The 3rd generation - Mr Hermann Brandauer and Mr Sydney Petit

I have already mentioned that I am a member of the 5th generation of the Petit family to work at C Brandauer & Co Ltd and that we have a 6th generation non-executive director on the Board of the Company, and that my nephew did some work experience in the Company recently.

So far very little has been said about my Grandfather (a member of the 3rd generation) - rather the black sheep of the family - Mr Sydney Petit who was a Captain in the Warwickshire regiment during WWI.  Also, Mr Hermann Brandauer (3rd generation, son of Charles Henry Immanuel Brandauer). Today I have been reading the Board Minutes at the turn of the last century and found the following entries about them both and their brief involvement with C Brandauer & Co Ltd:

October 19th 1908

Mr Charles Brandauer raised "a most important question viz. that in the interests of the Company generally, it was essential that Mr Joseph Paris Sydney Petit, son of Mr Joseph H Petit, should in the near future, with the consent and approval of his Father, assist in the Management of the manufactory after his probation as Mr Joseph H Petit's pupil.  The matter was thoroughly discussed but no final decision was arrived at

January 4th 1909

The minutes state that Mr Joseph H Petit's son, Mr Sydney Petit, would probably be leaving for Germany at the beginning of the present year. 

However, this was not to be because in the Minutes of 22 March 1909 Mr Joseph H Petit reported that his son was now at the Manufactory acquiring a practical knowledge of the business.  The visit to Germany would be postponed for say two years.

May 8th 1911

Resolved
That Mr Sydney Petit be given a salary of £250 per annum, as Assistant Manager dated from his 22nd Birthday and to increase £50 per annum until it reachs £500 per annum, the matter then to come before the Board for further consideration.

Later that same year the following is minuted:

October 11 1911
Suggested qualification of Mr Hermann Brandauer as a Director of the Company.  Mr Joseph H Petit in felicitous terms said that on behalf of himself and the other members of the Board he should welcome Mr Hermann Brandauer as a Director of the Company directly the necessary qualification (as set forth in the Articles of Association of the company) had been complied with.

However, it took nearly two years for the Board to decide the following:

March 27th 1913

Resolved
That the Board considered Mr Hermann Brandauer too young and inexperienced to be appointed forthwith a Director of the Company.  They however trusted to have the pleasure of welcoming him in a few years time to a seat on the Board. 

But ...

May 4th 1914
... Mr Joseph H Petit in felicitous terms announced the wedding of Mr Hermann Brandauer which took place on April 28th last, and on behalf of himself and other members of the Board wished him all possible happiness.  He proposed with great pleasure that Mr Hermann Brandauer be elected a Director of the Company and in doing so he said that he had the cordial approval of the Chairman, Mr J L Petit, although seriously ill, and also the approval of his uncle Mr Frederick C J Brandauer.

However, with the outbreak of WWI Hermann Brandauer's appointment was sadly not to last long and at the Board meeting on 2 November 1914 both Brandauer directors, Uncle and nephew, were removed from being Directors of the Company, as well as all Brandauer family shareholders having to give up their shares within the Company.

Hermann Brandauer had two sons and I have met Mr Ernst Anton Carl Brandauer and his daughter Ruth who are most interested in the history and the future of the Manufactory begun by Mr Carl Heinrich Immanuel Brandauer in 1862.

Finally, it seems that in the minutes of the Board meeting dated June 3rd 1919 my Grandfather Captain Joseph P S Petit was recommended to be elected as a Director at the next AGM of the Company subject to his obtaining the requisite qualification in shares.  Finally, in the Minutes of June 22nd 1920 my Grandfather, Sydney Petit, along side his Father and his Uncle Mr Charles F N Petit, is listed as a director but it seems that perhaps the deed hadn't been officially done as the correct number of shares he required to enable him to be a Director only happened on June 8 1921.

Sadly, my Grandfather didn't remain a Director for long.  The last entry in the Minutes records him as a director on June 3 1924.  At that time my Father, Mr Joseph Adrian Letiere Petit, would have been three years old and his sister, Yvette, a little older.  Sometime in the 1920s Sydney Petit left for Rhodesia to train as a tobacco farmer, only to return in the 1960s when I met him as a small child.

WWI played a huge part in the lives of the 3rd generation of the Brandauer and Petit families.  It meant that Hermann Brandauer was not allowed to work for his family business as he was from Austria and it is thought that my grandfather Captain Sydney Petit, who fought in the war, was very much affected by it and perhaps that was part of the reason his Father, Joseph H Petit, thought him better away from England.  The Petit family were fortunate in having other 3rd generation sons to work at Brandauer, but alas, the Brandauers would never again work in the Company. 

