German Vintage Sewing Machines

When the sewing machine first became widely available in the 1850’s, hundreds of smaller manufacturers began making them. Most of these manufacturers were either in the United States or Great Britain. These two countries were dominating the industry. However, Germany began producing their own sewing machines not too long after. In 1855, Clems Muller established one of the first sewing machine manufacturing companies in Dresden.

It didn’t take long before Germany had a flourishing sewing machine industry. Most of these companies began by copying the early American sewing machines such as Singer, but as the industry grew and gained strength, the variety and creativity of the machines increased. Many of the German companies made extremely similar machines, making many believe that they were copying off of each other. Another theory is that the demand was so high for the larger manufacturers that they were subcontracting to smaller firms.

Once a German designed machine worked, the design was not changed for a long time. A great example of this is the cast base machine which was still being made 60 years later during the first World War. German machines were often put down as if they were lower quality. This was mainly done by the British. The machines were actually of very good quality, many times they were actually better than the British machines. Even better, they were much more affordable than British machines. These German machines became so popular that they were imported into Britain in huge quantities. The main German manufacturers opened up offices in London to facilitate the massive orders.