History

Since a long time, brushes are produced in the Black Forest. The chronicle of the company Frank in Schönau and their predecessors has also a long history.
In 1866 a production plant for brush bodies was located at today’s place of the company Frank. This former company had 12 employees who were already supported by machines. The machines were activated with belts by water power directly. The water canal which was necessary for this type of production was built in 1866.

In the following years there were a lot of changes at this factory. But one thing always stayed the same – they produced all the time brush bodies or brushes.

In the year 1942 Adolf Frank bought the company and gave his name to it. Adolf Frank, born in Donaueschingen, learnt the handcraft of the brush makers in Todtnau (neighboring place of Schönau). In the thirties he went into business for himself with a small production of brushes in Todtnau-Schlechtnau and Todtnau-Präg. 1942 he took the opportunity to buy a brush factory and to make his “family-production” to a real company. Under the guidance of Adolf Frank the production was mechanized, the handcraft was more and more replaced by machines. Further he changed the utilization of water power for transmission into a hydroelectric plant.

In 1955, Adolf Frank died and his son Egon Frank took over the company.




In 1964, after finishing her commercial education Renate Ganzmann, born as Renate Frank, joined the company to support her father.
In this time the company already specialized in producing brushes for shoe care, for promotional purposes, for massage & wellness and for technical needs. In the eighties and nineties the machines for fixing the bristles were replaced by more efficient computer-controlled machines.

In the year 1992, the today’s managing director Stefan Ganzmann, great-grandson of the founder Adolf Frank, joined the company. He focused on the international market. In the meantime more than a half of the brushes are exported.


In 2002, Katharina Hackner, wife of Stefan Ganzmann, joined the management and took over the department of sales & marketing.


Since 2006 the company is named Frank Bürsten GmbH.