A. Lange & Söhne

patrick_y
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The Lange Book: Walter Lange, The Revival of Time Memoirs

We all revel in the glory of the products from the famous brand A. Lange & Soehne today, but we never realize how difficult of a process the Herr Walter Lange went through to beat all odds and reestablish his company when he did not have his youth, did not have tremendous financials, nor a particularly large amount of workers who were eager to work for a luxury German watch firm again.

It is easy to appreciate the incredible timepieces that the company A. Lange & Soehne has produced in the past twenty years. However it is even more incredible to note the story of how A. Lange & Soehne was to become re-established. In order to understand A. Lange & Soehne, no self-respecting fan of A. Lange & Soehne can be oblivious to the story of Herr Walter Lange.

We hear of so many stories of success from other German companies that were successful in the post-war boom - the accolade and trophy winning company Porsche comes to mind as a German post-war success story - but we forget that many of these firms were incorporated in Western Germany and not the impoverished, iron-curtained, and cut-off from the rest of the world Eastern Germany. Survival and reincorporation of a company in the East was and still is just that difficult. In fact, even today, the German government has invested tremendous sums of money into developing the economy of Eastern Germany, constantly subsidizing and providing tax incentives for Western German corporations to invest more heavily in Eastern Germany. Again, you can imagine the hurdles, difficulties, and unlikelihood of Herr Walter Lange re-establishing a timepiece factory in Glashutte. If he were to establish a simple watch manufactory in such unfavorable conditions it would already be very impressive, but to establish one of the world’s finest luxury watch manufactories is truly against all odds.

This book is sort of an autobiography of Herr Walter Lange, the story of his life; the Second World War where he endured tremendous physical hardship, his conflict with the Nazi political party, the expropriation of his family’s business, his flight from Eastern Germany after the Soviets took over, and finally his return to Saxony to re-establish the firm that carries his namesake today. We all have many stories of struggles and less than idealistic moments in our own lives, and we have victory stories that show that we’ve overcome the odds. This is another one of those stories of how persistence beat the odds, another story of how the tortoise beat the hare. I’ve never met the man, Herr Walter Lange. But I hope those who have can be inspired by what he’s done, and hopefully that story of inspiration will perpetuate and lead to the creation of further success stories against all odds.

I’m a firm believer of the mentor and protégé relationship and its ability to create something of value; the automobile was invented thanks to such a relationship between Gottlieb Daimler (mentor) and Wilhelm Maybach (protégé) and the start of watchmaking in Glashutte was started with a similar relationship between Freidrich Gutkaes (mentor) and Ferdinand Adolph Lange (protégé). If you’re already successful and don’t have an inspiring story of overcoming less than likely scenarios, becoming a mentor would be the next best thing.

I’m back to work, as I can’t be too hypocritical, I too need to create something and do something of substance with my life. Hopefully one day I’ll have an inspirational story I can tell.

Thoroughly recommend all Lange lovers to read this book!

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