H. Köttgen & Co
The company H. Köttgen & Co , at times also "& Cie", was a metal construction and foundry company in Bergisch Gladbach that existed from 1874 to 1995 .
history
The company in 1874 by Alfons malleable Tellering as factory was founded in cast iron goods , the first time here in the Rhineland in the so-called. Malleable were produced. At the beginning of 1879, Hermann Köttgen joined the company as a partner, which then traded as "Alfons Tellering & Köttgen". After Tellering left in mid-1881, the company was given the final name “H. Köttgen & Co ”.
Paul Köttgen, brother of the owner, was initially a limited partner and from January 1885 a full member; after the death of Hermann Köttgen in 1904, Paul became the sole owner. From April 1906, the authorized signatory was also his brother-in-law, Major Richard Feiber, who had a representative house built on Mülheimer Strasse .
After primarily nails , horseshoes and shoe fittings had been manufactured, other small iron items such as window and curtain rods , wrenches and belt locks soon followed . From the manufacture of cast iron wheels (" pit wheels ") the construction of iron wheelbarrows developed , which was soon expanded to include carts and other transport equipment.
In 1890, stimulated by the beginning of electrification , the production of " electrotechnical installation items " and cable accessories was started. After the entire company went bankrupt in 1995, it was continued as an independent brand.
From 12 employees in 1879, the number rose to around 40 in the 1880s. The number of employees doubled in the 1890s and initially remained constant. Almost two thirds of the workers were "youthful"; H. under 21 years old, 17 even between 14 and 16 years old. The construction of a new cupola furnace in 1895 set in motion a slow increase in the workforce. Also in 1895, a shop was opened on Severinstrasse in Cologne , which existed until 1929. Around 1900 the workforce comprised around 120 people. In addition to the slogan “The best is always the cheapest”, the company's letterhead showed a satisfied buyer of Köttgen's iron “patent wheelbarrow” next to a unlucky person with a broken wooden cart.
At the beginning of 1899, the factory was expanded with a new production building and a machine house with a steam boiler and chimney . In 1902 the company took part in the industry and trade exhibition in Düsseldorf with its own exhibition pavilion , which was then rebuilt on the company premises (see below).
The exhibition led to rapidly growing sales, which were met from 1904 through new expansions of the factory and the installation of a galvanizing plant and an additional steam boiler. In 1907, two friction hammers were installed and the foundry expanded in 1910, which already caused problems with disruptive emissions .
The number of employees was now around 200. A system was developed for series production . In the meantime, in addition to the local economy, in particular ore mining , customers also included the Reichspost and the railroad as bulk buyers . It was also exported.
During the First World War , supplies to the military maintained production and the number of employees; after the end of the war it initially shrank to almost zero. From December 1918 to spring 1920, the factory was occupied by the British occupation , which housed crews, but also vehicles and horses. It was only in the spring of 1920 that the factory could be restored and put into operation. In 1924 there were again 190 employees. As new investments, an air hammer was installed in 1925 and a new cupola furnace in 1927; the workforce reached 320 people at the same time.
The world economic crisis from autumn 1929 hit the company hard; the number of employees fell to a low of 136 in October 1931, only to rise again to around 250 by the end of the 1930s. After the Second World War , in which around 80% of the factory premises were destroyed, reconstruction began on the old site. With numerous innovations, the focus remained on the construction of transport equipment for internal use.
At the end of the 1950s, the number of employees rose to almost 500 people, only to level off later to around 350. A network of our own sales offices throughout the Federal Republic secured sales; again, the post office and the railways were important major customers. Third company branch next to transport equipment and Eletrozubehör was the Lightning scaffolding from light metal by patent. Despite the renovation of the factory facilities in the 1970s, the company had to file for bankruptcy in 1995 . Some historical documents reached the Rheinisch-Westfälische Wirtschaftsarchiv Cologne as holdings 142 and have not yet been processed there.
