Peter Dümler was born in 1860, the first child of Westerwald potter Andreas Dümler and his wife Anna Maria. That same year saw the birth of Albert Breiden, seventh born child in the family of Jakob Breiden, a Grenzhausen mustard mill owner and his wife Mary Louise. For our purposes here, it’s important to note that Albert’s mother was also the sister of Simon Peter Gerz, a ceramics factory owner whose name is well known among beer stein collectors, so both boys were exposed at an early age to the industry that was to be their future. In school the boys became fast friends and, as was the practice in those days, at age 14 they each began an apprenticeship that would provide the skills they would later need to make their way in the land of the Westerwald potters. Peter Dümler’s artistic talents had been recognized early on and he was apprenticed as an artist and modeler to Reinhold Hanke, another well known Westerwald factory owner. Reinhold Hanke is generally credited with being the...
