Station: [23] Huguenot Firms and Brands

“Milka, - one bite and you are there”

“Your legs are lovelier in nylons. “
One thing is certain; our wonderful world of consumer goods would be a lot poorer without the products made by Huguenot businesses.
All over the world, descendants of Huguenot families successfully set up new enterprises. The display cases here and in the museum foyer feature a selection of products and old advertising materials from businesses with Huguenot roots. 
Rousselet's stylish hats, made in the Taunus region, have long since faded into the past, as has the Tempo delivery van, a three-wheeler made by the vehicle manufacturer Vidal in Hamburg-Harburg. Its heyday as a low-cost motor vehicle coincided with the German economic miracle in the 1950s. But it continued to be made long after that – in India. Production was only finally discontinued there in the year 2,000. 
Other products with Huguenot roots have become famous the world over and are still successful today: Milka chocolate was originally made by the Swiss house of Suchard. Philippe Suchard opened his first chocolate shop in his native town of Neunburg in 1825. The business quickly grew to become one of the largest chocolate manufacturers of its time. The first bar of Milka chocolate came off the production line in 1901, in purple packaging even then. The purple cow, Milka's distinctive trademark, was only added in the 1970s.
The publishing house of Reclam also relies on strong colour as its trademark. Even now, every student in a German-speaking country is probably familiar with the bright yellow Reclam booklets. Huguenot descendant Philipp Reclam founded the publishing house in Leipzig in 1828. After the Second World War, his grandson Ernst Reclam moved the business to Stuttgart, while the Leipzig publishing house carried on until 2006 under the name Reclam Leipzig. 

Foto: © DHG