PM&M [Germany / Thuringia / Martinroda (01)]

This company was founded in the year 1901 by the former printer Friedrich Eger together with his son Herrmann and the first production run was started shortly before Christmas the same year. Manufacturing mosly vases and mocca cups intended for the American market the company with a steady workforce of sixty people soon started international trade, steadily expanding all the time until the workforce reaced a peak of 170 people in 1930. International customers were mostly found on the Leipzig fair, an event that the company never missed between 1924 and 1976.

In 1937 the company had reduced its workforce to 140 workers and was run by Eger's youger son Franz Eger who was then forced to stop production shortly after the outbreak of WWII. After the war it took until June 1946 before Hans Ziehm together with a number of old employees finally was able to restart production. Three years later the first export transactions where made, this triggered a constant rise in sales and production output.

After the founding of the German Democratic Republic in 1949 the business remained a privately owned company. In the year 1969 the steady workforce had reached the number of 125 people again and the main focus where gifts and souvenirs: vases, chandeliers, mocca cups, bowls and baskets in cobalt blue and sometimes even glass decoration. Eighty percent of the products where made for export to Australia, Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the US.

[2] VEB Porzellanwerk Martinroda (1972 until 1990)

In the year 1972 the company (like many others) finally was nationalized and renamed into VEB Porzellanwerk Martinroda and declared part of the VEB Zierporzellan Lichte combine. In January 1977 normal production was stopped as the factory was taken over by the Porzellanwerk Ilmenau which used the factory as decoration division. Things went quiet until the German Democratic Republic ceased to exist and in 1990 the factory was reprivatized again.

[3] Porzellanfabrik Friedrich Eger GmbH (October 1st 1990 until 1995)

Back on the market with its old name the company instantly became involved in the struggle of getting a foot into the new market. Not only relying on small tea/coffee sets and the usual reticulated china they eventually found their own small niche and specialized on pill boxes, stylized piggy banks, cow-shaped creamers, and of course the fine line of miniature shoes which reached many collectors. At the same time it slowly became obvious that the overall situation on the German porcelain market would not improve; first closures and takeovers had started to take place only shortly after German reunification.

[4] Porzellanmanufaktur Martinroda Erbengemeinschaft Eger (1995 until 2020)

In 1995 the company was re-established as community of heirs under Friedrich Eger's grandson, Hans Holland-Moritz. As far as I know the business never had an own homepage; in fact I only learned per coincidence that they during March 2004 took part at the IHM fair in München as exhibitor. During the following years the small busines saw many former industry giants like Hutschenreuther, Rosenthal or Goebel stumble and fall. The massive changes in dinner culture and interior design as well as increasing cheap imports from China had delivered heavy blows to the industry, however the social and cultural aspects - young people simply no longer interested in collecting - was what really finished off most smaller companies. Many people may argue that it was a generation thing, others may say that in times of world-wide increasing unemloyment and inflation people rather invested in other things. Not that it would influence the result in any way.

Never having a large amount of workers anyway the business had shrunk to a mere three employees by 2017; late in 2019 only a former apprentice - pensioned decorator Christine Förster - remained to help out now and then. In 2019 Hans Holland-Moritz and his wife Sabine were unsure about the future of the business as they were growing old and had no successors in sight. A short time later they finally decided to close down; all mobile assets and records (molds, documents, design sheets, catalogs, etc.) were donated to the newly founded Ilmenauer Porzellantradition e.V., a nonprofit organization which opened a small museum in an effort to keep alive the memory of porcelain producing tradition in and around the city of Ilmenau.

Comment(s)

The marks used by this company are a perfect example that the often quoted (and completely incorrect) rule of thumb "Every East German item made after 1949 was automatically marked GDR" is worthless. Like the factory in Martinroda, many companies after the founding of the German Democratic Republic (up to shortly before their final nationalization) simply continued to mark "Made in Germany".

Note that the company did not use their own mark from January 1977 until 1990 as they worked as decoration department for the leading combine factory in Ilmenau, therefore all items decorated in Martinroda carried a generic Ilmenau mark which today makes it nearly impossible to say which factory actually was responsible for the decoration of any given Ilmenau item from that period.

Marks