Goldpfeil “Mini-size Extra Slim” Binder

Until I discovered this binder, I had never heard of the brand “Goldpfeil.” It turns out it is a company with a long history, some of it is questionable, more on that later. I want to preface this by saying that I am not an expert on Goldpfeil, nor do I have any association with Goldpfeil past or present. I am only an enthusiast that became lost in the company’s history. Writing this post is helping me to organize my thoughts and hopefully, it will help others. I am also citing my references as there is quite a bit of history to sift through. If you know more or see any errors, please let me know in the comments so I can correct them.

The company was started by Ludwig Krumm in 1856 in the city of Offenbach, considered to be the leather capital of Germany. Initially, the company went by the name of Ludwig Krumm AG but in 1929, Heinrich Krumm, grandson to Ludwig Krumm, traveled on the luxury train named Golden Arrow in London. He was so impressed with the quality of service on the train that he translated “Gold Arrow” into German and started the brand, Goldpfeil in 1931. Later the company was officially renamed to Goldpfeil but I am not sure how long it took as you will see in documents from 1939, Ludwig Krumm AG was still being used.

Golden Arrow Train c. 1953. By Ben Brooksbank, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12208950

This is where the company’s history turns dark. Hitler came to power in 1933. As mentioned before, I found documents from Ludwig Krumm AG. Those documents show the company was providing leather goods to Hitler’s “Wehrmacht” (defense force) in 1939. Side note here. I originally thought the Ludwig Krumm AG company was one and Goldpfeil was a separate entity. Later I realized the company did change its name to Goldpfeil but possibly used the Goldpfeil name as branding initially (my conjecture). I still feel it is important to note the documents I found. I only took one year of German in secondary school, and while I can pronounce some German words correctly, I can count in German, I admittedly had to use Google Lens to translate that document. I know from using Google Lens to translate Spanish, a language that I do know, it’s not the best but it gets the point across. However, I did not need the translation to figure out what the signature line reads. The document goes on to explain that the company had a profitable year and their products continue to be “well-received” considering the “circumstances.” I assume that to mean the war effort since WW2 started in September of that same year. The document also mentions that their military department sales have increased but the demands were met “smoothly.”

Heinrich Krumm. (2022, April 10). In Wikipedia. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Krumm

Fast forward to the 1950s, after Germany was divided, Goldpfeil ended up on the West German side of the dividing line. In the process, Goldpfeil became one of the elite leather product producers. They produced bags for the likes of Christian Dior and other fashion houses. In the mid-1980s Goldpfeil opened boutique shops in the US in cities like New York, Beverly Hills, Bal Harbor, and Honolulu. Goldpfeil later became part of the Egana Goldpfeil Group and with Asian and European sides of the company expanded further. This expansion would be dangerous to the Egana Goldpfeil and it ended up in bankruptcy in December of 2008.

This is what drew me to this binder, the coveted Krause Rings!

Andreas Mann, Sales/Marketing Director of the Goldpfeil main offices, contacted Eric Calladine, apparently a collector of Goldpfeil products, and offered to sell the remaining stock to him. After some legalities were cleared, the stock was sold to Mr. Calladine. He used to sell the stock on eBay under the name “The Goldpfeil Shop.” Today, you can still find Goldpfeil NOS (New Old Stock) for sale and I think it is still Mr. Calladine selling on this website. (No affiliation) On the off chance that Mr. Calladine is still the owner of that stock, I sent an email to see if they could give me information on my binder. As of this posting, I am still waiting to hear back.

From my searches, it seems that Goldpfeil leather bags, suitcases, briefcases, and wallets seem to be more popular than their planners. They even had a line of Swiss watches under the name Goldpfeil Genève. I did find one advert that mentions a planner but I don’t see the binder I have as being listed. I misplaced the link to it but as soon as I find it, I’ll edit this post to add a link to that advert. This is pure speculation on my part but I can see the binder I have as part of a bag or briefcase set and maybe that is why I cannot find much about the binder itself.

Goldpfeil Mini vs. Filofax Finsbury Personal Size

I will be making another video on this binder so stay tuned. In the meantime, here is a video showing the binder as I received it. Please note I did make some mistakes in that video and it is partly why I wanted to research this binder further.