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Company name: J. Miesler
Address: Neanderstr. 37, Schmidtstr. 8a, Luisen Ufer 30 and then found finally at Luisen Ufer 44 since 1898, Berlin SO.
In business from: late 1876 – c. 1904 (bankruptcy)
Printer: yes Publisher: yes
Means of production / workforce:
70 workers in 1892. Well above 100 around the turn of the century.
Trademark(s): 
Usually the complete company name is found imprinted. The illustrated trademark comes from a Miesler 1890’s trade card (coll. Antonio Fabiano). Whether it was ever used on postcards or only other Miesler printings is unclear yet. Any information welcome!
Specialised in: picture postcards, greeting cards, calendars, poster printing, reliefs = company mixture of chromolitho printer and deluxe paper manufacturer
Notes: Little is known yet on the company history of this early chromolitho postcard printer. Often mentioned in literature to have “invented” the Gruss aus design. Fact is that Johannes Miesler was a pioneer (colour) ppc printer and publisher in Germany. Said to had been involved in ppc export at an early stage. Not always directly (?) but via middlemen / jobbers like Brueck & Sohn, Meissen, Saxony who exported Miesler printed cards to California, USA.
Miesler’s head lithographer/technical director Paul Grasnick left the company on Oct. 1, 1896 to form Finkenrath & Grasnick 9 months later. This partnership did not last very long. The split formed well known company Paul Finkenrath (PFB) and the chromolitho printing business of Paul Grasnick. The litho contract printing business of P. Grasnick stayed much longer in business than PFB, however.
Johannes Miesler died in 1905 in the age of 55 years. Additional company history details found in TPA 25.
Illustrations (from top):
Miesler card no. 806. Berlin, p/u 1902
Miesler card no. 203. Hamburg. p/u 1897
Miesler card no. 296. Heringsdorf, p/u 1902
Miesler card no. 464. Zoo. Not p/u
Miesler card no. 672. H.M.S. Gefion. Signed ‘A.H.’. P/u July 1898.
Miesler card no. 831. Berlin Jannowitz Bridge. Signed ‘J. v. Kulas’. P/u Nov. 1900.
Miesler card no. 740 a. Greetings from Misdroy (Baltic Sea). P/u in 1887. From the collection of Antonio Fabiano.
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