Guggenbacher machine paper factory Adolf Ruhmann

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The Guggenbacher Maschinenpapier-Fabrik Adolf Ruhmann was a paper production company owned and run by the large industrialist family Ruhmann.

overview

The name of the company founded by Adolf Ruhmann in 1853 was given to the paper mill in Guggenbach in Styria. The company recently had a total of twelve companies, employed around 1,600 people and around 60% of the paper required for newspapers and magazines printed in Austria was produced. The company headquarters was located at the paper trading center in Vienna XX, the technical management was carried out from Gugging . In 1938 the company was sold under pressure as part of the “ Aryanization ”.

history

The origins of the family business go back to Adolf Ruhmann , who opened a Hadern wholesaler and retailer for the paper manufacturing companies of the time and supplied the Guggenbach paper manufacturer, among other things . In 1853 he founded his first paper company in Guggenbach under the name "Adolf Ruhmann - paper factory". In 1876 he bought Leopold Sommer's larger machine paper factory, which had become insolvent. With these factories, he successfully implemented his vision of producing paper only from wood and without rags. To this end, he acquired the exclusive rights for a patent in this regard from the inventor Friedrich Gottlieb Keller for Austria-Hungary and successfully implemented the invention. The company gained a lot of recognition and numerous awards with the new, inexpensive paper, such as in 1879 at the world exhibition in Sydney or in 1880 at trade shows in Vienna and Graz. The company founder Adolf Ruhmann managed the company himself until 1904.

Two of his sons, Moritz (1858–1936) and Otto Ruhmann (1866–1938), joined the father's paper company after 1880 and drove the company expansion. Further wood loops and paper mills were bought in Upper Styria in St. Michael, Liesingtal, Madstein and Waldstein. Then came Sukdull in Central Styria and in 1897 the Trattenmühle near Wildon . In Wildon , the representative manor house was regularly used as a holiday home by the Moritz Ruhmann family. In 1903 the cellulose factory in Krems near Voitsberg was acquired . The company base grew to a total of twelve company parts in Styria such as paper mills (Guggenbach, Wildon), wood grinding (Guggenbach, Peggau, Waldstein, St. Michael, Liesingtal, Madstein, Sukdull, Wildon), a cellulose factory (Krems), Kleintal Castle and one Headquarters in Vienna- Brigittenau .

There is little company information about the period from 1914 to 1919. The company's own farms in Guggenbach and Wildon are often mentioned as being particularly important for feeding the workforce like the Ruhmann family. In 1928, 60% of Austrian newspapers were printed on Ruhmann paper. In the same year, the “ Great Decoration of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria ” was awarded , which was presented to Moritz Ruhmann by Federal President Hainisch . Up until the great world economic crisis in autumn 1929, business was satisfactory; from 1932 the company came to economic difficulties as a result of the world economic crisis and the political situation.

The End

From the economic crisis and the soon -to-be-followed thousand-mark block , the sales and profit picture was severely impaired, and the company had to take out larger loans. Patriarch Moritz Ruhmann left the company in 1936 and died, the second senior boss, Otto Ruhmann, passed away in early 1938. The three Ruhmann brothers Franz , Alfred and Karl now ran the family company, which was valued at around 30 million schillings in 1937 .

After Austria was annexed to the German Reich in March 1938, the Ruhmann brothers were assumed to be "non-Aryans". Under the impression of "Aryanization", the Ruhmann family was forced to sell the entire company. Adolf Sandner acted as buyer on June 28, 1938.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alfred Ableitinger: Styria: overcoming the periphery ; Böhlau, Vienna 2002; P.318. ISBN 3-205-99217-2
  2. ↑ Unpacking in Austria ; in: Der Spiegel 5/1954 (queried on May 16, 2011)
  3. ↑ Ulrike Felber: Economy of Aryanization, Volume 2 , Verlag Oldenbourg, 2004 , ISBN 3-7029-0516-2