Voitsberg glass factory
The former Voitsberg glass factory existed from 1850 to 1983. It was not far from the train station in Voitsberg in western Styria . It looks back on a varied history with economic upswings and downturns, workers' uprisings and large fires and was an important economic factor in western Styria until it was closed. In its heyday, 390 workers produced around 50,000 tons of glass a year here.
history
The glassworks in Voitsberg was built in 1850 by the building contractor and coal works Carl Pollay on a vacant lot, right next to the Voitsberg train station. In 1859 the factory opened, in which the first glass furnace in Styria went into operation, which used gas firing with lignite gas according to the Siemens regenerative system, i.e. heated both the gas and the combustion air. Around 128 workers worked in the factory in 1867, mainly producing white grinding glass and blown hollow glass . In the same year, the site was expanded to include a steam grinding shop to enable the production of colored glass as well as high-quality glass such as crystal glass . A second glass furnace followed in 1869.
In 1870 Carl Pollay acquired the glass factory in Köflach including its coal mine and had it entered in the commercial register together with the Voitsberger factory as the kk priv. Glass factories of Carl Pollay near Voitsberg and Köflach . As early as 1871, the company was converted into a stock corporation , the Voitsberger-Aktien-Glasfabriks-Gesellschaft . In the same year a third glass furnace was built and 198 workers produced 8,640 quintals of glass, with one quintal equivalent to 56 kilograms. In 1872 an own company fire brigade was founded, which existed until the closure of the company in 1983 and until then was considered the oldest still existing company fire brigade in Styria. In March of the same year, according to a telegram from the local district administration to the Lieutenancy in Graz, there were revolts among the workers.
A fourth glass furnace followed in 1873, but only served as a reserve furnace and around 14,500 quintals of glass were produced by 219 workers. The crisis triggered by the founder crash hit the joint stock company of the glass factory so hard that liquidation was already being considered, which was ultimately averted. When both the Graz-Köflacher Eisenbahn- und Bergbaugesellschaft and the Triester Union-Bank withdrew from the operating company in 1876 , the coal mines were sold first, and a little later the glass factory itself. The company S. Reich & Comp. under the Bohemian manufacturer Salomon Reich.
Under Reich, the Voitsberg glass factory experienced its heyday in the Habsburg monarchy . Reich was the most important entrepreneur in the glass industry in the Habsburg Empire and owned eleven glassworks and refineries as well as trading offices in parts of Europe and New York. For him the factory in Voitsberg meant a significant shortening of the transport route to Trieste , from where he exported to the Levant . After the purchase by the Reich company, production in the Voitsberger Glashütte was switched to export goods such as lamp cylinders, multi-colored water pipe containers , Persian plates, cups and lighting fixtures. In addition, difficult-to-produce hollow glasses such as chemical-pharmaceutical glass vessels and large bottles with multiple openings were also produced. Due to their quality, these products from Voitsberg were known and in demand throughout the Habsburg Empire, as well as in the Near and Far East. The company S. Reich also carried out extensive modernization and renovation work on the factory premises, including a trial run of a hand press from around 1881, the grinding shop was enlarged in 1884, and in 1890 it was connected to the Voitsberg industrial railway with its own siding .
The newspaper Arbeiterwille reported in 1890 that the workers in Voitsberg did not work 10 hours as usual, but up to 17 hours in the factory. In 1893 there was another report of the will of the workers about the poor pay and the prevailing poverty among the 150 factory workers at the time. In December 1894, a local group of the union of all glass, ceramic and related workers of the Austrian Alpine countries was founded in Voitsberg , but it was dissolved again in 1899. A fire destroyed the southern part of the glass factory in 1896 and the following year 350 workers were employed in the glassworks. In 1902 the middle part of the factory building was demolished and rebuilt together with a new, 40 meter high chimney and two cooling ovens . In 1908 the steam boiler and the mechanical equipment were renewed, and Voitsberg became the first Styrian glassworks to use an electric motor . In 1911, glass production consisted mainly of grinding glass as well as colored and white hollow glasses, which were made by the then 500 workers. For the better power supply in 1913 at the Kainach a Francis turbine installed.
The First World War suffered a severe blow for the glass factory in Voitsberg. The parent company was based in Bohemia and was now abroad, and the large sales markets that had previously been established in the Habsburg Empire and overseas also collapsed. Between December 1922 and June 1924, the company was shut down and large-scale renovations were carried out to make the factory competitive again. The previously used port furnaces were replaced by melting tanks, which could be used in three-shift operation. In addition, semi-automatic machines and later bottle machines were installed and the drive systems were completely converted from water power and steam engines to electric motors. Thanks to these investments, 2250 tons of bottles, canned glass, grinding glass, utility glass, lamp cylinders as well as pressed glass and hollow glass could be produced again in 1928. The global economic crisis from 1929 together with the complicated ownership structure within the parent company S. Reich, at that time the largest glass company in the world, together with the state expansion of the glass industry worldwide led to a lack of orders and thus a difficult economic situation for the glassworks in Voitsberg. The market for glass in Austria shrank by around a third by 1933. Due to the lack of orders, Voitsberg only worked three to four months a year from 1933 onwards. There was short-time work for another five to six months and the workers were dismissed for the rest of the year. A support association was set up by the company management, which supported the workers financially. On February 12, 1935, the workers went on a strike that lasted until February 15 and caused "civil war-like conditions".
