Meusel- History
In the 17th century, a tannery guild formed in Germany, which settled mainly on rivers. Thus, Mülheim an der Ruhr, with its many tributaries became a center of the German tannery trade, as well as the Swabian region between Stuttgart and Backnang.
The tannery boomed in the 19th century, when the guild barriers of this industry fell. In the twenties, the tannery trade was in its heyday. 61,000 employees were employed in Germany in 2,700 companies.
The decline of the tanning industry in Germany began after the record year 1927 with the onset of the world economic crisis and the continuous improvement of the tanning technology, because this saved workers and lost jobs.
Nonetheless, G. Meusel founded GEORG MEUSEL in 1931 in Lichtenfels on Marktplatz 30 and initially dealt with the production of leather clothing. He made work clothes for the police, but also for private sales, mainly leather coats and jackets.
The short Lederhose, the Wichs or the Seppelhose, was in 1924 at a reception by Pope Pius XI. a Chiemgau male delegation in their mountain range for the first time in an audience approved and thus "acceptable". The National Socialists tried to solve the Lederhose from the Alpine regional reference and made it in 1936 to a national German national costume for male adolescents. Then Georg Meusel began to produce Seppelhosen.
After the end of the world economic crisis in 1939 and the beginning of the boom, the mass production of leather began. In addition, the chemical industry was promoted, it required despite mass production more leather than could be produced. As a result, plastics were invented that served as substitutes for seat cushions in automobiles and rail vehicles, but not yet in garments. This replacement plastic was commonly used in Germany as "artificial leather".
At that time, Germany was a leader in chemical engineering.
During the Second World War 1939-1945, the company Georg Meusel was used for armaments and mainly produced leather jackets for the Wehrmacht. Depending on the degree of officer they were equipped with fabric lining or silk imitation and real red silk.
After the Second World War 1946 it was found out that the material made available by the economic office in leather and textile fabric after black coloring, in combination, also for working clothes of the chimney sweep was suitable. Thus, such orders were delivered on a subscription coupon basis.
With the currency reform in June 1948, the textile and leather industry got back into shape and the management was lifted, so that it was possible to contact the individual chimney sweeps guilds.
After this worked well, was about 1955 decided to gradually specialize in the production of chimney sweeper clothing. The assortment and the customer base became bigger and bigger.
With the enlargement of the company Georg Meusel also a move into a new established building in the Viktor-von-Scheffel-Str. 18 accompanied. The new building could be moved in 1949. Business was always running very well.
After the demise of Georg Meusel in 1971, the property passed to his niece Elfriede Vetter, who proclaimed the since 1947 employed at the company CEO Karl Rübensaal Prokura. The company was able to increase its turnover by including special tools in the sales assortment.
At the end of the 70s, high environmental standards were decided in this country. These included that each tannery needed its own wastewater treatment plant. This became a serious problem for many tanneries, as most were located in inner cities. Due to this problem, foreign tanneries were more involved. A decline of the German tannery industry was inevitable and many had to close down. From now on, the clothing and footwear industry had to supply itself throughout Europe or worldwide.
In 1991 Richard Partosch took over the company Georg Meusel Lichtenfels. At that time, the company had 5200 chimney sweeps as regular customers. By Partosch the company was equipped with the latest technology. His son Mischa (company Computer and Arts) operated at that time fracture and accounting electronically. What started well ended disastrously. Richard Partosch bankrupted the well-run company Georg Meusel and bankruptcy had to be registered.
In 1993, the leather specialist and supplier to Georg Meusel, Stephan Kerkhoff, agreed to take the company out of bankruptcy. Thus, on 01.01.1994 he took over the business with his wife Monika Kerkhoff, who was the owner for the first years, and managed to raise the standard of quality and rebuild the customer base. This is today in 2018 about 12,000 customers.
Stephan Kerkhoff has been managing the current company "Stephan Kerkhoff Meusel Schornsteinfegerbekleidung" with his wife Monika for 24 years now. In 2019, they will be celebrating their 25th anniversary and we hope that many satisfied chimney sweep customers will celebrate this with him and the team-mate.