The Austrian connection

Carl Kuhn, originally a citizen of Ulm, settled in Vienna and being an entrepreneur set-up a factory for the production of pen nibs in 1843.  This company was the first of its kind in Austria and became well-known for its products and the quality of its products.

In 1860, Carl Kuhn's son-in-law joined his business as an associate and the company became known as Carl Kuhn & Co.  And guess what?  The name of the son-in-law was Carl H I Brandauer who was a citizen of Wurttemberg.  Unfortunately, Carl Kuhn's son died at an early age and eventually Carl Kuhn & Co became owned by the Brandauer family.

In 1862 Mr C H I Brandauer arrived in Birmingham in order to set-up his own pen factory (now known as C Brandauer & Co Ltd) in partnership with Mr Kohler, initially for 10 years.  Land had been purchased in February 1862 on behalf of the partnership.  Mr Kohler and Mr Brandauer financed the purchase of land and of my great, great grandfather's partnership, Ash Petit, which was the start of the C Brandauer, as follows:

• £2,500 from Mr C H Brandauer and it was acknowledged that he had already made a payment of £1,972.9.0.
• £1,500 from Mr F W Kohler who would pay a further sum of £500 in May 1862, and once his London shop had been sold he would, within 6 months, pay a further £500 and after 12 months another £500

The C Brandauer partnership was further funded with a loan from Mr Brandauer's Father-in-law, Mr Carl Kuhn, of £5,000 repayable with interest.  This loan meant that outside credit was not necessary.  The loan would be terminated when Mr C H I Brandauer left the partnership.

A contract of sale, dated 12 February 1862, purchased a piece of land in Birmingham, with its front on New John Street No 403-410, in total 2,238 square yards, at a purchase price of 9/ per square yard.  (9 shillings is equal to 45p), which would have cost £1,007.10p in decimal money.

It was also agreed that as soon as possible, a place of business should be opened on one of the busiest streets in the City of London, near the Royal Exchange, to sell the company products and the same in Stuttgart.

In 1872, Carl Kuhn & Co was also producing pen holders as well as pen nibs and factory space in Vienna was becoming difficult.  It was therefore decided that the Viennese factory would increase its production of pen holders and supply these to Birmingham and would stop the initial stages of pen nib production.  Instead it would buy semi-finished nibs from C Brandauer in Birmingham which were then finished off in Vienna.  This method of production in Vienna lasted for 40 years until the start of WW1 when full production of pen nibs once again started.  After the war contact was resumed between the companies of Carl Kuhn and C Brandauer (no longer owned by the Brandauers) but each continued to make their own products.  I believe that the firm Carl Kuhn stopped trading in the mid 1930s.  However, I am not sure of this and hopefully will be able to find out further information on this via documents and conversations with the current Brandauers in Vienna.

Sad times

With the start of WW1, in the summer of 1914, the directors of C Brandauer & Co Ltd found themselves in the difficult position of being a Company half-owned by an Austrian family. The Brandauer family had with others founded the Company over 50 years earlier but due to the nature of WW1 they would now be seen as the enemy by the British.

The directors of C Brandauer & Co Ltd met every quarter for a board meeting and the first one after the declaration of war is dated Monday November 1914, at 12 o'clock. Minute 500 is indeed a very sad one and is as follows:

Mr Joseph H Petit [Chairman] reported that the War between England and Germany had necessitated the removal of the names of Mr Frederick C J Brandauer and Mr Hermann Brandauer from the Directorate of Messrs C Brandauer & Co Ltd on account of their nationality until the conclusion of the War as their positions as Directors interfered with the conduct of the business of the Company.

Resolved
That Mr Frederick C J Brandauer and Mr Hermann Brandauer be removed from the Board of Directors until the conclusion of the present War. The Board found it expedient on account of competition to be in a position to declare themselves an entirely British Company.

I know that this decision caused great sadness and anxiety to both families as they had worked together for three generations and corresponded extremely regularly with each other. It took some years after WW1 had ended to sort out the complicated Company affairs between the two families and the War Office but in the mid-1920s C Brandauer & Co Ltd became totally owned by the Petit family as it is to this day.

However, communication between the Petit and Brandauer families did not finish in 1914 as the archive shows and lasted for many years to come. There was a gap in the 1950s, 60s and 70s but in the 1980s my Father, Mr Joseph Adrien Letiere Petit, found the Brandauer family, still in Vienna. Since finding the Brandauers I have met them at the factory and in Vienna and we share archival information, which is marvellous. Finally, we are looking forward to meeting the current generations of the Brandauer family at the 150th anniversary celebrations in 2012.