Paul Gossen company history

History of the Gossen company, Paul Gossen Co. K.-G., Fabrik elektrischer Messgeräte

Info. This story is based on historic information from several sources. The most reliable information is from Dipl.Ing. Uwe Hitz, Mr Hitz has worked for Gossen and was responsible for technical documentation and also for the company magazine. In one of the last versions of this magazine an extensive overview is given about company events and products. This list has been published in Flashlite a Photographic historical magazine and private initiative of Salomon Gunter. This overview is published on a separate page. Because the research of the Gossen history is not finished this story will be adapted as soon new information is coming available.

Paul Gossen	Paul Friedrich Karl Gossen, born at December 13th 1872 in Stargard, Died June 30th 1942 in Nürnberg Germany was a German businessman and engineer in the field of electro technology. After his years of study at the Gymnasium from Stettin, Paul had a job as precision mechanical engineer and studied at the Technical university of Berlin-Charlotteburg. After his study he stayed at the university and worked there as a engineer. In the year 1903 he switched from employer and went to Reiniger, Gebbert & Schall located in Erlangen. Until he was drafted for the service he worked there as a engineer in the field of X-ray technology. At September 1st 1919 at the age of 46, Paul founded together with his limited partner Otto Cohn the company called "Paul Gossen Co. K.-G., Fabrik elektrischer Messgeräte" in the Pfarrstrasse (gasse?) 8 in Baiersdorff. His company was located at the first floor.

1 2 3 4 1. Paul Gossen mit 65 2. Paul Gossen mit Begleitung 3. Von linksVater Paul Hans Elisabeth Mutter Dorothea Charlotte Gossen etwa 1910 4. Im Bild Paul Gossen, der Firmengründer. [Grünewald-14.3]
Electricity was an upcoming technology and in all kind of fields inventions were made. Broadcasting was also one of the new fields of technology and the company of Gossen developed measuring equipment for this new technology. He started his company with a start-up capital of 60.000 mark brought together by the partners. The workshop and the production was done by 3 employees, Willi Bachmann, Wilhelm Striegel and Andreas Link. Mid of October 1919 the number of employees was already increased to 7 people and one year later the number was 28 employees.
On February 9th they moved and relocated to another location in the city of Erlangen. The company was now located at the Bismarckstrasse 21 in a former wash and bathing house. At the end of the year 1921 the number of employees was again increased to the number of 35 including 6 apprentices. In the period of 1924/1925 the company came under company supervision due to economical troubles. On may 6th. his partner Otto Cohn left the company and a new partner, Rosa Gossen, entered the company. Her contribution was the sum of RM. 50.000 (Reichsmarken). During this period a numerous equipment was invented and produced; Hot-wire ampere meter for measuring power and current (1919) vibration revolution counter (1925) Assymeter (1925).

Photolux, first Gossen photoelectric exposure meter.

The inflation, economical crisis and the pre second world war time made it difficult to run a company in these years but Gossen survived and in 1926 the very famous "MAVO" (Multi-Ampere-Volt-Meter) meter was introduced. An universal measuring device special thought for the radio builders and amateurs. Quick the measuring equipment made by Gossen became well known for their high quality and precision.

1932 Gossen started with the development of the first photoelectric photographic exposure meter. With the aid of Bruno Lange and his company they were able to show the meter on the fair at Leipzig march 1933 with the name Photolux In the German magazine 'Photografische Rundschau edition 7 of April 1933 there is the article about the fair "Photo und Kinomesse in Leipzig" with the header "belichtungsmesser" the working of this new equipment, the exposure meter, is explained and with the note: 'These equipment is shown by the company P. Gossen & Co, Erlangen, well known from the 'Mavometer'.

Paul Gossen had a production problem because the selenium sensors used in the exposure meter was so expensive, a competitive price for a exposure meter was not possible. After negotiations with the manufacturer of these sensors, Electrocell Berlin, he came to an agreement. He solved this problem by giving a guarantee of a purchase of more than 100.000 of these selenium sensors. By this solution, he was able to buy the sensor for an price of RM 7.50 and he can now sell this instrument at a price of RM 26.50. Shortly after the presentation of the Photolux this meter is renamed as Ombrux. In the period from 1933 to 1949 further development of the Ombrux has lead to the release of improved or dedicated meters like the Ombrux 2, Blendux, Cimbrux and Parvux. The Sixtus is the last model in line based on the further development of Ombrux. The Parvux is actually a lightmeter and the Cimbrux dedicated for cine purposes.

