Jola Turns 70 – Anniversary Celebration on 16 July 2022
On Saturday 16 July 2022, Jola Spezialschalter celebrated the company’s 70th anniversary on the company premises with many nice people in the best weather and good humour.
Strictly speaking, the exact anniversary date of the company’s foundation is 3 December 1952, but in view of the coronavirus pandemic, Jola decided to celebrate the anniversary a little earlier in the summer and organise it as an outdoor event.
In addition to tents for the guests and the catering, cartoonist and publisher Steffen Boiselle was set up in the courtyard and quickly and creatively made drawings of those present. There were also hands-on stations where Jola products could be painted (“painting Jola devices”) and made (“making Jolinchen”). From one of the historical bridges high above the heads of the guests, the current managing director Lars Mattil addressed the guests, in which of course the reference to the old motto could not be missing:
« To create and to strive | is our imperative, | progress is life, | stagnation is death ! »
In his function as product manager, his father Volker Mattil chronologically outlined Jola products from the 1950s until today. Later, the “senior”, who used to be notorious for his questions on historical topics, had to assert himself against his “favourite victim” at the time, Sybille Kuhn – now Apprenticeship Training Manager at Jola – and face the questions of current apprentice Vanessa Haußer. His son Lars Mattil thanked him afterwards for half a century of selfless personal commitment to the company and family and presented him with a wine bottle from 1952.
In order to convey different impressions and contents to the visitors, certain parts of the buildings were open. In the administrative building from 1920/1921, selected objects and pictures from the predecessor company, the cloth factory Gebrüder Haas, were on display in a large glass cabinet. In addition, the historic entrance, the conference room and the management office could be visited.
The highlight was the company museum “Jolaseum”, which has been planned for a quarter of a century and brings the company history to life. The museum was opened by the managing directors Volker and Lars Mattil together with the descendants of Josef Lambrecht, who invented the first “Jola switches” (named after him) in the early 1950s when the cloth factory Gebrüder Haas was still in business: stepdaughter Marliese Koppenhagen and her son Dr. Norbert Koppenhagen.
In the next room, even before its launch, one could take a look at the new Jola website created by UX designer and brand strategist Désirée Berger (hangzumschoenen / “a propensity to beauty”) and web developer Benjamin Berger. In the next room, Jola’s first image film was shown by Enrico Markx (content creation | film & foto). In this film, you can hear music recorded especially for Jola by the German-Turkish duo Benyonca (guitar and vocals), which also performed live. Further musical contributions were made by the wife of the managing director, Rie Mattil (classical singing) accompanied by Benjamin Geyer on acoustic guitar and the “next generation” in the person of Yume Johanna Mattil (8 years old) and Ayato Jan Mattil (4 years old) on piano.
A historical photo puzzle was housed in the lattice box storage. Finally, the very narrow former electricians’ room was open, where the desk of inventor Josef Lambrecht once stood. Here, the very first Jola switch lay in a cradle, surrounded by the first two patents, photos and information about the very early devices.
The event brought together tradition and modernity, old and young, past and present. For the first time in many years, it was an occasion to gather many former and current employees, as well as long-time and fairly new companions of the company. Managing Director Lars Mattil summarised in his speech:
“You notice: persevering and striving has always been “in”. It is not always easy, but we can achieve a lot if we want to! That was the case in the past. And I wish us all that it will also be so in the future! In this spirit, we raise our glass to 70 and many more years of Jola Spezialschalter !!!”
More information about Jola’s 70th anniversary here:
