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In the late 19th century, the pre-Christmas pages of Hamburg's newspapers turned into one long shop window. Watchmakers, toy dealers and opticians competed to offer gifts, and among these advertisements one name recurred year after year: "Optisches Institut von D. Brauckmann & Co., Neuerwall 50, Ecke Bleichenbrücke". Its advertisements listed side by side things that today are hard to imagine on the same counter: barometers "eigener Fabrik" ("of our own factory"), magic lanterns with a dozen pictures, toy steam engines, toy railways, gold-rimmed spectacles and achromatic opera glasses. Behind this colourful list stood a firm that, over some forty years, grew from the workshop of a craftsman optician in the St. Georg suburb into a shop on one of the city's most respectable shopping streets. Its history can be reconstructed from terse entries in the commercial register, newspaper advertisements and the instruments themselves, on whose dials the firm proudly printed its factory mark and exhibition medals.
The beginnings of this story are lost in the obscurity of the craft. The earliest known reference dates from 1883. According to the Hamburg address book, as researched by the Stolpersteine Hamburg project, the ground floor of Steindamm 110 in the St. Georg quarter was then occupied by the workshop of the optician Johann Andreas Detlef Brauckmann, next to the shoe shop of J. M. Kohn. By the following year, 1884, a glazier had moved into the optician's premises. Where Brauckmann moved in 1884–1887 has not yet been established.
The absence of an entry in the commercial register during these years is explained by the law. The General German Commercial Code (ADHGB, Art. 10) exempted from the rules on firms those whose business "nicht über den Umfang des Handwerksbetriebes hinausgeht" ("does not go beyond the scope of a craft business"). Brauckmann worked as a craftsman optician, and in the eyes of the authorities his workshop was not yet a commercial firm. Where and when he was born, with whom he trained, and whether his future partner Johann Wilhelm Eduard Brauckmann was his son or his brother, the documents do not yet tell.
In the autumn of 1887 the craftsman became a merchant. On 4 November 1887 the Hamburg Regional Court (Landgericht) entered the firm in the commercial register with a laconic entry, published in the Deutscher Reichsanzeiger on 8 November:
"D. Brauckmann. Inhaber: Johann Andreas Detlef Brauckmann." ("D. Brauckmann. Owner: Johann Andreas Detlef Brauckmann.")
Two weeks later came a step that said more about his business ambitions than any words. On 17 November 1887, at exactly noon, the firm applied for a trademark, and on 18 November the Reichsanzeiger announced:
"Hamburg. Als Marke ist eingetragen unter Nr. 993 zur Firma: D. Brauckmann in Hamburg, nach Anmeldung vom 17. November 1887, Mittags 12 Uhr, für optische Instrumente und Apparate, Barometer u. deren Verpackung das Zeichen […]" ("Hamburg. Registered as a mark under No. 993 for the firm D. Brauckmann in Hamburg, following the application of 17 November 1887, 12 noon, for optical instruments and apparatus, barometers and their packaging, the sign […]".)
The mark was a diamond with an open human eye at its centre. The letters "D." and "B." stood on either side of the eye, an ampersand above it and "Co." below, while the words "Fabrik-Marke" ("factory mark") ran along the lower edge. Two things about this mark are noteworthy. First, barometers are named in the list of goods on an equal footing with optics: already then they were one of the main lines of the business. Second, the monogram "D. & B. Co." appeared on the mark before the firm officially became a partnership. The expansion of the business had clearly been planned in advance.
The plan was realised in the spring. On 13 April 1888 a new entry was made in the register, published in the sixth supplement to the Reichsanzeiger (No. 100, Tuesday, 17 April 1888, section "Central-Handels-Register für das Deutsche Reich"):
"D. Brauckmann. Johann Wilhelm Eduard Brauckmann ist in das unter dieser Firma geführte Geschäft eingetreten und setzt dasselbe in Gemeinschaft mit dem bisherigen Inhaber Johann Andreas Detlef Brauckmann unter der Firma D. Brauckmann & Co. fort." ("D. Brauckmann. Johann Wilhelm Eduard Brauckmann has entered the business carried on under this firm and continues it together with the previous owner Johann Andreas Detlef Brauckmann under the firm D. Brauckmann & Co.")
The firm thus became a general partnership and received the name under which it was known for the next four decades.
