The discovery of the Oberstein company Jakob Bengel as a prominent jewelry manufacturer has
liberated Oberstein from the stigma of being the underdog of the German jewelry industry.
Wilhelm Lindemann and Christianne Weber-Stöber document in this current study its independent
contribution to the evolution of early German jewelry design between 1910 and 1933 using Bengel
as an example. Highlights from the collection of Drs. Margarete and Heribert Händel hitherto
unpublished pieces of Bengel jewelry and contemporary designs attest to the exceptional level
of production as part of the reformist ideas of the Deutscher Werkbund the German Schools of
Art and Crafts and the Bauhaus. With this book the industrial monument Historische Uhrketten
und Bijouteriewarenfabrik Jakob Bengel Idar-Oberstein together with the Jakob Bengal
Foundation marks the factory's 150-year anniversary.
