Zurich silk weaving school

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Zurich silk weaving school 1887, Zurich-Letten

The Seidenwebschule Zurich in 1881 as a training center of the Zurich silk industry in Zurich founded. In 1944 she went to the textile school in Zurich .

prehistory

The Zurich silk industry was mentioned for the first time in the judge's letter of the Burger von Zurich from 1304 and took off in the 17th century with David & Heinrich Werdmüller . From 1840 to 1900 it became the most important processing industry in the Canton of Zurich. In the 1850s and 1860s, it was the world's second largest silk fabric producer after Lyon . Their specialties were black taffeta and bags towels ( bolting ) to the flour seven. For the development of industry the training of capable young workers was necessary. In 1881, when the silk weaving school was founded, there were 30,398 hand looms in the Zurich silk industry and only 3,151 mechanical looms.

The private silk weaving school opened by Johann Jakob Staub in Horgen in 1855 had to be closed in 1864 because the students were absent due to the economic downturn as a result of the American Civil War .

history

In 1866, the president of the “Zürcherische Seidenindustriegesellschaft” submitted a petition to the Zurich government council to set up a weaving school. In 1873 the silk manufacturers in the canton of Zurich and Swiss companies based in New York donated 200,000 francs for the establishment of a silk weaving school. In a referendum in 1878, the bill for a cantonal weaving school was just rejected. On behalf of the general assembly of the “Zürcherische Seidenindustriegesellschaft”, the weaving school commission under Johann Jakob Abegg worked out a new template, a provisional school program and a new contract with the city of Zurich.

The then city ​​of Zurich was ready to let the “Zürcherische Seidenindustriegesellschaft” use the old “Hofmeistersche Gut” in Letten with the main building for the school and an auxiliary building for two teacher's apartments and the water power for the weaving school as well as half of the renovation costs and the annual To assume maintenance costs.

Ludwig Abraham : Zurich silk weaving school course 1915–1916

On November 14, 1881, the first course at the Zurich Silk Weaving School was opened with two teachers (director Hermann Huber, teacher G. Zweifel) and 21 students between the ages of 16 and 31. Abegg was president of the supervisory commission from 1881 to 1912 and an important sponsor of the school. The school's teaching program focused on technical training, while the general subjects were dropped for financial reasons. There were two annual courses with mainly practical exercises in the first year and technical training for future manufacturers in the second. Initially, hand weaving was more important in the subject matter. Admission requirements were at least 16 years of age and very good practical experience in the simple silk trade. The school fees were between 200 and 500 francs per year.

The hand-weaving department was equipped with ten Lyoner looms and three Zürcher looms ( Cachenez , Satin , and lace-up looms). Three of the Lyons looms were equipped with jacquard machines and seven for faille , pékin , satin, ottoman , etc. There was also a Lyon paper roll , a Zurich paper frame and a Zurich wind turbine .

In the mechanical weaving department there were two Honegger looms (for Lustrine and Rhadamés ), a Honegger warping machine, two Lyon winding machines, a tram cleaning machine and a Viennese Lisage. In the first two school years, a Benninger swap chair and a mechanical Meyer-Täuber loom were added. In the third year the school had 16 hand looms and 8 mechanical looms.

In the years 1884 to 1887 velvet weaving was introduced, for which a mechanical double velvet loom was purchased. In 1888, the Rüti machine factory, the Benninger Uzwil brothers, F. Martini Frauenfeld and H. Blank Uster gave away six new mechanical looms free of charge. The Swiss textile machine industry later made its latest products available to the weaving school. In 1906 the school had 26 hand looms and 24 mechanical looms, both for dobby and jacquard fabrics.

With the teaching reform, hand weaving was given up in 1913, the course duration was reduced to one year and the entry age was increased to 19 years. From 1881 to 1931, 1,507 students (1,442 Swiss, 65 foreigners) attended the school. Skilled, capable practitioners from Swiss industry were appointed to the school as teachers, as there was no specialist teacher training in the textile industry in Switzerland.

The world economic crisis of the 1930s, which hit the silk industry, threatened to endanger the further development of the school because the number of students declined.

Textile School Zurich

In 1939, the annual meeting of the "Webschulkooperation Wattwil" and the general meeting of the "Zürcherische Seidenindustriegesellschaft" approved the plan to merge the two schools into a textile technology center in Zurich / Wattwil. The Second World War and a veto from St. Gallen , which feared competition for its textile schools, brought down the plan.

In Zurich, the training was subsequently expanded to include the new professions of master weaver and weaving technician , dispatcher , textile merchant and textile designer, as well as the creation of a machine room as an extension to the school building. In May 1944, the new statutes, which included the renaming of the school as the Zurich Textile School , were approved by the Federal Office for Industry, Commerce and Labor (BIGA).

The machine park in the new weaving room was equipped with the latest machines by the Swiss textile machine industry. In 1946 the following companies were:

Shuttle loom Rüti, around 1950

In 1972, the Zurich Textile School merged with the weaving school founded in Wattwil in 1881 to form the Swiss Textile School Cooperative (STF). The head office of the STF is in Wattwil, the schools also take place in Zurich and St. Gallen.

The archive holdings of the «Swiss Textile School Cooperative» were taken over from the State Archives in Zurich and St. Gallen. The fabric collection is located in the Swiss National Museum and in the St. Gallen Textile Museum . It was created for teaching and inspirational purposes and ranges from Coptic textiles to the latest technological innovations. The archives were indexed in 2017.

literature

  • Robert Honold: From the founding history of the Zurich silk weaving school. In: Communications about the textile industry: Swiss specialist publication for the entire textile industry. Volume 38, 1931, Issue 11.

Web links

Commons : Seidenwebschule Zürich  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ [1] Living traditions : Zurich silk industry
  2. ^ Canton of Zurich: Researching the history of the Zurich silk industry
  3. ^ Robert Honold: From the founding history of the Zurich silk weaving school. In: Zeitschrift Mitteilungen über Textilindustrie: Swiss specialist journal for the entire textile industry. Volume 38, 1931, Issue 11
  4. ^ Robert Honold: From the founding history of the Zurich silk weaving school. In: Zeitschrift Mitteilungen über Textilindustrie: Swiss specialist journal for the entire textile industry. Volume 38, 1931, Issue 11 (Part 2)
  5. ↑ From the history of the development of the textile school in Zurich. In: Communications about the textile industry: Swiss specialist publication for the entire textile industry, Volume 53, 1946, Issue 7.
  6. ↑ Zurich Silk Industry Society ZSIG: Swiss Textile School Zurich and Wattwil (SG)

Coordinates: 47 ° 23 '18.6 "  N , 8 ° 31' 51.7"  E ; CH1903:  six hundred eighty-two thousand four hundred and seventy-nine  /  249203