Plauen lace
Plauener Spitze is a registered trademark of the Plauener Spitzen und Embroidery Association. V. Members and at the same time licensees are several embroidery companies in the city of Plauen and in Vogtland . The brand stands less for a specific type of lace , but acts primarily as a seal of quality and umbrella brand for all regionally produced embroidery products of the association members.
meaning
The origin of the Plauen lace (s) was the finishing of smooth cotton fabrics by means of satin stitch embroidery , which began at the beginning of the 19th century. Tulle was later also embroidered. The endeavor to completely remove the embroidery base led to the invention of the etching tip (also known as the air tip). The process for producing etched tips was developed around the same time in St. Gallen (Switzerland) and in Plauen. The Plauener Luftspitze was first produced in 1882 by the sticker Gottfried Prager in the Anton Falke embroidery after it had been developed by Bruno and Anton Falke. But it was only with the introduction of the shuttle embroidery machine in 1883 that the machine production of tulle and etched lace accelerated. The various types of lace produced in the region were marketed after 1900 under the name Plauener Spitze (n) . The products received a Grand Prix at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900 and have been known worldwide ever since.
The lace manufacturing enabled the city of Plauen to become one of the major cities in Saxony. After severe crises in the 1920s and 1990s, lace production is still carried out by small companies today. Main products of the industry are soft furnishings ( curtains , table linen ), wedding dresses and accessories for the Damenober- and -unterbekleidung ( lingerie and lingerie ). Embroidery processes are also increasingly being used to manufacture special textiles.
history
Advance development from the 16th century
On the basis of the cloth making trade established in the early modern period, cotton weaving developed in Plauen as early as the middle of the 16th century. The high-quality muslin and calico from the Saxon Vogtland faced increasing competition from home and abroad in the 18th century. There was no shortage of attempts to refine the smooth cotton fabrics. As early as 1755, JA Neumeister founded a calico printing company (today Weisbachsches Haus ) in Plauen . From 1775 on , sewing and tambour embroidery, based in the Ore Mountains , also spread in the Vogtland.
Embroidery production in the 19th century
From 1810, satin stitch embroidery is documented in Plauen , a needlework that was still done by hand. In the following years, embroidery was able to establish itself as a new source of income in the region: By 1828, more than 2000 people were already doing hand embroidery, known as white embroidery . After the Alsatian Josua Heilmann invented the first prototype of a hand embroidery machine in 1829, the first experiments with one of these new machines also began in Plauen in 1830 in Friedrich Ludwig Böhler's white goods company. The attempts failed because the technology was not yet fully developed.
The industrialization of the embroidery trade in Plauen began in 1858 when the embroidery company F. Schnorr & G. Steinhäuser started production with two hand embroidery machines. This laid the foundation for a new industry: machine embroidery. Between 1865 and 1872, the production potential quintupled. Plauen now had 239 embroidery companies with 907 hand embroidery machines. In 1881, Theodor Bickel from Plauen succeeded in producing machine-embroidered tulle lace on hand embroidery machines for the first time . In 1883 the first shuttle embroidery machines were installed in Plauen (two-thread system with shuttle as the rear thread and external drive). Now it was possible to produce high-quality tulle and etched lace by machine and thus inexpensively. With the Vogtland machine factory founded in 1881, mechanical engineering now became an important productive force for the Vogtland lace and embroidery industry.
From 1885 Plauen had become the center of the German lace and embroidery industry. From 1889 the new Luftspitze emerged decisively and, due to the worldwide demand, became world-famous together with other types of lace under the name Plauener Spitze (n). Under the various names - Dentelles de Saxe , Saxon Lace , Plauen Lace or Dentelles de Plauen - the products were sold in large quantities on international markets. At the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900 , the Plauen lace (s) were awarded a Grand Prix.
Embroidery production in the 20th century
The heyday of embroidery production in Plauen and the Vogtland was around the turn of the century. The boom lasted until 1912. At that time, more than 16,000 embroidery machines were in use. The city of Plauen developed into one of the large cities in Saxony.
The following decades with the two world wars were marked by political crises, which weakened the embroidery industry, which is heavily dependent on exports, due to a lack of demand and trade restrictions. This was followed by the almost complete destruction of Plauen in numerous air raids towards the end of the war in 1944 (75% of the city area), which completely brought embroidery production to a standstill. From 1945 the lace and embroidery industry, initially consisting of private industrial and handicraft companies, began to gain a foothold in the markets again. Almost all of the businesses were expropriated until the 1970s .
In the period from 1963 to 1989, the Plauener Spitze was awarded 33 gold medals from the Leipzig Trade Fair for its design and technological mastery. In 1989, Plauener lace was still being produced on 1,400 embroidery machines and exported to over 40 countries. As a result of the transformation and privatization that began in 1990, around 40 companies, mostly family businesses, were still active in the industry in 2006.
See also
literature
- Louis Bein: The industry of the Saxon Voigtland: economic history study. Volume 2. Published by Duncker & Humblot, 1884.
- Willy Erhardt: Luck on the needle point. Vogtland-Verlag, Plauen 1995, pp. 123-133.
Web links
- Website of the Plauener Spitze branch association accessed on September 16, 2016
- Project work around the Plauener Spitze (private website) accessed on September 16, 2016
Individual evidence
- ↑ Albert Hempel: 50 years of embroidery machine-embroidered etched lace . Vogtländischer Anzeiger and Tageblatt, Plauen, No. 206, Volume 145, Sunday, September 3, 1933, pp. 21-23
- ↑ Frank Luft: How cotton came to the Vogtland. In: Vogtländische Heimatblätter, Heft 4, 2015, pp. 21–24.
- ↑ Heino Strobel: The beginnings of machine embroidery in the Vogtland and Western Ore Mountains. In: Vogtländische Heimatblätter, Heft 3, 2012, pp. 17–21.
- ^ Website: Biography Fedor Schnorr. Retrieved September 16, 2016 .