History of the cloth industry in Forst (Lausitz)
The establishment of the cloth industry in Forst (Lausitz) began at the beginning of the 19th century. The possibilities of raw material extraction in the region in and around Cottbus offered ideal conditions for this. As early as the Middle Ages , the production of flax and wool were part of everyday life. The merger of different handicrafts for the manufacture of cloths as well as the expansion of an infrastructure led to the expansion of the textile factories and an increase in production.
The beginnings
After the merchant Jeschke opened the first spinning mill in Forst (Lausitz) with 165 workers in 1821 , the textile industry developed so rapidly that the city was soon nicknamed "The German Manchester". The steam engine that Gottlieb Hennig introduced in his factory in 1844 contributed to this development. In 1885 there were already 56 cloth factories, more than 100 leasing companies and 32 spinning mills and finishes in Forst. A total of almost 7,000 workers were employed in the textile industry. Barely ten years later, the number of factories involved in textile production had risen to 200. The Forster city railway , which went into operation in 1893 , played its part in the rapid spread of Forster cloth.
One of the cloth factories belonged to the master cloth maker Carl August Groeschke. In 1840 he introduced the production of patterned fabrics , which were carried under the name " Buckskin " (English: buckskin ). While Groeschke was initially called a "botch" or "troublemaker" and even excluded from the cloth makers' guild, the up-and-coming Forster textile industry quickly recognized that the manufacture of Buckskin was significantly cheaper than buying imports from England .
The cloth factory CH Pürschel
As the cloth factory founded by Hugo Pürschel in 1878 in the city center of Forst reached its capacity limits towards the end of the First World War , his son, Carl Heinrich Pürschel, decided to expand the factory. He bought a plot of land in the north of the city on the Mühlgraben, the lifeline of the Forster textile industry, and built a new factory complex in 1924 . However, further expansions were necessary as early as 1929 and 1934. In addition to the individual buildings, the site - like many other cloth factories in the city - had its own rail connection to the light rail .
While the Forster textile industry was able to expand its success even after the end of the First World War, the Second World War left its mark. In the final phase in particular, Forst came under fire, which meant that the companies had to stop their work. The city was about 85 percent destroyed in 1945 . Numerous industrial plants showed enormous damage. In contrast to these, Pürschel's cloth factory survived the effects of the war almost unscathed.
history
The time after 1945
After the war, in 1946, the textile manufacturers were expropriated, as was the Pürschel family. Carl Heinrich Pürschel's factory was finally converted into public ownership and initially operated under the name VEB Modetuch Forst. In 1964, all of the Forster textile companies were merged to form VEB Tuchfabriken Forst. With around 3,000 workers in the textile industry, Forst was also the most important textile location in the GDR . It was particularly important for the procurement of foreign currency . The cloths from the Forster textile companies were exported to companies such as C&A in Germany .
The development since 1990
Until 1990, flat fabrics were manufactured in the various production facilities of the Forster cloth factories. With the end of the GDR, however, the cloth factories were also on the brink of collapse. The attempt to privatize the company as Forster Webwaren GmbH ultimately failed. After the machines were switched off and the halls cleared, the factory at Heinrich-Werner-Strasse 15 was abandoned to decay.
present
In 2014 the disused cloth factory regained its reputation. Two start-up entrepreneurs from Leipzig , Manuela Pfannstiel and Georg Hofmann, founded the Forst liqueur and spirits factory. The founders of the “ImmerLikör” brand chose the site in Forst between Heinrich-Werner-Strasse and Mühlgraben, which covers over 10,000 m² . After extensive extensions and renovations, the halls were given their new purpose. Where fabrics were once woven, today liqueurs and spirits are created that are sold under the “ImmerLikör” brand.
literature
- Günter Bayerl (Ed.): Technical-historical walks in Cottbus and the country between Elster, Spree and Neisse. Niederlausitz-Edition, Cottbus 1995, ISBN 3-89325-402-1 .
- Fritz Schmidt: The development of the Cottbus cloth industry. 1928 (Reprint: Regia Verlag, Cottbus 2012, ISBN 978-3-937899-73-2 )