Joh. Backhausen & Sons
| Backhausen GmbH | |
|---|---|
| legal form | GmbH |
| founding | 1849 |
| Seat | Hoheneich |
| management | Louise Kiesling |
| Number of employees | 60 |
| Branch | Textile industry |
| Website | www.backhausen.com |
The Backhausen GmbH produces upholstery and decorative fabrics for the residential and commercial sector. The company is based in Hoheneich 136 in the Waldviertel . It was founded in 1849 as Joh. Backhausen & Sons , and in 2012 it filed for bankruptcy. In 2014 Louise Kiesling bought the company including the Backhausen archive with original designs by Josef Hoffmann , Koloman Moser , Dagobert Peche , Otto Prutscher and many other artists. Since then the company has had its current name with Kiesling being the owner and creative director.
history
1810-1914
Jakob Backhausen (* 1789 near Cologne) was the son of a master weaver. When he was supposed to be involved in the Napoleonic War , he fled to Vienna in 1810 with the ID of his visually impaired brother Franz Theodor and kept his name for life. He passed the master's examination and established himself as a middle-class semi-silk and fashion goods manufacturer at the address Stumpergasse 212 (updated ON : 8) in Gumpendorf , in today's sixth district of Vienna, Mariahilf .
After the death of the 61-year-old father († April 30, 1849 in Gumpendorf as a weaver and house owner) caused by an organic heart condition , his two sons Carl and Johann founded the company Carl Backhausen & Co. with its headquarters in Schmalzhofgasse in Gumpendorf, the production facility was located at Kaiserstraße 12 (previously: ON 206). High quality fashion fabrics were produced, with which the Backhausen brothers received a gold medal at the London World Exhibition in 1851 .
Carl Backhausen left the company in 1853, his brother Johann took over the management. The company was now called Johann Backhausen, kk exclusively privileged fashion and chenille factory . Production shifted from fashion fabrics to upholstery and curtain fabrics , damasks , brocades and carpets made of silk and wool . The factory was located in the Waldviertel , and another was located in Chotěboř .
On November 29, 1861 via Karl Backhausen, master weaver in Vienna , at the Imperial Vienna Court of bankruptcy opened.
On October 1, 1864, the retail trade moved into the Heinrichhof opposite the Hof Opera Theater, which was under construction . In 1868 Johann Backhausen's sons, Carl and Jean, became partners and the company was renamed Johann Backhausen & Sons . In 1872 a new factory was built in Hoheneich in the Waldviertel. Since the Kaiser-Franz-Josephs-Bahn was relocated nearby, Backhausen was able to transport its goods more easily thanks to this new transport route between Vienna and Prague.
Backhausen supplied fabrics for the interiors of several representative buildings in Vienna, including the Hof Opera Theater (1869), the Reichsratsgebäude (1883), the Vienna City Hall (1888) and the Hofburgtheater . Due to the commercial success and the close business relationship with the imperial family, Johann Backhausen was appointed supplier to the imperial court in 1888 .
Wiener Werkstätte
The name Backhausen is closely related to the Wiener Werkstätte and Viennese Art Nouveau art . From 1903, the company began a collaboration with artists, which extended into the 1930s. Backhausen converted designs by Art Nouveau artists into commercial products and became a founding member and main supplier of the Wiener Werkstätte. The company produced furniture and curtain fabrics , print fabrics, hand-knotted and woven carpets based on original designs by artists such as Max Benirschke , Leopold Forstner , Josef Frank , Josef Hoffmann , Koloman Moser , Joseph Maria Olbrich , Dagobert Peche , Otto Prutscher , Alfred Roller , Otto Wagner , Eduard Josef Wimmer-Wisgrill as well as many other artists and architects. Backhausen furnished the Villa Moser on Hohen Warte in 1901 , the Sanatorium Purkersdorf in 1904/05 , the Villa Skywa-Primavesi in Vienna from 1913–1915 and the Stoclet Palace in Brussels from 1905–1911 . Together with the company Jacob & Josef Kohn , Backhausen created seating furniture of, for the time, extraordinary value.
