In 1952, it was patterns that turned a fashion magazine into the world's largest fashion publisher. And of course the woman who came up with the idea to add the pattern sheets to the magazine.
Aenne Burda
The founder of Burda Moden was born in 1909 as Anne Magdalena Lemminger in Offenburg. She later only called herself Aenne.
After graduating from secondary school, she completed a commercial apprenticeship at the Offenburg power station. In the course of her work there, she got to know the book printer Dr. Franz Burda, whom she married on July 9,1931. The couple had three sons between 1932 and 1940.
The foundation of Burda Moden
Aenne Burda owes her own publishing house foundation to her husband's infidelity. When he cheated on her with his former secretary Elfriede Breuer and also supported her publisher "Elfi Moden" financially, Aenne demanded financial support for her own project instead of a divorce.
In 1949 she took over the run-down publishing house from Elfriede Breuer, including the 48 employees. Her first magazine was also published in the first year under the name "Favorit". One year later in 1950 she changed her name and the "Burda Moden" was published with a print run of 100,000 copies.
Pattern sheets as an addition to a booklet
What made the magazine Burda Moden the world's largest fashion publisher was the idea in 1952 to enclose a pattern sheet with each copy. With the help of these sheets, the readers were able to sew the latest clothes shown in the booklet themselves. It is true that pattern sheets have been around since 1863, but it was only the idea of Aenne Burda to make current and above all expensive home fashion affordable for everyone that brought them the breakthrough. This was the beginning of Burda's triumphal march, which did not even stop at the borders. In 1987, the magazine was even the first western magazine to be sold in Russian in the USSR. And in 2005, the fashion magazine was published in 89 countries and translated into 16 different languages.