Marked by two world wars and the Roaring Twenties, the first 50 years covered a highly eventful period. People living at this time experience alternating periods of unemployment and incipient economic prosperity. Major inventions and discoveries of this era include: the radio, insulin and penicillin; the German Tempo three-wheeled truck is patented, and Nivea face cream is launched. The VW Beetle first enters production in 1938. The still-popular board game “Monopoly” is invented in the United States.

< Milestones: 1951 to 1975

		1949 Reconstruction of the building on Am Wall. Some finance is obtained by selling the ruined building on An der Weide. With the war over, a temporary one-room sales outlet is established on Holler Allee. Operating under great difficulty, the firm manages to restart trading on the basis of goods and leftover materials rescued from the war.
		1945 Both of the company’s premises, on An der Weide and Am Wall, are in ruins. The office building and warehouse, along with all its stock, were completely destroyed. The company managed to save its key documents and card-index files by storing them in a basement used as an air-raid shelter.
		1939 The Second World War breaks out. The Reich department of rubber and asbestos, in Berlin, issues Ad. Voigt & Co. with authorisation to conduct trade in vehicle tyres.
		1931 Ad. Voigt & Co. opens a branch in Amsterdam in the Netherlands to conduct wholesale trade in technical goods.
		1929 Major order from Norddeutscher Lloyd to equip the passenger ship BREMEN (51,660 BRT) with floor coverings.
		1926 Obtaining of patents for vehicle jacks and shock absorbers.
		1918 Four years of world war also seriously wound Ad. Voigt & Co. Trade needs to be built up again from scratch.
		1914 The First World War breaks out. Ad. Voigt & Co. trades mainly in rubber products for technical and medical use, along with industrial supplies.
		1907 30th September. Johann Friedrich Wessels becomes a partner. Ad. Voigt & Co. is now a general partnership company. Adolf Martin Voigt leaves the company at the end of 1908. Johann Friedrich Wessels is the sole proprietor.
		1903 29th December. The company adopts the name Ad. Voigt & Co. The departure of Gustav Caspar Clarus Pelizaeus in 1904 leaves Adolf Martin Voigt as the sole proprietor.

Milestones: 1864 to 1900 >