Over the years, the company has collected over 3,500 original designs from over 300 artists of its time. The archives of the Backhausen company contain original designs, fabrics and carpets, which with a lot of luck escaped the turmoil of the First World War and the destruction of the Second World War . Above all, the works of the artists of the Wiener Werkstätte are kept here. To this day, Backhausen produces fabrics based on these originals.
1914 – today
The factory in Hoheneich in particular suffered from the outbreak of World War I - numerous employees had to be deployed, many of whom died in the war. In addition, the demand for fabrics was lower in times of war. Despite the decline in production, operations could be maintained during the war. In 1916 there was a generation change in the Backhausen company: Karl Eduard Backhausen's sons, Heinrich and Paul, and Jeans, Hans and Eduard joined the company. It was thanks to their youthful dynamism that the Backhausen company immediately turned to Art Deco after the Art Nouveau and was able to achieve great success with fabrics and carpets in the new style. Although the situation stabilized somewhat in the following years, the situation of the company was not exactly rosy. Only the outbreak of war brought an improvement in the situation. Orders for the German Wehrmacht had to be carried out, and a large part of the looms were converted to war production. The original production faded more and more into the background. In 1945 the Heinrichhof and the factory in Hoheneich were badly damaged or looted. The factory in Hoheneich, which had been spared from the war, was confiscated by the Russians, the machines were dismantled and the factory was completely devastated. After 1946 the completely devastated factory was gradually rebuilt.
Backhausen moved in 1950 and moved into a new shop at Kärntner Strasse 33, where the company would be based for the next 53 years. The “ Cabaret Fledermaus ” had previously been located in the basement of this address , designed by Josef Hoffmann and furnished by Backhausen, but which was destroyed in the Second World War. The company received orders for the reconstruction, among others from the Vienna State Opera. In 1948 Backhausen co-founded the Austrian workshops together with the architects and artists Josef Hoffmann, Oswald Haerdtl , Franz Hagenauer , Carl Auböck and Stefan Rath from the Lobmeyr company .
On December 19, 1973 Backhausen received the " State Award ". From this time on, the company began again to produce fabrics based on the original designs of the Wiener Werkstätte. The export market gained in importance, sales targets were primarily the FRG , the USA , Japan , countries in the Middle East and the Soviet Union . In 1987 and again in 1997 the company was commissioned to fully equip the Suntory Hall in Tokyo . The royal Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen was also furnished by Backhausen . The company also regularly participated in trade fairs at home and abroad and received prizes and honors.
In 1994 Backhausen, together with the Augarten und Lobmeyr porcelain manufacturer , was one of the founding members of "Wien-Products", an organization under the patronage of the Vienna Chamber of Commerce for traditional Austrian manufacturers.
In 2003 Backhausen moved again to the address Schwarzenbergstrasse 10.
In 2005 the company took part in the Expo 2005 in Aichi and also in the "Tokyo Designer Week". In that year, product export to Dubai , Abu Dhabi and China also began.
Fabrics from Backhausen can be found in prestigious buildings around the world, such as hotels, castles, cafés, theaters and concert halls, ships and even in the Vienna underground . The company exports to 40 countries and is now in the sixth and seventh generation of the family.
From 1997 the managing directors were Reinhard Backhausen (* October 10, 1960 in Vienna), Herbert Backhausen (* March 8, 1962) and Robert Backhausen (* 1971).
On December 20, 2012, the company had to file for bankruptcy after a participation with Al Jaber was not achieved, but also on December 20, it was announced that the investor group BHN Sileo GmbH , in which both HYPO NOE Landesbank and Cudos Capital AG are involved, are now the owners of the company. The business in Schwarzenbergstrasse in the 1st district was closed.
