From the company’s founding in 1924 onward, up to at least 1931, Emil Broch’s company address was “Hübben 17” in Höhscheid, or Solingen-Merscheid. In the address book of 1931, the telephone connection of the company was given as well: 23650. This number was also maintained when the company moved to the house “Mangenberger Straße 302” around the middle of the 1930s. The new company accommodation was just about 100 meters from the old house away, but probably offered larger premises and a more prominent address, as Mangenberger Street at that time was also home to other well-known knife companies, like C. Jul. Herbertz.
For how long this house remained the headquarters of the Emil Broch steel factory, could not yet be determined, since in the time of World War Two, no address books of Solingen have been published. The company address on Mangenberger Street is the last to appear in the address book of 1938. From the beginning of the second World War on, track of the company is lost for almost 10 years.
After the war
In the next address book of 1948/49, the third and last address for the company can be found. As that address book is a special copy solely for companies, the entry looks like a small ad. The text beneath the heading razor production reads as follows:
Broch, Emil
Steel works factory and export
Straight razors only in best qualities
Solingen-Weyer, PO Box 41
Tel. 3 32 91
A specific address is not given here, but in the address book of 1953, the specification is completed: The third and last company address is “Häuschen 5” in Solingen-Weyer. As Emil Broch had died in the meantime*, the company’s only owner here is given as Willy Broch for the first time. However, Emil’s wife Martha is still listed in the address book of 1953 as a widow under the address of the old company seat on Mangenberger Street.
Under the address “Häuschen 5”, the company’s last mention is in the address book of 1961. In the following volumes, “Willy Broch, merchant” is listed under that same address. Willy’s wife, Elfriede Broch-Ehlenbeck, can also be found on this address, where her father, Friedrich Ehlenbeck, had already been listed since the 1950’s. Friedrich Ehlenbeck in turn was one of the founders of the Solingen dispatch department Ehlenbeck.
The last entry for Willy Broch can be found in the address book of 1978, as Willy died the following year.
* Emil Broch died in 1947, after the war. Since Emil was already 67 years old at the beginning of World War Two, he may not have been drafted. He had been mustered in 1892, and was found to be suitable. In the First World War, however, he was also not drafted for military service, as his father was blind on one eye and had to be cared for by Emil at that time.