Losky
The Losky were an important family of glassmakers and industrialists who ran the "Oranienhütte Franz Losky" in Schreckendorf in the county of Glatz for three generations from 1864 . The company produced world-famous glassware and was one of the most efficient glass factories in Silesia . A particularly pure crystal and pressed glass as well as white and colored glass were produced. In 1924 500 people were employed. In 1929 the company was converted to a stock corporation.
Franz Losky
Franz Losky was the founder of the Losky glassmaking dynasty. He was born on April 1, 1811 in Gläsendorf , where his parents ran a small inn. After finishing school he learned glass cutting and then worked as a journeyman at various companies, most recently in Schreiberhau in the Giant Mountains. After the death of his father, he returned to his birthplace to support his mother.
After he had married Theresia Nentwig, he ran his parents' inn, which was located on a stream with a steep incline. There he built a glass grinding shop using the existing water power. He then went into business for himself and took on orders for the Rohrbach brothers' glassworks in Friedrichsgrund, about four kilometers to the north . He and his wife collected the raw materials in boxes that were carried on their backs. The finely ground glasses were both transported back to the Friedrichsgrunder Glashütte in the same way.
After a few years, Losky decided to enter the glass trade. To do this, he bought a sales room in the nearby Bad Reinerz , where he sold the glassware he cut during the summer months. He obtained the raw glass from the nearby Waldstein glassworks . Business success was not long in coming. His customers were initially the bathers, who also ordered redirects to their hometowns. This made his business famous, so that he received further orders from larger glass dealers. Because of the great demand, it was difficult for him to get that much raw glass. After he received in 1850 the possibility of the then owner of the domain Rückers Hermann von Pückler-Muskau its glassworks Waldstein to lease, he could even produce sufficient quantities of the raw glass. Due to the increase in productivity, the number of orders also increased. After an economic slump set in in the late 1850s, orders fell, which piled up supplies of the goods produced. Therefore Losky brought the glass stocks to the Wroclaw market, where he offered them for sale. The trips to Breslau, which had to be carried out with great care because of the fragile goods, each took one week. Since he was also showing samples of his glasses to glass dealers there, he was able to establish new business relationships that led to further orders.
Even before the ten-year lease with Franz Losky expired, Prince Pückler-Muskau intended to sell the Waldstein glassworks and the associated steelworks. Even before Losky, who had been granted a right of first refusal for the glassworks in the lease, could make a corresponding offer, the prince sold the works and Waldstein Castle in 1860 to Losky's competitors, the Rohrbach brothers. Out of anger about it, Losky, who had become rich with the glass trade, decided to build a glassworks from his own resources. Since there was a large supply of sand in the Bieletal and, in addition to wood, there was also water power, he chose Schreckendorf as the location for the planned factory. Therefore, he turned to the then owner of the Seitenberg estate , Marianne von Oranien-Nassau, with a corresponding request. She immediately found interest in the project, especially since she was running an ironworks in Schreckendorf, which she had to close at the time due to inefficiency.
Losky purchased a piece of land on the Biele from the landlord to build the glassworks. It was called the “Hüttenplan” by the locals, presumably because the former landlord Stephan Olivier von Wallis had already operated a glassworks in the area, which had to be abandoned in 1795. The landlady contractually undertook to deliver the wood for the planned facility at a reasonable price. In 1862 Losky began building the glassworks, a grinding plant and a house. In addition, economic and storage buildings, a weir for the water pipe and apartments for the workers were built. Work in the hut began on February 28, 1864. Nine glassmakers and twelve glass cutters followed Losky from the Waldstein glassworks to Schreckendorf. Sales of the glassware produced in the Schreckendorfer Hütte were so strong that a second furnace and in 1869 a second grinding shop had to be built soon after the opening.
Franz Losky died unexpectedly on January 24, 1870 and was buried in the cemetery of the Schreckendorfer St. Maternus Church, where his tomb is still preserved. His wife outlived him by twenty-two years. In his will, he designated his two sons to be heirs to the glass factory. Since the older son waived his property rights in exchange for a severance payment, the company was continued by the younger son Wilhelm Losky.
Wilhelm Losky
Wilhelm Losky (1841–1887) enlarged and modernized the factory, built two new grinding works, introduced glass painting and glass printing, and employed glass engravers . Company representatives traveled all over Germany and the neighboring countries, where they presented samples of the glassware produced to potential major customers. He built family apartments for the employees. In 1876 he married Elise Rasselt from Waldenburg , who gave birth to five children, two of whom died in childhood.
Elise Losky
After Wilhelm Losky's early death in 1887, the company was continued and significantly expanded by his widow Elise, born Rasselt. A second glassworks with interchangeable furnaces and two new grinding mills that were operated with steam were built. Generous family houses were built for the employees.
The eldest son, Wilhelm Losky, who was intended to succeed him, died of blood poisoning at the age of twenty.
Eberhard Losky
The last owner of the Oranienhütte was Eberhard Losky, presumably the younger son of Wilhelm Losky. At the beginning of the 1930s, the glassworks had to be stopped due to the economic crisis. The finishing companies worked until 1941.
literature
- Adam Langer: Franz Losky. In: Silesian biographies. Self-published, Glatz 1902, pp. 169–183.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dietmar Zoedler : Silesian glass - Silesian glasses . Würzburg 1996, ISBN 3-87057-208-6 , p. 238.
- ^ Arno Herzig , Małgorzata Ruchniewicz : History of the Glatzer country . Hamburg / Wrocław 2006, ISBN 3-934632-12-2 , p. 330.