Design Berlin (Db)

Design Berlin, commonly abbreviated db, is one of the few pipe brands in Germany producing on a large scale. Though it takes its name from Berlin, its current workshop is in the town of Schweina in Thuringia; in terms of production volume it is considered second in the country, behind Vauen. The brand is known for having abandoned its cheap everyday-pipe line of its early years in favor of an identity focused on shape and craftsmanship.

Founding in Postwar Berlin

The core of the brand is the small business Hubert Hartmann, who made a living repairing pipes after the war years, founded in early 1948. When Hartmann applied for a production license, he was among the first German pipe workshops the Allied administration authorized. He brought in craftsmen largely from the Ruhla and Schweina area — the old center of German pipe making; since this region remained in the Soviet occupation zone, the incoming craftsmen also carried with them an entire body of accumulated craft knowledge.

The product range of the first twenty years was unambitious. The bulk of production consisted of small, cheap pipes with nylon mouthpieces known in German as "Mutzenpfeifen"; these were mostly everyday tools meant for smoking finely-cut (shag) tobacco.