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Join us on a journey through the fascinating history of our company which is yet to be continued.
The history of the company Gathmann started in Caracas in Venezuela where the father of Wilhelm Gathmann had opened in the middle of the 19th century the jewellery store “Gathmann Hermanos”.
As a young man Wilhelm was sent to Pforzheim, the jewellery centre of Germany, to be trained as a goldsmith. When he returned to Caracas the economic situation had worsened dramatically and herefore he decided to go back to Pforzheim.
In the year of 1904 he started his own company as a jewellery exporter and contracting manufacturer. His profound technical knowledge as well as many of his many overseas contacts helped him to become one of the leading export companies in Pforzheim.
On one of his trips to South America Wilhelm Gathmann was accompanied by his daughter Maria who had joined the company. In Caracas she met Karl Schütz, who worked as a manager at Gathmann Hermanos. They fell in love and married in 1932 in Pforzheim.
Karl Schütz took over the company and began exporting to new areas such as Australia and New Zealand. World War II stopped his efforts and Karl Schütz died in action in Russia. The City of Pforzheim was completely destroyed.
After the war Maria Schütz struggled to survive and to save the company for her three sons. Help came from her cousin Hans Gathmann, who arrived from Venezuela in 1948 with export orders. In the ruins of Pforzheim he and Maria were able to locate his former suppliers. His orders gave the jewellery industry its first encouragement after the war.
Hermann Schütz, Maria’s oldest son, was trained in Hamburg and worked for five years in Caracas. Like his father he also met his wife there, a young lady from Pforzheim. They married, returned home and Hermann joined the Gathmann company in 1960.
Under his dynamic leadership the company’s activities expanded around the globe. He turned the Caribbean Islands into a key market for the company and travelled up to seven weeks with a jewellery collection of 11 suitcases.
Expanding the company he started business trips to Arabia, the Far East and Southamerica. In the Japanese Market he founded the “DELAN-Group” of several German manufacturers in order to enter this difficult market. Through his hard work he built up the exellent reputation of the company worldwide.
Australia and the Pacific Region as well as Canada and part of the Caribbean Islands were developed by Klaus Britsch who had joined the company in 1971. His sales trips around the globe took sometimes up to 10 weeks.
In 1984 Bernhard Schütz, Hermann’s oldest son, joined the company after being thoroughly trained for the business. After his studies of economics in Pforzheim he spent several years abroad to become fluent in 5 languages.
In 1988 he went to Japan with his wife Birgit to establish the subsidiary “Gathmann Japan” in Tokyo where they spent eight years. With the help of his cousin Alex he built up the Japanese market to one of the important pillars of the company.
As General Manager of the DELAN-Group, a coalition of 20 highclass jewellery manufacturers, Bernhard succeeded in making German jewellery known all over Japan. When he left Japan in 1996 Frank Neuner took over the office and continued the business.
Back to Germany he realizied how important brands had become in the jewelry business. Therefore he started establishing relationships with internationally well known brands such as Thomas Sabo, Pesavento and others.
Günter Roos, working for the company since 1980, successfully opened new doors for Gathmann’s collections in Northern Europe and South Africa.
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