What - where- who is DAN PIPE? A short excursion into the history and the home of DAN PIPE in Lauenburg/Germany

A short excursion into the history of
DAN PIPE - Cigar & Company, with images of our home town Lauenburg
and interior views of the DTM - Dan Tobacco Manufactory of Hafenstrasse 30

It all began in 1972, when the passionate pipe lover Heiko Behrens decided to introduce to German pipe smokers the
creations of Danish pipemakers still rarely known in Germany in those days. He started his business in Geesthacht, a small village
east of Hamburg and, with his first rather small catalogue offered Danish pipes handmade by artists like Former, Emil Chonowitsch
or Poul Hansen and also factorymade pipes of Tabago/Torben Dansk, Danmore and other Danish brands. Quite soon, also imported
pipe tobaccos were included in DAN PIPE's assortment, among them "Torben Dansk" as their first private label tobacco range. The
number of clients grew steadily as did DAN PIPE's fame thanks to the expert quality of their pipes and tobaccos.

In 1976, it became inevitable to move to more spacious premises and found them in Bergedorf, a small town within the boundaries
of the city of Hamburg. A large sales room was installed to present an extended range of quality pipes, tobaccos and smokers goods
also beyond the catalogue assortment including a fine selection of European and also imported cigars.
 

In 1978,Holger Frickert joined the company that meanwhile, for trademark reasons, had changed its name into “Danske Pibe”.
His creative talents in arts, crafts and product designs helped to improve the company's performance in the pipes and tobacco trade.
It was a matter dear to his heart to install a small workshop for pipe repairs and pipemaking, which very soon grew to be an efficient
service branch and turned out to be an important contribution to strengthen the reputation of “Danske Pibe” as a
competent partner to all friends of pleasurable pipe smoking.
 

In 1985, once again “Danske Pibe” had to look for larger rooms to continue their growing business. Ideal and most attractive conditions
were found in the "Grashof", an early 18th century thatched roof farm house located in the "Vierlanden", a marsh region with a long
tradition as the agricultural area within Hamburg's territories. This huge building with the rustic flair of its lovingly restored half-timbered
achitecture provided lotsof space for office rooms, mail order stock and a new spacious salesroom. Over the following years, DAN PIPE
(the company had returned to its original name again in 1991 on the occasion of the foundation of its tobacco factory DAN TOBACCO)
developed into a real magnetic pole to friends of pipes, tobaccos and cigars from all parts of Germany.




           
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In November 2001 a fire destroyed the “Grashof”  -  DAN PIPE was left with nothing. Fortunately, the sister company DAN TOBACCO
in Lauenburg had plenty of free space to offer, and DAN PIPE was able to immediately reconstruct their business and to take up their
mail-order activities only 4 weeks later. A new sales room was installed as well, attractively furnished with the handcrafted
1920's mahogany shelves and cabinets from a former pharmacy store in the city of Hamburg.

 DAN PIPE's sales room with its attractive mahogany furniture

The Cigar & Company humidor room stores the imported cigars

cutting tobacco at dan tobacco manufactory

 DAN TOBACCO's leaf tobacco cutting machinery in action

DAN PIPE's pipe workshop with H.Frickert (l.) and H.Gezer (r.)

Beginning in the 1980’s, special attention was directed to the range of private brand tobaccos which soon covered a wide spectrum
of different tastes. When quality and delivery problems threatened to cause damage to this sensitive sector, decisions had to be made:
A new reliable supplier to cover the whole variety of tobacco blends was not in sight, so Danske Pibe decided to start their own tobacco
production. Premises in a 19th century solid red brick factory building in Lauenburg, a former malt house, seemed the ideal place.
An experienced tobacco engineer joined in, and in 1991 DAN TOBACCO started the production of pipe tobaccos.

At the same time the mother company returned to the original name DAN PIPE. The inevitable “teething troubles” were luckily
overcome quite soon. In an amazingly short period of time the creativity and experience of both companies’ pipe smoking colleagues
made it possible to come out with an impressive range of tobacco specialities very well approved by DAN PIPE’s many customers and
also beyond. To provide more scope for development in the market, the tobacco production then was converted into an independent
limited company, DAN TOBACCO MANUFACTURING Ltd. (DTM). Gradually, their reputation grew as producers of high class pipe
smoking tobaccos which also found interest in foreign countries. Today, the export of pipe tobacco to countries like Austria, Italy,
Switzerland, USA, Russia or Japan and Taiwan has developed into a main pillar of DAN TOBACCO’s business.

In the past few years, two other companies from the pipe branch have found production and office rooms in the DTM building:
Holmer Knudsen has set up his pipe manufactory, supported by handmade pipes artist Hasan Gezer, and BENTLEY PIPE CO. have
chosen this place for their head office, the Bentley Pipe range being manufactured in Holmer Knudsen's workshop. So, should you ever
make your way to Lauenburg, you may have the chance to experience at the same time both pipe and tobacco manufacturing in action.

Some views of Lauenburg



Above: The historic castle tower of Lauenburg
The former castle's terrace offers an impressing view south
over the vast glacial valley of the river Elbe.
 

Right: The "Elbstraße" in the old town of Lauenburger with its 
lovingly restored historic half-timbered houses.

street in the historic part of lauenburg

stairs leading down to the river elbe and dan pipe

   Left:
   The "Askanierstufen",
   romantic stairs with
   185 steps, lead from
   the "Fürstengarten"
   on top of the steep
   river bank down to
   the river Elbe and
   the canal.



Above: The "Palmschleuse"
A historic lock of the ancient Stecknitz canal leading to the Baltic Sea,
today repcad by the "Elbe-Lübeck-Kanal. Constructed more than
600 years ago, it is one of Europe's oldest canal locks.

A view of the old town of Lauenburg across the river Elbe
from the southern banks in Lower Saxony. In the foreground
the lovingly restored historic paddle steam boat "Kaiser Wilhelm".

For more information on Lauenburg, on places of interest
in the area and on overnight accomodation:
www.lauenburg.de