Augsburg worsted spinning mill
| Augsburger Kammgarn-Spinnerei Aktiengesellschaft | |
|---|---|
| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | 1836 |
| resolution | February 1, 2002 |
| Reason for dissolution | insolvency |
| Seat | Augsburg , Germany |
| Branch | spinning |
The Augsburger Kammgarn-Spinnerei (AKS) was one of the former textile companies in the Augsburg textile district . The factory site was between Prinzstrasse, Schäfflerbachstrasse and Provinostrasse. The new boiler house with company logo and factory chimney, facing the AVG stop “Textile Museum”, is visible from afar . There the old factory road leads to Provinostraße and the State Textile and Industry Museum . In the course of the new development of the approx. 12.9 hectare industrial wasteland , large parts of the complex have been demolished since the end of 2009. Residential development and retail, a day-care center and a district center are planned.
history
The Nuremberg merchant Johann Anton Friedrich Merz relocated his worsted yarn spinning mill Merz & Co to Augsburg in 1836 because the Nuremberg plant was no longer able to cope with the enormous demand. The hydropower available there was decisive for the Augsburg location. In Nuremberg the machines were still driven by a Göpel , while in Augsburg a large wheel provided the necessary energy. Merz aimed to reduce operating costs.
Merz bought the former Samassa'sche tobacco mill in front of the Schwibbogentor with two wheel rights and 1 ½ day's work in the meadow for 11,000 guilders and founded the "Kammgarn-Spinnerey J. Fr. Merz & Cie" there. In 1845 Merz decided to convert the company into a stock corporation, which was supposed to finance extensive expansion plans in particular. Among the names of the first owners are several members of the Schaezler family . This had already financed the establishment of the mechanical cotton spinning and weaving mill in Augsburg .
The number of spindles present is used as the unit of measurement for the size of a spinning mill. These were increased from 4,500 when Merz was founded to a high of 96,328 in 1933. The graphic opposite illustrates the constant expansion of the plant. Before the outbreak of the Second World War, 2,400 employees produced 2.7 million kilograms of yarn. In February 1944 90% of the Augsburg worsted spinning mill was destroyed. The reconstruction lasted until 1957. In 1973 Hans Glöggler acquired the majority of the shares, the AKS then ran into financial difficulties when the Glöggler empire collapsed in 1976. The BayernLB financed the restart, and 1986, the AKS was again the market leader in Germany. That year, 6 million kilograms of yarn were processed (56,000 spindles, 860 employees).
In the 1990s, the AKS was no longer able to cope with advancing globalization and the associated competition from low-wage countries . In 2002 the spinning mill was closed, in 2004 the dye works and the gates were finally closed.
Social question
The working and living conditions of the factory workers in the 19th century in Germany led to various approaches to solving the social question , which also provided for a company social policy for large companies. In the Augsburg textile companies, too, paternalistic entrepreneurs began to make efforts from the 1840s to alleviate the plight, but also to bind the workers to the factory through social measures and also to discipline them. The following company social benefits were introduced in the AKS:
| year | measure | comment |
|---|---|---|
| 1848 | Factory health insurance fund | Mandatory |
| 1850 | Savings fund | The AKS was one of the few companies that even after 1874 ran the Sparkasse as a compulsory fund. It was common practice that the savings deposits could only be paid out in special cases. The workers were often forced to quit in order to access the savings. |
| 1854 | First workers' apartments | 25 apartments and some dormitories in the Frölich estate |
| 1857 | Workers Assistance Fund | |
| 1872 | Factory bathroom | A weekly full bath for employees |
| 1875 | reading room | |
| 1876 | New residential area | In 1904, 25% of the workforce was housed in company apartments (see also Kammgarnquartier ) |
| 1878 | Dining house | 350 seats |
| 1879 | Children's library | At the same time, a Christmas present for the children was introduced |
| 1880 | Wash and bath house | Now also for family members |
| 1930 | Children's institution and nursery |
Buildings and monuments
In the course of the new use of the site at the end of 2009, some of the building fabric was sacrificed to the excavator. So far, the buildings directly on Fabrikstrasse have been preserved, which should continue to convey an overall impression. Karl Albert Gollwitzer and Jean Keller in particular worked for AKS as well-known architects . The latter, an important industrial architect, built numerous factory buildings from 1870 and gave the factory a uniform appearance. The plant was 90% destroyed in World War II, so that only a few buildings from Keller's time have survived.
In general, the production facilities in the textile industry are divided into high-rise spinning structures and single-storey sheds for weaving. Production stages often took place on the floors of the spinning mill. The degree of completion corresponded to the floor reached. The increasingly larger and heavier weaving machines could only be operated at ground level. The AKS took a different approach. The advantages of the sheds - the steep and north-facing skylights offered the best daylight with ideal climate values - were so important to the company management that only sheds were used for the spinning mill from around 1870 onwards. This resulted in the unusually large number of shed halls for a spinning mill.
As an energy supplier, the Schäfflerbach flows through the plant from south to north and represents a border. The individual structures are therefore divided up east and west of the Schäfflerbach.
East of the Schäfflerbach
Wash and bath house , Schäfflerbachstrasse 30, 2010
Färberturm , Schäfflerbachstrasse, 1999
Gate, Schäfflerbachstrasse, 1997
The wash and bath house was built in 1879 according to plans by Jean Keller and is decorated with baroque plaster structure. The building has been a listed building since 1997.
The dyer tower was built around 1760 and is shown on a drawing from 1809 as part of the "Fröhlich'schen Zitz und Catun Fabrick". It bears witness to the times of the Augsburg calico manufacturers. Just below the gable, bars run along each side, on whose crossbars the cotton fabrics printed in the factories were hung to dry. The AKS used the tower as a stable and storage room. In 1972 it was restored.
