Eyland

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The family business of the married couple Ernst and Elisabeth Lanius produced Eyland pipes in the 1960s.

On June 12, 1963, the German Patent Office issued a certificate for the registration of the trademark "Eyland" with the number 792907. The newly founded "Firma E. Lanius Rees/Rhein" (E. Lanius Rees / Rhein company) was described as "Großhandel mit Raucherbedarfsartikeln" (wholesaling of smoking accessories).

Ernst Lanius, born in 1932, came from Oberwesel and was a commercial agent for Dobbelmann. His wife Elisabeth, born in 1924, was the daughter of Heinrich Nienhaus the first post-war city director of Rees. She worked in the accounting department at Dobbelmann.

The couple chose the name Eyland with care: on the one hand it was reminiscent of the "Reeser Eyland" (Island of Rees), on the other hand "Made by Eyland" sounded similar to "Made in England". Because pipes that came from England enjoyed a very good reputation in Germany. The company logo showed a bull and a capricorn. Those were the zodiac signs of the company's founders.

While the much larger Oldenkott company relied on mass production, Ernst Lanius occupied the niche of exquisite pipe models, which were manufactured with machines developed in-house and refined according to their own ideas.

Large department store chains such as Kaufhof added the Eyland pipes to their range, Elisabeth Lanius managed shipping within Germany and beyond. But fate was not kind to the small business. On the night of January 8, 1970, the factory exploded into a major fire. Icy roads, frozen hydrants and a strong south-east wind made it difficult to extinguish the fire. The damage amounted to 120,000 marks. That put the final nail in the coffin of this small company.

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