Hans-Heinrich Böger

August – the pugnacious brickmaker

In memoriam of August Dannenberg (1843-1904)

Who was this man who was unpopular with his employees, who delighted in arguing with the whole world, but who was held in such high esteem by his colleagues? August Dannenberg was more than a brickmaker who reached a ripe old age doing a job he loved and showed great diligence and dedication to hard and strenuous work. Dannenberg was also an inventor, entrepreneur and teacher.

August Dannenberg did not hold much with good manners. He was famous and infamous for his often coarse remarks both to employees in the Kodersdorf and Reuden clay roofing tile plants as well as in his engineering business and office for the entire lime as well as clay brick and roofing tile industries in Görlitz. But he did not mince his words with his professional colleagues either and championed his views. Testimony to this is borne by his many publications in the “Deutsche Töpfer- und Ziegler-Zeitung” (“German Potters’ and Brickmakers’ Journal”) or in the “Tonindustrie-Zeitung” (“Clay...

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