After a successful takeover and under the management of Jürgen Teubenbacher and Wolfgang Lackinger, the company was able to record economic success again in 2013. In Vienna there is only one showroom in the Design Center Vienna.
In 2014 Louise Kiesling (* 1957) bought the company. The previous company name Joh. Backhausen & Söhne was discontinued and the company has been called Backhausen GmbH since then .
design
Backhausen designs textiles in his company's own atelier. Then as now, the company worked with personalities from the fields of art and design as well as fashion and architecture. The tradition of collaboration with contemporary artists continues, for example with the involvement of artists such as Hans Hollein , Eva Riedl , Peter Kogler , Gilbert Bretterbauer , Gerwald Rockenschau , Ursi Fürtler , Petra Bacher , Hermann Nitsch , Heimo Zobernig , Stefan Sagmeister , Jessica Walsh and Arthur Arbesser .
production
The company's factory has been in Hoheneich since 1870 . In addition to the old factory buildings, there are new halls with modern, computer-controlled weaving machines, which allow an efficient changeover time to different requirements. Backhausen has a modern CAD system for jacquard fabrics .
literature
- Reinhard Engel, Marta S. Halpert : Luxury from Vienna II. Czernin Verlag, Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-7076-0142-0 .
- Ingrid Haslinger: Customer - Kaiser. The story of the former imperial and royal purveyors. Schroll, Vienna 1996, ISBN 978-3-85202-129-4 .
- János Kalmár, Mella Waldstein: KuK purveyors to Vienna's court . Stocker, Graz 2001, ISBN 3-7020-0935-3 . Pp. 126-131.
- Wagner: Werk - Museum Postsparkasse: Art catalog Abstract Textile Design in Vienna 1899–1912. Examples from the archive of Johann Backhausen & Sons with the best designs by Otto Wagner, Koloman Moser, Josef Hoffmann, Fritz Dietl and others. a.
- Wagner: Werk - Museum Postsparkasse: Art catalog surfaces. Art. 100 years of textile design Backhausen. 150 years of fabric design by Johann Backhausen & Sons from historicism to the present.
Individual evidence
- ↑ bankruptcies. Austria. In: Court Hall, No. 49/1861 (5th year), December 9, 1861, p. 510, center left. (Online at ANNO ). .
- ↑ Photo Heinrichshof with a corner store of Joh. Backhausen & Söhne ( memento of the original from February 5, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (reversed; no date) on the HVB website . Retrieved October 31, 2010.
- ^ Table of contents B. (No longer available online.) State award, December 19, 1973, archived from the original on January 4, 2014 ; Retrieved November 26, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Backhausen writes profit again on ORF from March 19, 2014, accessed on March 20, 2014
- ↑ Affair of the heart in the NÖN regional supplement week 37/2014
Remarks
- ^ According to an exclusive privilege granted on March 15, 1857 for two years, Johann Backhausen, a bourgeois fashion goods manufacturer in Vienna , lived in Gumpendorf No. 341 (later name: Schmalzhofgasse 18). - See: KK exclusive privileges. (…) The Ministry of Commerce has (…) Johann Backhausen (…). In: Oesterreichisch Kaiserliche Wiener Zeitung , No. 72/1857, March 29, 1857, p. 906, top left. (Online at ANNO ). .
- ↑ The mother, Karoline, a bourgeois master weaver's wife , had died of pulmonary tuberculosis on November 20, 1856 at the age of 28 . - See: deceased at Vienna. In the suburbs. (...) November 20th. In: Oesterreichisch Kaiserliche Wiener Zeitung , No. 272/1856, November 25, 1856, p. 3496, top left. (Online at ANNO ). .
Web links
- Backhausen's website
- Entry on Joh.Backhausen & Sons in the Austria Forum (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
Coordinates: 48 ° 46 ′ 25.2 " N , 15 ° 0 ′ 44.4" E