The same year brought its first international recognition. At the Grand Concours International des Sciences et de l'Industrie in Brussels (1888), the firm was awarded a gold medal. By Christmas it was proudly announcing this to the public. On Tuesday, 18 December 1888, a large framed advertisement appeared in No. 351 of the Hamburgischer Correspondent. Its corners showed the two sides of the medal (one with the profile of King Leopold II of the Belgians), and its centre a pair of opera glasses:
"Das optische Institut von D. Brauckmann & Co., Neuerwall 50, Ecke Bleichenbrücke, und Steindamm 57 empfiehlt als passende Weihnachts-Geschenke" ("The optical institute of D. Brauckmann & Co., Neuer Wall 50, corner of Bleichenbrücke, and Steindamm 57, recommends as suitable Christmas presents").
A priced list followed: "Operngläser in gr. Auswahl nur achromatisch" ("opera glasses in large selection, achromatic only") from 8.50 marks; "Barometer in allen Ausführungen, eigener Fabrik" ("barometers in all designs, of our own factory") from 10 marks; "Laterna magicas mit 1 Dtz. Bilder, effectvolle Sujets" ("magic lanterns with a dozen pictures, effective subjects") from 3 marks; "Dampf-Maschinen, Locomotiven, Schiffe etc." ("steam engines, locomotives, ships, etc.") from 3 marks; "Brillen und Pincenez in Gold, Doublé und Stahl" ("spectacles and pince-nez in gold, rolled gold and steel") from 3 marks. A separate line listed "Thermometer, Stereoscope, Phantoscope, photogr. Apparate" ("thermometers, stereoscopes, phantoscopes, photographic apparatus"). The advertisement ended with two lines: "Sämmtliche Artikel nur in feinster Qual. werden gern umgetauscht" ("all articles of the finest quality only; gladly exchanged") and "Wir erhielten Brüssel 1888 die goldene Medaille" ("we received the gold medal in Brussels in 1888"). This advertisement is the earliest known evidence that the firm sold barometers of its own manufacture. It also shows that by 1888 the firm already had two shops. The main one stood in the very centre of the city, on the corner of Neuer Wall and Bleichenbrücke. The second, at Steindamm 57, remained in the St. Georg quarter where Brauckmann had started.
Photography, then in the midst of a real boom, held a special place in the range of the late 1880s. Advertisements of those years offered a large choice of cameras, including the fashionable "detective" cameras, as well as tripods, lenses, photographic paper and all accessories. The firm apparently did not make the cameras itself but sold them as a dealer; still, the sign of an optical institute lent it authority in the eyes of amateur photographers.
In 1889 Hamburg held a large Industrial and Trade Exhibition (Hamburgische Gewerbe- und Industrie-Ausstellung), at which the firm received a bronze medal. On 4 October 1889 the Hamburger Fremdenblatt, publishing the lists of awards, named D. Brauckmann & Co. among those honoured for the award-worthy manufacture of practically usable aneroid barometers and other instruments, and for fine glass painting for projection purposes. This is a rare case in which official recognition explicitly names the barometers as the firm's own product. The mention of painted glass for projection shows that the magic lanterns in the advertisements were backed by the firm's own production of pictures for them. This agrees with known sets of late 19th-century glass lantern slides stamped "Brauckmann, Hamburg", with views of Switzerland, Greece, the United States and other countries. The firm probably sold them as ready-made series to lecturers and schools. From then on, both medals, from Brussels and from Hamburg, were printed on the dials of the firm's barometers.
In the 1890s the firm fully became what Germany at the time called an "Optisches Institut". The term had no academic meaning: it denoted a combination of workshop, sales salon and adjusting room, where optical and precision instruments were made, tested, fitted and sold. An advertisement of 1890 names the firm's speciality as opera glasses of the newest designs in the richest selection, with exclusively first-class optics, at fixed prices from 8.5 marks. Surviving opera glasses engraved "D. Brauckmann, optisches Institut, Neuer Wall 50, Hamburg" and "D. Brauckmann & Co. Hamburg Neuer Wall", in leather cases, date from around the turn of the century. In the address books of the late 19th century the firm is listed among Hamburg opticians selling spectacles, binoculars, lorgnettes, magnifiers and microscopes.
By the beginning of the new century the range had grown even further. One advertisement of this period opens with a large headline:
"Barometer eigener Fabrik, das Beste in Präcisions-Arbeit, was es giebt! mit Thermometer, von M 9.50 an." ("Barometers of our own factory, the best in precision work there is! With thermometer, from 9.50 marks.")
