Craft and industrial city

The recipe by which the company Gail flavoured its chewing tobacco was a strictly kept secret. What is known, however, is that Gail pressed it into rolls, kept the tobacco in ceramic pots and sold it in slices. At the beginning of the industrialization, Gail belonged to the most important production branch if the region: the processing of tobacco. In the region surrounding Gießen, mining, textile- and metal industries drove the economic change forward. Only at the turn of the century, the mining industry started to dominate Gießen and the environs.

Slowly but surely, mechanical and plant engineering, casting plants, breweries and a nationwide ceramic industry complemented business life in the University-city and capital of the Hesse- Hesse-Darmstadt province Upper Hesse. Due to the good income opportunities many entrepreneurial and working class families moved to the city. New commercial and service enterprises founded rural branches. Many businesses were successful throughout the entire country and even internationally.