Mahala Problem, officially ''Problem oHG'', was a cigarette company from

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, popular and successful before and after the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The company was founded on March 25, 1889, by Szlama Rochmann in Berlin, and later bought in 1932 by

Reemtsma Reemtsma Cigarettenfabriken GmbH is one of the biggest tobacco and cigarette manufacturing companies in Europe and a subsidiary of Imperial Brands. The company's headquarters is in Hamburg, Germany. History Reemtsma was created in 1910 in Erfu ...

History

Company Creation

The

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

cigarette manufacturer Szlama Rochmann (17 June 1857–17 December 1925) founded in 1889 ''Cigarettenmanufaktur Mahala-Problem'' (''Cigarette manufacturer Mahala-Problem'') at Alexanderstraße 13/22 (Alexanderhof) in Berlin. This was after his brother, Baruch Rochmann (1863–1926), had taken over the family cigarette manufacturing company " Namkori-Phänomen" from his father Israel Jacob Rochman (22 June 1837–31 July 1881) in 1881. At the turn of the 20th century, Szlama hired

commercial art Commercial art is the art of creative services, referring to art created for commercial purposes, primarily advertising. Commercial art uses a variety of platforms (magazines, websites, apps, television, etc.) for viewers with the intent of promo ...

ists such as

Louis Oppenheim Louis Oppenheim (1879–1936) was a German graphic artist, painter and type designer. Born in Coburg, Oppenheim studied in London from 1899 to 1906. He moved to Berlin and started his work as a graphic artist in 1910, signing his work with h ...

, Ernst Deutsch-Dryden, Lindenstaedt,

Lucian Bernhard Lucian Bernhard (March 15, 1883 – May 29, 1972) was a German graphic designer, type designer, professor, interior designer, and artist during the first half of the twentieth century. Career He was influential in helping create the design ...

to create advertisements. The German commercial artist

Hans Rudi Erdt Hans Rudi Erdt (31 March 1883 – 24 May 1918) was a German graphic designer, lithographer and commercial artist known for his contributions to the Sachplakat movement created by Lucian Bernhard. His work at the prestigious '' Hollerbaum und Sc ...

created the famous

Fez Fez most often refers to: * Fez (hat), a type of felt hat commonly worn in the Ottoman Empire * Fez, Morocco (or Fes), the second largest city of Morocco Fez or FEZ may also refer to: Media * ''Fez'' (Frank Stella), a 1964 painting by the moder ...

wearing

Moslem Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraham ...

as the brand image for the ''Problem-Cigarettes''. In 1914, after the 25th anniversary of the company, Szlama acquired the grounds of 212-213 Greifswalder Straße in Berlin from Gustav Magnus (not to be confused with

Heinrich Gustav Magnus Heinrich Gustav Magnus (; 2 May 1802 – 4 April 1870) was a notable German experimental scientist. His training was mostly in chemistry but his later research was mostly in physics. He spent the great bulk of his career at the University of Berl ...

), to turn it in the headquarters for manufacturing of their cigarette brands. Between 1914 and 1929, the Jewish architect Moritz Ernst Lesser and

Ernst Ludwig Freud Ernst L. Freud (6 April 1892 – 7 April 1970) was an Austrian architect and the fourth child of Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and his German-born wife Martha Bernays. In honour of his wife, Ernst Freud added the initial L. to his name wh ...

(Son of

Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...

) were commissioned to build the factory for production and storage. The Rochmann family with four children were also living at the building. After the death of Szlama in 1925, his two sons Heinrich Rochmann and Carl Rochmann took over the father's business, still headquartered on the Greifswalder Straße. The tombstones of Szlama, his parents and his brother are located at the Jewish graveyard of

Berlin-Weißensee () is a quarter in the borough of in Berlin, Germany, that takes its name from the small lake (literally 'White Lake') within it. Before Berlin's 2001 administrative reform, was a borough in its own right, consisting of the quarters of , , , ...

Downfall

After a bad harvest of Turkish

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

, increased taxes for the storage of tobacco, as well as the onset of the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, the family sold first the brand ''Problem-Cigarettes'' (1930), and then the entire company (1932) to the

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

based company

. Szlama's wife (Hanna) and their sons moved to the west Berlin, while their daughter Erna lived with her husband in Central Berlin ( Prager Platz). The production halls were then rented out by Reemtsma from 1935 to the

Reichsarbeitsdienst The Reich Labour Service (''Reichsarbeitsdienst''; RAD) was a major organisation established in Nazi Germany as an agency to help mitigate the effects of unemployment on the German economy, militarise the workforce and indoctrinate it with Nazi ...

and were converted into sewing halls. With the rise of

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

in Germany, Heinrich Rochmann (son of Szlama) was successful in emigrating to England in 1934. Carl Rochmann and his wife Else were murdered in 1942 after being deported to

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The family house was auctioned in 1943. File:Stolperstein Leibnizstr 19 (Charl) Carl Rochmann.jpg,

Stolperstein A (; plural ; literally 'stumbling stone', metaphorically a 'stumbling block') is a sett-size, concrete cube bearing a brass plate inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution. The project, initiat ...

of Carl Rochmann File:Stolperstein Leibnizstr 19 (Charl) Else Rochmann.jpg,

of Else Rochmann

Cigarette Brands

* Element * Esquire * Ethik * Kaiserloge * Königsloge (ursprünglich Royal-Box) * Mahala * Moslem * National * Passant (En Passant) * Sokrates * Trans

Sources

* ''Die Entstehungsgeschichte des Gewerbehofes Greifswalder Straße 212/213 von 1826 bis 2006'', D. Eberding, Architekt 2006

Links