Steeped in history
and innovation

The rich history of ceramics in Berlin goes back to the 18th century. Frederick the Great played a key role when he founded the Royal Porcelain Factory (“KPM”) in 1763. From the very beginning, KPM produced exquisite porcelain of the highest quality and quickly gained international recognition. Their classic blue and white porcelain with royal emblems and ornate motifs became a coveted trademark in the royal houses of Europe. Berlin’s ceramics scene continued to flourish throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, with many private and commercial ceramics workshops and a wealth of suppliers for the entire ceramics production process. This diversity manifested in high-quality porcelain and a wealth of other ceramic products such as pottery, artistic sculptures, and decorative ceramic tiles. Not least, Berlin’s ceramics scene was shaped by the influential Bauhaus movement during the Weimar Republic.

However, it was the upsurge in global heavy industry at the end of the 19th century that proved decisive for Berlin’s kiln-making scene, especially for steelworks, glassworks, and high-temperature processes of all kinds. The need for wear protection and high-temperature insulation for melting tanks paved the way for the market for continuous kiln systems and the mass production of refractory ceramics on the scale we see today. But even then, energy consumption played a major role due to the limited availability of fossil fuels.

What drives us today is a very old principle, and today’s industrial kilns use only 20 % to 30 % of the energy they used when they were first built over 100 years ago.

The famous tunnel kiln sand channel, a Berlin invention, is still in use today, just as it was 100 years ago, simple and unbeatably ingenious.