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{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2014}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Zigarettenfabrik A. Batschari
| logo = 
| image = File:Erdt Illu1914 Batschari.jpg
| image_size = 
| image_alt = 
| image_caption =Batschari advertising by [[Hans Rudi Erdt]]
| type = 
| industry = [[Tobacco]]
| fate = 
| predecessor = <!-- or: | predecessors = -->
| successor = <!-- or: | successors = -->
| founded = 1834
| founder = August Batscharis
| defunct = <!-- {{End date|YYYY|MM|DD}} -->
| hq_location_city = [[Baden-Baden]], [[Germany]]
| hq_location_country = 
| area_served = <!-- or: | areas_served = -->
| key_people = 
| products = 
| owner = <!-- or: | owners = -->
| num_employees = 
| num_employees_year = <!-- Year of num_employees data (if known) -->
| parent = [[Reemtsma]]
| website = <!-- {{URL|example.com}} -->
}}
The '''Zigarettenfabrik A. Batschari''' was a German [[cigar]] and [[cigarette]] manufacturer established in 1834 in [[Baden-Baden]] by August Batscharis. Along with other cigarette manufacturers of the period like [[Josef Garbáty]] and [[Manoli]], Batschari was at the time a patron of the arts, employing famous artists such as [[Hans Rudi Erdt]], [[Ivo Puhonny]], [[Lucian Bernhard]] and [[Ludwig Hohlwein]] to produce advertising material. Today, vintage Batschari enamel signs, glass plates, cigarette boxes and posters are popular collectors' items.<ref name="Baden-Baden Stadtführer">{{cite web |url=http://www.bad-bad.de/gesch/batschari.htm |title=ABC – die August Batschari Cigarette |publisher=Baden-Baden Stadtführer |language=German |accessdate=16 December 2012 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121111145502/http://www.bad-bad.de/gesch/batschari.htm |archivedate=11 November 2012 |url-status=dead |df=dmy }}</ref><ref name="finney-1">{{cite book|last=Finney|first=Gail|title=Visual Culture in Twentieth-Century Germany: Text as Spectacle|url=http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/product_info.php?products_id=22871|accessdate=12 March 2012|year=2006|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0-253-21833-9|pages=143–146}}</ref><ref name="hübscher-1">{{cite book|last=Hübscher|first=Jens|title=Die Schilderjagd: Auf den Spuren alter Reklameschilder|url=http://www.openisbn.com/isbn/3839121574/|year=2009|publisher= Books on Demand|language=German|isbn=978-3-8391-2157-3|pages=26–28}}</ref>

==History==
[[File:Erdt - Batschari1 Jugend 1914.jpg|thumb|left|1914 newspaper advertising for the ''Mercedes'' cigarette brand]]
Heinrich Reinboldt, August Batscharis' father in law, produced high-quality handmade cigars in a rented house, with some financial success. A short time later he moved production to a small factory. Batscharis subsequently took over the business, increasing the daily production from 110,000 cigarettes per year in 1899 to up to more than three million. Between 1908 and 1909 Batscharis commissioned the construction of a large factory called ''Batscharifabrik'' in Baden-Baden, between the Balzenberg and Mozart streets. The ''ABC'' cigarette [[marque]] was by then known beyond [[Germany]], and the company had outlets in most major European cities as well as in [[Madison Avenue]] in [[New York (state)|New York]].  During the period of [[radioactive quackery]] in the early 20th century, Batschari also produced a brand of "[[Radium]]" radioactive cigarettes.<ref name="Oak Ridge Assicuated Universities">{{Cite web |url=https://www.orau.org/health-physics-museum/collection/brands/radium-cigarettes.html |title=Radium Brand Cigarettes (ca. 1910 - 1915) |website=www.orau.org |access-date=2021-10-12}}</ref>

In 1912 the Batscharis family lost control of the company due to what amounted to a hostile takeover by the [[BAT Company]], who purchased a 40% voting stake in their bid to become the dominant tobacco product manufacturer in Germany.<ref name="cox-1">{{cite book
 |last         = Cox
 |first        = Howard
 |title        = The Global Cigarette: Origin and Evolution of British American Tobacco, 1880–1945
 |url          = http://eh.net/book_reviews/global-cigarette-origins-and-evolution-british-american-tobacco-1880-1945
 |accessdate   = 12 March 2012
 |year         = 2000
 |publisher    = Oxford University Press
 |isbn         = 0-19-829221-X
 |pages        = 132–133
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20110909103526/http://eh.net/book_reviews/global-cigarette-origins-and-evolution-british-american-tobacco-1880-1945
 |archive-date = 9 September 2011
 |url-status     = dead
 |df           = dmy-all
}}</ref>

Batschari began to encounter financial difficulties in the wake of the [[Great Depression|global economic crisis of the 1920s]], exacerbated by large tax increases and debt, which threatened the existence of the company and forced the city government to subsidize it with public funding to avoid losing its almost 2,000 jobs. The Batschari holdings were subsequently acquired by the [[Reemtsma|Reemtsma Group]], which produced the "Mercedes" brand name cigarettes until 1965.

===Fate of the ''Batscharifabrik''===
The 18,000 square meter Batschari manufacturing facility is considered a landmark in Baden-Baden, and came to be known as ''Batschari Palais''. In the early 20th century it was used by the [[Bundeswehr]] for clothing storage, until it was abandoned in 2004, precipitating a conservation controversy in the city.<ref name="Baden-Baden Stadtführer"/> In 2006 the building was acquired by the German development company Arcona and refurbished into a luxury hotel.<ref name="hotel-1">{{cite web|url=http://batschari-hotel.de/|title=Batschari Hotel|language=German|accessdate=3 December 2012}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[List of cigar brands]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Tobacco companies of Germany]]
[[Category:1965 disestablishments in Germany]]
[[Category:Companies based in Baden-Württemberg]]
[[Category:Cigar manufacturing companies]]
[[Category:German companies established in 1834]]