Ludwigshafen seed factory
The mechanical cotton spinning and weaving mill in Ludwigshafen am Rhein , called Ludwigshafener Sametfabrik for short , was built from 1855 to 1857 in Oggersheim , Rhineland-Palatinate . After initial problems in production and intermittent economic success Samet factory in 1865 came as a result of lack of raw materials (cotton crisis), initiated by the American Civil War , in bankruptcy . In 1871 a strike in the factory triggered the establishment of the first local ADAV group in the Palatinate. At the turn of the century the mechanical weaving mill in Linden took over the factory . After the standstill in World War I , production was resumed. The economic crisis of the 1930s and finally the shutdown and bombing in World War II brought the ultimate end to production.
Foundation phase
On July 18, 1855, construction of the velvet factory began on the site where the gardens of the Oggersheim Palace had been until 1794 . A year later, King Ludwig I of Bavaria , who abdicated in 1848 and who gave his name to Ludwigshafen, laid a cornerstone for the new factory together with his sister, the Austrian imperial widow Karoline Auguste , and his daughters Mathilde and Alexandra . The (Mainz-) Worms-Ludwigshafen railway line went into operation as early as 1853. The corporation was founded with a share capital of 1.2 million guilders. The first managing director was the wholesaler Johann Friedrich Kaufmann from Ludwigshafen, his deputy the businessman Reinhold Glö (c) klen from Mannheim. The factory started operations in 1857. Friedrich Wilhelm Heller headed the company as technical director. The spinning and weaving mill was operated by several steam engines, some of which were manufactured by the Sulzer brothers.
In 1859 the fisherman Elias Vetter and other citizens from Roxheim sued the Bavarian state as the company granting the concession and as the lessor of the fishing rights because of the contamination of the Old Rhine by discharges from the dyeworks of the Sametfabrik into the Old Rhine Trench , as a result of which fish and fry died.
Ernst Otto Mendius was director of the velvet factory around 1860 . In 1860 he founded the choral society Frohsinn for the company's employees , which in 1867 became independent from the company.
Bankruptcy proceedings and strikes
The American Civil War from 1861 to 1865 exacerbated the economic crisis (cotton crisis) and led to mass layoffs and a decline in production in the velvet factory . In March 1865, the company stopped its payments and the Frankenthal District Court opened insolvency proceedings. The lower court secretary Josef Ruppertshoven-Boll and the businessman Martin Marx were appointed as syndicates (provisional insolvency administrators). Subsequently, the board of directors of the stock corporation appointed Martin Marx as the new provisional managing director and Georg Frisch as the provisional controller. In 1871 the 650 workers led by Josef Queva went on strike for shorter working hours and more wages; a local association of the ADAV was founded .
Consolidation phase
After the death of Martin Marx, the board of directors transferred the business of the first director to the previous controller Georg Frisch in early 1874 and elected Friedrich Marx, a businessman from Mannheim and son of Martin Marx, as the second director.
Director Dietz had the spinning mill renewed. Under the directors Dietz and Frisch, the factory had to stop working for five weeks in 1882/83 due to the great flood (the dam on the Rhine dam near Oppau). The company supported the construction of the Protestant nursing home and the Protestant toddler school in Bahnhofstrasse, which functioned as a company kindergarten, by managing the building fund and working on the board of the Evangelical Nursing Association. Andreas Döring was also the factory director during this time.
Branch of the mechanical weaving mill in Linden
In 1902 the factory was taken over by the competitor of the mechanical weaving mill in Linden after the shareholders were paid off. The year before, the main building, the spinning mill, burned down. In 1917 the company stopped; the company served as a warehouse for forced laborers and for the railway battalion that built the railway line from Oggersheim to the BASF plant in Oppau . French troops were stationed there from 1918 to 1919. In 1920 production was resumed with a workforce of 365 women and 60 men. One hall served as an alternative location for the Johannes Roth iron foundry, founded in 1860, with 70 employees.
In 1942 the factory was shut down as not of war importance. In the factory halls the company Pollux now produced grenades, IG Farben , Halberg and Knoll stored goods in the company halls. However, the factory buildings were completely destroyed by air raids on April 24, 1944, except for a chimney and a few office and residential buildings of the director Philipp Schumann. The mechanical weaving mill in Linden therefore claimed three million marks from the war damage office, the total damage was estimated at five million marks.
In 1957, the newly established local advisory board - 100 years after the weaving mill started operating - discussed proposals to rebuild the factory or create a park in memory of the electoral palace gardens. In the end, the housing shortage and the lack of economic interest of the weaving mill at Linden decided that the ruins were built on with multi-family houses and that a small adjacent park was named Josef-Queva-Park .
Employees in the Sametfabrik Ludwigshafen
The most famous worker in the factory was the trained baker and co-founder of the General German Workers' Association of the Palatinate, Josef Queva , who worked in the factory like his siblings.
| year | Employees | Proportion of women |
|---|---|---|
| 1857 | 100 | k. A. |
| 1858 | 400 | k. A. |
| 1860 | 1000 | k. A. |
| 1861 | 800 | k. A. |
| 1862 | 400 | k. A. |
| 1871 | 650 | k. A. |
| 1884 | 750 | 56% |
| 1886 | 546 | 46% |
| 1888 | 522 | 55% |
| 1920 | 425 | 87% |
literature
- The picturesque and romantic Rhine-Palatinate. Frankfurt 1981, reprint from 1855, p. 178.
- Karl Kreuter, from the Chronicle of Oggersheim, 4th expanded edition, ed. v. Siegfried Fauck, Grünstadt 1983, p. 137.
- Royal Bavarian District Official Gazette of the Palatinate, year 1861, No. 14 from March 13, 1861, p. 235f, download from March 10, 2012 under Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
- 100 years of the Evangelical Nursing Association Oggersheim. Ludwigshafen 1983.
- Die Rheinpfalz born in 1956 on January 27, 1956 in: From Oggersheim's recent history, publisher. Heimatkundlicher Arbeitskreis Oggersheim, Mannheim 1986.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Statutes of the anonymous stock corporation of the mechanical cotton spinning and weaving mill Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Frankfurt 1855: statutes of the society. Retrieved March 30, 2018 .