Alsfeld is smoking!Tobacco and cigarette industry in Alsfeld

For decades, the Köster “tobacco factory” was not only a significant economic factor but also a household name in the city. When the company was forced to close in 1929 as a result of the global economic crisis and structural changes in the industry, nearly 100 years of Alsfeld’s craft and economic history came to an end. However, it was not Theodor Köster from Hannoversch Münden, who had already founded a tobacco factory there in 1812, who initiated the beginnings in Alsfeld.

The first verifiable tobacco manufacturer here was Hermann Bücking, who was admitted as a citizen of the city in 1825 with this professional title. His business, about which no specific details are known, included a small, non-licensed printing shop for the production of tobacco labels, which was not uncommon at the time. Together with Julius Heinrich Lückhard, he acquired a plot of land in front of the Hersfeld Gate in 1829 and erected a larger building. According to the fire insurance register, a factory with a tobacco kiln has been insured there since 1830. However, as early as 1833, the company had to file for bankruptcy.

Later, it was Wilhelm Eduard Hyppolite—born in Rotenburg/Fulda in 1799 and identified in 1826 as a “tobacco business on his own account”—along with Georg Gerland from Kassel, commissioned by Theodor Köster, who expanded the tobacco and cigar business in Alsfeld on a large scale. (NH)