Carl Mertens Cutlery Factory

Carl Mertens founded the company in 1919 in Solingen-Wald using catalogs for table and kitchen knives sales.  A relative, Alex Mertens, helped to make straight razors part of the product line by a partnership with Paul Heider in 1925. They also did job ordered grinding and had their first factory in 1932. Curt Mertens (1934) the son of the founder joined the company's management. Production was resumed only in the years 1946-47 to new location Krahenhöhe 18-10 (1953). Mertens now manufactures products for contemporary tabletop cutlery with no screws. They use a 1250 ton toggle press working on not only its own cutlery but also contracting for other Solingen cutlery companies.

Sales manager:
 Claudia Mertons -Golaszewski.

 Cutlery make current of about 30 percent of sales. The rest is achieved with table and home accessories (including candlesticks, napkin rings or peanut bins made of stainless steel). Gustav Wolff (Solingen) machinery can be found at Carl Mertens GmbH as well as that of Berger of the Kohlfurth.

In 1981, the word mark "Grasoli" was integrated (Grah in Solingen) and by 2006 became GmbH & Co. KG CMS Grasoli today's Carl Mertens cutlery factory founded. In 2008 partnered with Detlev Pieces Coburg Porcelain Factory/W. Goebel. The family firm in 2010 about 30 employees.

"The Pazifist" newspaper (1921) was administered by Fritz Küster. "Das Andere Deutschland" was the review publication for "The Pazifist" for the German Peace Society . During the Weimar Republic (1925) Carl Mertens and Friedrich William Foerster, among others contributed articles.

The newspaper was shut down on March 11, 1933, less than two weeks after Paul von Hindenburg approved the Reichstag Fire Decree written by the Adolf Hitler government. Although it was initially supposed to be banned for three months, the Nazis' subsequent abrogation of remaining civil liberties kept it shuttered for the rest of the Nazi era. Küster was arrested and held in concentration camps from 1933 to 1938.

Fritz Bracht took over the DOVO company shortly before the second World War and Alex Mertens joined his company. Along with other "old hands" he was a motivating force behind the production of scissors. Ernst Kirschbaum completed his law studies and also joined the company DOVO in 1953 as a son-in-law of the family.

The need for recovery after years of ruin that stemmed from "der Angriff" on Solingen November 4th & 5th,1944. Fritz Bracht was a soldier at the Western Front in WW1 then a British prisoner from 1918-1919. Germany began to secretly gain strength breaking international treaties. Bracht aquired Mertens & Heider shortly before WW2 began. The motto was "New names for New markets" and became Reich Defense Commissar.

Currently since April 2014 had re-opened insolvency proceedings awaiting a new owner to manage.