Erhard & Söhne

The company Erhard & Söhne was established by Carl Gottlieb Erhard and his two sons in Schwäbisch Gmünd in 1844. Carl Gottlieb Erhard, the priest-son from Großheppach, setteled in Schwäbisch Gmünd when he marriged Debler-Tochter. He became a partner of the company Teilhaber der Firma Gerber & Co, and acquired it with a settlement of 100.000 guilders in 1843. He established the company Erhard & Söhne with help of the sons Carl and Julius in 1844, which is today the oldest producing factory in the city continued in sixth generations as the single family business.

Carl Gottlieb Erhard procured to fill the market gap that the fire gilt hardwares were bought abroad at very expensive price. So he gathered highly trained experts for his business around a market, also his sons got the best education as Ziseleur and engraver. Julius was the creative one, Carl the commercial leader, on this occasion.

Their business wrote the history of the city henceforth. They especially specialized on fashionable accessoires (Galanteriewaren) of all the type out of brass and bronze, sometimes silver-plates or gilds. Highest skill was applied in their miniature-works, especially Doll-room-furnitures were sought-after items for the collectors, which inclue bookbinders, glove, buttons, buckles, etc.

At the beginning their main markets were England, America and the German states which ware not unified yet. In 1864 the factory was enlarged. The company tried new inventions again and again and was called "Testing factory". Soon the company had 3000 employees that it build another factory-building in 1900.

Besides the specialization at the processing of bronze, brass, copper and tin, also articles of noble-metal were manufactured. With the world-patent for the manufacture of brass-inlay (1904), the production of doll-room-accessories and furnitures out of gilt brass, that the big export-hit was between 1900 and 1910 into the USA, the business finally won world-format, and the invention of the Schleuderaschers (spin-ashtray), Roulette type ash tray (1938). The company was granted the patent for the thermo-mug in 1956. The extensive product spectrum of the business included extravaganzas - churches-use, luxury-goods, cult-appliances, jewelry and game-merchandise as well as electrotype-plastic copies of historic culture-objects.

This company is very known in the collector-scene as much sought after items for the antique doll-rooms since the company produced the highest quality Ormolu doll-room-accessories and furnitures until mid-1920s. Golden years of the company were the first years of the 20th century. When it was put on the mechanical engineering more and more and with the game-merchandise-production, it went downhill.


Since 1945, the company Erhard & sons was in particular decisive at the development and production the world-wide in use of brought Unimog (Universal-Motor-Gerät) involves. After the World War II it is an important factory of tanks under the name Erhard Automotive for usefulness-vehicles.

Today, the company is all over Europe from motor vehicle-sharing on topmost technical level one of the leading manufacturers. The transition of the manual Einzelanfertigung of historistischem art-trade to the mass-production of later industry-design joins with it with the history of the business at the same time.

Erhard & Sohne had the world-patent for the manufacture of brass-inlay in 1904. Since then they designed and manufuctured high-quality brass-inlay boxes and items which represented very unique and noble German Art-Nouveau style at its peak.

Some important works by Erhard & Sohne were illustrated in "MODERN ART OF METALWORK. Bröhan-Museum State Museum of Art Nouveau, Art Deco and Functionalism (1889-1939), Berlin" published by Bröhan-Musuem in 2001. The Bröhan-Musuem is one of the most prominent museums specialised in Art Nouveau, Art Déco and the Berlin Secession.