The first stove factory in the former “Zum Grüntal” restaurant building in Kreuzlingen-Emmishofen. The company logo, a cylindrical stove, can be seen above the door.
Andreas Heege, 2022
Note: so far, the company history has not been studied in detail.
The founding of the Burkart potter’s workshop can be viewed against the background of 125 years of pottery-making history in the region. On 24th July 1865, the potter Stephan Burkart purchased a restaurant known as “Zum Grüntal” on Unterseestrasse in Kreuzlingen-Emmishofen and set up a workshop there, which included a kiln for firing stove tiles. The business flourished in the capable hands of Stephan and his sons, and the quality of their products continued to improve over the years. In recognition of their achievements, they were awarded silver medals at the National Exhibitions in Geneva in 1896 and in Bern in 1914.
The company Stephan Burkart Söhne advertised in the official “Illustriertes Ausstellungsalbum” (illustrated exhibition album) of the 1914 National Exhibition.
Stephan’s sons, Adolf and Otto, took over the workshop in 1914 and continued to produce stove tiles. The first crockery was manufactured in 1925, and in 1930, the first artisanal vases left the factory. Stove-tile production ceased shortly before the Second World War. From 1962 onwards, the firm became a family-run public limited company (SOGC 80, 1962, No. 72, 910). In the 1970s, they moved the factory to a new location in Kreuzlingen. In 1990, the firm employed 36 staff in Kreuzlingen itself and throughout the 1990s, additional pottery paintresses were trained to work from their homes in the Canton of Graubünden. However, bankruptcy proceedings were initiated on 3rd November 1994 (SOGC 112, 1994, No. 234, 6565), and on 16th December 1994, the last managing director, Sigmar Schmidt-Eisenhart from Bottighofen, transferred the company archive to the state archive of the Canton of Thurgau.
Translation Sandy Haemmerle
References:
Betriebsneubau Ad. Burkart AG, Kunstkeramik, Kreuzlingen. Sonderbeilage zum Thurgauer Volksfreund 5. Juli 1967
Ganz, Michael: Heimarbeit im Bündnerland. Keramik – von Frauen fröhlich bemalt. In: Heimatwerk/Kunsthandwerk, Zürich 1/1993, S. 32-36.
Mathis, Hans Peter: Historische Kachelöfen aus der Emmishofer Ofenfabrik Burkart. In: Jürg Ganz (Hrsg.): Die Seeburg in Kreuzlingen. Ein Schloss des Historismus, Kreuzlingen 1985, S. 78-98.
Schmidt-Eisenhart, Sigmar: 125 Jahre Burkart-Keramik, Kreuzlingen. In: Handwerk, Volkskunst, Kunsthandwerk/Schweizer Heimatwerk, Zürich, Nr. 1/1990, S. 27-30
