Digging around in the Fountain Pen Network’s subforums while planning my recent trip to Heidelberg, Germany, I found a link to an old Pentrace post about a fountain pen history museum in Handshuhsheim, a Heidelberg suburb. Knowing that Heidelberg was an historical center for fountain pen manufacturing, the Museum gave my trip far greater potential than even the pen-hunting I had planned! The Museum’s owner turned out to be Thomas Neureither, a well-known German pen historian, so I wrote to him. He responded the next day, enthusiastically inviting me to visit. Suffice to say that I had not expected an unforgettable all-day conversation. Our use of English, which he claimed needed practice and was demonstrably better than my German, allowed me to immerse in his three generations of experience and lifetime of knowledge-gathering. His little Museum has in fact become the place where now rare pens, ephemera, and manufacturing machines from the numerous long-defunct firms have found a retirement home. The world of pen making in the Heidelberg area, significantly excepting only the larger Pelikan and Geha in Hanover, Soennecken in Bonn, Faber-Castell in Nuremberg, and Montblanc in Hamburg, was a deeply interwoven community of smaller firms, including Osmia, Orthos/Artus/Lamy (the very large and modern survivor which continues in Heidelberg today under Japanese ownership), Mercedes (no, not the cars…), Reform, Böhler, Degussa, Luxor, and Kaweco. I found the interlocking corporate histories, extensively documented by Mr. Neureither, particularly interesting, especially those of Osmia and Böhler, both of which used Degussa nibs which I had previously thought were excellent replacements for the original nibs, not these pens’ actual original equipment. In addition to these pens, the Museum is also a particularly rich lode of Kaweco history and pens, including probably every variant of the original celluloid Sport (precursor of today’s Sport Classic) and rare, some unique, ephemera that were donated by Michael Gutberlet, who has led Kaweco’s resurgence in recent years.
Unlike any other country’s fountain pens, most vintage German pens are “Kolbenfüller”, piston-fillers. They are generally simple devices that are extraordinarily reliable and durable; no sacs, plungers, pressure bars, or diaphragms with tiny retaining pellets. They are usually black celluloid, with green or blue view windows and widely interchangeable interior parts. So, where’s the charm if they’re all alike? When viewed together, one can see that these pens are far from alike in subtly individual differences of size, chasing, trim, and nibs. They feel right in the hand and seem to exude dignity and substance. Most importantly, they’re great writers, soft and wet. (By the way, don’t be fooled by the preponderance of steel nibs in prewar German pens — the Nazis took the gold from every industry to finance rearmament.) Every one of these long-gone firms had a box of its pens available for inspection, and they were fascinating to see and hold. Surprisingly, all of this is in one room of the 19th Century town Rathaus, erected long before Handschuhsheim was subsumed into Heidelberg.
The second, smaller room at the Museum is the final location of Mr. Neureither’s grandfather’s pen-making shop, with his belt-driven lathe, barrel-imprinter and nib stamping, slitting, and folding machines, as well as one of two surviving hand-cranked chasing machines, a mechanical masterpiece that works today. I’m an old machine lover, so could have spent hours with these!
Happily, self-imposed word count limits me, but additional length wouldn’t help me better describe this mother lode of a particular history in two small rooms. In addition to having had an exciting day that gave me a new friend and filled my head with knowledge that is vital for my restoration practice, I came away with the refreshed awareness that all of vintage fountain pen history is within the past 4-5 generations, and that there are people like Mr. Neureither keeping this history alive and fresh. If your travels take you to Heidelberg, let me know and I’ll introduce you!