Company’s Foundation by Julius Montz

Julius MONTZ took over the Mewis coppersmith shop in Heiligenstrasse 30 in Hilden on November 1st, 1911, thereby laying the cornerstone of Julius MONTZ GmbH. The crafts business, founded in 1845, was in bad financial shape. The company chronicle, leather-bound and composed of large hand-written notes, remarks about the first year of the young enterprise: „...the proceeds are barely enough to pay the rent.“ MONTZ saw no option but to accept any and all possible order. He repaired pumps, laid water pipes and carried out repair works. The first major order from the Friedrich Krupp Company in Essen provided the turning point for the entrepreneur. His small company began to blossom in the following years and he soon started to hire apprentices and journeymen. However, the outbreak of the First World War interrupted the so far pleasant development of the small company. Julius MONTZ, now in the of age 46, was temporarily drafted into the Navy. Also, the prohibition to process copper for civil purposes threatened the economic existence of his company. But the production of pots for army field kitchens as well as iron coffee water cookers for the Krupp Company enabled MONTZ to steer his company through the crisis. He again changed his production setup after the war to the processing of aluminium for can production. This allowed him to keep his company running without downsizing.

Starting Over After the Great Inflation

The relief to have made it through the war without serious losses did not last long. Following an illusory boom of the German economy, the runaway inflation soon caused major difficulties. Company MONTZ was not excluded therefrom and bled out financially.

In 1924, all that Julius MONTZ still owned was the property in Heiligenstrasse 30. At this time, the company primarily manufactured devices for fruit and jam processors as well as cupreous containers and appliances for various industries.

Specialization under Otto Montz

Under these threatening economic circumstances, the MONTZ family closed ranks even further. While daughter Else served her father as accountant and “coordinating power“ for many years, son Otto had first planned to become a teacher and to study economic geography and national economy. Now he decided to also join the company and took over the company management in 1925. It was him who convinced Julius MONTZ to specialize in the manufacturing of cupreous boilers.

A commemorative Festschrift at the occasion of the company’s 50th anniversary in 1961 writes: “After his induction, he knew how to convince his father that a high effectiveness in new times could only be achieved through the restriction of the fabrication program, and that the old crafts expertise had to be complemented by scientific theoretical research. For this reason, the workforce was supplemented by experts who had undergone the required engineering training.“ The specialization was a far-sighted decision which was ahead of its time by decades. At first, sales increased continuously; the best seller at that time were cupreous boilers, which were already exported to The Netherlands and to Finland. But the miserable economic situation during the last years of the Weimar Republic and during the first years under der Nazi dictatorship led to a renewed decline for the MONTZ Company.

The prohibition of cupreous boiler production in 1935 was very hard for company MONTZ because their production accounted for about 80 per cent of the total production at that time. For company management and workforce, this meant that they again had to adjust to a whole new market from one day to the next. They decided to now produce iron water tanks for express train wagons, piping systems and iron autoclaves as well as containers, condensers and piping systems for the chemical industry.

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