A summary of the content of the mentioned commemorative publication "Two Hundred Years" from 1931
It starts with statements how important the satisfaction of the customer is, that Henckels had set itself this goal from the small beginnings in Solingen 1731 or later when Henckels opened a small shop in Berlin in 1818 with a few items only, how it later expanded and Bismarck himself bought a hunting knife there from Henckels at the time of the foundation of the German empire (1871).
This is an advertisement of Henckels in a Berlin newspaper in 1818 where pocket knives are advertised among other things:
The name Henckels was already mentioned in the 15th century, the Twins became the official brand in 1731 and since is a guarantee for quality. The anecdote is told that when a delivery of knives arrived from Solingen that were not ground to the desired standards, J. A. Henckels threw them all into the Spree (the river that runs through Berlin).
Early on Henckels backed modernisation. Solingen was for a long time characterised by independent outworkers and water power. But Henckels steered a course in the direction of factory work, mechanisation, rationalization and steam power.
In 1867/1868 Henckels build its own cast-steel factory and in this way could produce its own steel.
In many cities Twin shops were opened (New York, Vienna, Cologne, Paris, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Dresden, recognizable by a special decoration of the shop windows.
Henckels in Berlin:
In the course of time the Twins became one of the best-known knife brands in the world.
Then the book goes into the quality of the Henckels products and the according prerequisites in more detail: The world wide unique feature of producing its own steel, tested in its laboratory. It is described how the products were tested: Scissors were dipped into lime to reveal imperfections, knives were bent, the grinding and cutting abilities examined with special tools, the sharpness of razors was tested with the help of blonde women's hair hanging in air (blonde hair is especially fine), pruning-shears were tested with the help of branches and nail-scissors with the help of quills.
The Twins steelworks also produced non-cutting steel goods.
The books ends as can be expected with a little bit of (not unjustified) self-importance: „This proud brand tells of German quality work in industrial europe as in steppes and wildernis, in the homes of highest culture as in plain huts.“
I hope I could give a certain impression of this historic publication.
. It's a lot of historical information. if you like I can tell you more (but beware of my English, i'm not a native speaker).