Note: Remarkable is the fact that about the same time the Photolux / Ombrux was introduced, there was a company called "Photolux", founded in 1928 with the manufacturing of exposure meters in the Jordanstrasse 6, Industiegelande Albertstadt Dresden. From this company, as far as known, there was never seen a exposure meter produced. On 23 February 1935 this company not longer exist. Could there be a connection between Photolux and Gossen?

In 1934 The company moves to the factory building located in the Sedanstrasse 20. The number of employees is now 253. In 1937 a branch office is opened in a rented location 'Unter den Linden' in Berlin. In 1939 A new factory building is bought in the Gluckstrasse this is a former brush factory 'Kranzlein' and this building will become in the future the 'Tippa-werk' the factory for the Tippa typewriter. The political climate is changing and the Nazi is preparing for war. This means that a lot of German companies are forced to work for the government and function as a part of the war machine to produce products for the navy, the air force and the army. Also Gossen is a part of this and from 1939 to 1945 Gossen is producing equipment to be used for the war. A part of the production is moved to a bomb free shelter 'bierkeller' in the 'Erlanger Burgberg'.

For security reasons a lot of German companies are rename to a code this to prevent the allied armies to find out were specific equipment is manufactured. The companies are listed in a special and very secret list and still not all codes are now. Gossen is renamed to "sdt' in the period from 1941 to 1942. In the period from 1042 to 1945 the code is changed to "bmr" a lot of these codes can be found in the list called the "German ordnance codes".

bmr	Gossen & Co, Fabrik elektrische Messgeräte, Erlangen.

On 28th of June 1940 the company structure is changed into a "GmbH" 'Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung ', a company with limited liability and the owners are Paul Gossen and his wife Rosa Gossen. The share capital is now RM 1,500.000. The CEO is Ing. Paul Gossen with his son in law dr. Karl Klarner. The company has now a new logo and name; P. Gossen & Co GmbH

1945 - 1946

In the period 1939 / 1940 an another new factory building is added to the company, the location Nagelsbachstrasse 25. On February 2nd 1941 a 'richtfest' (topping out) is held for this factory building and the offices at the building in the Nagelsbachstrasse.

From 1939 the production was changed to mass serial production of measuring equipment for telecommunication engineering and the for the army On June 30th 1942 Paul Gossen died and his dead results in a change of shareholders capital due to some laws. The heirs are Rosa Gossen and the children Charlotte Klarner (charlotte Gossen), Elisabeth Seiler (Elisabeth Gossen) and Hans Gossen. The CEO's of the company now are Hans Gossen and dr. Karl Klarner. At July 1942 the company has some 1.000 employees.

On April 16th 1945 at 17:00 American solders enter the building "Werk III" at the nagelsbachstrasse. The beginning of clearing is at June 4th 1945 and on middle of 1945 the production of exposure meters is restarted. In the beginning the production id for the American occupation only. The production is started with some 80 employees.
August 10th 1945, the American military government let the management of Gossen go after "Entnazifizierung" denazification and they were allowed to go back in function again. On June 20th 1948, there is a monetary reform in Germany. The company has now 900 employees of which are some 400 refugees.

1948 - 1949 Gossen started with the production of the Tippa typewriter. Therefore the building in the Gluckstrasse was used and called "Tippa-Werkes". The invention of the Tippa typewriter was very successful and a lot of these typewrites were sold. The production started in 1950 and went on until 1959. At January 1951 already 10.000 units were constructed in October 1951 this number was 20.000. Every 8 minutes a new typewriter left the production. Autumn 1956 The production licenses for the Tipa are sold to "Adler werke" A story in German about this can be found hereafter.

