German, Seed Merchants, Klein Wanzlebener, Rabbethge & Giesecke Seal
German, Seed Merchants, Klein Wanzlebener, Rabbethge & Giesecke Seal, Image by StuE, Found by Sue Clark
None of the letters or images can be deciphered with certainty but the overall pattern may lead to it being identified when a better example turns up. TART maybe the first word of the top line across the middle of the side with most writing on. Also IM could be two of the initials on the other side.
From Paul Cannon, "I am fairly sure that this is a grotty sugar beet seed seal relating to Rabbethge & Giesecke of Klein Wanzleben, in former East Germany. The left hand image is upside down. There are other examples on Bagseals eg BSG.BS.00829. For a history of the firm see Historic Trademark of KWS, 'Trademark Protection – History. Historic Trademark of KWS – Trademark Protection registered the company’s trademark as patent No.273 in the just founded “Kaiserliches Patentamt” in Berlin. This patent No.273 constitutes the oldest trademark of KWS and even one of the oldest trade-marks in whole Germany. From that time on farmers could trust that seed bags sealed with the KWS brand contained seeds that were provably produced by the company in Klein-wanzleben. The symbol of three stars crowning a sugar beet and the words “Schutzmarke, Klein-wanzlebener Original, Rabbethge und Giesecke” assured that they bought best seeds quality with consistent quality features. With this the trademark served on the one hand as protection and on the other hand as quality signs, as long as there were no laws concerning variety protection yet. The trade-mark had a strong recognition factor and it symbo-lized reliability and product safety. After the Second World War KWS, now situated in Einbeck, had to defend its property rights of its trademark against an in the GDR established com-pany, named “Deutsche Saatgut-Handelszentrale”. This company had a subsidiary for sugar beet seed in Kleinwanzleben and used the name “Kleinwanzle-ben” for promoting their seeds. To get the rights of the name, the company opened a legal dispute, but after some time it abandoned its action and was not allowed to use the name “Kleinwanzlebener Origi-nal” any more. With this decision the former trade-mark gave KWS brand protection during the difficult time of Germany ́s reconstruction. For more than 125 years the KWS trademark protects our seeds Already in 1885, KWS seeds were goods in demand. At that time the company was based in Eastern Ger-many in Klein Wanzleben and the breeding and ma-nufacturing of seeds was exclusively focused on sugar beet. KWS products were of such a high quality that other companies in their advertisements even promoted to sell imitations of those sugar beet seeds in order to profit of the company’s good reputation. Carl Valentin Rabbethge, at that time managing director, reacted immediately with the objective to protect the company’s own breeding achievements legally andregistered the company’s trademark as patent No.273 in the just founded “Kaiserliches Patentamt” in Berlin. This patent No.273 constitutes the oldest trademark of KWS and even one of the oldest trade-marks in whole Germany. From that time on farmers could trust that seed bags sealed with the KWS brand contained seeds that were provably produced by the company in Klein-wanzleben. The symbol of three stars crowning a sugar beet and the words “Schutzmarke, Klein-wanzlebener Original, Rabbethge und Giesecke” assured that they bought best seeds quality with consistent quality features. With this the trademark served on the one hand as protection and on the other hand as quality signs, as long as there were no laws concerning variety protection yet. The trade-mark had a strong recognition factor and it symbo-lized reliability and product safety. After the Second World War KWS, now situated in Einbeck, had to defend its property rights of its trademark against an in the GDR established com-pany, named “Deutsche Saatgut-Handelszentrale”. This company had a subsidiary for sugar beet seed in Kleinwanzleben and used the name “Kleinwanzle-ben” for promoting their seeds. To get the rights of the name, the company opened a legal dispute, but after some time it abandoned its action and was not allowed to use the name “Kleinwanzlebener Origi-nal” any more. With this decision the former trade-mark gave KWS brand protection during the difficult time of Germany's reconstruction.'