Johs. Eckart Konservenfabrik (Johannes Eckart’s Canning Factory)

Founding of the Fruit Juice Factory in 1868

An advertisement for the fruit juice factory from 1873.

On May 2, 1868, Johannes Eckart founded the fruit juice factory "Johannes Eckart Fruchtsaftfabrik" in his apartment at Salvatorplatz 2. He sold the juices, mainly made of raspberries and blueberries, to the numerous wooden refreshment stands at the busiest squares in Munich, among others. These stands served "soda water with and without juice". Many of these refreshment stands were owned by Friedrich Seyboth, a longtime friend of Johannes’ brother Friedrich Eckart.

In 1869, the young Eckart family moved to the address Gärtnerplatz 2. The production facilities were established in the backyard and Johannes Eckart officially registered his fruit juice factory as a trade. He still mostly produced fruit juices, and he bought the raw ingredients in countryside surrounding Munich as well as in the Bavarian Forest. His sisters Henriette and Jakobine helped him purchase wild raspberries and blueberries. Henriette, called Jette, immediately noticed when a fruit gatherer had put stones in the basket to make it heavier. Her niece Käthe remembered how Henriette "to our amusement, pulled the ears of the naughty boys and shook them hard without much ado".

According to Käthe, the fruits were processed "with little use of machines […] by members of their own family and very loyal long-term employees." Beside producing fruit juices, Johannes Eckart started to devote himself to methods for preserving fruit, vegetables and soon also meat.

The Beginnings of the Can Production

Female workers in the canning factory, undated.

The procedure for preserving food in airtight containers came from France. The Frenchman Nicolas Appert had founded the world’s first canning factory in 1804 and published his knowledge in 1810 in his book Le livre de tous les ménages, ou l’art de conserver pendant plusieurs années toutes les substances animales et végétales (The Book for All Households, or the Art of Preserving all Animal and Vegetable Products for Several Years).

In the aftermath of the war of 1870/71, Johannes Eckart started to preserve vegetables in cans. Meanwhile, his family and his production facilities had moved again, this time to their own property at Gärtnerplatz 1. In order to have enough fresh vegetables at his disposal, Johannes Eckart started to grow his own vegetables in the countryside surrounding Munich.

Shortly afterwards, he also focused on the preservation of meat. He developed various methods, for example "pickling meat under pressure", for which he submitted a patent application in 1875. His most successful product was his preserving salt, which he produced by mixing common table salt with anti-rot additives such as salicylic, boric, and benzoic acid. Johannes Eckart used it for his own food preserving business while also having sold it in small five-kilogram bags throughout Germany as well as in Scandinavia and Russia. His daughter Hedwig recalls: "Almost every day, hundreds of small five-kilogram bags, made from untreated cotton, were stitched on the sewing machine by my mother, my two elder sisters and a seamstress."

Following a business crisis in the early 1880s, Johannes Eckart also began to produce jam and sell "spice cartridges" – cartridge cases filled with spices – and the whole family helped in the production again. The business recovered and the family moved into the "Daxenberger" houses, located at Sendlinger Strasse/Dultstrasse, in 1887. These premises of "Johs. Eckart Dampf-Conserven-Fabrik" (Johannes Eckart’s Steam Canning Factory) now consisted of proper production facilities, a store and a residential house. The product range included fruit juices, canned fruit, canned vegetables, canned meat and the preserving salt.

The New Generation

From 1900, a picture of the manufacturing plant at Jakobsplatz was shown in the letterhead.

In 1888, the next generation entered the business: Johannes’ son Friedrich (1870 to 1928). The economic situation of the company was good. For several years as of 1894, Johannes Eckart owned his own country estate in Grub, near Poing. There, the Eckart family grew peas and raspberries and established a poultry farm, managed by Johannes’ daughter Mathilde, called Tilly. However, five years later he sold the estate again five years later and leased some crop areas from the new owner. That same year, 1899, Johannes Eckart purchased new factory buildings in Munich, at Jakobsplatz 3. Yet he did not live to see the move, as he died in November 1899 following a brief but serious illness.

