Station: [11] Bürgel Workshops in East Germany

After the Second World War, state influence on the pottery factories in Bürgel continued. The C. A. Schack and Carl Gebauer potteries were expropriated. Carl Gebauer’s pottery became a state-owned enterprise - the VEB - that belonged to various combines at different times. From 1981, it was called “Alt-Bürgeler Blau-Weiss” – Old Bürgel Blue-and-White.

In 1955, Viktor Greiner took over the work shops of the Schack factory and launched an artisanal pottery.

In 1959, four more potteries were at risk of expropriation. With no choice in the matter, Herbert Reichmann, Otto Neumann, Carl Fischer and Walter Krause joined forces to set up a cooperative association called PGH Kunsthandwerk Bürgel. That meant the workshops could go on operating as relatively independent departments, each under the former owner and master craftsman.  

From the 1960s onwards, VEB, PGH and Viktor Greiner focussed production almost entirely on the blue-and-white design. Especially acting on behalf of the national art trade, they shaped the stereotype of Bürgel ceramics that is still with us today.

Two more workshops were of significant importance for the pottery industry in Bürgel and beyond: the Walter Gebauer workshop, founded in 1934, and the training workshop that grew out of the Krause pottery in 1972. This later came under the Burg Giebichenstein College of Art in Halle. The college workshop operated on two levels – it was both a training facility and provided scope for experimentation. At the same time, it also manufactured the blue-and-white pottery in series.

Bürgel ceramics weren’t just in great demand in East Germany. As an article for export, they also earned valuable foreign currency for the country – but the population had to make do with seconds – or even thirds. Yet even they were traded covertly, and valued as goods for barter. So you could exchange “blue-and-white” pots for other rare articles. For example, the art college in Halle gained faster access to computers than planned, because a Robotron delivery from Dresden was fast-tracked following receipt of a crate of ceramics from the college workshop. At Bürgel’s pottery market, which was first launched in 1971, long queues would form in the early hours of the morning. Some people even arrived the day before to be sure of a chance to buy the sought-after pots. Nobody actually knew what kind of pieces would come up for sale. The main thing was to get your hands on anything at all, either as table decoration or something to barter with.