1946 - 1954

1 2 3
1. Nach dem Krieg Bernhard Grünewald als Leiter der neu aufgebauten TIPPA - Produktion 2. Tippa-Reiseschreibmaschinen-Fertigung bei Paul Gossen & Co, Erlangen, ca. 1950 - 1953 3. Hoffnungsträger TIPPA 5vl Dr. Karl Klarner ganz rechts Herr Raum 3 vr Hans Gossen
	June 21st 1948 In Germany there is a so called "wahrungsreform", a monetary reform the conversion from Reichsmark into Deutsch Mark. The company capital is reformed from RM (ReichsMark) 1.500.000 to DM (Deutsche Mark) 2.100.000. 1950, the number of employees is increased to 1200

After the WWII Gossen started with de development of a complete new exposure meter. As mentioned before, all previous meters were based on the very first meter, the Photolux. There were small changed in the housing, the electric system and the reading scale but not really dramatic changes. In 1949 Gossen claimed a patent in Germany for a complete new meter, the Sixtomat. After the Sixtomat further development lead to the Sixtomat J in 1952. All meters were made until now are for reflected light measurement. The Sixtomat J was made for Object and light measurement. in 1954 The Sixtomat X3 came out with an additional light temperature measurement to determine the right filter for color exposures. The Sixtomat was produced during25 years and a total of 2.500.000 pieces. Probably the best sold meter ever. There were also modified versions for the American market. The request for patent state the names of the inventors for this meter; Erwin Pfaffenberger and Hans Gossen. The development of exposure and light meters came in a rapid. 1952 Kelvilux, 1953 Majosix, 1954 Microsix, 1956 Sixticolor.
An another item was the development of exposure meters mend to build into camera's and later for automatic exposure control. In 1954 a meter was made to build into serial production camera's. 1959/1960 followed the full automatic aperture controller fir cine camera's from Kodak and Eumig. 1955 A repair service for exposure meters is opened in the Frankfurt branch which is expanded in 1956 for repair of measuring equipment.
The company expanded enormously, new buildings and factories were bought. The companies own capital was increased from 2.100.000 to 6.120.000 Mark from own funding. December 1957 the number of employees was increased to 2030 of which some 80 were working in the Berlin branch. In 1963 an increase of the branch office in Berlin. A new location was rented at the Kurfusterdamm for office and production space for exposure meters. the number of employees increased in 1953 to 17, 1955 to 52, 1958 to 80 and in 1965 to 263.	1954 - 1967


1967 - 1978	On October 1963 Paul's son in law Dr. Karl Klarner and his son Hans Gossen, sold the company shares for 70 % to the Bergmann EW AG and for 30 % to the Siemens & Halske AG. In 1965 bought Bergmann EW AG the remaining 30% company shares from Siemens & Halske AG. The total number of employees is in 1966 2471 persons. Since December 1970 the name of the company has changed to "Gossen GMBH". 1973 construction of a new branch in in Eschenbach. The number of employees is now a total of 2142, 1657 in Erlangen, 276 in Eschenbach, 193 in Berlin and 16 in Frankfurt.
1976 The production in Berlin is closed. and in 1977 follows the closure of the old production facility called Werk 1 at the Sedanstrasse. End of 1979 the number of employees has decreased to total of 1683 of which 264 in Eschenbach. 1988 the number of employees has further decreased to 1233, 263 in Eschenbach.
1990 Gebr. Röchling KG acquired the company and Gossen now belongs to the Röchling-Gruppe. In 1991 Gossen GMBH had a financial sales result of 116 million DM with 900 employees.

End 1992 / start 1993 the company merged with Metrawatt and became Gossen Metrawatt GmbH.

In autumn 1997 the business unit "Foto- und Lichtmesstechnik" was established as an autonomous company out of the GOSSEN-METRAWATT GmbH. Since then the GOSSEN Foto- und Lichtmesstechnik has been on the road to success. More than 75 years experience as manufacturers of high precision meters has proved its worth, particularly in the field of light measurements, as well as the use of innovative techniques in our Research & Development and Production. (Source: Gossen Metrawatt GmbH).

1. Von links Hans Gossen Willi Bachmann Fritz Pfaffenberger Betriebsrat Malz Karl Götz Dr. Karl Klarner
2. Von links Georg Pecher (Personalleiter), Georg Götz (Werksleiter), Herr Raum (Kaufm. Leiter), Berthold Schwarz (Prüfwesen) und der Jubilar Bernhard Grünewald beim Sektfrühstück am Jubiläum

A number of patents were filed at the US patent office. By these patents, now available we can distill an number of inventors working for Gossen GMBH. Erwin Pfaffenberger, Herbert Poppa Karl Goetz, Helmut Dreyer, Leonhard Burkhard, Hans Gossen, Wolf Kroger, Walter Illing, Werner Schultze and many others. Erwin Pfaffenberger (04-04-1906) was the head designer and inventor Of Gossen & Co. He came at the company in 1924 as a trainee draughtsman and trough private study he gained his position. Several important patents are written on his name.

