Dan Pipe

Dan Pipe was a German pipe and tobacco house founded in 1972 in Geesthacht, east of Hamburg, that over fifty-one years first sold pipes by mail order and later ran its own tobacco factory as well. Its founder, Heiko Behrens, was a pipe enthusiast studying education science; he began bringing Danish handmade pipes to Germany to help pay for his studies. What set out as a small mail-order operation ran past half a century.

The Catalogue at Its Core

The backbone of the business was not a storefront but a thick catalogue printed once a year. Its first issue came out in 1972, with pipes signed by Former, Emil Chonowitsch, and Poul Hansen on its pages. The Danish School was still newly known in Germany in those years, and Emil Chonowitsch was the father of Jess Chonowitsch, who would later be cited even more than his father. Coverage expanded quickly: British and French brands, select pipe tobaccos, imported cigars, and a tobacco line called Torben Dansk joined the list. After 1984 a second catalogue for pipes made in the business's own workshop, and after 1996 one devoted to cigars, became part of the same arrangement. Preparing the catalogues and designing the tobacco labels was Holger Frickert's work.