed planning of a southern bypass of the entire town centre began. In 1982 the first construction measures of the Walder urban redevelopment were started. Citizens' initiatives fought on the one hand against the demolition of old houses in the centre of the "Wauler Dorps" and on the other hand against the extension of Liebermannstraße to the southern bypass around Wald. The city administration defended the redevelopment. Only in this way could Friedrich-Ebert-Straße be freed from through traffic (25,000 cars a day) and the Walder town centre be restored to its old form. In the summer of 1998, the completion of the new "Walder Rundling", which with its commercial and residential buildings follows the form of the historical model, marked the completion of the district redevelopment. But forest does not only offer an old village centre and industrial culture from the time of the high industrialization. With the Itter Valley, the district has an area which until the 19th century, with its Schleifkotten on the Itterbach, was one of the most important sources of income for the Walder. With the loss of function of the hydropower-driven workshops, the Ittertal valley was transformed into a recreational and leisure area. As early as 1914, the entrepreneur Carl-Friedrich Ern from the Walde region, who had his company on the Wittkulle, had a public lido built in the Ittertal valley. In 1936 the city of Solingen took over responsibility for the Ittertal open-air swimming pool and in 1975 an ice rink was added. In order to avoid its closure, the recreational facility was transferred to the non-profit association "Sport- und Kulturzentrum Ittertal" in 1987. In the immediate vicinity of the Ittertal lido, the "Fairytale Forest" opened its doors at the beginning of the 1930s. For decades it has been a popular destination for young and old, and for some time now new operators have been trying to revive its former attractiveness. Another remarkable monument in the district is the Jahnkampfbahn, a stadium for 10,000 spectators, opened on 27 May 1928. The area in the upper Krausener Bachtal was already acquired by the town of Wald in the years 1912 to 1920, originally to create a park in the valley marshed by sewage. From 1921 to 1926 the area between two road dams was made usable by emergency works. The construction work on the actual sports facility then took two years. With the already existing Wald-Merscheid gymnasium in the west and the erection of the Fallenen memorial in the east, a connected recreation and play area was created in the immediate vicinity of the city centre. The history of the development of the collection After the town unification in 1929, the old registries of the formerly independent towns were first accommodated in the newly established Solingen town archive under the direction of Richard Erntges in the new administration building Cronenberger Straße (formerly WKC). None of the formerly independent cities had previously had their own archives. Erntges - with the help of auxiliary staff - developed these six stocks according to a uniform file plan. Therefore there are gaps in the systematics in all files of the formerly independent cities. In most cases, the individual classification group titles also served as file titles, usually only differentiated according to "generalia" (usually without local subjects) and "specialia" (the files created by the respective city administration for the local occur. Some files, which according to the file plan or tape count had originally once been available, were included in the directory by Erntges because he probably had the hope that the files could possibly appear again. To date, this has not happened, so that in these cases we have to assume cassations before 1929. In the search book you will find the note "empty" in these files. For reasons of completeness, the data records from the "Historical Archive" were also duplicated into this collection, the term of which ends after 1808. Likewise a part of the files (above all school chronicles and trade or restaurant concessions) ends only after 1930, thus correctly belongs to the stock SG. A further distortion has been omitted until today due to time reasons. Only in the forest stock were notes recorded by Mrs. Gisela Jacobs at the end of the 1980s. May 2008 Ralf Rogge
