Travel due north to discover one of Bavaria's most precious commodities
When the people of northeast Bavaria talk about “white gold,” their voices are suitably respectful. For more than two centuries, porcelain has meant both work and bread to the regions of Upper Franconia and the northern Upper Palatinate. Twenty years ago more than 15,000 people were employed in the industry, and even today, porcelain provides more than 5,000 jobs to the area and remains an important factor in the economy. In recognition of porcelain’s pivotal role in both the history and economy of the region, the “German Porcelain Road” was officially opened last August. Shaped like an uneven horseshoe, the route is 550 km long, running from Bamberg, through Coburg, Hof, Selb and Weiden, and skirting the border to the state of Saxony and the Czech Republic before ending in Bayreuth. As a journey it is relaxing and easy on the eye, enabling the visitor to enjoy an area less trampled by tourists than other regions of Bavaria, yet with plenty of interesting sights. The road winds through picturesque villages as well as glorious, once-independent duchies, such as Coburg and Kulmbach, with their solid feudal castles, and Bayreuth, the city of Wagnerian fame. The landscape is open, interrupted only here and there by great stretches of forests, such as the Franconian Forest and the Franconian Jura and is crisscrossed by the Saale, Eger and Waldnaab rivers. In the small village of Sibyllenbad a marker stone indicating the exact geographical center of Europe has been a tourist stop-off ever since Viennese geographers erected it in 1865. The route also provides a good jumping off point to explore the strange rock formations, lonely plateaux and stalactite caves of “Franconian Switzerland.” More than 300 signs posted along the Porcelain Road ensure that travelers stay on track and can easily reach their final destination. As a “tourist road” concept the “German Porcelain Road” is the latest in a list of more than 150 such routes that now cross the nation. There is the famous Romantic Road, the Toy Road around Nuremberg, the Fairytale Road that runs through the towns featured in the tales of the Brothers Grimm, the German Wine Road, a Goethe Road—the list is almost endless. There is even a Glass Road that overlaps the Porcelain Road for 70 kilometers near the Czech border. As with all of these thematic routes, the idea behind the Porcelain Road is to highlight an aspect of German history, make the topic more accessible for the public and, of course, draw tourists to the region. The aim of the Porcelain Road is to promote porcelain as a significant part of our dining and living culture. Yet, as all of these routes are competing for a shrinking tourist dollar, and as the Porcelain Road has been created late (the first official route, the Alpine Route, was opened in 1927) and is virtually unknown, it may well have a hard time establishing itself in the long term. Karl Amkele, president of the Porzellanstrasse Verein e.V., acknowledged as much in a recent interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung. “We’re probably a few years too late,” he said, referring to a current crisis gripping the industry as jobs leech away to the former eastern bloc countries, such as the Czech Republic, and to Asia. If the trend continues, he maintains, the “Porcelain Road could soon be discussed only in historical terms.” Others involved in the industry see this prognosis as too grim. Sabine Zehentmeier, from the European Industrial Porcelain Museum, says the region still produces 60 percent of Germany’s porcelain and the specialist knowledge available there will ensure the industry survives, although perhaps playing a smaller role in the local economy than it has in the past. “Porcelain is a very complex and challenging substance. We use it from the moment we wake up to the minute we go to sleep and not just in the form of plates, washbasins and vases. Porcelain is used in computers, catalytic converters, prosthesis and in dental work—it is incredibly flexible. But it requires knowledge to work,” she explains. Whatever the future of the Porcelain Road, it not only takes in an attractive area of Bavaria, but also gives insight into a subject that can fascinate even the most dispassionate tourist. Although the first white stoneware was produced in China during the Shang Dynasty (16–11th century B C), the tale of German porcelain began only 300 years ago and some 100 km away from today’s Porcelain Road. In the early 18th century a brilliant but somewhat foolish young alchemist by the name of Johann Friedrich Böttger claimed to have discovered the “arcanum,” the secret formula for turning base metal into gold. This drew him to the attention of Augustus II, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, whose