ANVIA was established in 1933 in the provincial town of Almelo. Basically ANVIA was a continuation of the Berlin based decoration and lighting company Lessmann Moset Nachfolger, established in 1906.
In 1933 the owner with jewish roots, Max Liebert, was forced to sell 2 of its 3 companies to German companies. Max Liebert was allowed though to transfer the lighting part of the Lessmann Moset Nachfolger group to the Netherlands. A Dutch agent arranged housing and a location to rebuild the lighting factory in Almelo. In 1934 the factory was ready to start and registered as ANVIA which stands for Algemeene Nederlandsche Verlichtings Industrie Almelo.
Together with his son Werner and son-in-law Fritz Kaufmann, Max Liebert managed to rebuild a succesful company in the Netherlands. During World War II Werner Liebert managed to work for the ANVIA company until 1942. In 1943 Max, his wife Käte and son Werner were murdered in Sobibor and Auschwitz.
Ilse, the daughter of Max and Käte Liebert, and her husband Fritz Kaufmann managed to survive the war. In 1946 they were asked by the factory people to restart ANVIA again. In a turbulent time with a.o. shortage of raw materials they managed to, again, rebuild ANVIA.
In 1952 Fritz Kaufmann suddenly died and as from that moment ANVIA was managed by external directors.
In the early 1950’s ANVIA started a cooperation with an industrial designer from Haarlem, Jan (J.J.M.) Hoogervorst. This was the beginning of a very succesful period in the history of the company. Jan Hoogervorst designed many collections for ANVIA. Many of his designs have become true collectors items.
In the 1950’s and 1960’s ANVIA appeared to be one of the 3 largest Dutch lighting companies together with Philips in Eindhoven and Hala in Zeist. In the early 70’s the company was sold to an external director and a period of further industrialisation commenced. In the mid 1980’s the company became part of a Dutch window decoration company . A few years later ANVIA ceased to exist and disappeared from the market.
