Andreas Heege und Andreas Kistler 2020
Adolf Gerber (1859–1919) was the first potter in his family. He set up the workshop in the Tschamerie area of Hasle in 1902. In 1910, Franz Aebi (1894-1974) from the Bachhaus area near Rüegsbach, Canton of Bern, began his apprenticeship with Adolf Gerber and would subsequently go on to marry Gerber’s daughter Ida (1897-1954). In 1919, Adolf Gerber suffered a fatal stroke, and his son-in-law Franz was asked to take over the running of the workshop at short notice by Adolf’s widow Marianne Gerber-Uhlmann (1860-1936).
Plate by Franz Aebi from the year he took over the workshop.
Oberländer Tagblatt 26/10/1923.
On 25th October 1923 the workshop was destroyed by fire. The cause of the fire could not be determined. By May 1924, Franz Aebi and Ida Gerber had built a new workshop (Engelbrecht/Gantner/Schuster 1990; Winter 1983, 10 and an obituary for Franz Aebi in an unknown Bernese daily newspaper).
From 1960 to 1993, their son Willy Aebi (1930- ) ran the workshop. He had learnt his craft at the School of Ceramics in Bern. The workshop continued production under Willy’s son Markus (1960-) until 2006. Since then, only the branch in Trubschachen, which was set up in 1982, has continued to operate.
Similar to Ueli Kohler in Schüpbach, Adolf Gerber and Jakob Stucki in Langnau and other ceramicists in the Canton of Bern, Willi Aebi’s products included pottery in the Old Langnau style.
Gerber-Kohler-Aebi family tree
Translation Sandy Haemmerle
References:
Engelbrecht/Gantner/Schuster 1990
Beate Engelbrecht/Theo Gantner/Meinhard Schuster, Berner Töpferei. Mensch und Handwerk, Basel 1990.
Winter 1983
Felix Winter, Töpferei Aebi Tschamerie, Feldforschungsübung des Ethnologischen Seminars der Universität Basel, SS 1983, Töpferei im Berner Oberland, Basel 1983.