Next to it is a picture of a wall barometer in a carved case with a thermometer at the top. The advertisement goes on to list magic lanterns, "besonders scharf, mit 1 Dtzd. Bildern von M 3.00 an" ("especially sharp, with a dozen pictures, from 3 marks"), steam engines "nur sichere Construct." ("of safe construction only") from 3 marks, with models to go with them, railways on rails, ships with spring and steam drive, electrical experiment sets, "lehrreich und unterhaltend" ("instructive and entertaining"), electric watch stands, pocket torches, telephones, spectacles, lorgnettes, reading glasses and microscopes. It closes with the promises "Reiche Auswahl. Billigste Preise." ("Rich selection. Lowest prices.") and the addresses "Neuerwall 50, Ecke Bleichenbrücke" and "Steindamm 122, nahe Stiftstrasse" ("Neuer Wall 50, corner of Bleichenbrücke" and "Steindamm 122, near Stiftstraße"). The optician's shop had also become a shop of scientific toys for an educated public, where a father could buy a barometer for himself and a toy steam engine for his son. In December 1904 the Hamburger Fremdenblatt, recommending Christmas presents, likewise named Brauckmann's shop on Neuer Wall and Steindamm as a place to find spectacles, lorgnettes, magnifiers and microscopes in a huge selection and at the most affordable prices.
The business was growing, and the documents show it. On 22 February 1905 the firm deposited in the design register (Musterregister, No. 2428) a sealed envelope containing a "Muster eines optischen Spiegels für Post- oder andere illustrierte Karten" ("design of an optical mirror for postcards or other illustrated cards") under factory number 1. This was apparently a device for viewing postcards, which were then enjoying a real boom. In 1908 the protection of the design was extended by seven years. In the autumn of 1905 the firm granted Prokura (general commercial power of attorney) to Friedrich Georg Schroeder. The appointment of a manager with power of attorney shows that the owners no longer ran all the business themselves. In 1904–1906 several trademarks were registered to the firm; their images have not yet been found.
The firm's last known trademark is the word "MAXIOCULAR". It was filed on 14 November 1912 and registered on 30 December 1912 under No. 168916 in class 22b, with the entry:
"Geschäftsbetrieb: Optisches Geschäft. Waren: Optische Instrumente und Geräte, insbesondere Operngläser, Feldstecher, Meßinstrumente." ("Business: optical shop. Goods: optical instruments and devices, in particular opera glasses, field glasses, measuring instruments.")
The resonant Latinised name, suggesting "the largest eyepiece", was evidently intended, judging by the list of goods, for binoculars. The wording "Optisches Geschäft" itself reflects a change: by 1912 the firm described itself above all as an optical shop.
Least is known about the firm's last decade: the relevant Reichsanzeiger entries survive only in poorly legible scans. In September 1918, in the last months of the war, a change in the partnership of D. Brauckmann & Co. was published with the formula "[…] Liquidation findet nicht statt" ("no liquidation takes place"). In Hamburg practice this formula usually meant that the general partnership had broken up and the remaining partner was continuing the business alone, without liquidation and under the same name. Which of the two Brauckmanns left at that time cannot be established from the legible text, but it was probably Johann Andreas Detlef Brauckmann.
On 25 May 1922, at the height of the post-war inflation, one of the owners of the firm died. The entry recording his death was published in September of that year and can be read only in fragments. The notice does not say whether this was the founder, Johann Andreas Detlef, or his partner, but it may be assumed that it was the founder. The business, however, did not close: it was continued by a successor, and the firm became "D. Brauckmann & Co., Nachfg." (successor).
The last known picture of the shop comes from an advertisement of 1926, printed jointly with the firm of Carl Zeiss. Above the address stands in large letters "ZEISS PUNKTAL AUGENGLAS", and below:
"Das beste Sehhilfsmittel wird erst vollwertig durch genaues Anpassen der Fa. D. Brauckmann" ("The best visual aid only becomes complete through precise fitting by the firm of D. Brauckmann".)
Under the heading "Marken-Artikel zu Fabrikpreisen" ("branded goods at factory prices") are listed prism binoculars from 55 marks, opera glasses from 6.50, lorgnettes from 4 and barometers from 9 marks. The signature reads: "Optiker D. Brauckmann & Co., Nachfg., Neuerwall 50, Ecke Bleichenbrücke, Fernsprecher Elbe 9751". The Steindamm branch no longer appears in the advertisement. In the pre-Christmas advertising of the same year, gramophones and records appear alongside optics: the firm was trying to keep up with the times. The change of tone is noticeable too: instead of "barometers of our own factory", there are now "branded goods at factory prices". The optical institute had become a respectable optician's salon, whose main craft was now the precise fitting of spectacles with Zeiss lenses.