To counteract the lack of orders , the Glass Union was founded in 1932 , which among other things promoted the joint sale of allocated quotas. The S. Reich company joined this union, but the financial situation continued to deteriorate. There were high debts with the Moravian Bank, which aimed to connect the factory to the Pressburger Kabel company in Vienna. In 1935/36 there was a merger with the Wiener Futurit Werke AG , which did not go well and production in Voitsberg finally had to be temporarily stopped in 1937. A group of workforce representatives, politicians and business people fought against the impending closure and dismissal of 220 workers, which could be averted in January 1939 by merging with the Oberdorf glassworks near Bärnbach . It is unclear whether the company, which was owned by Julius Reich until the 1930s, was Aryanized . Under the new management under the Abel-Körbitz family, the glassworks was redesigned, modernized and automated. Between 1941 and February 1945, only a few standardized items such as canning jars and pots were produced for war production. Although the factory was only marginally converted to automatic machine production and the supply of spare parts and machines was difficult due to the war, it was able to keep up with the production of more modern glassworks. The production in the war years was between 3300 tons and 5680 tons of glass per year.
After the end of the Second World War , urgently needed household glass and around 850 tons of rolled glass for the glazing of buildings were produced in the factory until 1948 on behalf of the British occupying forces . In the post-war period, the economic importance of Voitsberger Glashütte grew, which also began to export its products abroad. From 1952 on, canning jars and bottles were exclusively produced fully automatically. In 1955, 230 workers produced approximately 4,400 tons of glass. On June 7, 1955, a major fire destroyed the glass magazine and the workshops, and another major fire on December 8, 1958 destroyed the roof structure of the factory. By 1960 the annual production rose to around 7100 tons of glass and the workforce to 320 workers. In order to meet the requirements of modern vacuum pack jars of the US standard, seven IS machines were purchased from 1961 to 1970 . By 1970 the production increased to almost 30,000 tons of glass and the workforce was expanded to 420 workers.
In 1978 around 390 workers produced around 50,000 tons of glass, the largest amount produced in the Voitsberg glassworks. In the following years the factory went into economic decline, as the entire Austrian glass industry had to struggle with cheap imports, which was compounded by a weak infrastructure in the western Styrian industry. To increase competitiveness, a modern batch house was built in 1979 and a waste glass processing facility in 1980 . Despite all efforts, the factory management announced the closure of the Voitsberger glassworks, which took place on December 23, 1983. An initiative group led by former glassmakers to reopen the factory failed in July 1984 due to a lack of equity and a suitable entrepreneur. In May and June 1986 the buildings on the former factory site were demolished. Today there are houses at the former location of the factory and a plaque commemorates the glass factory.
literature
Ernst Lasnik : Voitsberg - portrait of a city and its surroundings . tape 1 . Municipality of Voitsberg, Voitsberg 2012, p. 316-331 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Ernst Lasnik : Voitsberg - portrait of a city and its surroundings . tape 1 . Municipality of Voitsberg, Voitsberg 2012, p. 316 .
- ↑ a b c Ernst Lasnik : Voitsberg - portrait of a city and its surroundings . tape 1 . Municipality of Voitsberg, Voitsberg 2012, p. 317 .
- ↑ a b c Ernst Lasnik : Voitsberg - portrait of a city and its surroundings . tape 1 . Municipality of Voitsberg, Voitsberg 2012, p. 318 .
- ↑ a b Ernst Lasnik : Voitsberg - portrait of a city and its surroundings . tape 1 . Municipality of Voitsberg, Voitsberg 2012, p. 322 .
- ^ Ernst Lasnik : Voitsberg - portrait of a city and its surroundings . tape 1 . Municipality of Voitsberg, Voitsberg 2012, p. 178 .
- ^ Julius Reich Prize. www.literaturepochen.at, accessed on September 23, 2018 (German).
- ↑ a b Ernst Lasnik : Voitsberg - portrait of a city and its surroundings . tape 1 . Municipality of Voitsberg, Voitsberg 2012, p. 326 .
- ^ Ernst Lasnik : Voitsberg - portrait of a city and its surroundings . tape 1 . Municipality of Voitsberg, Voitsberg 2012, p. 328 .
- ^ Ernst Lasnik : Voitsberg - portrait of a city and its surroundings . tape 1 . Municipality of Voitsberg, Voitsberg 2012, p. 330 .
Coordinates: 47 ° 2 '36 " N , 15 ° 9' 2.9" E