150 years Jakob Bengel
03.07.2023, 18:00 – 21:00, Industrial monument
Under the patronage of Malu Dreyer, Minister President of Rhineland-Palatinate, the Jakob Bengel Foundation invites you to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the founding of Jakob Bengel. Founded in 1873 by master locksmith Jacob Bengel as a watch chain company, the historic "Uhrketten- und Bijouteriewarenfabrik Jakob Bengel, Oberstein" is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. After years of economic success extending beyond the first half of the 20th century, this factory, which is unique in Rhineland-Palatinate, became the property of the Jakob Bengel Foundation in 2001 as a special testimony to industrial history.
The "Dr Margarete and Heribert Händel Collection"
Dr Aurelia Händel-Weber, daughter of the late collector couple Dr Margarete Händel-Geneschen and Heribert Händel, donated her parents' collection to the Jakob Bengel Foundation on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the watch chain and jewellery factory Jakob Bengel. The outstanding collection essentially consists of 352 pieces of jewellery from Jakob Bengel's production from 1930 to 1935. We are celebrating this anniversary with an extensive programme from July to October 2023.
New publication "Jakob Bengel, Oberstein"
The discovery of the Oberstein company Jakob Bengel as an important German jewellery manufacturer has freed Oberstein from the odium of being the "underdog" of the German jewellery industry. Using the example of Bengel, Wilhelm Lindemann and Christianne Weber-Stöber demonstrate in this current study the independent contribution to the development of early German jewellery design between 1910 and 1933. Highlights from the collection of Dres. Margarete and Heribert Händel, previously unpublished Bengel jewellery and contemporary sample drawings prove the high status of production in the context of the reform ideas of the Deutscher Werkbund, the German arts and crafts schools and the Bauhaus. With this book, the industrial monument "Historische Uhrketten und Bijouteriewarenfabrik Jakob Bengel, Idar-Oberstein" and the Jakob Bengel Foundation are celebrating the 150th anniversary of the factory. The publication will soon be available in the museum shop of the Jakob Bengel industrial monument and in bookshops at a price of €28.00. 152 pages, 17.1 x 23 cm, 120 illustrations, German / English