The Industrieverband Schneidwaren und Bestecke (IVSB) was formed by the merger of the Fachverband Schneidwarenindustrie (FSI), founded in Solingen in 1946, and the Gesamtverband Besteck-Industrie (GBI), founded in Wiesbaden in 1966, on May 4, 1971. The IVSB was integrated into the structure of the commercial economy as a federal trade association within the Wirtschaftsverband Eisen Blech Metallindustrie im BDI (Iron Sheet Metal Industry Association). In 2002 the company merged with the Verband Haushalts-, Küchen- und Tafelgeräte to form the Industrieverband Schneid- und Haushaltswaren (IVSH). The local manufacturers' associations of the cutlery industry can be regarded as historical forerunners of the trade association of the cutlery industry. After a strike on 13 May 1891 the association of all factory owners in Solingen was founded. Initially, it included the Tafelmesserfabrikantenverein, the Scherenfabrikantenverein, the Taschen- und Federmesserfabrikantenverein and the Gabelfabrikantenverein. After the renaming to Verband der Fabrikantenvereine Solingen on 4 May 1900, the fifth member was the razor manufacturer association. Outside of this umbrella organization stood the Waffenfabrikantenverein and the various clubs for the owners of the fights. After 27 July 1903 they organised themselves as sub-associations in the newly formed association of employers in the Solingen district. This local employers' umbrella organisation was open to all branches of industry, in contrast to the Association of Manufacturers' Associations Solingen, which was limited to the cutlery industry and changed its name again to the Association of Manufacturers' Associations Solingen in 1907. Since 1909, Dr. Hornung has managed both the AGV's and the "Verband's" business. In 1911, the membership of the two associations was demarcated, and the AGV transferred the steel goods companies to the Solinger Fabrikantenvereine association. This personal union in the management of the two trade associations existed until 1926. On 12 April 1922, the local trade associations were reorganised according to economic, technical and socio-political criteria with the founding of the Employers' Association of the Upper District of Solingen. The new AGV acted primarily as a local collective bargaining partner, no longer taking on any trade association tasks. In addition to the AGV, the Solinger Fabrikantenvereine association and the Solinger Schlägereibesitzervereine association continued to exist as independent economic organisations under the umbrella of the Eisen Stahlwaren-Industriebund (ESTI), founded on 14.6.1919 as a "representative of the entire iron and steel industry in the organisation of the Reichsverband der Deutschen Industrie". The ESTI with its headquarters in Elberfeld was active in the Bergisch-Märkischen region (Wuppertal, Remscheid, Solingen, Velbert, Hagen). With the ESTI, Solingen entered into a relationship with the umbrella organisation of the iron processing industry and thus with the RDI. AGV and ESTI worked so closely together in Solingen that they maintained joint management with two managing directors of equal rank, Dr. Oskar Bachteler and Dr. Willi Großmann. The smashing of the trade unions on 2 May 1933 was followed from 19 May 1933 by the fixing of collective wages by the "trustee of labour". The Solingen Employers' Association was also suddenly without function as a collective bargaining partner and was finally dissolved by the National Socialists on 22 January 1934. The mergers of the companies now concentrated on the specialist organisation. The umbrella organisation in Solingen was the ESTI with its three main professional associations, the Solingen Steelware Manufacturers Association, the Solingen Racketeering Owners Associations Association and the Razor Blade Industry Association (founded on 3.10.1925, 1930 Association of Razor Blade Manufacturers). The ESTI from Solingen was finally integrated into the DAF under the name "Fachgruppe Schneidwarenindustrie der Wirtschaftsgruppe Eisen- Stahl und Blechwaren" and functioned as an economic policy organisation covering the entire cutlery industry of the German Reich. Gustav Grünwald from Argenta (Düsseldorf) was the first head of the Cutlery and Cutlery Division based in Solingen. He was followed by Franz Buchenau in Heinr. Böker and Dr. Walter Müller in Pränafawerke. After the end of the Second World War, on 6 November 1945, the EBM Economic Association received permission from the occupying forces to reestablish itself. Under the chairmanship of Kurt Peres the Fachvereinigung Schneidwarenindustrie was formed. The first domicile was the former Gräfrather Rathaus, then the Fachvereinigung found its accommodation on Albrechtstraße. From 1.4. 1946 the new name was Fachverband Schneidwarenindustrie. Dr. Bachteler was able to resume his full-time activities for the association on 1 November 1946. In 1953 Bachteler became managing director of the AGV at the same time. Dr. Oskar Bachteler died on 17.3.1961. During this period, Paul Ad. Schmidt in company Müller