I am very grateful to Mr. Thomas J. Garbáty, the grandson of Josef Garbáty the founder of the company, who contacted me and provided me with the following short history of the company.

The company was founded in 1881 by Josef Garbáty. The famous trademark "Königin von Saba" (Queen of Sheba) was registered on Feb. 1st 1898. In fact the company had over 90 different brands, but Saba and Kurmark (Gold, Kork, Ohne Mundstück) (Gold tip, cork tip and untipped) were the most popular. The first factory building in Berlin, Pankow was built in 1906 followed in 1913 by the construction of the main building in Berliner Strasse/ Hadlich Strasse. Josef's son Moritz (Maurice) and his brother Eugene became co-owners of the company in 1916.

At the end of World War 1, Garbáty introduced unemployment compensation. This was nine years before such compensation became German law in 1927. Josef and Eugene retired in 1929 leaving Moritz (Tom's father) to run the company. Between 1930 and 1932, the company introduced modern assembly line work and an American air cleansing system. In the thirties, it had its own sports club and choir, a cafeteria, and was noted by Berlin journalists for its modern sanitation which included baths, showers, toilets etc. on every floor.

The factory was "arianized" in 1938 and a Dr. Jacob Koerfer became the new owner. Josef Garbáty died in Berlin in June 1939, and the rest of the family emigrated to America where Tom still lives. The company survived World War 2 and in 1949 became part of the Volkseigenebetriebe VEB (People's own industries). In 1960 VEB Garbáty and VEB Josetti were combined to form the Berliner Zigarettenfabrik.

After the German reunification, Garbáty fell victim to the infamous "Treuhand", an organisation set up to oversee the privatization of East Germany. The machines were sold to the Lübecker Cigarettenfabrik and Reynolds paid 13 million marks for the brand names whilst the workers received nothing and lost their jobs. In 1993 the whole complex was bought by Concordia Bau und Boden, and there are now (1999) plans to redevelop the site to provide a hotel, appartments, restaurants and offices. A sad end to a company which produced some of the nicest German cigarette cards.

After the war, there was also briefly a Garbáty company in Stuttgart. Quite a few of the pre-war names which found themselves in East Germany made attempts to start again in the West. The post-war company appears to have issued one set of cards - Automobile aus aller Welt in 1960.

¹ This number includes changed cards

Heim