Station: [2] Wertheim Glass Industry and Museum of Glass

Sprecherin Today Wertheim is the second largest German laboratory glass centre after Mainz. The development of the glass industry here began back in around 1950 when a glass foundry was built. Its construction meant that five businessmen from Thuringia who dealt in glass secured their source of raw material. These men were: Rudolf Brand, Dr. Fritz Friedrichs, Josef Friedrichs, Dr. Hans Löber and Carl Zitzmann. The first glass was melted in the new „Wertheim Glass Factory,“ in April 1950 and the town of Wertheim began its „Glass Industry Wertheim“ project. Some of the first companies to process Wertheim Glass on Wertheim soil were Alfi, Amarell, Brand, Graf, Helios, Normschliff and Schneider. And shortly afterwards the „Wertheim Glass Factory,“ supplied around 100 glass processing enterprises with raw glass and semi finished products. During the 1970’s about 3000 people worked here, today there are about 1700. Sprecher In 1972 the second glass foundry came to Wertheim. The „Schuller Glass Factory,“ now called Johns Manville, had previously settled in Wertheim in 1952 to produce textile glass. Textile glass products are also known colloquially as fibreglass. Today Johns Manville has its own foundry with two 60-ton furnaces. Sprecherin And in 1973 at the latest, „Industry creates culture,“ was established. At this point in time the first managing director of the glass factory, the glass physicist Dr. Hans Löber, wanted to show the public how diverse glass was, and he founded an organisation to open Wertheim Museum Glass in 1976. Sprecher The „Glaswerk Wertheim,“ or „Wertheim Glass Works,“ was owned by Schott Mainz for a time and was closed in 1994. In cooperation with the Museum of Glass, Wertheim glass designers and professionals from the industry made glass bricks out of the last molten glass and constructed the pyramid in the Mainpark.