Exposure meters were also exported to the USA but not always with the same name and finish. Because the USA was not custom to the DIN assignment, a number of meters for the USA market were modified to only have the ASA assignment, sometimes even with a double ASA assignment. Also the French market received the meters with a French instruction on the scale instead of the standard German text (on the older meters). Not only we see differences in the country versions but also versions made for special companies as Leitz Wetzlar and Kodak. Also we see different version from one type of meter like the Sixtomat in white, black and dark blue and rarely in dark red.

Except used for Photography we see the use of for instance the Ombrux used for the forestry. With a little formula, the Ombrux also could be used as a light meter to measure the amount of lux. (See Ombrux page). A more detailed timeline can be found on the special Flashlight page.

De official papers about the history of the Gossen company

Some pictures of the Gossen company found on several different sites at the internet

Stadtmuseum Erlangen

At the Gossen company a museum and an archive was planned to preserve and exposure the history of the company, products and used equipment. After the merger with Metrawatt Nürnberg, there was in no way any interest for this and the employees responsible for clearing and moving to Nürnberg were ordered to destroy al these valuable equipment and information. So due to this collectors are left with little information. This has happened with more companies in those days.

In that time, an employee in the person of Dipl. Ing Uwe Hitz was responsible for technical documentation and company magazine saved a lot of products, prototypes, manuals and other documentation from being destroyed. Due to his personal imitative and negotiations with a number of museums he was able to transfer a lot of these industrial monuments to several museums.

Stadmuseum Erlangen has adopted an extensive collection of exposure meters including production items, prototypes specials like the Sixtoflash that never came into production, the Hugy meter, a underwater housing for the Sixtomat and the development sample of the Lunasix together with a lot of advertisement material, brochures and manuals.
Other documentation material went to the City Archive of Erlangen, "Stadtarchiv Erlangen". On September 7th 1995 the "Erlanger Nachrichten" a local newspaper has placed an article about the transfer from the saved collection to the Erlanger Stadtmuseum. ( Nov. 2010, I am waiting for permission to place this article here.)

Many thanks to the Stadtmuseum Erlangen for this information.

fotomuseum Zeil.

With the aid of contacts of the magazine "Photographica Cabinett" I came in contact with Dr. Gerhard Binder, initiator of the "Zeiler Photomuseum" , Zeil am Main Germany. After some email contacts, I received documentation about the preservation of a graphic camera, used at the Gossen company and now on exposure at the Zeiler Photomuseum.

During a visit of Gunter Salomon At Gossen GMBH in Erlangen, Gunter was informed about a huge graphic camera available. First 2 people interested in this camera, decided not to take this camera due to the physical dimensions and eight. Knowing this, Mr. Salomon informed the Zeiler Photomuseum about this.
The museum was very interested and with combined help from technicians, the fire brigade and others the camera was disassembled, transported and assembled again in the museum. In the mean time the camera got a name "Photo-Dinosaurus" because it was big, green and old. With a weight of 1500 Kg and a length of 5 meter this really was enormous. The camera was used at Gossen for photographical process of meter scales and company brochures. The camera is a product of Hohlux GMBH the camera was sold to Gossen at April 21st 1955 with a total cost of 22.815 DM including a 12% special discount.

The camera can be viewed at the museum together with an enormous collection of camera's, accessories and other photographic equipment. I like to express my thanks to Dr. Gerhards Binder for his contribution to this website and the preservation of a part of the Gossen history. Visit the museum in a very nice surrounding and "Frankenwein"

