The origins of B.H. Mayer’s IdentitySign go back to B.H. Mayer’s Decorative Embossing Institute, which manufactured medals, coins, military decorations, badges and jewellery at the site in Pforzheim. The Decorative Embossing Institute was founded in 1871 as an embossing works in Pforzheim by entrepreneur, B.H. Mayer (1843–1911), and remained in family ownership until 1998. In 1993, B.H. Mayer’s IdentitySign GmbH was established as a subsidiary of the limited partnership [KG].
In 2006, Bernhard Heinrich Mayer sold his company B.H. Mayer’s IdentitySign to its CEO at the time, Horst Kraus, who unexpectedly passed away in 2007. His sons Alexander Kraus and Peter Kraus have been heading the firm as sole executive partners since.
Innovation and Tradition
From the Decorative Embossing Institute to B.H. Mayer’s IdentitySign
Commemorative Medal featuring the portrait
of company founder B.H. Mayer
-
Bernhard Heinrich Mayer establishes B.H. Mayer’s as a company
-
The Grand Duke Friedrich of Baden visits the company in Pforzheim
-
Appointed purveyor of decorative embossed goods to the court of the Grand Duke of Baden
-
The first medals to be embossed are the gold medals for the 1936 Olympic Games (XI Olympiad) in Berlin
-
Company buildings are destroyed in the aerial bombardment of Pforzheim
-
Coin embossing is incorporated into the production programme
-
B.H. Mayer’s IdentitySign GmbH is established as a subsidiary of the Decorative Embossing Institute
-
The company celebrates its 125th anniversary
-
The Decorative Embossing Institute is taken over by Münz-Prägstatt in Munich
-
B.H. Mayer’s IdentitySign relocates to the current premises in Steubenstraße
-
Innovative new products and services make B.H. Mayer's the market leader
-
Introduction of 3D design and 3D printing
-
Introduction of laser-based tool production
B.H. Mayer’s Benz Patent Motorcar, Victoria
B.H. Mayer's and the town of Pforzheim were both witnesses to a thoroughly exciting moment in the history of the motor car. In 1888, Bertha Benz made Pforzheim her destination on the first overland journey undertaken in a powered vehicle. Back then, the native Pforzheimer and wife of engineer Carl Benz drove in the first powered vehicle from Mannheim to Pforzheim and back again
In 1898, the founder of our company, Bernhard Heinrich Mayer, signalled the start of motorised personal transportation when he became the first person in Pforzheim to acquire his own automobile, the Benz Patent Motorcar Victoria »Vis-à-Vis«.
Lapel Pins and Medals for Athletes
Athletes are decorated with lapel pins by B.H. Mayer’s IdentitySign at numerous events.
In 1993, for example, we embossed the gold medal for the Athletics Championship in Stuttgart. In 1975 we manufactured a lapel pin in bronze based on designs by Prof. Herbert Zeitner for the Berlin Gymnaestrada.
