was occupied by Gerhard Kohnert and house no. 13 by the plant manager and authorised signatory. For family reasons, house no. 17 was not to be occupied, but was nevertheless completed as a construction shell in order not to disturb the symmetry of the housing estate. It was not until 13 years later, after the death of Gerhard Kohnert, that the interior work was completed and the house was used as company housing. Right at the beginning of the occupation period, “Haus Sonneck” was modernised by the British through the installation of a central coke heating system and the removed tile stoves were temporarily stored in the MMM. The villa was only released after the Occupation Statutes were lifted by the Paris Agreements on 5 May 1955. However, the house and garden had suffered greatly during the last few years, so that extensive renovation work was necessary before the family of Gerhard Kohnert's nephew, Franz Kohnert and his family could move in. In 1962, the villa was sold for liquidity reasons. The factory facilities were steadily but not comprehensively modernised in the 1950s. The last new building was the extension of the engine house in 1956 to provide more space for wood core plywood production. In that year, a profit transfer agreement was also concluded, which obliged the GmbH to transfer all profits to the parent company in Bremerhaven, which had been weakened by the destruction of the war. Thus, the GmbH was financially depleted in the following years and a considerable pent-up investment developed. In 1953, Gerhard Kohnert was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for his services to the development of the local furniture industry. 1962-1975 New management On 5 July 1962, Gerhard Kohnert died, after 53 years of running the company as General Manager. At its peak, the company had 200 employees and was a significant part of the East Westphalia Furniture industry. His brother Hans Kohnert from Bremerhaven then took over the management of the company. However, he could not stop the economic decline. At the insistence of the house banks, Hans Kohnert sold the Meller Möbelfabrik to the main creditors in 1967 in order to avoid bankruptcy. The new managing partners, Hans Wilhelm Rottmann (co-owner of the Rottmann chipboard factory in Herford) and Heinrich Fortmann (previously authorised signatory and operations manager at MMM), initially succeeded in bringing about an economic