Q: what do the 3 items below have in common??????
A: They were ALL made by the same company!!!!
The firm of Rudolf Wächtler & Lange ( maker '100' ) made EK1's ( as well as many other TR medals ) from 1934 onward after contract award from the incoming government. After the war, the company was still considered a viable concern and a trusteeship was established to reorganize the future of the company. The fact that along with military awards, the company made religious medals and iconography may have assisted in determining that it should survive post-war and NOT be dissolved like so many others did. In the 1950's the major company direction was into caged roller bearing production and in the mid 1960's they added production of rolled aluminium rims for the vehicle industry.
NOW known as MPT Prazisionsteile GmbH, the old firm that engraver Rudolf Wächtler set up in 1895 is still making bearings of all sorts for industry. The German car ( insert make of choice here ) you are driving could well have bearings with Eisernes Kreuz ancestry!!!!
I wonder how many other TR enterprises are still around? ( in some form or another )
Regards, Dan
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