Viebig, Anton

Entrepreneur, founder of the Kostheim match factory

Born: 01.08.1860 in Gumtow (Ostprignitz district)

died: 24.05.1935 in Berlin

In 1887, Viebig received permission to build the match factory in Kostheim on the site of today's Industriehof. He had already concluded a cooperation agreement with the match company Stahl und Nölke from Kassel. In 1892, Viebig began producing sparklers and matches, which were sold under the name "Vulkanhölzer". Over the course of ten years, purchase, exchange and sale transactions resulted in an area of around 20,000^m2 - today's Industriehof.

In 1893, Viebig's Kostheim factory merged with Stahl and Nölke to form a joint stock company and from then on functioned as a branch company. In the same year, Viebig sold his share package to the Kassel factory and continued to run the company in Kostheim until his retirement as director. The company in Kassel employed 230 workers in 1911, 100 of them at the Kostheim plant. The Kostheim match factory was in operation until 1930.

In 1904, Viebig received a letter of honor from the municipality of Kostheim for his special social services. He had already voluntarily fulfilled the basic living and working rights in his company, which had just been enshrined in law after long disputes, and thus made a significant contribution to social equality.

Viebig died by suicide together with his wife Elisabeth (née Berthold) from Wiesbaden "as a result of economic hardship", as stated in a letter from the Berlin-Grunewald registry office dated May 29, 1935. The urns with the couple's ashes were buried in the Old Cemetery.