Featured I've lost the international plot...

so if there is a intelligence agent around who has knowledge of the German ceramics field, I need your help.

I bought this 12-faced creamer at the monthly market on Sunday. I liked the shape, and the colour. I was also intrigued by the Mark on the bottom, a circle surrounding the word "Deutschland". When was Germany last officially called Deutschland?



Deutschland has been Germany since 18 January 1871, when it became the German Empire. Surely this creamer, which is in excellent condition was not made before 1871?















I need some help to understand this conundrum? Thank you.

 

Germany is still Deutschland.

 

Yes, you are technically right. The German exonym for Germany is Deutschland; but that isn't so in the ceramic language; not that I have seen.

 

I've seen it on between the wars Rosenthal, for example. And then post war you get DDR/GDR.

 

I believe that American import laws required goods to be labeled with the American name of the country of origin. I can imagine the Nazi regime trying to assert Deutschland as the only acceptable name for their country (though I've never read anything to support that.) The piece does look '30s-ish.

 

@Ownedbybear @moreotherstuff
I wrote to PM&M this morning and have just received a response from Chris Marshall:

Background:

The mark group of ring- and donut-shaped marks found greater use between around 1895 and approx. 1918 to 1920 (depending on region).

Such marks were export tax markers and country of origin markers in one, used on so-called "unbranded export goods".

They represent one specific mark type and period; a few manufacturers later used similar mark additions to "add age" to their items.

So you have two groups: (a) tax // country of origin and (b) retro // reproduction ... and those are easily mixed up.

Your mark however is from the third category:

Shown form is pretty rare, at the same time it's from a very distinctive period: 1938 (not 1939!) to 1945.

During the time of German expansion during the Nazi period from 1938 onward (after the Allies granted Hitler the right to lead different former German regions "back into the Reich"),

German trade officials were instructed to undermine international country of origin marking wherever possible, replacing the dictated "Germany" with the - per Adolf Hitler - 'politically correct' form of "Deutschland".

Of course his little ego trip ended in 1945, so it was back to plain "Germany" ...

So there we have the answer. Thank you both for your help and contributions.

 

I had a search and although I couldn't find DDR/GDR, did find "Rosenthal D.R.P.G."

 

DDR and GDR are East Germany. Deutsches Demokratisches Republik. GDR was the anglicised form. It was on stuff from East German factories.

That Rosenthal mark is interesting, it's 30s ish. Chris's information sits well with the Rosenthal I've seen, means it's a bit later than I thought.

 

I understand that; but that doesn't fit with D.R.P.G., or does it?

 

the first one answers itself.
the second one is IMO utter BS.
if Hitler had time for such stupidities he'd have lost the war even before he started it.
the official name was Deutsches Reich. as seen on coins, papermoney, poststamps etc..
I have to stop here because the rest about the Germans giving any attention to the English Merchandise Marks Act 1887 is so ridiculous that I quote a Jewish German poet: I can't eat as much as I'd like to ralph.
have a nice evening.

 

I disagree. This is exactly the kind of minutiae that occupied the Nazis. Everything cultural and historical was of supreme importance to them and they had committees and agencies galore specifically to deal with this sort of thing.

 

Brian, sorry, I was clear as mud. It was two separate observations. One that I'd seen factories such as Rosenthal use the Deutschland mark in the thirties. The second observation was that after WW2, stuff was marked as DDR or GDR meaning East Germany.

 

for Rosenthal here a respectable site for free. although they are missing some variations everybody knows that Bavaria means the Kingdom of Bavaria and was used to show the independance of the Prussian state.

http://sammler.com/porzellanmarken/...&symbol_7=0&symbol_9=9&symbol_10=0&symbol_13=

furthermore the DDR or Deutsche Demokratische Republik started its existence in 1949 only. GDR as a mark is practically non-existant because the Russian occupation forces didn't like English and because it was a hinderance when exporting to the West; so there Deutschland and Germany were often used to mark due to the anti-Communist hysteria in certain countries and hide the true origin of products.