appetite for women and riches is legendary. Augustus the Strong, as he was called, imprisoned Böttger in a remote castle in Meissen until he proved able to reproduce the formula. Unable to “repeat” his success, Böttger—after nine years of trial and error—was fortunate to discover the secret of white porcelain instead. Porcelain, or china, had only recently been introduced into Europe from the Orient and, because of its high costs, was a symbol of power, prestige and good taste, second only to gold in value. The tale of the European discovery of porcelain is one of wealth, intrigue, outrageous greed and gluttony, as well as 2,200-piece services. It is entertainingly told in Janet Gleeson’s book The Arcanum. Böttger was never actually granted his freedom, but instead Augustus appointed him head of what was to become the king’s lucrative porcelain factory in Meissen. The white, smooth, translucent products were shipped from Dresden and became known throughout the world as Dresden porcelain. Augustus was understandably keen to maintain a tight rein on the knowledge of this precious product, yet despite his best efforts the secret slipped out. By 1719 the Viennese factory of Claudius Du Paquier was producing hard-paste porcelain, after having lured away two knowledgeable workers from Meissen. As the technique of making porcelain spread, northeast Bavaria developed into a leading porcelain center because of the availability of cheap labor and the necessary raw materials for making porcelain—kaolin, quartz, feldspar and fuel to fire the kilns—as well as its central location to important German and Czech markets. By 1794 porcelain was the major industry in the region. By the 1920s the region was producing 90 percent of German porcelain. Today, while this figure has fallen to 60 percent, the Porcelain Road still encompasses Germany’s two largest porcelain cities, Selb and Arzberg, and some of the world’s most renowned firms are located there, including Heinrich, Goebel, Kaiser, Huschenreuther, Walküre and Rosenthal. It is possible to purchase examples of the work from almost all manufacturers in the region directly from the factories. Although only a few offer factory visits, those that do enable the visitor to see the complex process during which porcelain is fired at various temperatures of up to 13000ºC. In the past, several hundred people could be involved in the production of a porcelain piece. Today, through mechanization and improved processes, it involves an average of only 30. A tour through the works reveals that porcelain is not simply teapots and expensive, decorative knickknacks. Today many of the manufacturers produce innovative ceramic products, such as high-tension insulators, for inclusion in electronics, motors and heavy machinery. Factory tours are offered by the Rosenthal AG (Hutschenreuther Platz, Selb), Porzellanfabrik Retsch (Egerstrasse 132, Retsch) and KV-Arzberg–Porzellan GmbH (Fabrikweg 41, Schirnding). It is necessary to pre-book all tours and there are restrictions on the number of participants. Other porcelain-related stopovers include the German Porcelain Museum in Hohenberg, which covers the history of porcelain in Germany, the International Ceramic Museum in Weiden and the European Industrial Porcelain Museum in Selb-Plössberg. The Weiden Museum displays objects from six different Bavarian State Museums in temporary exhibitions, including some from the Bavarian National Museum, the State Prehistoric Collection and the Collection of Egyptian Art. In the European Industrial Porcelain Museum, an old porcelain factory currently undergoing restoration, visitors can wander over six stories, tracing the history of the German porcelain industry, as well as the development of the processes involved. “The Museum offers an insight into porcelain techniques from the 1800s into the future,” says Sabine Zehentmeier. “Porcelain is difficult to make and used to be an incredibly laborious process carried out under trying conditions. We give the visitor an idea of what highly specialized skills were required.” Bamberg Rathaus is home to the Ludwig Collection, the largest display of porcelain in Europe, but although impressive in scale, it does not surpass the collection of Augustus the Strong. Containing over 20,000 pieces, including precious items from his travels in the Orient, the collection is considered to be the finest in the Western world. It has recently reopened in the Glockenspiel Pavilion in Dresden. Augustus was the man who, if he didn’t actually inspire the discovery of porcelain in Europe, did much to promote it. He referred to his excessive dedication to porcelain as a “maladie de porcelaine,” a porcelain illness. For many of today’s porcelain collectors, it is a condition that they can identify with.