Gessner Holding

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Gessner Holding (2018)
Gessner Wädenswil around 1915

The Gessner AG was in 1841 in the municipality Wädenswil in the canton of Zurich founded and introduced silks ago. In 2011, along with the Zurich silk weaving mill Weisbrod-Zürrer, she was one of the last two witnesses of the once global silk industry in Switzerland.

history

Jakob Blattmann (1797–1840), Jakob Kunz and Kaspar Rüegg founded the silk business Blattmann, Kunz & Co. (later Theiler & Steiner) in Wädenswil in 1833.

In 1841 August Gessner-Theiler (1815–1896), son of a textile merchant from Zurich, joined the silk weaving mill as a partner, which was renamed Steiner, Gessner & Co. He had completed a commercial apprenticeship in a silk shop in Zurich-Aussersihl and worked in a trading house in Marseille. In 1847 he married Bertha Theiler, the daughter of the partner Heinrich Theiler-Wirz, and in 1849 became the sole owner of the company. In 1855 the company employed 90 silk winders and 740 home weavers.

Upper and lower “Bürgli” in Wädenswil, around 1925

In 1881 the son Emil Gessner-Heusser (1848–1917) took over the company and had a mechanical silk weaving mill built in the Neuwiesen district. A workers' settlement was built on the neighboring Glärnischstrasse in 1893. In 1898 a two-storey building was built on Florhofstrasse (since 1979 the “di alt Fabrik” shopping center). The summer residence «Bürgli» was built from 1862 to 1888 in three stages on what was then the «Galgenrain». It remained in the possession of the Gessners until 1908 and was demolished in 1966. The “Villa Gessner” (today the “Rosenmatt” parish hall) near the Reformed Church was completed in 1899.

In 1909 it was converted into a stock corporation. The residential cooperative Gessner & Co. was founded in 1917. The new office building at Dreikönigstrasse 18 was built in Zurich in 1921 (it was sold in 1953).

In its heyday around 1929, when the textile industry generated half of Switzerland's economic output, the factory employed around 2500 workers and had branches in England ( Dunfermline , founded in 1925, 224 looms), Italy ( Rovereto , 1923, 181 looms), France ( Lyon , 1923, 124 looms) and Germany ( Waldshut , 1906, 500 employees, 380 looms). In the factories in Wädenswil there were 572 looms with around 1000 employees.

The Gessner & Co. residential cooperative was converted into the newly founded Gescosa AG in 1953 (Gessner Immobilien AG from 2012). In 1956 the multi-family house was built on Fabrikstrasse and in 1959 two double multi-family houses were built on Florhofstrasse.

Gessner, who became famous for his silk fabrics and ties, had Hubert de Givenchy and other fashion czars among his buyers in the 1960s . The new weaving mill in Wädenswil was moved into in 1978. The "Wädi-Brau-Huus" opened an inn and brewery on the factory site in 1992.

At the beginning of the 1990s, the silk printing company Mitlödi AG (now Mitlödi Textildruck AG), founded in 1937, was acquired in order to secure jobs and continued existence in the former owner family after a generation change. In 2007 it was bought back by the management. Gescosa AG became a subsidiary of Gessner Holding AG in 2008 and took over the company's entire real estate portfolio.

The global economic crisis from 2007 hit Gessner worse in 2009 than the two world wars and the earlier economic crisis. The company had to introduce short-time working and lay off a quarter of the workforce.

The property of the former Haas silk factory in Ottenbach (today Haas Shopping ) was acquired in 2011. In 2015, Gessner had a total of around 280 employees and achieved sales of 40 million francs. On the weaving machines in the center of Wädenswil air-conditioning and recyclable fabrics for the furniture and transport industries (Volkswagen, Audi, Mercedes) were woven. Covers for trains, planes and ships were made for the Lantal company in Langenthal . The Créasphère AG was supplying 14 stores for home furnishings.

In 2016, in the anniversary year “175 years of Gessner”, production had to be stopped. Today (2017) Gessner Holding AG manages its own residential and commercial properties as well as third-party mandates.

literature

  • Albert Hauser: The economic and social development of a farming village into an industrial community. Recent economic history of the Zurich municipality of Wädenswil . 22nd New Year's sheet of the Wädenswil reading society for 1956. A. Stutz printing house, Wädenswil 1955.
  • Peter Ziegler , Max Mumenthaler: 125 years of Gessner silk weaving (1841–1966) . Stutz publishing house, Wädenswil 1966.
  • Christian Rohrer, Kirsten Bröcker, Stefanie Knebelspieß, Kerstin Ochsner: 175 years of Gessner. From silk weaving to Gessner Holding AG (1841–2016). August Dreesbach Verlag, Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-944334-73-8 .
  • Silk Memory, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences: Gessner

Web links

Commons : Gessner Holding  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Villa of Mr. E. Gessner-Heusser in Wädenswil, architect Prof. Alb. Müller in Zurich. In: Schweizerische Bauzeitung, Volume 37/38, 1901, Issue 16.
  2. ↑ Glarus24 of November 9, 2007: Mitlödi Textildruck AG again in Glarus possession.
  3. ↑ In 169 years Gessner AG did not see a comparable crisis. Gessner AG is one of the last textile companies. New products should secure the existence. In: Tages-Anzeiger from February 26, 2010.
  4. ↑ This money is missing for investments in the development of new products. In: Berner Zeitung of May 5, 2015.
  5. ^ Gessner Holding: History

Coordinates: 47 ° 13 '52 "  N , 8 ° 40' 7.3"  E ; CH1903:  693148  /  231861