Gifhorn glassworks
The Gifhorn glassworks was a glassworks in Gifhorn , which was founded in 1873 and from 1878 onwards, under the name Glashüttenwerke W. Limberg and Co. until the plant was closed in 1960, it mainly produced hollow glass . With up to 400 employees, the company was of economic importance for the city.
Precursors in the Great Moor
The Gifhorn glassworks goes back to two forerunners in the Great Moor north of Gifhorn, which were created at the same time as the two moor colonies Neu Dorf and Platendorf were founded in 1795. In 1794, the Brunswick merchant Wegner had signed a hereditary interest contract with the state administration to lease part of the Great Moor for the purpose of building a glassworks. It was built near Neuhaus between Westerbeck and Triangel and was given the name Zappenburg . The factory employed the people who had settled in the moor, but they still operated agriculture and peat trade for a living . The glassworks operator Wegner had no economic success with the company and had failed financially in 1823. Later August Thon bought the Zappenburg glassworks , but went bankrupt in 1869.
Another glassworks was built in Triangle at the beginning of the 19th century, which was sold in 1884 after it ceased operations. In spite of the rapid economic activity in the early years, neither company was granted any economic success because there was a lack of sales opportunities.
Foundation in Gifhorn
The glassworks owner August Thon, who failed economically in the Großer Moor in 1869, bought a brickworks in Gifhorn in 1871 and converted it into a glassworks, which he opened as Augusta Hütte in 1873 . As skilled workers, he employed around 40 glassmakers whom he had recruited as former employees of the disused glassworks in Triangel and Neuhaus. The first products from Gifhorner Glashütte were medicine bottles, spirit glasses and hollow glass. After only three years under the management of August Thon, the town of Gifhorn took over the hut in 1876, with which he was heavily indebted. In the period that followed, the hut only brought losses to the city.
Rise as Glashüttenwerke W. Limberg and Co.
In 1878 Wilhelm Limberg († 1886) took over the glassworks from Westerberg near Alfeld , which then traded under the name of Glashüttenwerke W. Limberg and Co. He had elaborate bottles for perfume, glass cylinders for miner's lamps , medicine bottles and dropper bottles made, which was a great success. For Pelikan were inkwells , for 4711 perfume bottles and for Georg Dralle perfumes and toilet soap works glass bottles for birch water produced. The Gifhorner Hütte had made a contribution to the further development of the patented dropper bottle from the Gnarrenburg glassworks , as evidenced by patents on innovations in drop counters. The products were initially transported by horse-drawn carriage and later with the Berlin-Lehrter Railway, which was established in 1871, to Hamburg for overseas shipping.
In 1898 a fire destroyed the smelter's glass cutting shop , which was rebuilt in 1899 as a modern three-story building. At the company's 25th anniversary in 1903, the glassworks had 286 employees. In 1911 150 people were employed in the grinding shop alone. The hut had a company health insurance fund , company apartments and a siding. The glassworks gradually gained a leading position in the glass industry. There were sales representatives in many major German cities, in several European countries, in India and in North and South America.
The 50th company anniversary in 1928 was celebrated with a pageant through Gifhorn. At that time the hut had 400 workers and 20 employees. At that time, glass products were already being manufactured on semi-automatic machines, but also still hand-blown.
Mainly white glass was produced but also colored glass in blue, brown and green. Daily production was up to 70,000 glasses in the 1930s. The glass brand and trademark of official factory hut that on certain bottles be present had existed from 1935 of a heart with the letter L for Limberg. This is proven by an official communication from 1938, among other things. In 1934 the smelter ran into economic difficulties due to a decline in exports as a result of the global economic crisis . During the Second World War , the glassworks continued to run to a limited extent. As in many other glassworks, glass parts were produced for the glass mine 43 .
After the war, the smelter's production started again in October 1945, employing 250 people in 1946. During this time, the daily output was up to 40,000 glasses, mainly medicine bottles and containers for the food industry.
