Johann Jax

Advertising board for the Johann Jax sewing machine factory

Johann Jax (born November 26, 1842 in Thierberg, municipality of Hirschbach im Mühlkreis , Upper Austria ; † July 1, 1937 in Linz ) was an Austrian entrepreneur who manufactured sewing machines and bicycles .

Life

Johann Jax was the son of a small farmer from Mühlviertel with many children . After the craft of Schneiders had learned, he spent some time on the move before the IR. 14 was convened. As a soldier he fought in the German-Danish War in Oeversee in 1864 and in the German-German War in the Battle of Königgrätz in 1866 . When he returned from military service, he got to know the first sewing machine delivered to Austria in Innsbruck . In Linz he then took a job with a tailor for a short time, but he was more interested in selling the new sewing machines. In 1867 he opened a shop for sewing machines, which were hardly known in Austria at the time.

His keen business acumen, publicity and business trips helped him to sell his product to such an extent that he was able to open a total of 36 branches in the western half of the monarchy in the following years . In 1875 his company was enlarged, from 1892 he started producing furniture frames for sewing machines and later he also produced sewing machine heads. In this way Jax contributed significantly to the spread of the sewing machine in Austria. He made himself particularly valuable because in 1888 he was able to save the Trinity Column on the main square in Linz from being demolished by collecting donations in an initiative that also included a contribution from Emperor Franz Joseph . Jax, who meanwhile also sold typewriters and bicycles , was the first to have workers' houses built for his workforce in the Linz area in 1900. On his initiative, a planned construction was carried out south of the Westbahn in Linz. The Herz-Jesu-Kirche , which was built between 1899 and 1903, was built by him thanks to a foundation. He also promoted construction activities in other parts of the city and was a member of the Linz City Council for three years before he died in 1937 at the age of 94.

literature

• Jax, Johann. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 3, Publishing House of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1965, p. 89 f. (Direct links on p. 89 , p. 90 ).

Web links

Commons : Johann Jax  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Johann Jax at regiowiki.at

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Jax, Johann. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 3, Publishing House of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1965, p. 89 f. (Direct links on p. 89 , p. 90 ).
2. ^ Ingo Mörth with the collaboration of Christiane Mörth and Andrea Schmolmüller: Linzer Kulturregions . Draft brochure. Research report, Institute for Sociology, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Linz 1994, p. 38 ( PDF; 5.7 MB )