Doll manufacturing in Mönchröden and establishment of the Edmund Knoch doll factory

End of the 19th century, doll manufacturing spreaded in Mönchröden/Coburg, now part of the city of Rödental.
In piggyback baskets, home-workers collected materials from their contractors located in world city of toys, Sonneberg. Usually by the week, the finished doll parts were delivered and wages were paid. For most of the workers, their living rooms were also their workshop.

The first doll factory in Mönchröden was founded in October/November 1896 by the 1866 born book-keeper Edmund Knoch and his one year younger wife Emilie, born Lipfert. They worked in her father's house, Rothinestr. 33, only in one room.
Soon, this location became too small and they had to move to another house in Rothinestr. 7. They also rented a small stock at this time.

In 1908, another move was made into their own factory building in Lange Wiesen 6, which still exists. In the beginning, they produced small porcelain dolls, papier-mâché dolls and dolls with fabric body, which were stuffed with wooden wool.
All these dolls had porcelain heads, mostly branded with the trade mark "A.M.", which stands for Armand Marseille in Köppelsdorf, who's name and models are well known and liked by the American doll collectors.
The first big success of the Edmund Knoch company were the small princess dolls, which had been sold mostly by exporters from Hamburg. Besides them, their biggest customers were the export companies from Sonneberg, the oldest toy city in the world.

The production of dolls stopped during the first world war and the workers were raised to make bullet baskets.
After the war, the contacts to the toy customers had to be build up new.
The Edmund Knoch company founded contacts to customers in Great Britain, Argentina, Switzerland and Sweden.  Showrooms were installed in London, Glasgow, Buenos Aires, Zug and Stockholm, later also in New York and Los Angeles. Since 1921, Edmund Knoch had shown his dolls twice a year on the fair in Leipzig and several times also on the St. Eriks fair in Stockholm. At that time about 70 percent of the production were exported.

Death of the founder - accession of Otto Knoch

After Edmund Knoch died in 1934, his 1895 born son Otto came into the company and directed it together with his mother Emilie. By this time, the company had 30 employees and home-workers.
During the second world war, the production stopped again for years, while uniforms were made in the factory.
After this war, Otto Knoch and his 1910 born wife Helga (they married in 1935, her maiden name was Hutschgau) restarted the doll production. Their trade mark were the letters "E.K." with a crown over them.

Until 1948 most deliveries went to the wholesalers and exporters in Sonneberg, but the splitting of Germany also cut the trade channels that had grown for decades, forcing Knoch to find new channels of distribution.
With the growing impact of Mönchröden in doll manufacturing - three more important doll factories had been founded (E. Maar & Sohn in 1910, Drei-M in 1920 and Zapf in 1931) - the place obtained the surname "Bavarian Doll Village". Today, Rödental is named the "City of Ceramics and Dolls".

The materials have changed over the years from pressing compo, papier-mâché, casting compo, porcelain and rubber to hard plastic and vinyl, which is now the mostly used material for doll production.

When Helga Knoch died in 1975, Otto decided to retire, because his only son Lothar, who had become a lawyer, was not interested in the doll business. Otto Knoch died in 1985.