Allach (porcelain)

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The Allach maker's mark featuring the SS insignia.

Allach porcelain (pronounced 'alak') was produced in Germany between 1935 and 1945.

[edit] History

The porcelain factory Porzellan Manufaktur Allach was established as a private concern in 1935 in the small town of Allach, near Munich, Germany. In 1936 the factory was acquired by the SS. Heinrich Himmler, the leader of the SS who was known for his obsession with Aryan mysticism, saw the acquisition of a fine porcelain factory as a way to establish an industrial base for the production of works of art that would be representative, in Himmler's eyes, of truly Germanic culture.

As output at the Allach factory increased, the Nazis moved production to a new facility near the Dachau concentration camp. The fact that the factory might have been taking advantage of a pool of slave labor provided by the Dachau camp was strongly denied by the factory managers at the Nuremberg Trials.[1] Initially intended as a temporary facility, Dachau remained the main location for fine porcelain manufacture even after the original factory in Allach was modernized and reopened in 1940. The factory in Allach was instead retrofitted for the production of ceramic products such as household pottery.

The fall of the Third Reich brought an end to the Allach concern. The Allach factories were shut down in 1945 and never reopened.

[edit] Cultural significance

Even though the Allach enterprise had a sinister purpose of promoting the Himmler's personal vision of Germanic culture, its contribution to applied and fine arts has enormous significance. What makes Allach porcelain one of the world's finest is the famous German craftsmanship capable of producing artworks of unique artistic and manufacturing quality. Surprisingly, the majority of items produced at Allach as collectables avoided imagery associated with the Nazi ideology. Peasants, historical figures and animals were the most common themes of Allach masterpieces. Today, Allach porcelain is among the most sought after by collectors, with some Allach porcelain figurines commanding a market price of tens of thousands of U.S. dollars.