Bremen wool combing
| Bremer Woll-Kämmerei AG
|
|
|---|---|
 |
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| legal form | AG |
| founding | 1883 |
| Seat | Bremen , Germany |
| management |
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| Number of employees | 318 (2005) |
| sales | 152 million euros (2005) |
| Branch | Wool textile industry |
| Website | www.bwk-bremen.de |
The Bremer Woll-combing AG ( BWK ) was a major global player in the wool textile industry with operating headquarters in Bremen - Blumenthal . For a long time it was the largest company of its kind in the world. It had offices near Istanbul (Turkey), Australia and New Zealand . The company's activities included the processing of raw materials such as sheep's wool and man-made fibers as well as the trade in semi-finished goods.
history
founding
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The company was founded in 1883 as a public limited company. Founders and investors were the consuls George Albrecht, Weinlich and Delius as well as the merchants H. Claussen, J. Fritze, J. Hachez and C. Kulenkampff. These founders appointed Ferdinand Ullrich as commercial director and Paul Zschörner as technical director. At the suggestion of Zschörner, the choice of the location for the plant fell on an area of 500,000 square meters between the Aue and the Weser in the district town of Blumenthal, which at the time belonged to the Prussian province of Hanover and since 1939 to Bremen. Thanks to its size, favorable transport connections and sufficient, good water resources (own deep wells), the location has proven to be sustainable by the end of 2008. Production began on September 11, 1884 with 150 workers. As early as 1896, 2000 workers were employed, including many from Poland, Silesia, East and West Prussia, Saxony and the Rhineland. In 1897 the Farge-Vegesacker Railway was connected to the railway network. By 1930 the number of employees rose to 3700, which is why the BWK also built and built residential complexes. a. the listed residential complex of the Bremer Woll-Kämmerei (1913, 1922/24 and 1934). She was supported by the then District Administrator Paul Berthold .
As the first industrial company in the rural town, the BWK changed the structure of Blumenthal comprehensively. In addition to population growth, residential construction and rail connections, the construction of schools, churches and the district hospital as well as street lighting and the general power supply up to 1904 can be traced back to the influence or promotion of the BWK. At the beginning of the 20th century, entire streets with houses were built to provide a home for up to 5,000 workers.
Second World War
During the Second World War , the company employed a large number of forced laborers ; in 1944 there were 1,198 people. The houses in which they were housed still exist today (e.g. on George-Albrecht-Strasse). On the nearby Bahrsplate there was a now demolished residential camp. In June 2000, former forced laborers visited the BWK.
Development after the Second World War
The development of wage costs, exchange rates and the liberalization of imports threatened the combing's ability to compete against foreign competition in the early 1960s. As a result, the company was restructured and became the largest of its kind in the world in one location. The capacity is sufficient to process the wool of 20,000 sheep per day. Caused by the structural changes in the international trade in wool and wool products, the company made the turn from the previously predominant product orientation to the now decisive market orientation. The former wage combing, the producer for third-party accounts, became a supplier of tops made of wool, man-made fibers and blends.
Development in the 21st Century
After rationalization measures due to the changed world market situation, the falling demand for woolen textiles and technical progress, only 260 jobs including the subsidiaries remained in 2006. In 2003 production began in a wool combing plant near Istanbul, where production costs are lower.
Since March 20, 2007, the company's share ( ISIN DE000A0BVXQ0) has not been traded on the stock exchange. The previous major shareholder and investor Elders took over 100% of the company. This marked the end of an important part of Bremen's stock exchange history after 119 years .
On December 3, 2008, the expected closure of the wool combing facility in Bremen was announced. The main reasons given were the high production costs for such products, the transport costs for sheep wool from New Zealand and Australia and the sharp drop in demand for wool tops during the financial crisis . The processing of raw wool at the Bremen location was stopped on February 27, 2009 after 125 years.
subsidiary company
In 1992, a wholly-owned subsidiary under the name GWC - Geelong Wool Combing Ltd. was established in Australia, the most important wool producer . built in Corio, which lasted until 2003.
In 1993 the BWK acquired three trading companies and thus expanded its business base with regard to the product range - trading in raw wool, washed wool and noils was added - and new sales markets.
BWK Elders Australia Pty. Ltd. , Adelaide, Australia, belongs to the top group of Australian wool exporters and trades in raw wool, washed wool and tops.
Since February 2001, combing Australia has belonged to Topmaking Services Ltd. (Austop), Parkes, Australia as a 100% subsidiary of BWK. In the course of the capital increase resolved by the general meeting on August 9, 2000, this combing was brought in by Australian Wool Holding as a contribution in kind. This company was sold to an Australian company as part of a reorganization concept.
With JSB - JS Brooksbank & Co (Australasia) Ltd. , Wellington, New Zealand, the largest New Zealand wool trading company belonged to the BWK Group. This company was sold again in 2005.
Evaporation and combustion plant (EFA)
For the disposal of the wool washing water, an evaporation and firing system (EFA) was built on the premises of the wool combing, which is operated by BREWA Umwelt-Service GmbH . Liquid waste such as landfill leachate and waste water from the cosmetics industry are also evaporated and incinerated in this facility. Since the wool combing shop was closed in 2009, wool washing water has not been processed since 2010. The plant was put into operation in 1987 with funds from the Federal Environment Agency as an example of pioneering environmental technology. There was and still is resistance to the operation of the facility from the population, who are organized in the independent citizens' movement Blumenthal and umzu eV .
