About Dr. Trenkler Co.

This fine art printer was first established in 1894 under the name Phototechnisches Institut Dr. Trenlker & Co. by Dr Bruno Trenkler and Carl Gustav Jahrig. After the comings and goings of a few additional partners, the firm settled on the name Dr. Trenkler & Co. by 1900. They would become one of the largest printers and publishers of lithographic and collotype postcards in Germany, producing view-cards from all over the world. They are also known for a large set of cards issued for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904. They opened an office in London in 1902 where the publisher Frederick Hartmann became their agent. There growth required the opening of another factory around 1904, and about this time they also took on a new partner, Max Hoffmann. In the following years they got into a long legal battle for using the term Autochrom to describe their tinted lithographs, which was a trade name registered with Louis Glaser (www.louisglaser.pl). The loss of this case combined with a long labor strike and the failure of Jahrig to form a strong union of collotype printers contributed to their decision in 1909 to sell off the publishing side of their business. All postcard publishing would be taken over by Trinks & Co. and Jahrig would leave the firm the following year. They continued to print postcards but in smaller numbers, and eventually switched techniques to offset lithography and rotogravure. While no longer publishing, they continued to place their name on the cards they printed such as a set of black & white cards depicting the German front lines during the First World War. The firm was turned into a public company somewhere between 1922 and the death of Dr. Trenkler in 1926. By 1929 it was bankrupt but found itself resurrected the same year as Dr. Trenkler & Co. AG under its former director Gustav Fehre, and with the financial backing of E. Pinkau & Co. It was supposedly supposed to be a book publisher but they seemed to have produced some cards as well. The exact relationship of this new firm with Pinkau unknown, but after J. Pinkau died in 1958 the remnants of both firms were incorporated into VEB Bromsilberdruck by 1972. Citing Source: [http://biblioteche.comune.trieste.it/Record.htm?Record=19468596280912867780&idlist=1]                                                                                                                                              The card from wedding album of  Frida Kickelhayn and  Dr. Bruno Trenkler.