Thys fine cloth factory
The Kk Feintuchfabrik Thys in Klagenfurt am Wörthersee , the capital of Carinthia in Austria , was founded in 1762 by Johann von Thys and was the first of its kind in what was then the Austrian heartland. In it high-quality cloths were produced, especially for the Habsburg hereditary lands and for Eastern Europe. The Feintuchfabrik attracted particular attention due to the fact that it owed its initial success to government subsidies and privileges as well as the exploitation of inhuman child labor. It was dissolved as early as 1800 after years of economic decline.
history
The establishment of such manufactories was supported by the Austrian monarchy , especially by Empress Maria Theresa , who had already passed a “law on the establishment of spinning schools” around 1756. The entrepreneur Johann Reiner Thys from the city of Eupen , which at that time belonged to the Austrian Netherlands , found out about this and applied to both the Habsburg envoy in Brussels, Johann Karl Philipp Graf Cobenzl , and the Empress herself to set up a fine cloth factory. In doing so, he received significant support from the Empress's personal physician, Gerard van Swieten , whom he had met through his business trips. Maria Theresa approved the application on April 1, 1762, funded it with an advance of 100,000 guilders and allowed Thys to determine the location of his factory himself. It also endowed him with numerous privileges such as freedom from customs duties on raw materials, finished goods, tools and machines as well as exemption from loss fees for cities and markets and exemption from contribution payments for his workers and employees, as well as their selection and accommodation. At the same time, she appointed Thys as a real commercial councilor and approved his factory to carry the state award “ kk Feintuchmanufaktur” and the imperial eagle in the company emblem.
Johann Thys chose the city of Klagenfurt am Wörthersee as the location because of its relative proximity to the port of Trieste . However, it took until November 13th, 1762, until he was able to open the "Kk Feintuchfabrik", as there were problems with taking over the property because a tenant there did not want to vacate the intended area on the Glan river and the Empress therefore had to intervene herself . The factory finally started production with initially 47 employees, nine of whom were foremen who were recruited from the Habsburg Netherlands and who had come a month earlier with their own spinning wheels and equipment. Thys quickly planned the further expansion of the company and in autumn 1763 had a second factory hall with fulling mill and dyeing built , and in 1764 a soap-making and finishing facility , including its own funds of 120,000 guilders . With now almost 297 employees, including 38 cloth makers from his home country, who trained the local workers, it was his goal to not only supply the domestic market with his cloth, but also to open up export markets in Eastern Europe.
Production was now in full swing and the factory urgently needed connected wool spinning mills for the supply of yarn. In 1763, Thys had a first spinning school built for this purpose, but the availability of cheap labor was still slow. The Klagenfurt Commercial Consess of April 2, 1765, with which the Empress had ordered that more spinning schools be introduced everywhere, did not yet bring the hoped-for breakthrough. Thereupon Thys suggested opening an orphanage in which young weirdos could be trained and strictly controlled as cheap labor. The proposal was approved by the authorities and the manufacturer himself was appointed imperial representative for spinning schools. The Carinthian orphan foundations in Graz and Völkermarkt were then relocated to Klagenfurt by 1768 and placed under the direction of Thys. In addition, a few months later, a military orphanage for up to 500 children was set up in the immediate vicinity , the running costs of which were covered by the military orphan fund and which Thys was also in charge of. An older house with a chapel furnished by Josef Ferdinand Fromiller in 1740 was included. By decree of the empress, the military orphanage was given a source of financing, initially for an annual rent and later as property, the nearby Zigguln estate , which the Jesuit order that had resided there had been revoked in 1773.
