Company founder and the first dental technician in the family, Károly Schulze started to study dental technology in September 1905 at Gyula Schmidt’s laboratory in 15. Irány street, the most prestigious at the time. He worked there until 1911, having graduated to chief apprentice position in his last two years in the lab. In 1912 he set up his own laboratory at 13, Kossuth Lajos Street in downtown Budapest.
His sons, Károly Schulze and László Schulze went to study the profession in 1927 at the laboratory of Lázár Plaszin Lakatos, with a temporary transfer to the company VIPLA.
Károly Schulze went to seek his fortune in Milan, where he ran his own laboratory. László Schulze set up his first laboratory at 39, Erzsébet Boulevard. Károly Schulze returned to Hungary in 1938 and opened a laboratory at No. 22 in nearby Népszínház Street.
The two brothers went on to set up together a laboratory called SCHULZE BROTHERS KROMA DENTAL APPLIANCES at 8, Almássy Square. The lab employed a staff of 25 and was equipped in line with the latest professional and ergonomical requirements of the time. It was acknowledged as one of the most important laboratories until it was ‘voluntarily offered to the state’, in effect nationalised, in 1952.
László Schulze continued to work at the nationalised laboratory for two more years as an employee. In 1954 he applied for a licence and started to work from the kitchen of his home. He opened his new laboratory at 3. Almássy Square in 1958. He retired in 1979 at age 65 and died in Balatonszéplak in 1993. Károly Schulze, who had moved to Balatonszéplak in 1948 to open a lab there, worked as a qualified dentist in Balatonszárszó, also by Lake Balaton, from 1960 onwards. He died in 1965. Both played an important part in dental technology in the fiels of professional management, teaching and examining. Several excellent students who they were proud of studied form them.
László Schulze’s children are also dental technicians. László earned his certification at the family lab in 1970, Károly in 1977 and Erzsébet in 1982. László Schulze worked as an apprentice for his father, and then went on to the dental technology laboratory of SOTE (Semmelweiss Medical University), where he spent 5 years. He started his own career in 1977 at his father’s laboratory but with his own licence. For a whole year they worked together, although for a diverging clientele. In 1979 this was the first private lab to work with ceramic and gold-fused ceramic. He added metal-fused ceramic to his product range in 1982, already operating an induction casting machine to facilitate the moulding process. The laboratory was extended in 1984 and the staff was doubled by adding new employees to a total of 8.
A large number of professional presentations and courses then followed from 1974 onwards, and activities also involved writing technical books, teaching and examinations. Full ceramic prosthetics have been offered since 1995 (inlay, veneer, In-ceram, Cercon). In 1999 we set up a new lab at its present location; this is a workshop with state-of-the-art standards and 16 creative workplaces. In 2005 the fourth generation (Renáta joined in 2001 and László in 2003) will celebrate with us the centenary of our family in the profession. I hope that my children will carry on the family tradition and even raise it to yet higher standards. Károly runs his own laboratory in Balzac Street, while our sister has retrained as a leather artist. We preach “Nomen est omen”.