History of Persil grandfather clocks in Germany and the mysterious "white lady"
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The White Lady turns 100
The heyday of Persil posters began in the early 1920s. In 1922, caricaturist and artist Kurt Heiligenstaedt created "The White Lady" for the brand. She became a legendary advertising figure in the decades that followed. She adorned posters, enamel signs, and house walls until the 1960s. The popular Persil clocks featuring this motif can still be found in public spaces in many German cities today.
Who was the White Lady
As a caricaturist and illustrator for the magazine "Simplicissimus," Kurt Heiligenstaedt was commissioned by Henkel to design a Persil poster featuring an "airy, elegant lady." He went with his girlfriend Erna Muchow to the famous "KaDeWe" department store on Berlin's Alexanderplatz and bought her a white dress.
Wearing a Florentine hat and clutching a pack of Persil, the 18-year-old modeled for the artist: This became the White Lady at the end of 1922. The advertising figure, still considered an icon today, was visually adapted to the spirit of the times in the decades that followed and advertised Henkel's number one detergent brand until the 1960s.
In 1950, the White Lady was even brought to life for a Persil commercial and strolled along Düsseldorf's Königsallee.
Persil watches
From 1925 onwards, the White Lady can also be seen on so-called standard clocks, which are located in public squares in the capital Berlin and in numerous other German cities – in Düsseldorf, walkers can find the clock on Königsallee, among other places.
Destroyed in World War II, many of the clocks were reinstalled in over 20 German cities, including Düsseldorf, Lünen, Krefeld, Büsum, and Mühlhausen in Thuringia, starting in 1983. In 1984, one of the new Persil clocks was unveiled on Burgplatz in Düsseldorf's Old Town. More clocks followed over the years.
The story of the White Lady, a central advertising figure, is part of Henkel's unique corporate heritage: In addition to historic enamel signs from many decades of advertising, porcelain figures of the advertising icon are exhibited and presented in the company's own showroom. The figures were specially crafted by the renowned Hutschenreuther manufacturer in the 1980s.
Locations of German Persil clocks
At the end of the 1920s, electrically illuminated advertising columns with clocks were installed. They featured a depiction of the white lady.
- 1928 in Lünen at the junction of Münsterstraße/Cappenberger Straße, damaged and removed in 1942.
- 1929 in Lünen in front of the main station on Münsterstraße
- Albstadt , in the district of Ebingen , Zollernalbkreis with new clock from 2012
- Apolda [
- Baumberg , from 2017
- Büsum , Since 1998, on the anchor site, erected as a result of a nationwide competition organized by the Henkel Group
- Castle near Magdeburg
- Datteln , at the Neumarkt
- Düsseldorf , which actually stands on the Kamper Acker in the Düsseldorf district of Holthausen, very close to the Henkel factory. Persiluhr at Burgplatz
- Düsseldorf , at Jürgensplatz
- Düsseldorf , since 1999 on the Henkel site in Holthausen
- Eschwege , Werra-Meißner district
- Flensburg , on Burgplatz in Flensburg next to the Deaconess Hospital.
- Fürth : The Fürth Persil clock was transported to the Billinganlage – December 15, 2009.
- Genthin ,] on the town's market square
- Hamm , on West Street
- Hattingen at the Steinhagentor
- Heligoland , at the landing stage (documented on mostly undated photos from 1927 with three different images of women until the renewal of the landing stage (Rickmers-Bollwerk) in 1935).
- Köthen , Friedrich-Ebert-Straße 21
- Krefeld , At the entrance to Fischeln city park, she holds her Florentine hat with a light hand.
- Lünen , in the pedestrian zone at the corner of Münsterstraße/Cappenberger Straße.
- Mettmann , in front of the Königshof Gallery
- Mühlhausen/Thuringia , Görmarstraße.
- Münster , at the Hafenmarkt, since 2024 . (Until 2008 erected in Coesfeld, replica from 1987 )
- Oelsnitz/Erzgeb. , on the market square
- Oelsnitz/Vogtl.
- Oldenburg (Oldb) , Julius-Mosen-Platz
- Recklinghausen , at Neumarkt
- Rheine Osnabrücker Straße
- Reutlingen , Bahnhofstraße opposite the Old Post Office
- Schweinfurt , at the Roßmarkt , destroyed in the Second World War and not rebuilt
- Straubing , at the intersection of Innere Passauer Straße/Mühlsteingasse and Heerstraße
- Solingen Ohligs on the market square next to the wine bar
- Travemünde , Since 2018, it has been located in place of a listed advertising clock in Dr. Zippel Park on Außenallee.
- Wismar : Since 2006, the Persil Clock has been back at the Lindengarten in the square in front of the former “Royal Swedish Provision House”, the former polyclinic and the former employment office.
- Wuppertal-Vohwinkel , on the Kaiserplatz, destroyed in an accident by a derailed tram and not re-erected.
They were popular meeting places for dates.
In 1987, to mark Persil's 80th brand anniversary, Henkel began offering Persil clocks free of charge to towns and cities where there had previously been a "Persil Clock," in order to use the "White Lady" to bring Persil's old marketing back into the spotlight.
For example, Persil clocks were installed in Flensburg, Hamm, and Lünen . In Lünen, the bus stop in the center was even renamed "Lünen, Persil Clock"; a hotel there also calls itself "An der Persil-Uhr." To mark the brand's 90th anniversary, nine additional Persil clocks were donated to various cities (including Krefeld and Oelsnitz/Vogtl. ).
Source: Wikipedia, www.henkel.de