Belt factory Wilhelm Büsgen

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Factory building from 1910

The Wilhelm Büsgen ribbon factory was built around the middle of the 19th century and has been a listed building since 1986. It consists of residential, office, storage and factory buildings from the former ribbon weaving and braiding factory Büsgen in Wuppertal .

history

founding

Company founder Wilhelm Büsgen

In 1873 the merchant Friedrich Wilhelm Büsgen, who was born in Emmerich aR in 1846, founded a trading business at the age of 27, the aim of which was to " sell articles by home weavers for tailoring and clothing manufacturers on their own account". It was founded together with a partner, Mr Febel. In 1874 Wilhelm Büsgen already paid this off and continued to run the business on his own.

It was a typical publishing house for the time that bought yarns , woven or plaited them into ribbons as wage labor and then had them dyed if necessary and finally sold. The home tapestry brought z. B. once a week the woven articles on the so-called "delivery aisle" to the company's weighing chamber, where the weight was determined and paid for. “For a tape factory you only need a desk!” The company founder is supposed to have said at the time.

Relocation to Alleestraße

Former office building

After it was founded, the company was initially located in a warehouse at the Ibach piano factory , Alleestraße 162. This was roughly at today's Friedrich-Engels-Allee No. 352. At the beginning, a “ reel girl ”, a packer and an apprentice were employed . The home bandmakers looking for orders at that time could be found quickly in the valley of the Wupper and the residential districts of the heights. The merchant Wilhelm Büsgen was responsible for advertising to customers and for selling the ribbons .

By 1887, the business had developed so far that the company moved to Alleestrasse 15a, today Friedrich-Engels-Allee 161a. Here had Turkish-Roth dyeing of Wolf stood at the Wupper. In 1885 an office building near Alleestraße was built for the A. Stoltenhoff tape factory. The existing buildings were initially leased. The business was continued under the name of "Wilhelm Büsgen Factory for Trimmings - Specialty Tailor's Litz". In 1889 the leased property was bought. The weighing chamber was on the ground floor of the office building . The delivery hatches can still be seen there today, which are level with the loading area of ​​the carts of the time . On the first floor, the finished goods were reeled and stored. A few years later, the entrepreneur also acquired the residential building on Allee, built in 1865, and an adjacent property on the Wupperseite.

Extension and new buildings

Extension of the office building around 1908

In 1908 the office building was expanded with a three-story extension. This is where the dispatch department, part of the warehouse and the reel room moved. The reel room, in which the quality of the tapes was checked in addition to the presentation, benefited from the new 130 m² room flooded with light from three sides.

In 1910 the factory building on the Wupper was built from red bricks with a usable area of ​​2000 m². In the basement , a weaving workshop with its heavy iron belt tables, which was then also known as the “belt turning workshop”, was set up. This enabled the previously sold woven goods to be supplemented with braided trimmings, so-called barmer articles. The weaving rooms of the ribbon weaving mill were on the upper floors . In the factory building, around 120 people produced the textiles typical of Wuppertal in the 1920s and 1930s.

With the commissioning of the factory building around 1910, a new era began for the company, which was characterized by the operation of its own production machines. Wilhelm Büsgen was a manufacturer who loved to travel. In addition to trade fairs in Leipzig and Wiesbaden, he also frequently visited Paris, from which he always brought the latest fashion creations and designs for his trimmings. The pattern designer of his company processed these templates and created z. B. through the amalgamation of weaving and braiding technology unique textiles that could not be assigned to any of the classic production methods.

At the turn of the century, the broom border made from mohair yarn was a bestseller . This served as protection for the women's skirts, which reached down to the floor. The “broom” made of the resistant mohair literally swept across the floor and was therefore popularly known as the “street sweeper”. With fashion, the skirts became shorter from 1905, so other items were asked for and produced. Side tresses and later especially velvet ribbons made of viscose became the company's trademark for a long time.

In 1910, a separate steam turbine was built to generate electricity , which was operated with coal and water from the Wupper. The accompanying electric drive replaced the transmission drives of the machines. The steam generated by the turbine also served as heating in the winter months. From 1940, the company obtained its electricity from the city's utilities. Until 1957, the turbine was still used for steam heating.

History of the tape factory from 1914 to 1995

Old sample book from the band factory Wilhelm Büsgen

With the outbreak of World War I , difficult times began for the company. The only son of the company founder, Wilhelm Büsgen Jr., who, as a so-called one-year-old , was training as a cavalryman with the Jäger Regiment on Horseback No. 3 in Colmar , was ordered to the front when the war broke out. The entire industry suffered from the economic consequences of the war and the Wilhelm Büsgen tape factory was only able to survive the hardship by losing jobs.

Friedrich Wilhelm Büsgen died in 1921. His son - also 27 years old - took over responsibility and had to lead the business through the global economic crisis and the inflation that followed. In the meantime the silk ribbon had become the most important item. The sale of this article was regulated by an agreement between manufacturers, house ribbon makers and wholesalers, the "silk ribbon convention", which also contained a price agreement. Wilhelm Büsgen jun. did not feel obliged to this convention and sold his silk ribbons directly to the haberdashery stores and the haberdashery departments of the textile stores, bypassing the relevant wholesalers.

At the height of the tape business so far, the company owner Wilhelm Büsgen junior died in 1936. with only 42 years. His son, Claus Wilhelm Büsgen was only 5 years old. His widow, Addy Charlotte Büsgen, had to lead the company through the difficult times that followed. The production was temporarily switched to parachute straps for cargo parachutes. In 1955, the third generation joined the company. Under Claus Wilhelm Büsgen, the ribbon factory developed into an internationally known specialist for high-quality velvet ribbons with taffeta and satin backs made of viscose. Grosgrain ribbons were later made in large quantities. Old shuttle looms also remained in operation for many years. After many successes and just as many crises, the end finally came in 1995.

The tradition continues

Velvet ribbon loom from the Wilhelm Büsgen ribbon factory

In 1997 the founder's great-grandson and his company "Shape 3", founded in 1995, moved into the building of the old tape factory and developed a new process for the production of seamless, three-dimensional woven shapes, known as "Shape Weaving". Ribbon and braid production was also resumed. The tradition of ribbons and braids is still continued.

The listed buildings of the former tape factory are now part of the “Alleehaus” commercial center.

swell

  • Völker, Günter: Company Wilhelm Büsgen , written version of a company history from discussions with Klaus-Wilhelm Büsgen, Wuppertal 1998/1999.
  • Völker, Günter; Schmitz, Detlef: " The Allee - a forgotten part of town with a historical building culture "; May 2006; Chapter " Searching for traces of house No. 161 "
  • Rhefus, Reiner: Signs for the textile route Wuppertal
  • Westdeutsche Zeitung of February 2, 1999: Treasures of the ribbon weaving mill slumber in the rear building
  • Damaschke, Sabine: Between adaptation and rebellion - The situation of the Wuppertal textile workers in the middle of the 19th century ; Contributions to the history and local history of the Wuppertal, Volume 35, Born-Verlag 1995, pp. 49–81 (background texts on the history of weaving mills 1850–1870)

Web links

Commons : Bandfabrik Wilhelm Büsgen  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 15 ′ 41 ″  N , 7 ° 10 ′ 17 ″  E