This means that 90 children from the Klagenfurt orphanage and 50 adults from the poor house , workhouse and penitentiary in Klagenfurt worked under inhumane conditions to produce yarn for the fine cloth factory . In addition, there were 30 children from the orphanage in Sankt Veit an der Glan , 24 children from the orphanage in Völkermarkt and from the spinning schools in Wolfsberg 9, in Tarvis 7, in Villach 8, in Himmelberg 14 and in Gurk another 17 children. The children in particular suffered from the precarious living conditions in the "Kk Feintuchfabrik": 14 hours of work every day of the week in draughty and cold spinning rooms were the norm. Two or three of them slept in one bed, were poorly or poorly clothed and had limited personal hygiene options. Many of them were malnourished, contracted scabies and other skin diseases, as well as bronchial and lung diseases, which the majority of the children did not survive. They were also denied access to regeneration times, educational opportunities and church services, as well as social contacts. The “Kk Feintuchfabrik” of Johann von Thys, who had meanwhile been raised to the nobility, had meanwhile become a trademark in Carinthia. With her 42 looms she was hardly able to meet the demand for cloth from the Habsburg hereditary lands. Dealers in Vienna, Prague and other trading establishments confirmed that the Klagenfurt cloths were among the best in the country.
After Johann von Thys death in September 1773, his eldest son Reiner Franz von Thys (* 1750) took over the flourishing company, which got increasingly into difficulties. Encouraged by the Empress's new councilor, Karl von Zinzendorf , who advocated the free play of forces in the economy instead of compulsory ordinances and subsidies, Reiner von Thys was initially no longer allowed to let orphans work for him from 1776. Instead, he had to resort to Krainer spinners in order to increase the production facilities, which had already been reduced to ten looms, to 22 again. Thys was also supposed to repay the loan of 100,000 guilders granted to his father. In addition, he was deprived of his freedom to recruit, as well as his tax privileges for his company and the contribution payments for his workers. Ultimately, he had to face new competition, since several fine cloth factories in Austria had meanwhile been approved. Nevertheless, the company was able to pick up on old times again for a short time and again operated 34 looms in 1780 and still had the reputation of being the best of all domestic cloth mills in 1793 and employing around 200 workers again. Meanwhile, they made single-colored cloths exclusively from Spanish wool, all of which were sold as Dutch cloths. In the end it was the coalition wars with France that finally caused sales to collapse and Reiner von Thys was forced to dissolve the “Kk Feintuchfabrik” around 1800. In 1815 the Austrian Armed Forces took over the main building and set up a military hospital there.
The military orphanage , which was closed in 1784, was converted into a barracks, aptly named " orphanage barracks ". It was expanded and rebuilt several times and served as a cigar factory between 1858 and 1866. From the 1950s, the barracks also housed a kindergarten as well as a primary, secondary and special school. In 2009 the orphanage barracks were finally closed, from 2013 a large part of the building was demolished and then rebuilt as a residential complex.
literature
- Leo Hermanns: Johann Thys van Eupen, an 18th century economic pioneer in Carinthia. Geschichtliches Eupen, Volume 14, Markus-Verlag, Eupen 1980, pp. 81-96.
- Martin Wutte: Johann Thys from Eupen, a pioneer of the national economy in Carinthia, in: Free votes, Klagenfurt 1931.
- The hygienic conditions of the larger garrison types of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Vienna 1891.
- Dieter Jandl: Historical overview of Klagenfurt. Verlag Johannes Heyn, Klagenfurt 2002, p. 28, ISBN 3-85366-992-1 ( online version (PDF; 2.0 MB)).
- Anton Freiherr von Pantz : A study trip through Carinthia in 1771. Historical contributions to the local history of Carinthia, Klagenfurt 1941.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Chapter The fine cloth manufacture of Johann Thys zu Klagenfurt in 1762. In: Alfred Ogris: The Linzer Wollzeugfabrik and the Oriental Company: Reactions in Carinthia (1725/26) to a privilege. In: Historical yearbook of the city of Linz 2003/2004. Edited by Walter Schuster, Maximilian Schimböck and Anneliese Schweiger, p. 385/386, entire article p. 375–386, online (PDF) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at.
- ^ Franz Benedikt Hermann : Travels through Austria, Steyermark, Kärnthen, Krain, Tyrol., Vienna 1781, p. 143f.
- ^ History of the orphanage barracks ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Press release of the Austrian Armed Forces of September 27, 2009
- ↑ Monument Protection Initiative of August 26, 2013 Communication on Facebook
Coordinates: 46 ° 37 ′ 42.8 " N , 14 ° 17 ′ 47.7" E