ÖSPAG
The ÖSPAG ( Ö Austrian S anitär ceramics and P orzellan industry AG ) was an Austrian porcelain and ceramics manufacturing facility.
overview
In 1960, the name ÖSPAG Österreichische Sanitär-Keramik und Porzellan-Industrie AG was introduced for the ceramics company with a production facility in Wilhelmsburg . The company name remained even after the factory was taken over by the Swiss company Keramik Holding AG Laufen (in 1967) and after crockery production was ended in Wilhelmsburg (production was relocated to the Czech Republic in 1997). It was not until 2003 that the company name was deleted from the Austrian commercial register.
history
In Wilhelmsburg, Lower Austria, earthenware production began around 1795 at the Winckhl mill on the Traisen . On June 9, 1865, Rudolf Strohmayer founded the Wilhelmsburg stoneware and porcelain factory . Richard Lichtenstern led the company to the largest earthenware crockery factory in Austria-Hungary at the turn of the century. In 1912 he bought the Rudolf Ditmars Erben sanitary stoneware factory in Znojmo and the Urbach brothers' stoneware factory in Teplitz-Schönau . During the Second World War, all three plants were expropriated by the National Socialists, after the war the two plants in Znojmo and Teplitz were nationalized by the Czechoslovak government. At the end of the 1960s, major modernization measures were carried out at the Wilhelmsburg plant. The owner at the time, Conrad Henry Lester, decided to introduce his own brand name for the porcelain and chose the name Lilien porcelain, which is still very well known in Austria today . The successful Daisy series was produced under this name . The management of the company was located in the 1st district of Vienna. There was also a production facility in Gmunden Engelhof, also for the production of lily porcelain and sanitary ceramics (Austrovit). In 1997 the crockery and porcelain factory in Austria was closed.
Current
Today, at the authentic location - the Winckhl mill - the Wilhelmsburg crockery museum, which has been open to the public since 2007. There is a permanent exhibition on the subject of lily porcelain and, since 2015, the newly built Wilhelmsburg stoneware Schaudepot, which shows over 11,000 historical objects from the more than 200-year-old crockery tradition in Wilhelmsburg.
Company name
- 1865 kk priv. Wilhelmsburg stoneware and porcelain factory Rudolf Strohmayer
- 1883 The Lichtenstern brothers company
- 1919 Wilhelmsburger Steingutfabriks G. mb H.
- 1925 Wilhelmsburger stoneware factory Lichtenstern & Co
- 1932 Wilhelmsburger Steingutfabrik AG
- 1935 Wilhelmsburger Steingut- und Porzellanfabrik AG
- 1938 Ostmark Keramik Aktiengesellschaft
- 1946 Österreichische Keramik AG
- 1960 Austrian Sanitary Ceramics and Porcelain Industry AG (ÖSPAG for short)
Individual evidence
- G. Otruba (Hrsg.): From stoneware to porcelain in Lower Austria: A company commemorative publication on the 170th anniversary of the ÖSPAG's Wilhelmsburg plant . Bergland, Vienna 1966.
- Laufen Austria AG: Environmental statements 2006: A company of the Laufen Group, locations in Gmunden and Wilhelmsburg. 2006.