Weißwasser glass factory
From 1946, the Saxon glass factory Weißwasser had a branch with 35 employees on the company premises of the Gifhorn glassworks and produced up to 10,000 glass bulbs a day for radio and X-ray equipment as well as for light bulbs, which the Valvo works in Hamburg were supplied with. The company was based in Weißwasser in Upper Lusatia before the Second World War and relocated to the western zone during the war . Here it was active in Oberhausen , Marktleuthen and Gifhorn until a new glass factory was completed in 1950 in Aachen . An apartment building built for the employees in Gifhorn became the property of a housing association in 1950 .
Decline
As early as 1954 the hut ran into economic difficulties. One reason was the not yet completed switch to fully automated glass production. The Volkswagen plant in nearby Wolfsburg withdrew workers and this competitive situation caused wage costs to rise, which in the smelter accounted for up to 50% of the production costs . When sales could not be increased in 1959, the glassworks only had a comparison . The orderly and step-by-step shutdown was achieved by leasing and selling parts of the business. At the beginning of 1960, major customers withdrew their orders, so that operations were finally stopped in April 1960. Many employees switched to the Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg. The smelter area with the buildings and factory halls was parceled out and divided among several owners. A furniture store set up a new sales building there in 1962 in the former grinding shop of the glassworks. Major demolition work was carried out in 1976 before a supermarket was built on the site in 1977. When the furniture store closed in 2004, numerous other short-term shops were opened. In 2012 and 2013, further new buildings were built on the site for a shopping center with parking spaces, and the last relics of the glassworks were also removed underground. The only structural remnant of the glassworks is the Limberg Villa , which was built in 1897 as the residence of the glassworks founder Wilhelm Limberg.
Archaeological finds
During civil engineering work at various locations in the Gifhorn city area, extensive glass finds were found in 2009 and 2010. It was production residues from the smelter that were used to fill holes in the ground, which had resulted from the quarrying of quartz sand , among other things . Among the finds was a lot of old glass from other smelters, as glass was regularly bought up by glassworks and used for melting. Enormous amounts of glass containers have remained undamaged despite decades of storage in the ground, including around 1,500 inkwells. Various glass products made of uranium glass were also found, but they are harmless to health.
The construction of a shopping center on the smelter site in 2012 and 2013 was observed by the Gifhorn District Archeology for historical legacies. A former rail turnstile and air ducts from a glass melting furnace were found in the ground . When the former grinding shop building was demolished, the company logo “W. Limberg & Co, founded glassworks in 1878 ” .
literature
- Supplement to the Aller newspaper of May 5, 1928: 50 years of W. Limberg and Co. glassworks in Gifhorn
- Supplement to the Gifhorn daily newspaper of May 6, 1928: 50th anniversary of the W. Limberg and Co. glassworks, Gifhorn
- Günter Dröge, Heinz Gabriel: Gifhorner Glashütte. News about the Gifhorner Glashütte. Finds from construction pits in the city area , Gifhorn, 2010, private print
- Günter Dröge, Heinz Gabriel: Gifhorner Glashütte. News about the Gifhorner Glashütte. Supplements , Gifhorn, 2011, private print
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Indoor swimming pool construction: Many glass finds in: Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung of July 25, 2009
- ↑ Gifhorns Glashütte built mines in: Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung of December 22, 2010
- ↑ From the glassworks to the modern shopping market in: Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung of May 10, 2012
- ^ Find at indoor swimming pool construction: Glass for the city chronicle in: Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung of June 23, 2009
- ↑ Big surprise at the Tedox building in: Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung from April 8, 2010
- ^ Contaminated glass in Gifhorn is harmless in: Gifhorner Rundschau from December 16, 2011
- ↑ The turnstile of the glassworks discovered in: Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung of November 25, 2011
- ↑ On the trail of the old glassworks: Famila construction site as a treasure trove in: Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung of November 26, 2011
- ↑ Schlifski-Abriss: Original lettering of the glassworks exposed in: Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung from January 16, 2013
Coordinates: 52 ° 28 ′ 40.2 ″ N , 10 ° 32 ′ 36.5 ″ E