Haas shopping

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Ottenbach silk weaving mill, 1915

The Haas Shopping is a direct sales operation in the town of Ottenbach in the Canton of Zurich , consisting of the established in 1867, "silk fabric weaving Bodmer & Hürlimann" emerged. The company produced silk fabrics until 1975 and was merged in 1998 as Haas Ottenbach AG with TSF AG in Wädenswil .

history

At the end of the 18th century, low collection fees for newcomers (one-off taxes) together with strong population growth and increased demand for textiles from the city encouraged the expansion of the textile home industry . In 1784, 49 percent of the population in Ottenbach was engaged in cotton spinning from home.

The cotton industry was replaced by the silk industry in the middle of the 19th century when Heinrich Schmid from Gattikon bought the Ottenbach mill from his cousin Jakob Beerli and converted it into a silk factory.

Johann Arnold Walter Bodmer-Knechtle (1836–1925) and Jakob Gottfried Hürlimann (1834–1915) founded the “Seidenstoffweberei Bodmer & Hürlimann” (from 1887 to 1923 “Mechanische Seidenstoffweberei Zürich”) with operations in Switzerland in Ottenbach and Zurich, Germany (Mechanische Seidenstoffweberei Waiblingen 1888, 1910 1133 employees), Italy (Tessitura Serica di Fossano 1900, 176 looms, head Walter Bodmer 1923–1942) and the United States (Lion Silk Company, New York 1886)

In the founding year, they rented the silk factory in Ottenbach and produced bag cloths (Müller gauze). In 1869 they bought the factory and a few years later the house, including a barn and stable, belonging to the mill, to which a food house for the workers and their families was added in 1870.

In 1880 the long factory building with a gable roof was built in which umbrella fabric was produced for export to the United States. The water wheel of the former mill from 1836 was used to operate the mechanical looms.

In 1881 a hydropower plant with a turbine house was built and the water wheel was replaced by a Jonval turbine (Bell, Kriens). When the water power was insufficient to operate the 200 looms (low water in winter), a coal-fired locomobile was connected to the transmissions instead of the turbine system .

Since there was not enough space in Ottenbach, the then factory owners Johann Arnold Walter Bodmer and Jakob Gottfried Hürlimann leased the Weyermühle from the Stierli brothers in Wey ( Muri AG ) in 1882 . They had the water wheel removed, installed a turbine and opened the “Bodmer und Hürlimann silk winding mill” with initially 15 workers.

The turbine house, which still exists in Ottenbach today, was built in 1910 and a more powerful Francis turbine from the Uzwil machine factory was put into operation. In the same year the first part of the shed hall was built.

The electrification took place in 1920 when the still functioning Francis turbine (Bell) was installed, which supplied electricity to the new electric motors and the battery system (200 glasses of 100 liters of acid each) for the lighting via the dynamo and generator. The carbide lighting has been replaced. In the same year a joinery and a locksmith's shop were set up. Around this time 220 workers were employed and 350 looms were in operation, which were later replaced by 120 larger ones.

Bodmer und Hürlimann & Co., which was badly hit by the global economic crisis, sold the factory in 1932 to the silk weaving mill AF Haas & Co., which produced clothing, upholstery and decoration fabrics. The economic fluctuations made AF Haas to create. In 1943 110 people could still be employed.

Haas Shopping Ottenbach, 2011

Production had to be stopped in 1975 because the old looms would have had to be replaced by new looms and air-conditioned rooms would have been required for them. Therefore the production was outsourced to other companies. For around 100 years, the “factory” (called “Pfupfi” because of the steam engine) was the only major employer in Ottenbach. Almost every farming family had someone to work in the factory and thereby contribute cash to the family budget.

Since 1975 the factory premises have served first as a “factory shop” and now as “Haas Shopping” for direct sales. The property of the former Haas silk factory in Ottenbach was taken over by the former Gessner silk factory in 2011 .

literature

  • Gustav Strickler: Senator Bodmer von Stäfa (1737–1806) . Polygraphisches Institut AG, Zurich 1923.
  • Bernhard Schneider: Ottenbach's population through the ages . Ottenbach community, April 1986.
  • Ulrich Pfister: The Zurich Fabriques. Proto-industrial growth from the 16th to the 18th century. Chronos Verlag, Zurich 1992.

Web links

Commons : Seidenweberei Haas  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Commons : Small power station Ottenbach  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ [1] The New York Times from New York, New York Edition: Saturday, March 5, 1887, Page 3: The silk weavers are complaining that the Lion Silk Company, at 518 West Thirty-fifth-street, to importing weavers under a contract in violation of law. A member of the company said yesterday that the concern was a branch of the firm of Bodmer & Hurlimann, of Zurich. It was started here about a year ago because the tariff on silk in various countries affects their manufacture in Switzerland, and consequently the business was being enlarged in this country. The company could not get a sufficient number of efficient bands in this country, and could not afford to wait until pupils here could learn the business. Therefore skilled weavers were brought over from Switzerland, and their passage money, which was advanced by the firm, was to be deducted from their wages. Some of the weavers became dissatisfied with their wages and broke their contracts, so now the firm renews its contracts with the band after their arrival bare.
  2. ↑ ETH-e-periodica: silk industry. In: Annual journal Argovia of the Historical Society of the Canton. Aargau. Volume 101, 1989.
  3. ^ Bernhard Schneider: Ottenbach's population through the ages. Ottenbach community, April 1986.
  4. ^ Haas Shopping website
  5. ^ Village chronicle: Haas-Bodmer-Hürlimann weaving mill
  6. ^ E-periodica, book review: Die Zürcher Fabriques. Swiss History Journal, Volume 45, 1995.

Coordinates: 47 ° 16 '48.5 "  N , 8 ° 23' 53.1"  E ; CH1903:  672 589  /  237027