P?llath/Poellath

[Guest Rick Research]

Just realized that I have a bit of Time-And-Date-Specific information on the major producer of WW1 Bavarian flying badges (as well as many other things)...

This is from the 1941 Augsburg & Environs phone book, Telephone "8" Schrobenhausen (I think the street address has changed since):

[attachmentid=9808]

The lack of consistency in spelling (and nothing will ever beat Mike K's Mass Card with BOTH spellings! ) may perhaps be laid at the feet of Frau Greiner--

not her name on the business, so ....

"C"arl and P"oe"llath documented in use 1930s: from an advertisement for Hindenburg Crosses turned up several years agp by Brian in Brooklyn, and from tinnies. This shows the same Carl versus Karl, Poellath versus P?llath during WW2.

[Guest Rick Research]

AhhhhhhhhHA! And just when I was feeling smug about K-Karl with an Umlaut as "earlier," just to muddy things up, here is a "Christmas 1914" dated deluxe patriotic badge "C. POELLATH:"

http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=2224

[Ralph A]

Yup. I have tinnies marked both ways, and Weitze has a flight badge in a case - the case being marked one way, and the badge, the other.

[Stogieman]

I do not trust the veritable abundance of C. P?llath cases floating around the collector circuit these past few years..... nor do I really care for 99.9% of the "Bavarian" flight badges being flogged on dealer sites. In all my years of doing this, I've seen exactly three (3) authentic Bavarian (private purchase) Badges.......

[Rosenberg]

I have lil bit of info to add about the company history:

1778 founded by Carl Poellath

1898 Owner:Georg Hirtl

Company name at that time: Carl Poellath Pr?geanstalt Schrobenhausen

1923 Hirtl dies

Now with that prior post?s telephone book picture showing again another owner in 1941

couldn?t it be possible that the management didn?t pay 100% attention on the spelling as the founding-family left the company years earlier with the take-over by Hirtl.

[Guest Rick Research]

Thanks for this additional information, which covers the exact period (WW1) we tend to focus on.

It's odd that multiple owners who kept the Good Old Names on... didn't bother with consistently SPELLING them!

[Rosenberg]

I have to apologize for having made a spelling mistake myself

It is not Georg HiRtl it is simple Georg HITL.

Sorry for that one,always get confused with that name....

Regards

[Rosenberg]

I just saw that I have a badge bearing the date 1916 in a paper-bag by Poellath,so this is from 1916-1917 I guess....

[Guest Rick Research]

They made Ludwig Crosses???

That appears to be the blackened bronze version, from 1916. There were also green enamel paint finished (1917) and icky zink (1918) versions.

This is Big News for us-- thanks!

[Rosenberg]

Rick,this is the cross.The envelope also contained a bavarian-blue& white ribbon I didn?t take shots of.

[Rosenberg]

and the front,sorry for the bad pic.

[Guest Brian von Etzel]

Don't you remember when the Kaiser sniffed this out? I think Tony may have helped a little;

"The firm of Carl Poellath/Karl P?llath is in fact, the same firm. Records show that the firm has during the past used any two different ways of writing. The 1st Carl Poellath and 2nd Karl P?llath. Here is a small history of this company which is the same company, which still exists today as Carl Poellath. In the year 1778 the Nadler (Needle maker) Johann Christoph Abraham set up residence in Schrobenhausen. He manufactured needles and buttons. After his death the Needle maker Carl Poellath married the widow Abrahams and took over the workshop. Poellath developed a method to produce articles, which previously were only manufactured by casting, with percussive tools and received a ten-year patent. The firm manufactured buttons, collar hooks, latches and buckles in large quantities and called the firm a button and hard barrel goods factory. A century back, the company production went gradually into religious articles such as rosaries, religious travel memories, holy pictures and religious brochures and sheets. It was then considered a devotional production firm. Around 1900 George Hitl changed the product range. They began to produce coinage of artist medals, everyday coins and association medals. Military medals and decorations followed. Poellath is today one of the prominent enterprises in the production and refinement of customer-requested articles, with clients from industry, authorities, political parties, churches, federations, and associations. "

[Stogieman]

..... and , there is considerable evidence that even during WW1 the firm manufactured products simultaneously with BOTH spellings!

Why, oh why, oh why????????

[Thomas]

Don't you remember when the Kaiser sniffed this out? I think Tony may have helped a little;

The same Tony from Kaiserbunker? Is he on this forum? he sent me some pictures of some religious cards etc when I was asking about these badges on the WA forum and they were really interesting, one was maker stamped Karl Poellath and was was marked Carl P?llath. As he said, these are cheap cards worth a few Euro each not worth faking, and it seems to show that only WE are hung up on the two names as there seems to be any combination or mixing of the name on original cards from the era. Tom

[David Gregory]

Spelling changes in real names like this are not unusual in German.

At around the same time that the P?llath/Poellath variants were in use, even the names of towns and cities were changing. When I travel to work by train, I pass the gable end of a building next to the railway embankment that still bears a faint sign with the name Coeln (today's K?ln) from the time when the line was part of the Coeln-Mindener Eisenbahngesellschaft (later swallowed by the Prussian state railway).