On the initiative of Mayor Schick and the town councillor Max Bergmann, lists of all the soldiers from Laupheim were published regularly in the newspaper from November 1914, so that later sometime a chronicle of the places of engagement of all war participants could be compiled. If a name was missing, or a reader noticed a different mistake, the corrections of the list were not handed in at the town hall, but at the doorman’s office in the Bergmann factory.

 

The senior director, Josef Bergmann, invested a large amount of liquid assets in war loans and made many donations and set up foundations to contribute to a successful end of the war. Also, the Austrian-Hungarian army was borne in mind. For this he was awarded the Red Cross Silver Medal in 1916 by the Emperor Franz Josef, and in the same year, the Charlotte Cross by the King of Württemberg.

 

Fortunately, after the end of the war, all of the soldiers of both Bergmann families returned home. Economically, things were progressing very slowly, for it was a long time before supplies from Chinese sources became accessible again, and also a new trend in fashion caused a decrease in the sale of hairnets: ladies who wanted to be in fashion had their hair bobbed and no longer needed that old-fashioned item. Of course, all the women in the Bergmann family rejected this trend, except for the young generation.

 

  

 

 

In November 1922, the founder of the firm, Josef Bergmann, died at the age of 73, and two years later his wife Friedericke followed him. Partly due to the tremendous inflation, there was a strong dispute about the inheritance among the children, in which the new senior director, Theodor, and his wife, Thekla, did not play a very pleasant part. On the death of the senior director, the surviving dependants set up a charitable foundation in his memory. This was devalued in an extremely short time due to the galloping inflation. Further strokes of fate followed: the daughter Flora, wedded name Stern, died in 1924 at the age of 46, the youngest son Willy was killed in a car accident in 1925, and Hugo Hofheimer, their daughter Klara’s husband, passed away in 1928.

 

 

The middle of the 1920s was accompanied by a slight upward trend, and the ground between the Schwanengasse and the König-Wilhelm-Strasse was purchased, the first truck was bought and the horse stable changed into a garage. Bergmann, in the meantime  transformed into a KG (limited company), still maintained its leading position in the hair products trade. The Württemberg Secretary of Economics, Reinhold Maier, certified the business as one of the most important export-oriented in the federal state. The greatest employer in Laupheim was at that time the Bergmann company.

 

 

However, the beginning economic crisis of 1929 caused a decrease in sales for the company: in 1932 only half of the turnover of 1927, which had been the last good year, was reached. And still it was the only firm in Laupheim which suffered no dismissals during the Repression.

To counterbalance the decreasing turnover in the factory’s business, experiments were increasingly carried out on hair cosmetics and colorings for hair. For this purpose, a chemical laboratory was established and a chemist was taken on.

One of the main reasons why Hitler came to power in 1933 was the desolate economic situation in Germany and his promise to alter this rapidly. That is why large companies, like Bergmann, which provided numerous jobs, could continue to work without problems during the first few years. For the unemployment would have become even more acute if measures had been taken against them. In 1933, Bergmann, with its roughly 150 employees, was the greatest employer in the administrative area of Laupheim as well as in the town itself, and paid the most taxes. There were no SA guards standing in front of the factory gates on the 1^st of April 1933. The boycott was directed more towards the retail trade. The international network of the company was its protection at first against the great pressure of the ruling junta. This all led, at the beginning, to the four managers’ underestimation of the imminent danger of the Nazis. However, they weren’t the only ones in this respect. They were not the only ones to think  the nightmare would soon come to an end. “Give Hitler enough lead, then he’ll hang himself”, is one of Theodor Bergmann’s legendary misjudgements. Furthermore, the four were in disagreement and their cooperation was seriously affected.

The pressure became even more intense when the fanatical Nazi and anti-Semite, Marxer, became Mayor in 1935. Nazi sympathizers among the Bergmann staff spied on behalf of the Party and accused the proprietors of a made-up breach of exchange-control regulations, among other things. They sabotaged the business, for example, by passing on the names of business partners to the “Stürmer” (Nazi-controlled newspaper), which then denounced them as being friends with Jews. Year after year, the turnover decreased and in 1937, Marco and Theodor fled abroad – an uncoordinated step. Marco escaped to the USA with a visitor’s permit, Theodor left the country with incomplete documents for the Duchy of Liechtenstein. This made the observation of the two remaining partners all the more rigorous and worsened their situation.