This stage proved short. On 10 April 1928 the Reichsanzeiger reported: "D. Brauckmann & Co. Nfg. Die Firma ist erloschen." ("D. Brauckmann & Co., successor. The firm has ceased.") Whether the successor was Johann Wilhelm Eduard Brauckmann, and what became of the premises at Neuer Wall 50, the stock and the trademark, the documents do not yet tell. After 1928 the traces of the firm disappear.
Barometers accompanied Brauckmann's firm throughout its history, from the list of goods of its first trademark in 1887 to its last advertisement in 1926. The firm called them products of its own factory, and it was precisely for practically usable aneroid barometers that it was honoured at the Hamburg exhibition of 1889. The characteristic feature of the best examples is an open dial through which an elegant, richly finished movement can be seen.
Barometer and thermometer on a common board — the finest known signed example and the most fully described. The board measures 44.5 × 23.5 cm, the dials about 18 cm in diameter. The barometer dial bears the words "Optisches Institut", the diamond-shaped factory mark with the eye and the monogram "D. & B. Co.", the signature "D. Brauckmann & Co., Hamburg", and images of the gold medal "Brüssel 1888" with the portrait of Leopold II and of the bronze medal of the Hamburg Industrial Exhibition of 1889. The scale runs from 72 to 80 cm of mercury, the weather words are STURM, REGEN oder WIND, VERÄNDERLICH, SCHÖN WETTER, BESTÄNDIG, and the centre of the dial is open. The matching metal thermometer, with a Réaumur scale and the marks EISPUNKT, ZIMMERWÄRME and BLUTWÄRME, is signed "D. R. Patent, angefertigt f. D. Brauckmann & Co., Hamburg" ("German Imperial Patent, made for D. Brauckmann & Co., Hamburg"); its spiral metal sensing element is visible through the open dial.
Brauckmann's name is often mentioned together with that of the Hamburg inventor and engineer Heinrich Emil Lessing. Lessing was a talented designer of opto-mechanical instruments who specialised in unconventional aneroid barometers. Although Lessing's own firm existed only briefly and did not trade actively, he himself continued his experimental work.
Emil Lessing became best known for creating original aneroid barometer movements, unlike the typical French or English designs of the time. Around 1888 Lessing developed a new barometer design specifically for the Brauckmann company. His movements attracted attention through their unusual construction and design.
Interestingly, despite his inventiveness, Lessing did not patent his movements either in Germany or abroad. Production volumes were probably small, and the inventor worked more as an enthusiast, periodically cooperating with Brauckmann; it was this cooperation that allowed his ideas to be put into practice. It may be assumed that Brauckmann's workshop made the parts and assembled the barometers to Lessing's drawings and then sold them under the D. Brauckmann & Co. brand.
The story begins in 1874, when Johannes Carstensen opened his own business in Hamburg and entered it in the commercial register under the firm name "Johs. Carstensen". In the autumn of the following year he took a partner. On 29 September 1875 an entry was made in the register, published on 4 October in the Deutscher Reichsanzeiger:
"Johs. Carstensen. Heinrich Emil Lessing ist in das unter dieser Firma geführte Geschäft eingetreten und wird dasselbe von dem bisherigen Inhaber, Johannes Carstensen, in Gemeinschaft mit dem genannten H. E. Lessing unter der Firma Lessing & Carstensen fortgesetzt." ("Johs. Carstensen. Heinrich Emil Lessing has entered the business carried on under this firm, and it is continued by the previous owner, Johannes Carstensen, together with the said H. E. Lessing under the firm Lessing & Carstensen.")
The new partner's name came first in the firm's name: Lessing did not join the business as a junior partner but, by all appearances, immediately became its leading figure.
The young firm can be pictured from the Hamburg address book of 1876, examined in the Hamburg State Archives on behalf of the barometer researcher Gerhard Stöhr. Heinrich Emil Lessing then lived on Mittelstraße in Hamm, at that time a suburb and today a district of Hamburg. The firm Lessing & Carstensen was listed in the book as a business in optics and mechanics. Its address was Steindamm 15, a busy street in the St. Georg suburb, while production was housed in factory premises on Ritterstraße in Eilbek. An office in St. Georg, a factory in Eilbek, a home in Hamm: the whole history of the firm unfolded in neighbouring eastern suburbs of the city.
