Carl Werner Offset Printer, Reichenbach [Germany]
Carl Werner was a supplier of propaganda material for the German government during World War II. It was located in Reichenbach, a town in the Vogtland district of Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1889 as a printing shop with a stationery business, in 1919 Werner's sons took it over but continued to run it under the Carl Werner name. In 1929 the company built a large offset printing plant in Reichenbach with a publishing house attached. By 1939, over 1,500 employees produced a variety of printed products in the plant located on the Amtmannsgasse (Marien Street). In 1945 the printer was heavily damaged during an air raid bombardment. In 1946, Carl Werner printing was nationalized. Reichenbach was geographically situated in the Soviet zone of Allied Occupied Germany and in 1949, East Germany was established in the Soviet Occupation Zone. The printer then became an East German concern and it was renamed VEB Volkskunstverlag Reichenbach (Reichenbach People's Art Publishing) and it was subordinate to the Leipzig industrial conglomerate VVB Polygrafische Industrie (Polygraphic Industry Associations of Publicly Owned Enterprises). In 1959, the printer was renamed VEB Bild & Heimat (Town & Photo) and it held a monopoly on postcard production in East Germany.
Sources & Citations
Peschel, T., & Bouchette, G. (2009). Adventskalender geschichte und geschichten aus 100 jahren: museum europäischer kulturen Staatliche museen zu Berlin. Husum: Verlag der Kunst. (p. 136, new printing plant in 1929 cited)
Fehlhauer, G. (2008). Die Reihe Archivbilder Reichenbach im Vogtland. Erfurt: Sutton Verlag. (p. 64, bombing raid on Carl Werner printer cited)
guestrow-history.de (a history of Carl Werner printing)