A journey back in time part 2

I have some kind of a personal relationship to that factory because my daddy used to work there. And during summer holiday breaks from school i also sometimes worked there to earn some cash for the holidays. The house complex i was sent to was quite obviously not newly built but it must have somehow belonged to the factory before. I could not find out what it has been before. I was overwhelmed by such a melancholy because i can not ask my daddy about it, anymore. He could have told me what it was. I am sure. He would also be so interested in in the change-over of the buildings and the whole former factory area. Such are the moments where i really miss my beloved daddy tremendously.My daddy had told me about that factory several times, what it had been like when he learned his trade there. I was listening to these stories from another time with great interest. I wish i could hear them again and ask specific question but alas ...So here come my research results with all the flaws and missing links:


The name of that chocolate factory was Riquet & Co. The Riquet family were emigrants from France who left their country after the Edict of Fontaineblue was issued in 1685. The edict took away the right of the Huguenots to practice their religion which was, if i understood correctly, the Protestant belief. That edict caused an exodus of Huguenots from their home country and this how the Riquet family came to Leipzig. On Nov. the 15th, 1745 Jean George Riquet founded a colonial products business with a shop in Leipzig.

The business dealt in tea, cocoa, coffee and spices. In 1890 the company started its own cocoa production and in 1895 the factory in Gautzsch was opened. 

When i grew up here in Markkleeberg, the name Riquet was not around anymore. We were in the socialist part of Germany, this was the German Democratic Republic and factories and businesses were not in private ownership anymore but were, what they called it, "publicly owned". Whatever, that concept didn't work out so it is pretty pointless to try to explain the idea behind it. When i grew up i knew that factory as KONSÜ, a typical East German abbreviation name which stood for "Konsum-Süßwaren". It was a factory which produced candy, still. But how the times had changed!!! I learned from the stories of my father that the Riquet company had been a household name for high quality products. Maybe comparable to Lindt nowadays. Using only best natural ingredients, producing high quality and not quite cheap chocolate, candy and other products. 

There is that beautiful house in Leipzig, known as the Riquet House. It was built in 1908/1909 at the behest of the company Riquet & Co. by the architect Paul Lange. The entrance is graced by 2 elephant heads. 

I remembered that my father had told me that the elephant and a Chinese man had been what we would now call the logo of the factory. He told me that at the entrance gate of the factory in Gautzsch there were 2 columns and on one there was an elephant and on the other column there was a Chinese. I had never seen it with my own eyes because those 2 figures had since been lost when i was growing up. But i did find a picture and here it is:

And it is also to be seen here:

I found those pictures on this website:

Zentralkonsum

There are also photos of the factory in the old days and from the East German days.