The partnership lasted little more than a year. On 25 November 1876 two entries appeared in the register at once, published on 1 December in the Reichsanzeiger:
"Lessing & Carstensen. Die Societät unter dieser Firma, deren Inhaber Heinrich Emil Lessing und Johannes Carstensen waren, ist aufgelöst, und wird die Firma in Liquidation von dem genannten Carstensen gezeichnet. Emil Lessing. Inhaber: Heinrich Emil Lessing." ("Lessing & Carstensen. The partnership under this firm, whose owners were Heinrich Emil Lessing and Johannes Carstensen, is dissolved, and the firm in liquidation is signed by the said Carstensen. Emil Lessing. Owner: Heinrich Emil Lessing.")
Carstensen remained to wind up the affairs of the old firm, while Lessing opened his own on the same day.
The address book of 1877 still lists the firm Lessing & Carstensen, but only at Steindamm 15. The factory in Eilbek disappears from the directory, and with it Lessing himself vanishes from the pages of the address books: his name appears neither in 1877, nor in 1880, nor in 1905. Meanwhile the firm "Emil Lessing" remained in the commercial register for almost three decades. It was deleted only in the spring of 1906; the Reichsanzeiger of 5 April 1906 reported briefly: "Emil Lessing. Diese Firma ist erloschen." ("Emil Lessing. This firm has ceased.") Stöhr allowed that the entry may have been deleted after the owner's death, but found more arguments in favour of another explanation, discussed below.
Brauckmann's chronology, as already noted, can be documented only from 1883, and no publicly available information exists on his earlier activity. It is worth noting, however, that both stories unfold on the same street. Lessing & Carstensen had their address at Steindamm 15; Brauckmann started at Steindamm 110 and later kept branches at Steindamm 57 and 122. The answer to the question of the connection between the two men lies in the years before 1883, when Brauckmann's name first appears in the documents. It was probably then that their cooperation began, and it is precisely this period that has left no document naming them together. This is partly explained by the law. The General German Commercial Code exempted from registration those whose business did not go beyond the scope of a craft enterprise, and a craftsman mechanic could work for years without leaving a trace in the register. The cooperation between Lessing and Brauckmann therefore cannot be traced on paper, and only the instruments themselves speak of it.
Gerhard Stöhr suggested that Lessing deliberately kept his firm in the register so as to resume activity from time to time — for example, in the above-mentioned year 1888 for Brauckmann — and considered that much speaks in favour of this assumption.
Most likely, the story here repeated one well known from French barometers of the same period. The French engineer Tremeschini signed with his own name the dials of barometers with a movement of his own design, although the instruments themselves were made by another firm, most often Alfred Casse. The Hamburg masters apparently worked on the same pattern. Lessing was the inventor and designer of the original movement, as shown by the surviving barometer whose dial bears his name and the words "eigener Construction". The maker was Brauckmann: first a craftsman mechanic working for Lessing, and later the owner of the "Optisches Institut", who produced the same movements under his own factory mark.
Beyond barometers, Lessing may also have advised Brauckmann & Co. on other technical matters. He was, for example, versed in projection technology and optics, and the firm may have used his work to improve its opera glasses or projectors. In any case, the alliance of the practical master Brauckmann and the innovative engineer Lessing proved fruitful: it enabled a small Hamburg company to take a leading position in the narrow field of aneroid barometers and confirmed its reputation as an "optical institute" capable not only of selling but also of developing modern instruments. At the same time, Brauckmann & Co. acted as the industrial partner of a talented designer, bringing his innovations into series production, however small. The Brauckmann–Lessing alliance enriched the history of instrument making with unusual aneroids.
The history of D. Brauckmann & Co. is the story of a Hamburg craft that managed to become a commercial business without losing its skill. A nameless optician's workshop on Steindamm became, within a few years, an "Optisches Institut" on Neuer Wall, with a factory mark, a branch, and medals from Brussels and Hamburg. Its shop windows reflected the interests of a whole era: theatre and opera, photography, the magic lantern, steam toys, electricity, the microscope and, of course, the barometer, the constant companion of the bourgeois drawing room. The firm outlived its founder, the war and the inflation, and faded only at the end of the 1920s, when small optical institutes gave way to industrial giants such as Zeiss, whose lenses it fitted for its customers in its last years. What remains are entries in the commercial register, newspaper advertisements and barometers bearing the eye in a diamond on their dials, for which the name of Brauckmann is remembered by collectors today.
Deutscher Reichsanzeiger und Königlich Preußischer Staatsanzeiger (Berlin). Digitised by the Universitätsbibliothek Mannheim.
