Pforzheim location

Pforzheim jewellery and watchmaking industry – since 1762.

Margrave Karl Friedrich von Baden lays the cornerstone for the jewellery industry in Pforzheim in 1767 when he grants the Frenchman, Jean Francois Autran, the right to establish a pocket watch factory in an edict proclaimed on the 6th April 1767. The seeds of the jewellery industry in Pforzheim were, consequently, sown in the production of watches.

The watchmaking enterprise is expanded in November of the same year to become a factory for jewellery and fine steel goods. The main reason for the settlement of watchmaking and jewellery firms in Pforzheim is the ability to employ pupils from the orphanage. Ten articles in the founding convention are dedicated to the education and upbringing of these orphans.

The establishment of watchmaking and jewellery production through the grace of the Margrave is soon followed by a private enterprise initiative that leads to major expansion. Pforzheim become the "most important fabricating town in the Margraviate of Baden", and voices abroad are soon speaking respectfully of "Little Geneva".

The Second World War appears to sound the death knell for the jewellery industry in Pforzheim. On the 23rd February 1945, Pforzheim is razed to the ground within thirty minutes in a bombing raid. Despite this, Pforzheim’s manufacturers, merchants, polishers and apprenticeships stand together, clear away the rubble and dig out the warped machinery glowing from the heat of the inferno.

Joining forces, they began the arduous task of rebuilding their production capabilities. These efforts benefited from the currency reform in the summer of 1948 and, by 1953, the ‘City of Gold’ Pforzheim was once again a major international supplier of jewellery and silverware.