The "cable accessories" division was taken over as an independent company by Höhne GmbH in Pinneberg and relocated in 2014 from Bergisch Gladbach to Kaltenkirchen .
location
The Köttgen company, along with Berger & Co and the Cox lime works, were among the companies in the vicinity of Bergisch Gladbach train station . The company premises were located between Paffrather, Jakob- and Johann-Wilhelm-Lindlar-Straße.
When the latter was redesigned in 1976, the company's old buildings, which once formed the defining facade facing the city, were demolished. Instead, new halls were built in the west of the site. After the closure in 1995, a hardware store was opened in the western part of the factory premises. The heterogeneous building stock in the eastern part experienced various commercial conversions. Unused halls were used by graffiti artists as a gallery and are very popular with photographers from the Lost Places scene. In the spring of 2017, extensive renovation and redevelopment of the site was announced.
The Köttgen pavilion
At the Düsseldorf industrial and trade exhibition in 1902, the company H. Köttgen & Co had its own exhibition pavilion built. It consisted of a load-bearing steel frame and a stucco facade in Art Nouveau forms . After the event, the Köttgen pavilion was rebuilt without the facades in the northeastern area of the company premises and opened a forge's workshop . The entry side was today's back. As in Düsseldorf, the pavilion was expanded with two symmetrically arranged, shed roof-covered sides, but no longer as an open roof, but as a closed reinforced concrete structure. The original Art Nouveau decoration of the Köttgen pavilion was not reinstalled after it was moved to Bergisch Gladbach. The side that was newly laid out around 1975 and faces Johann-Wilhelm-Lindlar-Strasse (house no. 25) was originally the back of the pavilion.
As one of the few factory buildings, the pavilion survived the Second World War largely undamaged and was converted into an entertainment venue after the company was dissolved ; Today there is a dance studio here and an amusement arcade in the northern extension. In the summer of 2017, the pavilion was treated as part of a master's thesis in architecture at the TH Köln (formerly Cologne-Deutz University of Applied Sciences).
Pictures of the pavilion from 2017 can be seen below.
Factory site
Corner formation
Junction
Pyramid roof
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Gerhard Geurts : Carts, cauldrons and grenades. History of the metal industry in Bergisch Gladbach , contributions to the history of the city of Bergisch Gladbach, Volume 8, ed. Stadtarchiv Bergisch Gladbach, Bergisch Gladbach 2000, ISBN 3-9804448-5-6 .
- ↑ Richard Feiber (1869–1948) In: Portal der Archives in NRW , accessed on August 17, 2017.
- ↑ Köttgen cable accessories accessed on August 31, 2017
- ^ IHK Cologne, Foundation Rheinisch-Westfälisches Wirtschaftsarchiv zu Cologne, accessed on August 31, 2017
- ↑ HÖHNE, with security well connected, accessed on August 31, 2017
- ↑ a b Eva Kistemann: Commercial-industrial cultural landscape protection and planning concepts - Bergisch Gladbach 1820-1999 , plain text, Essen 2000, ISBN 3-88474-914-5 .
- ↑ Former foundry Köttgen, Bergisch Gladbach, accessed on August 31, 2017
- ↑ Doris Richter: Bergisch Gladbach: Isotec is moving to the Köttgen site - Kürten location too small. In: ksta.de. Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, March 13, 2017, accessed on August 17, 2017 .
- ^ Düsseldorf, exhibition 1902, pavilion H. Köttgen u. C. Retrieved August 31, 2017
- ↑ Hardi Wittrock: Only front painted , letter to the editor on "Art Nouveau in Sleeping Beauty from July 20", Bergische Landeszeitung from August 30, 2017, p. 40
- ^ Stephanie Peine: Köttgen in Gladbach: student discovers Art Nouveau pavilion behind an ugly functional building. In: ksta.de. Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, July 20, 2017, accessed on August 17, 2017 .