A Quick German Lesson, Anker?

Anker Steinbaukasten? Anchor Stone? Yes, and yes, as Anker translates to “Anchor” and Stein translates to “Stone”. Baukasten can be broken apart to “building box” or “building set”. So in German, the company and brand name is currently Anker and Steinbaukasten describes the product – stone building sets.

But before the company was known as Anker, it was part of the F. Ad. Richter & Co. named after the entrepreneur and founder Adolf Richter. So at that point in time, as the Anker product made its way across the Atlantic, it was translated from Anker to Anchor as the advertisement below shows.

With Mr. Richter’s death came discussions about the future of the company and eventually the Anker descriptive term became the company name. And that lead to the image of an anchor being used as part of a logo.

So even 100 years later, we continue to refer to the company in the US as Anchor Stone, but use the Anker logo. It is also important from a search perspective because in the US, most folks search for “Anchor Stone”.

Confusing? Yes! But par for the course when 100 year history must be balanced with English internet search.