Metrawatt GmbH. Siegfried Guggenheimer, born 22 November 1875 in Nürnberg. He died 8 December 1938 in Florence, Italy. He was a German manufacturer of electrical test and measurement equipment. He started his company in 1906, it was commercial registered August 20 1906 in Nürnberg. From the start the company they manufactured and sold electrical and measurement equipment. A remarkable point is the vision of Guggenheimer the recognize so early the future of the energy carrier current. The factory was hosted in the Dreichslerstarsse 19 in Nürnberg. In 1912 the buildings in the Schopershofestrasse 52 are bought and in 1917 the building next door at nr 54 was bought. In this time, the name of Guggenheim and the company became well known all over Germany. In 1933 was Dr. Siegfried Guggenheimer forced by the Nazis change the name of the company in Metrawatt AG. In 1937 was Guggenheimer forced to resign from office as managing director because of his Jewish origin he went with his wife and children to London and later on to Florence in Italy The company was a fierce competitor of P. Gossen & Co. because they made the same kind of products. In 1968 became BBC the major shareholder of the company and in 1973 moved the company to Nurnberg-Langwasser. In 1988 there is a fusion of Asea and BBC so the company is renamed to ABB Metrawatt GmbH. In 1992 is the Rochling group the major shareholder and also the major shareholder of Gossen GmbH and this group decide to a merger of both companies into Gossen-Metrawatt. Metrawatt made a number of exposure meters starting in aprox. 1937 with the Metraphot. Later the name became Horvex. Also Metrastar was a meter made in 1960. The Sixon 2 was one of the meters made be the company Gossen-Metrawatt. In late 1997, and under this trade name, the business department "Foto- und Lichtmeßtechnik" (= photo and light-metering) had been outsourced by GOSSEN-Metrawatt GmbH and has begun to establish itself as an autonomous unit.

Former addresses and distributors.
1977 Gossen GMBH Postfach 1780 D-8520 Erlangen Gossen GMBH Nagelbachstrasse 25 D-8250 Erlangen 1992 Gossen- Metrawatt GMBH Postfach 1333 D-8500 Nurnberg 50. Gossen Foto und Lichtmesstechnik GnbH Thomas-Mann strasse 16-20 D-90471 Nurnberg GOSSEN Foto- und Lichtmesstechnik GmbH Lina-Ammon-Str. 22 D-90471 Nürnberg Service: Alfons Bischof Phone: +49 (911) 86 02 172 Fax: +49 (911) 86 02 142 In many countries Gossen products are handled by GMC Instruments. GMC stands for Gossen - Metrawatt - Camille Bauer	USA business was handled by: Mitropa Corporation, photographic division 50 Broadway NYC Photoptic Import Corporation 235 Fourth avenue New York 3, N.Y. Kling Photo Company, sole U.S. Distributor 25-20 Brooklyn-Queens Expressway West Post office Box 1060 Woodside, New York 11377 Gossen Service Department Berkey Marketing Companies Inc PO box 1060 Woodside N.Y. 11377 Gossen Division Berkey Marketing Companies 25-20 Brooklyn- Queens Expwy West Woodside NY 11377 1011 Chestnut street Burbank CA 91506 Bogen Photo Corp. 17-20 Willow st. PO box 712 Fair lawn NJ 07410-0712 Tel. (201) 794-6500 Manfrotto Distribution P.O. Box 506 565 E. Crescent Avenue Ramsey, NJ 07446-0506 Tel.: 001/201 818 9500 Fax: 001/201 818 9177

	1919 - 1936	Foundation of the company in "Meβgeräte P. Gossen & Co KG, fabrik für elektrische meβgeräte", Baiersdorf.
	1936 - 1941	P. Gossen & Co GmbH
sdt	1942 - 1942	WWII German ordonance coding of the Gossen company Listed as company unknown, "messgerate"
	1942 - 1945	WWII German ordonance coding of the Gossen company. listed as: Gossen & Co, Fabrik elektrische Messgeräte, Erlangen.
	1945 - 1946	Renaming the company after WW2
	1946 - 1954	new logo Gossen GmbH
	1954 - 1967	changed logo Gossen GmbH
	1967 - 1978
	1978 - ....

Copyright; I respect the copyright of names and products to all the rightful owners.

Sources:
Official papers from Gossen and Gossen Metrawatt (see below).
Gossen-Chronic history of Gossen by Dipl. Ing. Uwe Hitz.
Information received from the Stadtmuseum Erlangen.
Information received from Fotomuseum Zeil am Main.
Flashlite Magazine nr. 17 1993, Written by Gunter M. Solomon.
coopertaion witj Photographica Cabinett
Several sources at the Internet.
Information found in several Gossen manuals.

Note: There is information and are pictures in this story of who I don't have the permission to publish due to the fact the author could not be reached or has passed away. To complete the story I have published them anyway but if anyone has a problem with this, let me know and I will remove them from this page.

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