Winden paper mill
The Winden paper mill , also called IHKayser paper mill , was a paper mill between Winden and Kreuzau on the left of the Rur . It had to give way to a shopping mall in 2008. The special thing about the factory was that the concession was personally approved by Napoléon Bonaparte .
history
The village of Winden is about 8 km south of Düren , on the left of the Rur. The place was originally known for its viticulture . At that time there were no factories in Winden. The Rur is accompanied by numerous mill ponds on its course through the Düren district (see mill ponds in the old district of Düren ). In the area around the factory, the Rur, the Oberschneidhausener Teich , the Kreuzau / Niederauer Teich and the Dürener Teich flow to the right , and the Hochkoppler Teich, the Windener Teich and the Lendersdorfer Teich to the left. The Windener pond was dug in 1732. It was used to operate a copper smelter , built by the Hessian soldier Martin Jung. The copper smelter was closed in 1744.
Laurenz Heidbüchel from Winden learned the paper mill trade at Hoeschmühle and aspired to operate his own paper mill . On August 28, 1804, he applied for a paper mill to be built on the "Vieux fosse" (old ditch) near Winden. Heidbüchel had to expect that the millers of the Lendersdorfer pond raised objections to his plan. The prefect granted approval on October 4, 1805 based on the positive protocol of the engineer. Napoleon personally approved the concession on July 12, 1807 . Heidbüchel took over the construction of the mill; on February 20, 1807 he signed a promissory note to Christian Wergen from Gey . Besides Heidbüchel, the Windener paper mill also had co-owners to whom Heidbüchel owed. One of the debtors, Sigismund Blaesius, applied for a paper mill to be built on the Hundspohl near Winden. What became of the project is not known. Christian Wergen transferred his debt claims to Johann Wergen, who then went to the foreclosure auction . The outcome of the foreclosure auction remained unknown.
Nevertheless, Heidbüchel probably retained ownership rights to the mill, because on May 2, 1811 he leased the mill to his son. Suddenly Christian Wergen was the owner of the Windener paper mill. The cause is unknown. In 1816 there were eight permanent workers and four as needed on two laid paper and one cylinder. The paper mill produced common (= normal) wrapping paper at the time. Then there was a significant change in ownership in the history of the mill. On May 4, 1817 Christian Wergen sold his share to Peter-Joseph Kayser from Gürzenich . In 1833 Peter-Joseph Kayser bought the shares of the founder's children and was now the sole owner.
The paper mill became a lot more modern under the direction of Kayser. A change to the most modern company of the time came around 1844 when his widow Maria Katharina geb. Krafft ran the business. This handed over the factory to her only son Heinrich August Kayser, who set up the first paper machine in 1849. In 1871 Kayser installed a new steam boiler and a cylinder sieve machine. This meant that the time of creating leaves from the bucket was over, even in winds. The factory's letterhead now read Machine Paper Factory . At that time, besides the usual gray paper, thaw paper was also produced. In 1898, Kayser converted the cylinder mold into a Fourdrinier machine. He also set up a steam engine with 20 hp. In 1910, Kayser exchanged the old wooden wheel for a Francis water turbine with 100 hp. After Heinrich August Kayser's death in 1913, his sons August and Peter Kayser took over the factory. 1914 was prepared a LANZ - Locomobile on with 140 to 180 hp. Daily production rose from 2 t to 8 t in 1915.
With the beginning of the First World War in 1914, part of the workforce, including August Kayser, came into the field, believing in a just cause. Peter Kayser looked after the company during these years. After the destruction in 1917, the factory was shut down; In 1919 business was resumed. In 1921 the bag and processing plant was built in Richelnberg. In 1920 the paper mill employed 49 people. During the inflation of 1923 the plant could only survive with great difficulty. After the death of Peter Kayser, August Kayser was now the sole owner. In 1932, Kayser and his brother-in-law leased the Ober schneidhausen paper mill . A purchase did not succeed. In return, the factory in Niederau could be taken into possession in 1933. In 1933 a new machine house was built in Winden. A daily output of 10,000 kg of wrapping paper has now been achieved. The 1930s were full of activity and the smaller factories flourished. Windener's export countries were Holland, Morocco, Palestine and the like. a. 1939 started Nazi regime the Second World War . Again part of the workforce went to war. In 1940 a concrete sewage treatment plant with a capacity of 360 m³ was built. The final standstill was in 1944. The people of Winden started the evacuation way as far as Rathenow near Berlin .
The plant was now orphaned on the brink of the battle in the Hürtgenwald (October 6, 1944 to February 10, 1945). In February, pioneers of the Wehrmacht created an artificial flood of the Rur ; On February 23, US troops managed to cross the Rur in Operation Grenade .
After the collapse of the German Empire , the Kayser family, among others, was allowed to return home near Kreuzau. The factory was burned down to the surrounding walls; Frost in the very cold and long winter of 1944/45 destroyed pumps, valves and machines. The reconstruction succeeded with painstaking work.
From 1945 to 1946, the JHKayser factory supplied winds and parts of Kreuzau with electricity. The fact that August Kayser fell under Law 52 of the military government (prohibition to look after assets / a company) and was not allowed to look after or enter the company for a year was a serious obstacle to the reconstruction. In November 1945 the bag factory was allowed to operate again with the approval of the British occupying forces . After great efforts, paper production was back in full swing in June 1948. The pre-war level was reached again in 1949. In 1950, 18 tons of bast paper were produced daily. In 1951, two new cross-bottom bag machines were bought. Alongside the Rur, modern workshops, car garages for cars and trucks, a new locksmith's shop and a new office building with two company apartments were built in 1951 . A block of flats with a total of 8 apartments for employees was also built in "Im Richelnberg". In September 1951, a cloth catcher with a capacity of 300 m³ was set up. In the spring of 1954, the spacious paper machine hall II. Was built for the paper machine of the same name with a working width of 230 cm. In the same year the assembly of a new high pressure boiler with 42 atm (today bar ) began.
In 1955, 154 people worked in the Kayser factory in Winden. 1964 to 1968 the pan mill was rebuilt. In 1969 a new hall was built over the factory pond, which was later used as a tennis hall after the factory came to a standstill. 1973 was the last modernization, but the factory owner Rolf Kayser could not repay his debts. In 1976 the father August Kayser died. Rolf Kayser had the last hall built in 1977. In 1978 he had to file for bankruptcy; 257 workers lost their jobs. In 1980 Kayser sold to Cord Droese (today -2009- insurance broker in Nörvenich ). He sold the locksmith's shop to the company Minoss Tiernahrung. In the years 1986 to 1999 little happened on the site. From 1999 a private dealer sold motorcycles there for a short time. In 2002 the factory chimney was removed . In 2005 the building in Richelnberg was torn down (bag factory, farm, home of Karolina and Josephine Kayser). Modern houses were built in 2006 on the demolished square. In 2007, a Dutch-German project development company bought the entire area and planned to build a shopping center . This plan almost failed because the area had meanwhile been divided into many small plots. But the owners agreed and the project was implemented.
The last resident, Cord Droese, moved from the former office of the Kayser factory to Kreuzau in August 2008. On September 7, 2008, the demolition of the remaining buildings began. Construction of the new shopping center could already begin in November. It was completed in May 2009. The walls and part of the bag factory, the pump house and the Kayser villa, which is privately owned, remained of the Kayser factory.
literature
- 150 years of the Winden paper mill, Kreuzau 1955
- The Dürener Land, an atlas of images from the Kreissparkasse Düren, 1971
- Kayser family chronicle, manuscript 1984
- Village chronicle of Winden, manuscript 1980