Elsbach (company)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Elsbach
legal form Public company (1907–1964)
founding 1873
resolution 1993
Seat Herford , Germany
Number of employees 2671 (1922)
Branch Textile industry

Elsbach was a company in the textile industry that existed from 1873 to the 1990s in the East Westphalian city ​​of Herford in North Rhine-Westphalia . Before the First World War it was considered the largest European linen factory .

history

The Elsbachhaus , built in 1909

The brothers Josef and Hermann Elsbach founded the company on Brüderstraße in Herford in 1873, which was entered in the commercial register in 1875 as the Herford shirt factory J. Elsbach & Co. The founders came from a Jewish family who had been running a linen business since 1848 .

In 1891 the company's headquarters were moved to Goebenstrasse, where the Elsbachhaus was built in several phases from 1909 . From 1907 Elsbach was a stock corporation . In 1914, the company was the largest underwear factory on the European continent (excluding Great Britain). More than 1200 factory workers and several thousand homeworkers were employed. Branches were established in Löhne , Lage and Bielefeld . In 1922, 123 employees, 1067 factory workers and 1481 homeworkers worked for Elsbach. After the period of inflation , the number of employees decreased.

In the course of the Aryanization , the Elsbach family had to sell their shares in 1938. The company was taken over by Ahlers and renamed Herford Laundry Factory AG . At the end of the Second World War , the factory buildings were badly damaged by fire and looting. The military government of the British zone of occupation confiscated Ahlers' stake after the war. The former managing director Kurt Elsbach, who fled abroad, returned to the company in 1947, but died in 1954.

From 1952 the company was again called Elsbach Linen Factory AG . The shares were returned to the Elsbach family. However, Ahlers remained a shareholder, took over the company completely in 1964 and converted it into a GmbH . In 1992 the name Elsbach was removed from the company in connection with the pending insolvency proceedings , and in 1993 the company went bankrupt. The Elsbach brand was continued by Elsbach Hemdenmanufaktur GmbH in Ibbenbüren , which was dissolved in 1998.

In the summer of 2018, the Kuratorium Erinnern Forschen Gedenken eV in Herford presented an exhibition: "The Elsbachs, a family and company history", which has been on view as a permanent exhibition in the Herford Elsbach House since the beginning of 2019. A leporello with the table texts is available to take away in the exhibition .

Products

In the early days of the company, only women's underwear was produced, later children's, men's and bed linen were added. Shirts were made in the branch in Lage, and collars in Bielefeld . Around 1950 the production included sports shirts, shirts, nightwear and work coats .

literature

  • Gustav Schierholz: History of the Herford industry , Herford approx. 1952, pp. 68–70.
  • Christoph Laue: Between "Aryanization" and "reparation" The Herford Elsbach AG between 1938 and 1951 , in: Historical yearbook for the Herford district, vol. 26, Bielefeld 2019.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Schierholz, p. 68.
  2. ↑ a b owner on elsbach-areal.de
  3. ↑ a b Stefan Boscher: The fate of the Elsbach family , in: Neue Westfälische , July 16, 2008, on hiergeblieben.de
  4. ↑ a b c Schierholz, p. 69.
  5. ↑ Elsbach Hemdenmanufaktur GmbH, Ibbenbüren
  6. ↑ Elsbach Library: The Elsbachs, a family and company history
  7. ↑ Schierholz, p. 70.
  8. ^ Between "Aryanization" and "reparation", The Herford Elsbach AG between 1938 and 1951 by Christoph Laue

Coordinates: 52 ° 7 ′ 13.8 ″  N , 8 ° 40 ′ 1.1 ″  E