Peltzer & Fils
Peltzer & Fils was a cloth and leather factory based in the municipality of Verviers in the Walloon region of the province of Liège . It was founded in 1785 by Johann Heinrich Peltzer (1763–1809) from Stolberg in the Rhineland and taken over in 1981 by Iwan Simonis , a company specializing in billiard cloth .
history
At the end of the 18th century, Johann Heinrich Peltzer, a descendant of the Protestant copper master family Peltzer , moved to Verviers, where he settled in the suburb of Hodimont, which was still independent at the time. In contrast to the city of Verviers, the place on the right bank of the Weser still belonged to the empire of the Austrian Netherlands , which allowed the Protestants to settle on their territory.
Peltzer initially set up a dye works (“teinturier en bleu”) there, which he expanded to include a weaving mill a few years later. Through his marriage to Maria Franziska Susanne von dem Bruch (1772–1847), daughter and only child of the cloth manufacturer Paul von dem Bruch, he also inherited the “Cloth factory von dem Bruch” at today's “Place Saucy”, which was acquired in 1750 from his grandfather Wife, Abraham von dem Bruch from Cologne , was also founded in Hodimont. Business was going well and by 1806 around 73 workers were operating 55 looms (“métiers à tisser”).
Lieutenant & Peltzer
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Johann Heinrich Peltzer died unexpectedly early in 1809 at the age of 45, leaving behind his wife and their still underage son Henry Édouard Peltzer (1797–1866). The widow then continued the business initially under the name “Veuve Peltzer & Fils” (“Widow Peltzer & Son”) and after her marriage to Isaak Mayor as “Peltzer, Mayor & Cie.”. Just a few years later, however, the couple divorced and the name “Mayor” was removed from the company name. In the meantime, the son was old enough and trained accordingly, so that he could take over his father's factory from around 1820. To this end, he teamed up with Henri Georges Eugène Lieutenant (1798–1845), who was almost the same age and who had taken over a cloth factory on the Weser knee in the Le Mousset district of Pepinster . Both now continued the new joint venture as "Lieutenant & Peltzer".
In the following years the company flourished and from 1830, when the area was officially incorporated into the newly founded state of Belgium, it was expanded to include new facilities in the Verviers districts of Gérardchamps in Verviers and Renoupré near Andrimont . Around 1832, the company "Lieutenant & Peltzer", which had previously specialized in the production of woolen fabrics and leather, was the first Belgian company in this branch to start producing the so-called "Tissus Nouveautés" or "Étoffe Bonjean", which means fabrics whose design and color varied in color, in contrast to fabrics with a uniform tone. In 1840, the company acquired its first Cockerill steam engine , which enabled it to further increase production. As early as 1847, "Lieutenant & Peltzer" took second place among the Verviers cloth factories with around 1,070 workers.
As was common in the wool industry at that time, “Lieutenant & Peltzer” also used sheep fleece from France, the Netherlands, England, Russia, Austria, Prussia, Saxony and Spain as raw material. The modernization of intercontinental steam shipping made it possible to import wool from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina and Uruguay to London, where it was auctioned on the main drapery market. From there, thanks to the connection of Verviers to the new European rail network in 1843, the auctioned wool could be transported to the plant in a time-saving and labor-saving manner.
In 1848, “Peltzer & Lieutenant” also acquired a new development from England, the so-called “Burdock Wolf” (“Échardonneuse”). This enabled the Argentinian wool, which is cheap but heavily contaminated with burdock, to be processed better. This innovation, which not only gave the local wool industry a significant boost, but also the local mechanical engineering industry, which has served as a supplier industry for wool processing since the days of Cockerill, was later followed by other companies from Verviers. At the same time, "Lieutenant & Peltzer" expanded its trade relations around the world and in 1849 set up a branch in Buenos Aires. In addition, the company developed needs-based special machines itself and was able to present its new "machine à laver PELTZER" in 1852 and put its first own self-actuator into operation in 1857 , making the company independent of suppliers in the spinning process.
After the co-partner Henry Lieutenant died in 1845, Henry Édouard Peltzer tried to maintain the company together with the heirs of the deceased for almost twenty years. A few months before his own death in 1866, Peltzer nevertheless terminated this contract and continued his company with his Verviers factories as a sole shareholder. Lieutenant kept the plant in Pepinster and expanded it into an independent full cloth factory in the following years. In 1921 this factory was transferred to the Lieutenant brothers Jules and Georges Regout under the name "Textile de Pepinster" and continued to produce until it was closed in 1975.
After Peltzer's death, his sons Guillaume Auguste and Paul Nicolas Édouard Peltzer took over the Peltzer company and from then on they operated under the name “Peltzer & Fils”. Her older brother, Philippe Henry Peltzer (1828–1902), did not join the company management, but instead, as a sales representative, concentrated primarily on foreign contacts and the various cloth markets.
