European Loungers- ID help/translation needed!

[Rick Blaine]

I bought this lovely warm gray fedora from a vintage store in, of all places, Riga, Latvia.

It is very soft and though not labled (in any language I am able to read) certainly fur felt w/ a soft gray kid leather sweat.

The photo below is of the only markings on the sweat & I would love to know what it says. Can anyone help?

THANKS!

 

[Dave E]

Vereignite means something like combined or united in German, and I think the other word there is probably hatmakers in German, so labelled in German. Who knows if that means it is German, however? Company name looks like it translates to United Hatmakers or something similar.

Nice looking hat, by the way!

 

[Spats McGee]

. . . .
It is very soft and though not labled (in any language I am able to read) certainly fur felt w/ a soft gray kid leather sweat.

The photo below is of the only markings on the sweat & I would love to know what it says. Can anyone help?

THANKS!

I think the two sides should be read together, but our resident native speakers of German may correct me. On the left side, "Veb Vereinigte," translates to "Veb United." On the right side, "Hutwerke," and then something I can't make out. "Hutwerke" means "Hatworks," which would be a hat maker. All together, we've got "Veb Vereinigte Hutwerke _____," or "Veb United Hatworks ____."

Veb could be an abbreviation for something, but I suspect that it is the company owner's last name. The last word is probably the city in which the Hutwerke was located.

Edited: Looking at that symbol, though, . . . It says VHG, which is Vereinigte Hutwerke G___. I don't know what the Veb is.

 

[B.U.H.]

Looks to me like "VEB Vereinigte Hutwerke Guben".

"Vereinigte Hutwerke" has already been explained, Guben is a town in the eastern part of Germany, in fact so close to the Polish border that it was separated after WW II into a German and a Polish part.

"VEB" means Volkseigener Betrieb, People Owned Enterprise - an abbreviation like Ltd., PLC and so on, in that it denotes a type of enterprise in its legal context. VEB was a type of enterprise during the time of the German Democratic Republic in pre-unification Germany, which dates the hat somewhere after WW II and before the early 90s, when the VEBs where converted into more western types of enterprises - or just closed :-(

Hope this helps.

 

[Mario]

There is a short article on the history of the VEB Vereinigte Hutwerke Guben after 1945. German only.

http://www.acol.de/hutmuseum/geschichten.htm

It's part of the Hutmuseum website. The museum itself had been closed in 2005. Pity...

http://www.acol.de/hutmuseum/

 

[mayserwegener]

Very nice find! :eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap I removed my post when you originally posted this hat but my guess was correct. I have a much later Gubener.

 

[dhermann1]

Another first class example of why I love the Lounge. Thanks to everyone on this thread.

 

[Rick Blaine]

Wow 10x !

Another first class example of why I love the Lounge. Thanks to everyone on this thread.

Quite right, Bronx, this is the Cosmopolitan atmosphere that keeps me coming back!


I am very grateful for all the info & so rapidly...


...but, what? Ya'll have nothing better to do on a Saturdays' afternoon?

mit Dankbarkeit,

RB

 

[Hal]

Looks to me like "VEB Vereinigte Hutwerke Guben".
"Vereinigte Hutwerke" has already been explained, Guben is a town in the eastern part of Germany, in fact so close to the Polish border that it was separated after WW II into a German and a Polish part.

For a time Guben was known as "Wilhelm-Pieck-Stadt-Guben", Pieck being the first (perhaps the only?) President of the DDR, who died in 1960. Probably the name-change took place after Pieck's death, making it likely that the hat was made before 1960.

 

[B.U.H.]

After studying the excellent link provided by Mario, it looks like the name of the maker was in use between 1952 and 1990.

 

[mayserwegener]

C. G. Wilke Hutfabrik was also out of Guben. Everything was nationalized after WWII. Similar situation to how Hückel and Peschel were nationalized as TONAK (Nový Jičín, Czechoslovakia). There is a book on C. G. Wilke (in German) that you can order on eBay. I came across an article about former workers of VEB Vereinigte Hutwerke Guben visiting TONAK but I would have search around for the link. Guben and Nový Jičín were similar hat making centers. Much of this info is in the German - Austrian Hutmacher thread or at my site.

http://germanaustrianhats.invisionzone.com/index.php?