At first, 29-year-old Friedrich Eckart took over the management of the canning factory, supported by his mother Susanne, who had been Johannes Eckart’s closest colleague. Friedrich already knew the company well, too; according to his siblings, he was business-minded and behaved responsibly. At that time, he had been married to Maria Korn (1876 to 1956) for two years and had a son, Hanns (1898 to 1985).

Cans for the Military

The kitchen on the factory premises at Jakobsplatz 3.

In those days, the canning factory gained a new customer base: the military. In October 1900, the Bavarian Ministry of War ordered a yearly delivery of 6,000 cans of "ox roast", "smoked pork with sauerkraut" and "field meals". From 1901, the Imperial German Navy also ordered canned meat from the company Johs. Eckart. Prior to the outbreak of World War I, these two government agencies placed large orders with the company each year.

Hence, the production increasingly focused on canned meat. The factory was soon able to proudly call itself "Purveyor to the Royal Bavarian Court". The work at Jakobsplatz 3 is described in a newspaper article dating from 1917: "Long rows of barrels filled with cranberry and raspberry juice were stored in the cellar room with plenty of space to breathe. In the huge kitchen premises, illuminated as bright as day thanks to the high-lying windows, enormous oxen’s legs and juicy pork are processed into canned meat with spicy ingredients. […] According to a new method, the filled cans are closed by a machine with double lock seams and then placed into an autoclave, where they are sterilized with hot steam. The machine room also contains machines that process the huge amounts of fruit and vegetables for preservation. The airy and dry storerooms for the supplies are located on the factory’s upper floors. The floors are linked by an elevator." By around 1900, approximately 20 to 25 people worked in the canning factory, producing, on average, 4,500 kilograms of cans per day. The working hours were stated in the work regulations: from 7 am to 12 am (with a half-hour break at 9.30 am) and from 1 pm to 6 pm (break from 3.30 pm to 4 pm). On Saturdays, the female staff finished work at 5.30 pm.

The Subsidiary in Zamdorf

Product presentation by the canning factory Johs. Eckart in Zamdorf, 1915, colorized afterwards.

It was in 1906 that Friedrich’s younger brother Otto (1877 to 1942) joined the company. In 1907, the brothers’ uncle, Friedrich Eckart, died and bequeathed to them his asphalt factory in Zamdorf, a district of Munich. This is where, from 1910, Friedrich and Otto established a subsidiary of the canning factory at Jakobsplatz 3. Over time, more and more new machines were added, so that the facility was state-of-the-art in no time. The steadily growing production of canned meat was also transferred to Zamdorf. With land purchases, the fields in Zamdorf were extended to eleven hectares. Otto and Fritz concentrated on growing peas, beans, and various fruit trees.

It had become necessary to extend the factory, particularly as the Bavarian army were placing ever larger orders. The quality of the canned food was considered to be good. The Military Medical Academy’s hygienic department assessed them as follows: "Beef and pork goulash Eckart: both meats soft and tasty, broth of very pleasant taste, good canned food. … Field meal Eckart: piquant, but not overly spicy, very copious and filling. Good, canned food."

Im Jahr 1915 entstand eine Fotoserie, die die Produktion in Zamdorf dokumentierte. Im Juli 1916 besuchte der letzte bayerische König Ludwig III., der als Prinz im Jahr 1901 bereits den Jakobsplatz 3 besichtigt hatte, die Anlagen in Zamdorf.

Der Erste Weltkrieg

Lieferung an die Marine vom Jakobsplatz, 1915.

Mit Beginn des Krieges 1914 begann für das Unternehmen Johs Eckart eine hektische, kräftezehrende Zeit. In den Verträgen mit den militärischen Auftraggebern hatten sich die Eckarts verpflichtet, im Kriegsfall schnell die Menge der Konserven zu erhöhen. Sie mussten deshalb zunächst alle Privataufträge kündigen. Die Herstellung wurde außerdem auf das „Roh-Einbüchsverfahren“ umgestellt, in dem das Fleisch nur geschnitten und gewürzt wurde. Weil die Armee aber ab 1915 auf Dauerfleisch (Schinken, Speck und Würste) umstieg, blieben Fleischkonservenproduzenten wie die Eckarts sogar teilweise auf ihren Dosen sitzen.