Peltzer & Fils
Auguste Peltzer took on the duties of administrative director and pushed a strategic expansion and modernization policy. One of his first measures at the end of the 1860s was the takeover of "Spinnerei Peters", which was continued as "Peltzer & Fils", and the establishment of a sheepskin dyeing factory under the name "Peltzer & Cie.", Both of which are only about 15 kilometers away distant town of Eupen , which was assigned to the Prussian state together with the district of Eupen in 1815 .
After a change from the usual production of carded yarn products to cloth made from worsted yarn took place in many European countries from the middle of the 19th century, in 1876 the company “Peltzer & Fils” also saw it as necessary to expand their business with a worsted yarn mill . The new work area, initially equipped with 5000 spindles, grew rapidly to 15,000 spindles over the next few years. For this success, the company received in 1879 the “Le Prix Gouvy et Deheselle” endowed with 6,000 Belgian francs from the “Industrie- und Handelsgesellschaft Verviers” (“Société industrial et commerciale de Verviers”), which was co-founded in 1863 by Henry Édouard Peltzer, among others had been. With this innovation, "Peltzer & Fils" also gained a significant economic lead over the cloth industry in Eupen , where worsted yarn production only started in around 1890 by "Gülcher & Gand Ry" and until then Peltzer had been a major supplier for their cloth factories. In addition, "Peltzer & Fils", like all companies in the city of Verviers, benefited from the construction of the Gileppe Dam , which began in 1867 and was completed in 1878 , which regulated the amount of water used for industry in the Weser valley and made the companies independent of seasonal fluctuations.
Finally, in 1885, the last expansion of the company was the establishment of a cloth factory in Czestochowa in what was then Russia and now Poland, which also operated there as "Peltzer & Fils".
Augustes brother and co-partner Édouard Peltzer took on the role of technical director and was mainly responsible for the equipment and administration of the plants in Gérardchamps and Renoupré as well as for the branches in Eupen and Czestochowa, but also for the marketing of the products. The entire company saw itself as a full cloth factory and had all the necessary processing stages for cloth manufacture, including laundry, carbonising , combing, worsted spinning, carded yarn spinning, weaving, finishing and dyeing. The importance of “Peltzer & Fils” can be seen, for example, in the wages and salaries paid in 1892, which amounted to 1,973,055 Belgian francs.
After Guillaume Auguste's death in 1893, his four sons Paul (1859–1920), Georges (1861–1932), Auguste (1865–1936) and René Peltzer (1869–1947) joined the company as co-partners, in after Paul Henry Édouard's death in 1903, his son Édouard Peltzer got on board.
In 1931, “Peltzer & Fils” with around 2,200 employees was converted into a stock corporation under Belgian law (Société Anonyme / SA), which was finally taken over in 1965 by the Iwan Simonis company. This company, which was also founded in Verviers in 1680, was only converted into a stock corporation in 1922 and had meanwhile specialized in exclusive bed linen and precious pool towels.
Augustes grandson André Peltzer (1882–1966) and great-grandson Georges Peltzer (* 1924) were the last of the family to work for the company. André Peltzer was also president of the Belgian Central Wool Committee, was knighted in 1957 and received the title of baron . Georges Peltzer was the last chairman of the board of directors of the holding "Peltzer et Fils" and was made an honorary citizen of Verviers in 2001.
In Verviers, the 18th century production building of the Peltzer company, which was first acquired by Jean Closset in 1924 and bought by the city of Verviers in 1972, still exists today. After extensive restorations, the house has now been home to social housing and offices since 1982. The only thing that reminds of its original use is the fabric washing facility in front of the facade. The house and the history of the "Peltzer & Fils" cloth factory are part of the wool route , a transnational initiative for the historical processing of the former cloth industry. There are also records in the “Tourist Center for Wool and Fashion” in Verviers, a permanent museum exhibition in an old restored factory in the center of town.
literature
- Norbert Gilson: History of the textile industry in the Verviers, Eupen, Aachen area with special consideration of the woolen cloth industry . Rheinisches Industriemuseum, Euskirchen 1997, p. 36/37 ( PDF )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Simon Edelblutte: La Textile de Pepinster SA , brief information on gr-atlas.uni.lu
- ^ Paul Léon: Peltzer, Auguste , in: Biographie Nationale ; Académie Royal des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts de Belgique, Volume 42, 1981, Column 609–615 ( PDF )
- ^ André Peltzer , in: Porquoi Pas of April 13, 1934
- ↑ Heinz Godesar: Five personalities made honorary citizens , in Grenz-Echo of December 6, 2001
- ↑ Simon Edelblutte: Peltzer Verviers , short info on gr-atlas.uni.lu