Today the area of the Rudolf Steiner School is attached to the Färberturm. The main gate of the AKS, built in 1952, is located at the intersection with Provinostraße.
West of the Schäfflerbach
old boiler house with a view of Fabrikstrasse, 2008
Sorting building "Basilica", 2010
Bale warehouse, 2003
Head building, 2010
New boiler house, 2010
In 1893, Jean Keller built a boiler house parallel to the central Fabrikstrasse. The system initially served as a kind of emergency power generator when the Schäfflerbach had high or low water and the turbines failed. Hydropower was plentiful and cheap, while the coal needed to run the steam engine had to be brought in from Penzberg . The old steam engine house as a bright brick building looks like a sacred building, due to its exposed location it is one of the most striking buildings in the factory.
Right next to the boiler house is the sorting building known as the “basilica” (1889 / Jean Keller). The name basilica is due to the design in three naves .
Next to the basilica, the Ballenlagerhaus from 1956 extends parallel to Provinostraße. The glass blocks framed with dark bricks are particularly striking.
Opposite the basilica is the Northwest Sheds (1910) with a head building in the style of factory locks. The head building has 22 window axes, is structured by wall strips and crowned by curved triangular gables. The head building with two adjacent sheds is now the location of the State Textile and Industry Museum .
North of Provinostrasse
The area "north of Provinostraße" is currently largely fallow, but a development plan has been in existence for a long time which provides for block development . The director's villas and the wash house were placed under monument protection. The garage house will be demolished if the development plan is implemented.
Management villas with garden pavilion and wash house
Director's villa, Provinostraße 47, 2008
Garden pavilion, Provinostrasse 47, 2002
Wash house, Provinostraße 45½, 2008
For the technical director and two commercial directors of the worsted spinning mill, director's villas were built from 1869 on Provinostraße (today opposite the main entrance to tim). Two of the villas (Provinostraße 45 and 47), which were built according to plans by Karl Albert Gollwitzer , were able to be preserved, mainly through the commitment of the textile quarter . They have since been restored. The third villa (by Jean Keller in 1887 ) was completely destroyed in the Second World War.
The three villas probably received a wooden garden pavilion each after the completion of the last . The buildings are easy to see on a drawn AKS view from 1926. Only the pavilion in House 47 remained. The imminent demolition caused by the development plan "North of Provinostraße" was prevented by the cooperation of many participants and the expertise of the monument office and the pavilion was restored. In order to be preserved in the long term, however, the monument was moved to the Botanical Garden . There the pavilion, which was designed in the form of the Swiss homeland style, can be visited. The flooring consists of patterned stoneware tiles, the iron windows are colorfully glazed in the corners.
The Provinostraße 45½ building was built together with the director's villas, for which it served as a wash house. On the first floor there was a room with a washing kettle in addition to several small rooms. The laundry could be dried in the attic. In the course of the renovation of the two villas, the wash house was also renovated in accordance with the listed building standards. Today it houses living rooms and offices.
Garage and chauffeur house
Further in the direction of Schäfflerbachstrasse was the garage and chauffeur house, where the directors' company cars were housed. The building has already been demolished.
Todays use
The State Textile and Industry Museum (tim) is now located on Provinostraße in the former head building . There are plans for the adjacent sheds to be used by the city archeology and the city archives.
A Rudolf Steiner School was opened east of the Schäfflerbach in the 2005/2006 school year .
literature
- Werner Genzmer: Hundred years of worsted yarn spinning in Augsburg 1836–1936. A contribution to the history of the German wool industry. Himmer, Augsburg 1936.
- Günther Grünsteudel , Günter Hägele, Rudolf Frankenberger (eds.): Augsburger Stadtlexikon. 2nd Edition. Perlach, Augsburg 1998, ISBN 3-922769-28-4 .
- Ilse Fischer : Industrialization, social conflict and political decision-making in the urban community. A contribution to the social history of Augsburg 1840–1914. Mühlberger, Augsburg 1977, ISBN 3-921133-20-3 .
- Richard Loibl (Ed.): The Bavarian Textile and Industry Museum in Augsburg. Wißner, Augsburg 2005, ISBN 3-89639-508-4 .
- Richard Loibl, Karl Borromäus Murr (ed.): State Textile and Industrial Museum Augsburg. Museum guide. Wißner, 2010, ISBN 978-3-896-39744-7 .
- City of Augsburg (Ed.): Open Monument Day 2003. Wißner, 2003, ISBN 3-89639-406-1 ( online , PDF file; 2.17 MB)
- City of Augsburg, building department for the Friedrich-Prinz-Fonds Foundation (publisher): Augsburger Fassadenpreis 2006. Pröll, 2007 ( online , PDF file; 4.33 MB).
- Werner Kraus (Hrsg.): Scenes of industrial culture in Bavaria. Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2006, ISBN 3-7954-1790-2 .
Web links
- Private homepage
- State Textile and Industry Museum (tim)
- Information on the operation of the Munich Economic Archives
- Early documents and newspaper articles on the Augsburg worsted spinning mill in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Development plan no. 475 I, "Kammgarnspinnerei" . Textil-herrenbach.augsburg.de. Archived from the original on August 10, 2014. Retrieved on December 20, 2010.
- ↑ 100 years of Augsburg worsted spinning mill and city dictionary
- ↑ 100 years of the Augsburg worsted spinning mill. P. 53ff.
- ↑ Stadtlexikon p. 253
- ↑ Fischer, p. 211
- ↑ Augsburger Allgemeine, December 4, 2008, p. 6.
- ↑ a b Augsburg Facade Prize 2006
Coordinates: 48 ° 21 ′ 42.5 ″ N , 10 ° 54 ′ 52 ″ E