Schultz & Donner
The Schultz & Donner GmbH was founded in 1883 wool - and silk weaving in Reichenbach im Vogtland .
history
Foundation phase
The textile factory was founded on December 15, 1883 by two entrepreneurs who were friends, the weaving technician Otto Friedrich Schultz and the businessman Friedrich Guido Donner in the legal form of a GmbH in Reichenbach. At that time there were already several textile companies in Reichenbach and other cities in Vogtland . The founders therefore took advantage of the proximity of the spinning mills and initially concentrated on the production of women’s clothing fabrics from worsted yarn in particularly high quality.
The production of the self-composed fabrics from purchased yarns was initially done at home . After a few years, mechanical looms were purchased from the Sächsische Maschinenfabrik in Chemnitz and set up in a rented factory space. In 1888 around 60 workers were already employed.
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Export orientation and expansion
In 1891 the entrepreneurs laid the foundation stone for their own factory building on Cunsdorfer Straße, which they moved into at the end of the year. In 1892 the company already had 100 looms. In 1894 a new administration building was built.
At the same time, the sales network was expanded. After the first sales successes, the export market, especially to South America and the Orient , was opened up in 1886 together with a Hamburg agency . This was followed by the expansion of our own representative organization with agencies in Berlin , Hamburg , Halle (Saale) , Cottbus , Munich , Wroclaw , Cologne , Düsseldorf and Königsberg (East Prussia) as well as close cooperation with agencies in Switzerland and Scandinavia. About a third of the products were exported abroad. In addition to the high quality of the piece-dyed worsted yarn items, the cashmere woolen fabrics and the jacket fabrics made from worsted warp and woolen weft , innovations also contributed to the sales success . New collections were developed and launched every spring and autumn .
In 1898 an extension took place, so that by the end of the year 200 looms could be used to capacity. The textile crisis around 1900, to which some competitors fell victim, and the First World War , which resulted in the loss of valuable employees, reduced purchasing power at home and Germany's loss of reputation on the foreign markets, were also successfully survived thanks to the unabated good reputation of the manufacturers.
Further development in the 2nd generation
In 1920 there was a generation change in the management: Walther Donner, the son of the founder Friedrich Guido Donner, who died in 1911 and who had lost a leg in the First World War, took over the commercial management. Otto Friedrich Schultz, the other founder, stayed with the company until 1932, but in the same year handed over the technical management to his son Otto Schultz junior. After his premature death, his brother, engineer Friedrich Schultz, joined the company as technical manager in 1925 and was appointed managing director in 1930.
When the economy picked up from 1925 , another extension was built in 1926, the machine park expanded and the production processes rationalized. In the 1930s the company finally employed around 250 people and had 350 looms in operation.
Sales fell sharply during the Second World War . On October 29, 1941, the Reich Office for Wool in Berlin ordered the shutdown of the textile business with the last extended deadline of February 15, 1942. At the same time, the Reich Ministry of Aviation ordered the urgent increase in aircraft and replacement parts production and repair capacities, in particular through "exempted companies in External production ”, especially in the textile industry, should be secured. To avoid the dismissal of the workforce (with trailing war effort of employees) and the liquidation of the company's Schultz founded & Donner GmbH together with the Reichenbacher Robert Würker GmbH the Meba GmbH (metalworking GmbH) as a joint subsidiary to important war contracts for the Junkers To be able to handle aircraft and engine plants . Using the manual skills of the workforce, the buildings and the infrastructure, the company worked as a repair shop for surface control units and cabling . It was assigned to the Chemnitz Armaments Industry Command. In addition to the conscripted German employees, there were over 130 assigned forced laborers from the Ukraine and prisoners of war who were housed in an inn and in the company's own barracks in Cunsdorf . After Meba-GmbH had made a loss of 502,684 Reichsmark sales in 1945 and was no longer needed, it was dissolved on November 6, 1945. Schultz & Donner GmbH switched back to textile production. In 1946, 45% of the systems were back in operation, 45% in assembly and 10% dismantled.
Expropriation and connection to the "VEB Combine Wool and Silk"
As a result of the Second World War and the Soviet occupation of Saxony , the company was expropriated under the SMAD without compensation. Friedrich Schultz and Walther Donner ended their activities as managing directors on June 30, 1946. On October 19, 1948, the company was deleted from the commercial register. Friedrich Schultz moved to Aachen in March 1949 and began building a new wool weaving mill with home workers. After the GDR was founded, the Reichenbach factory was merged with other textile factories to form VEB Vogtlandstoffe Reichenbach . In 1960 this was affiliated to the VEB-Kombinat Wool and Silk based in Meerane . There were also women's clothes, costume and coat fabrics made of wool and silk, as well as impregnated raincoat fabrics.
Reprivatisation and bankruptcy
After the fall of the Wall in 1989, the combine was dissolved. The independent company Vogtlandstoffe GmbH became the property of the Treuhandanstalt , which sold it to a foreign company. However, investment commitments were not kept, so that the company had to file for bankruptcy. On November 13, 1996 the machines and furnishings of all plants were sold in an auction. The production buildings were then demolished. Some machines were donated to the local Neuberin Museum for a display collection on the Reichenbach textile industry.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Circular from the Berlin section of the Reich Aviation Ministry of January 29, 1942
- ^ Marion Schulz: Oldest museum in the Saxon Vogtland and yet young. Neuberin Museum Reichenbach (Vogtland). In: Information from the Saxon Museum Association , issue 32 (from November 2006)
Literature, sources and web links
- Register of residents of the cities of Reichenbach i. Vogtl., Mylau, Netzschkau, Lengenfeld, Treuen. Reichenbach 1924.
- State Office for the Regulation of Unresolved Property Issues , State Directorate Dresden (Ed.): Decision of July 28, 2009, AZ 651.4276.30 / 70860 / D7 Dresden 2009.
- Schultz & Donner GmbH (ed.): Chronicle of the company Schultz & Donner GmbH, Reichenbach i. Vogtl. (Saxony) 1883-1933. Reichenbach 1933.
- www.sperrzone.net accessed on September 13, 2019
- www.industrie-kultur-ost.de accessed on September 13, 2019