Operation and products
Combing is the first industrial stage in wool processing . Here, the wool shorn from the sheep is washed, combed and formed into a ribbon in a highly automated process sequence. The raw material wool prepared in this way for further processing is called comb in technical language. The spinning mills use this to produce worsted yarn, from which, in further processing stages - weaving, knitting, finishing and finally manufacturing - clothing items made from pure new wool or blends containing wool are made. The short fibers combed out in the combing process are called noils. They are used in carded yarn spinning and in the felt industry . About 10 percent of the wool tops produced in Bremen were made felt-free. At BWK, cellulosic and synthetic man-made fibers were processed into a spinnable sliver similar to wool, which is used as a preliminary product in the worsted spinning mill. The chemical fiber processing has developed into a second important mainstay of the BWK in Bremen. Uncombed, washed wool is used in finer qualities in carded yarn spinning and in coarser qualities in the carpet industry. Most of these wools are already washed in the countries of origin and exported as such.
Environmental aspects
Washing the wool requires a lot of water, so it creates a large amount of waste water. These contain the substances that have been washed off the raw wool, such as sand and earth, wool wax, perspiration salts, other organic components and substances with which the sheep are treated to protect them from vermin. Until well into the 1970s, the BWK discharged its untreated sewage into the Weser.
Cleaning system
The BWK developed a new method for wastewater treatment in cooperation with university institutes, an engineering company and the Federal Environment Agency. This process consists of the combination of a biological sewage treatment plant with an evaporation and combustion plant (EFA) and was put into operation in 1987. The specialty of this three-stage process lies in the treatment of the wool washing water by evaporation, recovery for production and incineration of the residues.
Evaporation: By heating the wool washing water is separated into water vapor and an energy-rich concentrate. When the water vapor condenses, water that can be used for production is created again, which is then used for washing wool.
Incineration: The concentrate produced during the evaporation is burned at 1200 ° C, whereby all organic components and pollutants are molecularly oxidized and thus destroyed. The energy released is converted into steam and electricity for operation. Soda was extracted from the filter dust from the furnace for reuse in wool laundry.
The process reduces the accumulation of sewage sludge in an anaerobic biological sewage treatment plant by 75%. The Federal Environment Agency has classified the process of evaporation of wool washing water as trend-setting for the same and similar problems and financially supported the investment. In the meantime, however, the system no longer burns wool washing water, but only other liquids.
EC eco-audit
Bremer Woll-Kämmerei AG was the first wool combing company in the world to set up an environmental management system in accordance with (EC Eco-Audit Regulation 1836/93) in its Bremen-Blumenthal plant . The environmental audit was carried out by an independent, EU-approved expert. After a successful audit, the Bremen Chamber of Commerce, as the representative of the European Commission, entered the BWK in the EU location register. The first entry was made on November 11, 1996, the last on January 27, 2006 (valid until July 31, 2008). After that, the company no longer applied for the certificate.
An essential part of the audit process was the environmental statement, with which the environmental company guidelines, all ecologically relevant data and the catalog of measures to achieve the further environmental goals are documented.
However, this eco-audit only applied to the company location in Bremen.
After the end of the wool combing
Two companies were spun off from BWK AG and have their headquarters at the old location:
- Bremer Wollhandelskontor GmbH
- BWK Chemiefaser GmbH
On the site, BREWA wte GmbH operates the Blumenthal substitute fuel cogeneration plant, an evaporation plant for wastewater and waste containing water, a high-temperature incineration plant for liquid waste and a biological sewage treatment plant.
The municipality of Bremen has taken over large parts of the former BWK premises in order to develop a commercial area there.
Since 2017, a La Strada event with street art, entertainment and music has been taking place on the weekend before the La Strada street artist festival in downtown Bremen .
Buildings and monument protection
In 2012, parts of the company premises as an ensemble and three buildings as individual monuments (ED) were placed under monument protection.
Individual evidence
- ^ "Members of the founding consortium" ( Memento from February 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ "Planning and construction of the Bremer Wollkämmerei" ( Memento from February 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Susanne Schöß: History and meaning of the Bremen wool combing . In: Georg Scalecki (Ed.): Preservation of monuments in Bremen . Series of publications by the State Office for Monument Preservation Bremen. Issue 7th Edition Temmen, Bremen 2010, ISBN 978-3-8378-1016-5 , pp. 75 .
- ↑ Bremer Wollkämmerei has to close. In: The world. December 5, 2008.
- ↑ That the river is so sick ... In: Der Spiegel. 40/1978 (Sept. 29, 1976), pp. 67-81.
- ↑ Certificates of the BWK ( Memento from February 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Bremer Woll-Kämmerei AG ( Memento from February 1, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ BWK CHEMIEFASER GMBH - BREMEN. bwk-chemiefaser.de, accessed on October 7, 2012 .
- ↑ BREWA wte GmbH - operational management. brewa.de, accessed on October 7, 2012 .
- ↑ Blumenthal master plan. Unanimous vote on the future development of the BWK site. senatspressestelle.bremen.de, accessed on October 7, 2012 .
- ^ Monument database of the LfD
literature
- Volkmar Leohold: The chambermen - working life at the Bremen wool combing. VSA-Verlag, Hamburg 1986, ISBN 3-87975-378-4 .
Web links
- Website of BREWA Umwelt-Service GmbH
- Early documents and newspaper articles on Bremen wool combing in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
Coordinates: 53 ° 10 ′ 51.3 " N , 8 ° 34 ′ 41.3" E