Porzellanfabrik Thomas & Ens, Marktredwitz, Bavaria | 384

Active 1903 - 1960. 

The first porcelain factory in Marktredwitz was already established in 1872 and operated under the name Porzellanfabrik Jaeger, Thomas & Co. In 1898, due to differences of opinion about the porcelain produced, Fritz Thomas decided to end his cooperation with Jaeger and opened his own factory in 1903. Jaeger continued the business under the name Porzellanfabrik Jaeger & Co. Thomas's new factory was established with the participation of the entrepreneur Ens, who did not want to take an active part in the management of the factory, but was willing to finance the company so that Thomas could develop his ideas for porcelain, thus achieving success. With this, he in turn attracted the attention of Rosenthal, for whom the opportunity came when Ens left the company in 1907 - thanks to this event, the Selb-based giant had the space to become a significant partner for Thomas. From 1908 to 1960, the Thomas factory operated under the name Porzellanfabrik Thomas and was an independent part of the Rosenthal company. This period brought a lot of good things for the factory - in 1930 there were 1,000 employees. As a result of Rosenthal's transformation, between 1959 and 1960 the Marktredwitz factory was dedicated to the production of ceramics for technical use, and the existing crockery production was transferred to the Speichersdorf factory. In 1965, the Marktredwitz factory was restored to full operation by transferring production to it from the Silesian Krister Porzellan-Manufaktur A.G., which was active until 1971. The Krister brand itself was active until 2004, when it was liquidated by Rosenthal.