Since 1937, there had been deliberations and negotiations about the business being sold to the two executives, Beck and Würstle, although the compulsory Aryanization had not yet been put into force. In July 1937, the accountant, Fritz Beck, was incorporated into the management as a contact to the state authorities. Also interested was Otto Miller, likewise an executive who had worked in the firm for over thirty years. However, the proprietors’ trust in him had been ruined since he had become a member of the NSDAP Party and also deputy chief of the local NSDAP branch. They also suspected Miller of being the most significant Nazi “submarine” (mole) in the business, supplying the Party with internal information and therefore, they definitely didn’t want his participation.

However, Beck and Würstle didn’t obtain the permission of the authorities. When the time came, they were compensated with a share of 18% each, Otto Miller received the same and an old pal of Mayor Marxer, a dairy-owner from Biberach called Fischbach, who had no idea about the hair-trade, received a share of 46%, the largest share of the Bergmann company. But by the time the sale was finally approved and signed, the price had dropped from originally 249,000 Reichsmarks to 27,500 Reichsmarks. After the “Pogromnacht” (Night of Broken Glass) in 1938, the three proprietors, Theodor, Max and Edwin were imprisoned in Dachau for weeks and returned home, sick and broken men. Shortly before the deportation to Dachau, Theodor had returned to Laupheim of his own free will, as the Nazis had promised him financial benefits if he emigrated later. Of course, nothing of the promise was kept, the return to Germany had brought him three weeks in a concentration camp and, as a result, his health was ruined. After the release of the three proprietors from Dachau – the last was Max on the 14^th December, 1938 – a new name was already emblazoned on the factory gate, although the sale of the business had not yet been finalized: it was no longer called Bergmann KG, but “Württembergische Haarfabrik Fischbach & Co”. The three still rightful owners were forbidden to enter their premises.

Edwin Bergmann and his family were able to flee to England on the 9^th February, 1939, and emigrated later to the USA, followed by Theodor on the 8^th March. Max, who signed the sales contract alone on the 20^th March, was the last to receive an emigration permit four days later. Robbed of the last penny by the German authorities and their special taxes, the once wealthy businessmen arrived penniless in America – with the exception of Marco, who had fled earlier.

Only two of the four partners lived to see the restitution proceedings carried out after the war. Theodor had died already in 1941 and his brother Edwin in 1947. The talks and negotiations with a view to restitution were only beginning at that time. It was under discussion whether the business should be returned completely to the family or if the new owners should remain involved. Marco and Max were very much weakened by poor health, and the cooperation with Theodor’s widow, Thekla, proved difficult. Most of the sons had, in the meantime, taken up other professions or were established in other lines of business. Nevertheless, they were at least able to come to an agreement that cooperation or even partnership with Miller was entirely out of the question. They were more prepared to plan the future of the business with Fischbach as a partner, since the relationship with him was not so disrupted. Yet Fischbach, on his part, was not prepared to separate from Miller as partner. And so a joint solution for the future was eliminated. The restitution department and the courts of justice had to act. Here also, as before the war, the fight carried on, with no holds barred and much conspiracy. The legal action occupied much time, but the former proprietors were able to achieve their goals completely.

On the 31^st December, 1948, the restitution authorities in Ravensburg decreed that the company and all rights should be returned to the former owners and the sales contract of 1939 was  declared null and void. In a further verdict of the 7^th October, 1949, the objections of Fischbach and Miller were remanded. The court decision was then confirmed by the courts of appeal of Tübingen, in January 1951, and of Rastatt in October 1951.

In December 1952, when the Ravensburg restitution authorities fixed Fischbach and Miller’s compensatory payment to Bergmann at 22,000 Deutschmarks, none of the former four partners profited: Marco had been killed in a car crash in June 1952 between Ulm and Laupheim, and Max, suffering from homesickness for Laupheim, died on the 1^st August in the same year in the USA.

Already during the court procedures that appeared futile for them, Fischbach and Miller had set up another business in the Ulmer Strasse, which they named “Württembergische Haarveredelung”, and for which they went headhunting for staff, know-how etc. from Bergmann. The new Bergmann company passed into the possession of Marco Bergmann’s descendants. The other families no longer had a share. In 1954 they entered a partnership with the firm “Freund”, and moved later into the new industrial estate near the station. All the new proprietors, however, remained in the USA. In 1955, the old manufacturing plant at the corner of Radstrasse and König-Wilhelm-Strasse was demolished, except for the residential building which still exists today. A supermarket was built in its place.

 

1.  John Bergmann, The Bergmanns from Laupheim, 1983.

2.  August Schenzinger: Laupheim, 1897, Nachdruck 1987.

3.  Annoncen aus dem „Laupheimer Verkündiger“.

Fotos: aktuelle Fotos K.N., Fotoarchiv Ernst Schäll, Fotoarchiv Theo Miller.