Abegg brothers
The Abegg Brothers company , bleaching , dyeing and finishing , was founded in Horgen ( Canton Zurich , Switzerland ) in 1815 and existed as a general partnership until the 1970s.
prehistory
In order to be able to use the water of the Dorfbach (also known as the Heubach or Heibach), there was a water-powered loop in the Schleifetobel in Horgen since the 16th century , which various blacksmiths used to grind their products. She gave the grinding table its name. Around 1730 there was a Lohstampfe the tannery Gugolz , which was built in the 1790 House Gerwe vis-à-vis the Sust was. At the beginning of the 19th century the loop belonged to the blacksmith Rudolf Wunderli , who used the water power for a hammer forge , a tobacco pounder , an oil mill and, for a short time, a cotton mill .
In the 19th century, a real industrial area was created along the Dorfbach. Various companies that later exported worldwide had their first factory here and used water power: The later Grob textile machine factory began its activity in 1864 in the factory building of the Suter family (from 1880 Suter sawmill) in Heubach, the Samuel Vollenweider AG textile machine factory in the former hose weaving mill ( «Schluuchi») Schwarzenbach and the Sprüngli chocolate factory in the former forge and later button factory Johannes Meyer (from 1892 Xaver Reichlin ).
history
In 1815, Hans Jakob Abegg-Nägeli , carpenter and bleacher, acquired the hammer forge at the end of the Schleifetobel, where a bleaching shop had previously been operated. He started with a handicraft-based bleaching plant, which he gradually expanded into a large mechanized chemical bleaching plant. The system with the two water wheels was initially operated with the water power of the Dorfbach (Heubach), one of which was marital (free of water interest ) and the other had to be paid for water interest (Zurich Water Law Act of 1836).
In 1915 the previous two water wheels were replaced by a turbine. In 1917, the government council of the canton of Zurich (based on the hydraulic engineering law of 1901) granted the Abegg brothers the right to operate the turbine with the water from the village stream without any time limit and to channel all of the usable water into washing troughs, bleaching machines, condensers, etc. to use textile finishing and to discharge the wastewater in a harmless state. A fee for the use of domestic water was not set.
In 1936 an extension was added to the existing factory building. In the same year the son Jakob (1801–1871) took over the bleaching business. The liberal politician and entrepreneur was mayor of Horgen (1834–1845), suppleant of the district council of Horgen (1842–1848), district councilor of Horgen (1848/49), Zurich councilor (1843–1866) and governor of the Horgen district (1849–1849) 1865).
The son Hans Heinrich (1805–1874) and his brother-in-law Johann Jakob Staub (1803–1888) founded the Abegg & Staub company in Horgen, which in 1835 became the largest jacquard weaving mill in Switzerland. In 1846 he co-founded the Seidentrockungsanstalt Zurich and in 1856 the Schweizerische Kreditanstalt and its first general director (1856–1857). In 1859 he founded the leather factory Hüni & Cie with Hans Heinrich Hüni (1816-1894) . in Friedrichshafen . The partner Abegg left the company in 1861 and went to Zurich.
In the war years 1941 and 1942 a factory was built and rebuilt. In 1945 a horizontal boiler was installed. A thermal oil heating system was built from 1966 to 1968.
The Abegg brothers' bleaching, dyeing and finishing operations existed until the 1970s. In 2002, loft apartments were installed in the factory building . In 1986, the employee and workers welfare foundation of the Abegg brothers, which had existed since 1947, was abolished by the Horgen District Council.
literature
- Johann Paul Zwicky von Gauen: Abegg from Horgen and Küsnacht . In: Swiss Family Book, Volume 2, born in 1947, Verlag Genealogisches Institut JP Zwicky, Zurich
Web links
- Ueli Müller: Hans Heinrich Abegg. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .