This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Geiger Classification: Biography Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/JOY.2ACEB/884 Message Board Post: Although the GEIGER name, from Oberweier, Friesenheim and surrounding communities in Lahr, Baden Germany are in my husband's family tree, I have not been able to connect his family with the FRANZ SALES GEIGER of the article below. If anyone is interested in the ancestors or descendants of this individual, I do have additional information. I thought anyone researching the GEIGER family may be interested in the following: Translated from the book: "Friesenheim, mit Heiligenzell, Oberweier, Oberschopfheim, Schuttern" Photographs and Postcards from the end of the 19th century Volume 1 published, printed in Germany 1998 ISBN 3-7806-2511-3 THE CIGAR COMPANY GEIGER FROM OBERWEIER Geiger cigars and Gautschi cheroots were circulated across Germany. The company's maxim was to offer a luxuriantly selection of excellently high quality cigars all the time like "Schwarzer Geiger = Black Geiger", "Meistergeiger = Master Geiger", "Staenderat = upper class counsellor", "Marie Luise", Gautschi Rex Stumpen = Gautschi King cheroots". The company's slogan "Gautschi Stumpen leicht und mild - echt nur mit Flagge-Bild = Gautschi cheroots light and mild flavoured - only real with the ensign picture" 150 years ago began the prosperity of the cigar industry in the middle Baden area. The founders of the company found optimal conditions. There was already raw tobacco there because of the Lotzbecksche snuff factory in Lahr. Tobacco was already cultivated, the farmers were glad to have an extra income. The population was poor and there were almost no chances to earn money. Trade and industry were underdeveloped in our small communities. Workers were cheap and many. This was the right moment for Franz Sales Geiger (1864 - 1940), he found with Michael Muehlhaeusler (1847-1915) from Friesenheim his own cigar company on 29.7.1889. They started with 20 people in Friesenheim in the guesthouse "Adlerpost" in the Adlerstreet. Muehlhaeusler quitted after a couple of years, Franz Sales Geiger managed the company alone afterwards. Leo Moser from Heiligenzell was working several years in the management and collected the history of the company. He bought the schoolhouse in Oberweier, Hauptstraße 64, and established production and administration there. As sales increased, branches were founded around the turn of the century. Franz Sales Geiger always thought progressive and consulted the farmers very early to improve the quality. 1914 at the 25th anniversary 14 branches with 1800 employees exists. The difficulties during and after the First World War were overcome. After the end of First World War Franz Geiger Junior started in the company. He had spent several years abroad and improved his knowledge, so they could overcome the years of inflation. All over the years they built not only new branches, but also enlarged their buildings and the number of them in Oberweier. In 1925 the son in law Alexander Neundoerfer entered the company. He acquired good skills as he learned in an apprenticeship in the Netherlands and in the company of his parents in Lorsch / Hessen. In 1929 they established the daughter company Gautschi & Hauri with Switzerland participation for producing exclusive typical Switzerland cheroots. The former headquarter of Gautschi & Hauri had been in Ringsheim, headquarter, administration and sales however had been in Oberweier in rooms of the Geiger company. In the branches they did only manufacturing. Therefore the specialist for typical Switzerland cheroots was Rudolf Gautschi. Up to the beginning of the Second World War the Gautschi & Hauri Company was counted to the biggest cheroots companies of Germany. The large representative staff of Franz Geiger Company organized sales. Franz Geiger Company and the Messieurs Gautschi and Hauri were half and half holder of the company. Franz Sales Geiger the company founder died in 1940. During the war both companies still manufactured their well-known products as good as they could. Master purchaser of the cheroots and cigars was the army department of supply. Many young girls and women were ordered to Oberweier and the branches of Goldscheuer. Cigar manufacturing belonged to armament factoring. Franz Geiger continued the companies, the son of the founder and Alexander Neundoerfer. After the war Franz Geiger became, meantime starting in federation working for the German Cigar industry, a middleman for the occupying power. In this way a new beginning could launch for the cigar industry. For his great service for the economy and the universality after the Second World War Franz Geiger was awarded with the title "Kommerzienrat" (= honorary title in the German empire, awarded till 1919 to personalities doing in economy); in addition to this he got the "Bundesverdienstkreuz" (very high German medal of merit = Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany). When Franz Geiger died in 1963 the image of cigar industry had changed essentially. The law of machine prohibition in the three…years (can't identify exactly; it must be a law against industrialization after the war) had fatally consequences. Industry progression in this branch (section) had gotten a backlog contrary to the rest of the country. Mechanization that was allowed after 1956 and particular after 1952 brought some new other ways. As mechanization started, more and more branches were closed. The manufacturing of the consumer products were centralised in the major operation (in Oberweier). Therefore the number of machines in Oberweier was increasing. The third generation started in 1965 with Helmut Geiger, son of the Kommerzienrat Franz Geiger and so the management skill was with Alexander Neundoerfer and Helmut Geiger. In the years of mechanization, where the strong competition was taking part, a large oversupply existed. The machines were not working at full capacity, which means they did not work in a double scheduled work period, and could not work profitable because of the large interest. Smokers preferred quality and this objective has been installed in company. To use productivity potential rationally was the important objective. Thus causes that the companies of Wilhelm Ermeler & Co. Lahr, Franz Krämer, Seelbach and Franz Geiger, Oberweier joined (united) an equity stake mutual (cooperation). This happened in January 1974. The new group belonged to the ten most important cigar producers in Germany. After the setback of the cigar market during the seventies, the three companies decided to stop the production on March the 31st 1976. On April the 5th it was to be red in the "Lahrer Zeitung" (Newspaper of Lahr): Franz Geiger in Friesenheim, cigar manufacture, the company ceased to exist. (HRA = Handelsregister = commercial register) The age of cigar industry in Oberweier was over. The buildings found new owners, only the enormous building, that even today is taller than the rest of Oberweier and the portly villa of the companies founder proclaim the victory, the expansion and decline of the cigar industry in this area. The "Schwarze Geiger" (The Black Geiger = branding name of a cigar) and the "Marie-Luise" (name of another cigar) made Oberweier, part (town) of Friesenheim, famous with splendid products of the cigar factory Franz Geiger in Oberweier. Many cigar smokers were sorry when the companies Franz Geiger and Gautschi & Hauri closed the gates in 1979.