Johann Plischke & Sons
John Plischke & Sons was a kk priv. Linen - and Damastwaren - factory and kuk purveyor in Freudenthal in Austrian Silesia .
history
The company was founded in 1838 by Johann Plischke . With the support of his wife Anna, the initially small company was able to develop into an exporter in world trade and took on an important position within Austrian industry. In 1890 Johann Plischke resigned from the board and his two sons Alois and Heinrich Plischke became his successors.
From 1890 onwards, the Belgian , English and Scottish competition, which was equipped with far greater resources, increasingly reduced the turnover ratio of exports, and the company had to turn its attention increasingly to the domestic sales area. This brought only partial success, since the consumption of linen goods in the home country was greatly reduced by the cheap cotton fabrics , which even the largest buyers preferred to linen as a substitute. These facts had a very negative effect on the linen industry in the Freudenthal district. The company had to create a remedy for what had been lost through increased production capacity .
Heinrich Plischke, after more than 30 years in the company and also co-founder of the Wiener Haus am Concordiaplatz , left the company between 1892 and 1893 . His brother Alois Plischke took over the top management of the Freudenthal parent company and the Viennese house under the unchanged name of "Johann Plischke & Sons" as the sole owner of the company. He recognized the cause of the decline in the inadequate efficiency of the hand weaving mill for world trade and decided at the beginning of 1893 to build a mechanical weaving mill , which was built in the same year in connection with the necessary buildings for storage and finishing rooms in Freudenthal. The new mechanical weaving mill, called "Neuwerk", was a shed building with a weaving room of 2,400 square meters for 250 mechanical linen chairs. A 150 HP steam engine was used to operate the machines .
His son Alois Plischke jun. and Adolf Bretschedl, who was a grandson of the linen industrialist Franz Heinz (father-in-law of Alois Plischke senior), who died in 1886, traveled together through Germany , France , Belgium, England, Ireland and America to produce linen and To study tableware, especially in Ireland their bleaching and finishing, as well as the markets of the competing countries and to learn practically. You had already been an employee since 1892 and were thus able to support the company with the knowledge you acquired abroad. Adolf Bretschedl took over commercial management together with Adolf Plischke, the second son of Alois Plischke senior, while Alois Plischke jun. the management of the mechanical weaving mill was transferred.
Around 1900 the hand weaving mill worked under the direction of senior manager Alois Plischke sen. with an inventory of around 150 chairs, finer tablecloth fabrics . The mechanical weaving satisfy the increased demand for lower and middle grades in table stuff, towels , smooth linen, raw linen, Drills , Rohleinenwaren for industrial and ärarische purposes etc. Both mills were versatile in their articles of linen and table-finished products and efficient. When the company started its mechanical weaving mill, the company had great difficulties with its untrained workers, as there was no company of the same type in the area. The training was therefore slow.
The company was awarded the Diploma and First Medal at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893 for its exposure of excellent linen . As early as the 1880s, the factory received the prestigious award for supplying the imperial court. In 1894, Alois Plischke's father received the title of kuk court supplier for his company.
In 1897, Archduke Eugen von Österreich-Teschen paid a visit to the company on the occasion of his stay in Freudenthal and toured all of the new work's workrooms.
The establishment included in 1900 a mechanical weaving for 250 chairs and a hand-weaving of 150 chairs. Almost all rooms were provided with electrical lighting. Around 500 permanent workers were employed in the factories, and well over 100 people were employed in domestic work. The bleaching and finishing was done partly in Freudenthal, partly in Reithau . All workers belonged to the health and accident insurance .
The company had branches and agencies in New York , London , Paris , Prague , Pest , Linz and in all major cities in Europe. The factory defeat in Vienna was headed by the company's long-time employee and authorized signatory, Franz Baldini, around 1900.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Johann Plischke & Sons . In: Presented by the industrialists of Austria under the high protectorate of His K. and K. Highness of the Most Serene Archduke Franz Ferdinand (ed.): Die Gross-Industrie Oesterreichs. Festival ceremony for the glorious fiftieth anniversary of the reign of His Majesty the Emperor Franz Josef I. Volume 4 . Leopold Weiss, Vienna 1898, p. 329-331 .