He is the great unknown among the founding fathers of the Glashütte watch industry: Adolf Schneider. This at least applies to his outward appearance. To this day, there is no known portrait that can be attributed to him. And the historical Schneider pocket watches are also less well-known than those of Ferdinand Adolph Lange, Julius Assmann and Moritz Großmann. They are better known to insiders. Quite wrongly, as Schneider played a decisive role in the development of the Glashütte watch industry in its early years. Adolf Schneider would have been 200 years old in September 2024.
Adolf Schneider was born in Dresden on 14 September 1824 and, like Ferdinand Adolph Lange, completed an apprenticeship with the Dresden master watchmaker Johann Christian Friedrich Gutkaes. When Lange became a partner in Gutkaes’ company, he also became an instructor for Schneider, who completed his apprenticeship at Easter 1845. Schneider followed Lange to Glashütte. When the local watchmaking industry was founded on 7 December 1845, he became one of his employees. In the new company, he was initially responsible for teaching the apprentices theory. He later became a foreman and was actively involved in the technical development of the watches. Schneider thus became an important assistant to Lange in the management of the company and was to ensure the continued existence of the company in the event of Lange’s unforeseen illness or death. However, in the course of the company foundations by Julius Assmann and Moritz Großmann, Adolf Schneider also decided to become independent. Presumably in 1855, he founded his own company in Glashütte, which was to be based in the building at Dresdner Straße 9. Schneider was also very politically and socially active. He became a town councillor as early as 1849 and founded the “Glashütter Spar- und Vorschusskassenverein” in 1860. When Ferdinand Adolph Lange did not accept his re-election as mayor in 1867, Schneider even became the head of the town of Glashütte. He held this office until his death on 14 June 1878. From then on, his son Woldemar continued to run the company. The company went bankrupt in 1894.
Today, the historic Schneider pocket watches are coveted collector’s items among watch connoisseurs. It is estimated that only a few thousand were made. Not many more than 60 watches are known to still exist today. Some of them can be viewed in the German Watch Museum in Glashütte.
The former company building of Adolf Schneider at Dresdner Straße 9 in Glashütte (building photo from 1945)
© Photo: Archive German Watch Museum Glashütte
