Döhrener wool laundry and combing
The Döhrener wool laundry and combing , also called Döhrener wool or wool laundry and combing (WW & K), in Hanover was the first German manufacturing facility for the mechanical cleaning of wool . The extensive factory buildings of the company, which was founded in 1868, were located on the Leine River and on the Leine Island Döhren in today's Döhren district . After the plant was closed in 1973, the buildings largely gave way to modern residential developments.
Foundation and production
The flax spinning mill owner George Stelling founded a wool laundry for washing wool in Döhren in 1868 after purchasing the Mühlenhof near the Döhrener Mühle on the Leine. In 1872 a stock corporation took over his company and also set up a wool combing facility to comb the wool. The advantages of the location lay in the existing hydropower of the Leine, reinforced by the weir built by Johann Duve in 1667 , and in the connection to the railway via the Wülfel station. Over the course of time, the factory premises were built up over 7.5 hectares with factory buildings.
The factory was the first German company to clean sheep's wool from wool- producing countries such as Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The wool was also combed for further spinning. Döhrener Wolle carried out cleaning and combing as contract work for spinning mills . Until then, these preliminary stages for yarn production were carried out in France.
The waste products from washing the raw wool were processed into by-products in Döhren. A fat factory removed wool fat from the washing water , from which wool fatty acids , neutral fats and lanolin were produced for the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries. The potassium compounds in the thickened wash liquor were used to produce potash .
Because of the favorable location on the leash, which provided sufficient water for washing the wool, the Döhren wool laundry and combing facility quickly developed into a large-scale operation. The washing boilers were fired with coal from the Deister , and a hydroelectric power station supplied electricity from the dammed water on the Leine.
At the economic peak in the 1920s, the laundry processed 50 tons of raw wool and the combing 90 tons a day. The delivery and removal of the goods took place by rail.
Employees
After 16 years of existence, the factory already had 1,000 employees in 1884 and twice as many in 1910. Almost half of the jobs were held by women. Since there were not enough workers available in the area, they were recruited in economically underdeveloped areas in southern Lower Saxony, including in Eichsfeld . For many workers, the company from 1872 to 1925 built on the factory premises, a company town with 250 apartments. The area of the workers' settlement was called Döhrener Jammer .
20th century and decline
Two thirds of the production facilities were destroyed in the air raids on Hanover in World War II. After the reconstruction, the production volume and the number of employees returned to pre-war levels in the mid-1950s. Because of the emerging synthetic fibers , the company was in decline from the 1960s. In 1968 knitting yarn production was stopped.
When a Munich investor group acquired the majority of the company's shares in 1972, there were only 820 employees. The investors dissolved the company and sold the factory premises with the entire development for 50 million DM to the housing company Neue Heimat . Then almost all the company buildings were demolished. In the 1980s, a new housing estate with around 1,000 residential units was built on the factory premises in the Leineinsel area.
today
Due to its idyllic location on the Leine and on a Leine island, the modern residential development is now a quiet residential area. The most prominent remnant of the earlier factory building is the now listed high clock tower from 1909. With its battlements , corner towers and battlements , it is a distinctive symbol of Döhrener wool. The tower served as a hose tower for the former plant fire brigade . A former warehouse adjoins the west side of the tower. In the course of the redesign of the area, the warehouse was expanded in the same style and converted into a residential building.
Opposite the tower there is still the former entrance building with a small gatekeeper's house, the latter with a multiple beveled bell roof. The buildings were built around the same time as the clock tower. During the war, the upper two floors of the four-story entrance building were destroyed, and they were not reconstructed until a few decades later. The former turbine house of the hydropower plant now serves as a bridge for vehicle access to the residential area on the Leineinsel.
The former director's villa and parts of the workers' estate that have been preserved are also protected as historical monuments.
Former hydropower station used as a bridge
Entrance building with gatehouse (left)
Former director's villa
Housing development on the Leineinsel
literature
- Waldemar R. Röhrbein in: Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein (eds.) U. a .: City Lexicon Hanover . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2009, ISBN 978-3-89993-662-9 , p. 136.
- Christiane Schröder, Sid Auffarth , Manfred Kohler: Potash, coal and canal - industrial culture in the Hanover region , Rostock 2010, ISBN 978-3-356-01378-8
Web links
- Brief description at hannover.de
- Early documents and newspaper articles on the Döhrener wool laundry and combing in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Wolfgang Neß, Ilse Rüttgerodt-Riechmann, Gerd Weiss (ed.): Architectural monuments in Lower Saxony. 10.2. City of Hanover, part 2. Friedrich Vieweg and son, Braunschweig / Wiesbaden 1985. ISBN 3-528-06208-8 . Pp. 98-99.
Coordinates: 52 ° 19 ′ 58.3 " N , 9 ° 45 ′ 35" E