The Richter Factory in Rudolstadt


This illustration of the Richter factory is from an engraving which is found in a number of the company's catalogs.  The factory was, when I was last there in April 1996, relatively unchanged.  Unfortunately, the company, the AnkerPharm, was sold to a French company by the Treuhandanstalt.  Although the AnkerPharm was profitable and had met all of the BRD standards for the manufacture of its medicines, it has been closed and all of the manufacturing moved westward.  So the former DDR has another unused factory, and additional unemployment. Clearly good local management, a solid product line and profitability meant little to the Treuhandanstalt, not when they could sell out the locals for 20,000,000 DM.  The memory of Dr. Richter, and the people of Rudolstadt (in German), deserved better.

However, the building stones are being made again, and in Rudolstadt, by Modellbaustein-Spiele, GmbH, Breitscheidstr. 103, D-07407 Rudolstadt/Thueringen, Germany. Tel: 0 36 72 / 5 25 55; Fax: 0 36 72 / 5 25 52.  These wonderful sets are not being imported, to the best of my knowledge, into the USA at the present time.

The picture shows the factory between 1888, the construction of the Richter Villa, and 1898, the 'great fire'.

* * * * * * * *