100 Jahre Müller & Sohn

Originally, Waldemar Kämper did not want to join the family company at all as he had trained as a pastry chef and baker. He had spent the whole war as a wireless detector in Norway and at the end of the conflict he was taken prisoner by the French. When he returned to Schwelm in 1949, he did take over the management of the company from his mother - an easy decision as the company had developed extremely well on account of the economic upswing. As he had often helped his mother with the business when he was still a child, he was able to capitalise on these experiences in his new position as company manager.

Almost 10 years after the building in the main street was erected, there was a company audit for the first time. Because of the confusion of the post-war period and the destruction of buildings, many documents had been destroyed making it difficult to produce the required insight into the company’s books. Nevertheless a high back-payment was imposed for the new building.

Oral family history maintains that the second company headquarters had to be paid for twice over.

Worldwide events in the same period

1950 ‡‡ First Franco-German rapprochement with the Schumann Plan
1952 ‡‡ German television starts broadcasting
1954 ‡‡ The Miracle of Bern: Germany wins World Football Championship for the first time
1956 ‡‡ Popular uprising in Hungary ‡‡ Introduction of compulsory military service in the Federal Republic of Germany
1957 ‡‡ The Space Age begins with the Sputnik satellites
1959 ‡‡ Fidel Castro’s victory

This occurrence was as expensive as it was educational but it had no further influence on the growth of the company. Quite the contrary. The business ran magnificently in view of the demand for raw materials for rebuilding Germany.

Müller & Sohn was not officially listed in the Commerical Register until 1950 and now dealt exclusively in metals - all of them except iron and precious metals. The strong demand from the building trade, engineering and automobile production meant that the business continued to grow steadily.

Despite paying dearly to the tax office, Müller & Sohn continued to expand steadily and moved its headquarters at the end of the 1950s to larger premises at 61 Rheinische Straße in Schwelm. This property was leased for 99 years from the Bundesbahn (German Federal Railways).

Under Waldemar Kämper’s management, the company continued to grow rapidly. His son from his first marriage, Siegfried Kämper, also joined the company in 1956 and was actively involved in expanding Müller & Sohn until 1968. Afterwards, he decided to be self-employed from 1969 and founded his own company.

Worldwide events in the same period

1960 ‡‡ The community of Sprockhövel was formed from parts of Blankenstein-Ruhr
1961 ‡‡ The building of the Berlin Wall confirmed the partition of Germany
1962 ‡‡ Cuba crisis
1963 ‡‡ Assassination of JF Kennedy ‡‡ Adenenauer’s resignation as Federal Chancellor of Germany
1964 ‡‡ Founding of Stiftung Warentest
1966 ‡‡ First grand coalition in Germany ‡‡ The legendary Wembley goal scored (not)
1969 ‡‡ Man arrives on the moon ‡‡ Willy Brandt becomes first German SPD Chancellor

1950 - 1969

Paying dearly and the Economic Miracle

Worldwide events in the same period

Worldwide events in the same period

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