If I’m correct, the name refers to the Schreib- und Zeichengerätefabrik Philipp Mutschler, which began operations in 1928 in Handschuhsheim, a residential area in Heidelberg, Germany. Their brands were “Certo” and “Reform” but they have also done a lot of contract work. Back then, Heidelberg was considered one of the centres of the European fountain pen industry. Following financial difficulties, Mutschler moved to the industrial area of Handschuhsheim in 1973, into an extension of the Kaweco main building. Later, the company was renamed Mutschler Schreibsysteme AG and then Mutschler Feinwerktechnik, but in 2015 it went into insolvency.
I wouldn’t be surprised if STAEDTLER’s mechanical pencils from the 1970s and 1980s were also manufactured by Mutschler.
If you compare Staedtler’s Marsmatic 700 series technical pens with Reform’s Refograph, the similarities are undeniable. Likewise, the pencils found in Reform’s sets look like the lower-end Staedtlers.
It does seem that Mutschler manufactured lines for Staedtler (and, I think, at times for Rotring). The question remains whether the fineline mechanical pencils in particular were made in Germany, or imported from Japan, having been built to Mutschler’s specifications.
I also collected some information on Mutschler/Reform a while ago. But different sources contradict each other, so it was a very tiresome process.
Could you please share where you found the information?
Ludwig Jung founded what would become “Reform” in St. Ilgen near Heidelberg in 1919 to manufacture “safety fountain pens.”
Paul Fortran and Johann Heinz were recruited away from Kaweco by him and became equal partners in the company.
In 1922, the company moved to Heidelberg.
Meanwhile in 1929, Kaweco went bankrupt and stopped production in Heidelberg.
Philipp Mutschler and several coworkers were let go. They decided to open their own company in Handschuhsheim with their brand “Certo”.
The period around the 30s and 40s has a lot of contradictory information from different sources.
Reform was then liquidated in 1956. Mutschler took over their brand name.
Reform’s Nieder-Ramstadt location was 1958 aquired by another manufacturer, ERO.
In 1973, Mutschler moves to Dossenheimer Landstraße 100 in Heidelberg, the former location of Kaweco and later Hebborn (Luxor).
During these days, they also manufactured for Pelikan and Geha (also multicolor pens like the Geha C4 & C4L: There is a version with “Reform” on its clip!).
In 1999, they had to move again due to financial troubles.
According to Frodo, Mutschler went bankrupt in 2006, while others say 2003.
Such is the confused landscape that we encounter when trying to understand how the products of Rotring, Staedtler, Faber-Castell and the like came into being.
Ero was another behind-the-scenes supplier to Rotring, the name being a contraction of Ernst Rodenhäuser, the founder (I gathered together a few links and loose ends a while ago here: https://drawing-instruments.groups.io/g/main/message/7555). Their Erograph technical pens were another minor brand that shared features with contemporary mainstream products.
Earlier still, Pelikan made pens for Rotring (or Riepe-Werk, as it was), and that’s before we get on to their multi-pencils from Waldmann and possibly others. Possibly some of the connections are still researchable in German archives, but I suspect many of the relevant business records vanished long ago.
It cannot be ruled out that some of the mechanical pencils, such as the mechanisms, were imported and the rest were manufactured here. This is likely to make the research even more challenging.
By the way, if there’s any chance that you are highly connected to people in Hessen,
maybe you’re able to get this website back up if you care about it:
It has a page on Reform (which I linked in my post) but overall it’s valuable information on the region, shared by the owner of the pen museum heidelberg and three more local historians, of which all three have sadly passed away in the recent years as well as the website owner, and the website is now redirected to a hiking website that carries a fake contact email… I’d like to see it go up again but someone has to pay the domain fees.