2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-17 17:22
In the 70s, in the era of leveling and general scarcity, all Soviet families lived practically the same way, and the dreams of many were not much different in everyday life. One of the obligatory acquisitions was considered to be a furniture "wall" in which a beautiful set of dishes had to stand in a conspicuous place. And the main dream and pride of Soviet housewives was the German porcelain service "Madonna". But why exactly "Madonna", and what was so extraordinary about this service that made it a real fetish of the 70s?
Back in the 18th century, Germany began to produce porcelain dishes that were not inferior in quality to the famous Chinese porcelain. The products of the German porcelain factories were distributed throughout Europe. Even during the war, the production of porcelain was not stopped. When Soviet troops entered Germany in 1945, the military immediately appreciated the excellent quality of German porcelain dishes and, in particular, sets. It was then that the first Madonna sets appeared in the families of officers. After the partition of Germany, porcelain factories began to be restored on the territory of the GDR. And soon the main producers of Madonna services were the restored Kahla factory in Thuringia and the factory in the Saxon town of Colditz.
So why is Madonna so fond of our compatriots?
The main feature of this service, without a doubt, was its decor, which was not at all similar to what was produced in the USSR. It was the baroque painting that made this service so elegant and beautiful. Pastoral scenes with languid, puffy beauties in flowing clothes, resting in the bosom of nature, in fact, were a reprint of an old Meissen painting released at the beginning of the last century.
Additionally, gilding was also used as decoration. In short, Madonna looked rich. The Germans know how to do beautiful things.
The Madonna sets were produced by different types - canteens, tea, coffee. They also differed in pattern and color.
The first German sets with half-naked beauties depicted on them came to our country after the war as trophies. And when in the 50s representatives of the group of Soviet troops in Germany began to return home, they also carried these German sets in their suitcases. The luxury went not to ordinary soldiers, but to generals, their wives were delighted with German thin-walled porcelain. And it was they who introduced the fashion for these services, but in the 50-60s they did not receive wide distribution. In those years, such dishes were considered one of the signs of belonging to the elite.
Only it is not entirely clear why in our country they began to be called "Madonnas". There is no Madonna there, and in Germany itself they were called differently - "Maria", "Ulrika", "Frederica" …
But in the 70s, there was a real boom. These sets have become not only beautiful dishes, but also a prestigious symbol of material well-being and evidence of the impeccable taste of its owner. Every Soviet housewife dreamed of getting the Madonna.
A large group of Soviet troops remained in Germany. And everyone who served there considered it necessary to purchase high-quality porcelain dishes for themselves and their families. We can say that these services are a memory of our presence in Europe, because most of them were taken out of Germany by our military.
The happy owners of "unearthly beauty" carefully kept their treasure behind the glass in the furniture wall in the most conspicuous place, proudly exhibiting their "Madonna" with the arrival of guests and only on the occasion of big holidays.
Soon, not only Soviet military personnel began to visit Germany, but also sent specialists and tourists. In the early 70s, every Soviet person, if he found himself in the GDR, considered it his duty to return home with "Madonna". Such popularity of fine German porcelain stimulated the growth of the production of these sets, and the volume of their production for buyers from the USSR was significantly increased. Another factory, Oscar Schlegermilch, joined the production of services.
On the crest of popularity, this tableware lasted until 1995. After the unification of Germany and after the last Russian soldier left Germany in 1994, there were practically no orders for the service. We tried to sell on our market in the 90s. But then our country was not up to this - the crisis, perestroika, economic turmoil, etc.
Times have changed, fashion has also changed, Madonna services have lost their former popularity. They are no longer produced in Germany, but, nevertheless, their production has been established in the Czech Republic and Poland. However, the original sets produced in Germany in the 50s and 70s are much more valuable. After all, this is not just high quality dishes, it is a symbol of a bygone era.
And in continuation of the tableware theme, the story about kintsugi - the traditional Japanese art of flaunting flaws
Recommended:
Why buttons and other secrets of the Soviet household service were cut off in dry cleaning in the USSR
The sphere of consumer services in the USSR was a separate branch of the national economy. The country cared about the everyday needs of citizens no less than about the notorious cultural education. At some point, Households were built in cities with the same activity as cinemas with palaces of culture. To clean clothes, sew a suit according to an individual pattern, get a haircut, print a photo for documents or make a duplicate of keys - the Soviet citizen coped with any of these tasks in a matter of hours within
Rare photographs of the times of the USSR: How Soviet people lived in the 1970s and 80s
The decade of the 1970s-80s in the USSR was the time of the Brezhnese stagnation and the time of radical Gorbachev's changes. Today, you can treat him in different ways. But this is a huge layer of the history of a huge country, for which this period was the beginning of the end
Mark-maker Table - a table and a field for creative activities
What was once originally conceived as an ordinary average table looked, in principle, the same. But after the crowd of visitors at the exhibition in which this table participated, after many people armed with sandpaper and wiping all 50 different layers of paint on the table to the "holes", nothing at all remained of the boring gray table
Secret alcoholism, punitive gynecology, and other secrets of smiling 1950s American housewives
Many conservative Americans recall the fifties with nostalgia as a world of well-fed, tidy children, courageous men and lovely smiling women. However, sociological studies show that this decade is the time when American women sat tightly on sedatives and doctors calmly conducted the strangest experiments on them
"I loved three times - three times hopelessly": Love, revenge and reckoning Mikhail Lermontov
As you know, every creator - artist, poet, composer always needs an inspiring muse, dear to his heart and eyes. And by and large, women-muses were supposed to erect monuments next to the monuments to the creators themselves. Indeed, thanks only to their participation, whom poets, writers or artists idolized, for whom they suffered at night, dreaming of meetings, and all that beautiful was created that they left behind for their descendants. Today we'll talk about the women-muses of Mikhail Lermontov, who prompted the poet to create