Porzellanfabrik Walküre
[1] The founder of the porcelain factory, Siegmund Paul Meyer, moved from Nuremberg to Bayreuth in 1890 to work as an accountant for the pottery and oven manufacturer Seiler.
[2] For his company he bought white porcelain from Bavarian and Bohemian factories and decorated it in order to later resell it to private individuals.
Representative offices of the porcelain factory were set up in various European countries in order to develop the local markets.
[6] He also installed an exhaust system that removed hazardous fumes and dust in the work area to reduce health risks in the workplace.
After the end of the war, the porcelain factory received a new company license from the Allies on 6 July 1945, but due to the ongoing shortage of raw materials, production could not start again until June 1946.
[3]: 164 The kilns fueled with wood and coal that emitted enormous clouds of smoke during some phases of the firing, and occasionally flames even blazed from the chimney.
In 1990, a fluorine adsorption system was finally purchased, which cleaned all the exhaust gases from the furnaces so that the air emitted was cleaner.
[3]: 167 From the 1980s onwards, the Walküre porcelain factory increasingly concentrated on the professional sector and produced for hotels, restaurants, canteens and cruise ships.
[8] Customers included Vapiano,[2] AIDA Cruises,[8] Café Landtmann in Vienna and the Hilton Hotel in Munich.
[5] The products were sold worldwide, with exports focusing particularly on Europe, North America, Japan, Hong Kong and Israel.
[1][17][nb 1] When the porcelain factory was founded in 1899, it initially bore the company name "Porzellanfabrik Siegmund Paul Meyer".
[3]: 165 The name "Walküre" ('Valkyrie') refers to the opera of the same name by the composer Richard Wagner and reminds us that the porcelain factory is only a few minutes walk away from the Bayreuth Festival Hall.
The museum was divided into four sections that showed the porcelain in different contexts: an upper-middle-class home from 1899, a 1920s train station restaurant, a 1950s hotel terrace and a modern bar from 1999.