Ab 1915 kümmerte sich Friedrich Eckart wieder alleine um das Unternehmen, weil Otto als Hauptmann der Reserve zur Marine nach Kiel ging. Im Laufe des Krieges kam es zu Engpässen bei den Rohstoffen und beim Dosenweißblech. Friedrich Eckart experimentierte mit Trocknungsverfahren und stellte unter anderem getrocknete Kartoffeln her.

Inflation, Krieg und Stilllegung

Nach Kriegsende verloren die Eckarts ihren Hauptkunden, die Armee. Die schlechte Wirtschaftslage und die Inflation bedeuteten schwere Verluste für die Firma. 1923 erreichte die Geldentwertung ihren Höhepunkt. Sämtliche angelegten Ersparnisse und Betriebskapitalien verloren ihren Wert und zahlreiche Kleinbetriebe mussten schließen. Viele der verbliebenen Unternehmen reagierten auf die Krisensituation, indem sie mithilfe von Banken neue Gesellschaften gründeten, die die in Konkurs gegangenen oder stillgelegten Betriebe wieder aufnehmen sollten. Auch Fritz und Otto Eckart beteiligten sich an einigen solcher Neugründungen, so zum Beispiel in Plattling, Schwandorf, Amberg und Furth im Wald. Sie hatten mit diesen Investitionen keinen Erfolg und die Aktivitäten hätten beinahe zum Ruin des Unternehmens geführt.

Friedrichs Sohn Hanns war 1922 ins Unternehmen eingestiegen. Es entstand eine Feinkost-Abteilung, in der unter anderem Trüffel, Saucen, Sardellen, Kapern und Oliven verkauft wurden. Man bemühte sich, neue Geschäftspartner im Ausland zu finden, beispielsweise in der Schweiz, in Ungarn, in Rumänien, in Russland und in der Türkei. Dennoch gelang es nicht, die Konservenfabrik wieder auf Erfolgskurs zu bringen. Das Unternehmen konnte nicht für den Lebensunterhalt von zwei Familien sorgen. Die beiden Brüder Friedrich und Otto trennten sich geschäftlich, Otto stieg gegen eine Abfindung 1926 aus der Firma aus. Ein Jahr später starb Friedrich, der zuvor noch das Haus am Jakobsplatz verkaufen hatte müssen.

Hanns Eckart gelang es in den folgenden Jahren, die Konservenfabrik in Zamdorf zu stabilisieren, indem er sich – neben Gemüse und Fleisch – auf die Konservierung von Pilzen und Waldfrüchten spezialisierte. Mit dem Beginn des Zweiten Weltkriegs stieg die Nachfrage nach Konserven. Das Unternehmen erstellte nun auch tiefgekühltes „homogenisiertes Vollei“ für Großverbraucher wie Krankenhäuser und Konditoren. 1944 brannte das Haus am Jakobsplatz mit den dort noch gemieteten Geschäftsräumen nach einem Fliegerangriff ab und auch Zamdorf wurde von Bomben getroffen. Die zerstörten Gebäude in Zamdorf wurden wieder aufgebaut, doch in der Nachkriegszeit erholte sich das Unternehmen nicht mehr.

Im Jahr 1968 gründeten Hanns Eckart, Ottos Sohn Werner Eckart und Hermann Meuser als Nachfolgeunternehmen die Joh’s Eckart GmbH deren Zweck es ist „das von Herrn Dr. Hanns Eckart unter der Firma Joh’s Eckart betriebene Unternehmen unter der Fortführung der bisherigen Firma zu übernehmen.“ Zu diesem Zeitpunkt produzierte die Firma bereits keine Konserven mehr, die Gebäude wurden anderweitig verwendet. Die GmbH existiert noch heute, allerdings „ohne Geschäftsbetrieb“.