Rosenthal (company)

Rosenthal GmbH

Type	GmbH
Founded	1879
Headquarters	Selb, Deutschland
Products	Porcelain
Revenue	130 Mio. Euro (2008)
Number of employees	900 (2012)
Website	www.rosenthal.de

Rosenthal GmbH, founded in 1879, is a German manufacturer of porcelain and other household goods. In 2009, the company was sold to the Italian group Sambonet Paderno Industrie.

Rosenthal was founded in 1879 as a family business. The company founder Philipp Rosenthal moved his porcelain painting from Werl (North Rhine-Westphalia) to Selb in Bavaria, where he industrialized in the castle Erkersreuth with his painting workshop. In 1897, Philipp Rosenthal founded the company Bauer, Rosenthal & Co. in Kronach and Philipp Rosenthal & Co. AG. In 1908, Rosenthal bought the Porcelain manufacturer Thomas in Marktredwitz as well as the porcelain company Zeidler & Co. in 1917, which later became known as the Selb-Plößberg brand railway station and today is one of two seats of the Porzellanikon complex of ceramic museums.

In 1921 the company took over the Krister Porzellanmanufaktur in Wałbrzych (Silesia). The factory was closed in 1945, but the brand was revived in 1951 and used until 1971.

In the period of national socialism, Philipp Rosenthal had to withdraw from the enterprise in 1934 because of his Jewish background. The Board of Management and the Supervisory Board turned against Rosenthal and implemented various measures to prevent Philipp Rosenthal from using his voting shares in order to change the composition of the Management Board and the Supervisory Board. The Nazi Party was asked for support and sold the voting shares to persons who were not well-disposed towards Rosenthal. However, the Nazi regime did not go directly against Philipp Rosenthal in order not to jeopardize the foreign business of the company. The reasonably covertly concealed Aryans took advantage of the family, and urged Rosenthal's successor to step out of the company. Philipp Rosenthal's death in 1937 finally paved the way for his grandchildren and the anti-Semitic executive committee.

In 1936, Rosenthal bought the porcelain manufacturers Waldershof and Thomas in Weidenberg-Sophienthal. Rosenthal Isolatoren GmbH (RIG) was established in 1939 with branches in Erkersreuth (Selb) and Hennigsdorf near Berlin. In 1939 the company changed to Rosenthal Porzellan AG. When the Decree on Companies of Deprived Commercial Enterprises (RGBI 1941, p. 177), adopted on March 27, 1941, forced the discontinuation of the Jewish company and brand name Rosenthal, the "Aryan" management intervened through Joseph Goebbels to continue the use of the Rosenthal brand name.