Design Berlin Pipes

Design Berlin pipes occupy a fascinating corner of German pipe-making history: traditional manufacture from a country with centuries of pipe-making behind it, coupled with a willingness to borrow some of the freer shapes and ideas coming out of Denmark.

The story begins in Berlin in 1948 with Hubert Hartmann's Pfeifenstudio Hartmann. Many of Hartmann's early craftsmen came from Thuringia, long one of Germany's great pipe-making regions. The decisive change came with pipe maker and designer Lothar Schirwitz, who joined in 1954 and later took charge of pipe production. Schirwitz steered the workshop towards better briar, improved standards of manufacture and more adventurous Danish-influenced designs. The db – Design Berlin name appeared around 1975 to reflect this new character.

Design Berlin consequently developed a style that can be quite difficult to pigeonhole. Alongside familiar billiards, apples, bulldogs and bent shapes you'll find much more individual pieces, including freehands and designs that clearly owe something to the great Danish makers. Schirwitz himself produced one-off freehand pipes, and surviving examples bearing his name are particularly interesting pieces of Design Berlin's history.

The German preference for 9mm filtration also became an important part of Design Berlin production, and many of the firm's pipes were built around the 9mm system. The company became known for a particularly broad catalogue of series pipes and special models rather than relying on a handful of standard shapes.

There is another lovely bit of history behind them. Following German reunification, Design Berlin acquired the former HOWAL pipe works at Schweina in 1993. That factory traced its roots to C.S. Reich, founded in 1887 and, by its 50th anniversary in 1937, the largest pipe factory in Germany. Design Berlin therefore brought together its post-war Berlin heritage with one of the old centres of Thuringian pipe manufacture.

They're an interesting proposition in the shop: German engineering and practicality, good briar and an occasional streak of Danish eccentricity. Some are restrained, some considerably less so, which is half the pleasure of going through them.