Ostara stone and mosaic factory
| Ostara (mosaic and wall panel factory) |
|
|---|---|
| legal form | AG , from 1973 GmbH |
| founding | 1903 (predecessor company from 1888 at the same location) |
| resolution | 1998 Integration into Deutsche Steinzeug AG 2001 Closure of the factory |
| Seat | Osterath , Meerbusch |
| Number of employees | 600 (1973) |
| Branch | Ceramics industry |
In the Ostara stone and mosaic factory , ceramics , especially ceramic tiles and mosaics , were produced. It was in Osterath .
history
From the foundation to the end of the Second World War
In 1888, the entrepreneur Mathias Grathes moved his small cement board factory from Düsseldorf to Osterath. There he produced pavement slabs and roof tiles until around 1890 , but from 1894 onwards he produced wall and floor tiles . At first the company grew and quickly formed a fairly large factory with around 180 to 200 workers. But the upswing was short-lived and Grathes had to file for bankruptcy as early as 1903 . As a result, Grathe's former partnership became the Osterather mosaic and wall panel factory in 1903 . Over the following years the new constellation proved to be very successful; sales of mosaic tiles were particularly good.
During the First World War , the factory was renamed again: It was now called the Osterather Ceramic and Chemical Industry Factory and, in addition to the usual ceramic production, also served to produce the so-called " clay soap " . But clay soap production had a major negative effect: the production of clay soap in the factory's kilns polluted them and made them unusable for ceramic production. As a result, two years after the end of the war in 1918, nothing could be produced in the ovens.
From this point on, the factory ran into financial difficulties again: in order to survive, a Swiss bank had to take out a mortgage of 200,000 Swiss francs after the war , which could not be repaid, so that the factory was again on the brink of ruin. In 1923, the factory was taken over by the Falk bank in Düsseldorf , which converted the factory into a stock corporation . At the same time, the factory was renamed "Ostara Mosaik- und Wandplatten-Fabrik AG" . It was at this point that the name of the spring goddess Ostara appeared for the first time in the name of the factory, which remained from there until the end.
From the mid-1920s, there was another upswing and expansion of the factory, which, however, led to technical and financial difficulties again in the 1930s. In 1931, due to financial difficulties, the Falk bank was forced to sell some factories, including Ostara. The new investors, including the Jewish, originally from Holland financier Van der Ziyl , a Dutch nobleman and the Belgian bank Banque de Verviers , completed in view of the "emerging cloud of National Socialism " as security for their invested money tiles bearing abroad with the expensive tiles the production of the Ostara. Because of the lack of income from the sale of these tiles, Ostara got deeper and deeper into trouble. The attempt of the comparison with the debtors failed, so in August 1932 filed for bankruptcy again be needed.
But this time too, the end of the Ostara plant had not yet come completely. In 1933 the Faulhaber family took over the factory and brought their own clay pits from the Westerwald into the company. Until the outbreak of the Second World War , the company grew again and the number of employees rose to 140. With the beginning of the war, the entire German economy was forced into war production. Ostara initially had to produce tiles for equipping barracks, regardless of profitability, and tile production was later completely discontinued. Ostara switched to the production of Raschig rings for the chemical industry, which cost a lot of money to convert the machines, but helped the company with 50 workers to survive until the beginning of 1945.
In February 1945, several low- flying bomb attacks were carried out on the military transports at the train station next to the factory premises , so that the Ostara was also badly damaged. In addition, after the American occupation of Osterath, when the plant was unguarded for six weeks, a considerable part of the equipment was dismantled and looted.
Reconstruction and heyday after the Second World War
After the death of the former owner Jakob Faulhaber, Benno Hölssig, who was now in a relationship with Faulhaber's daughter, took over the plant and rebuilt it with some unusual ideas. Just through the idea of selling the remainder of the tile fragments that had been spared from the bombing as broken mosaic coverings, Ostara received enough income for the reconstruction and start-up of the production facilities and the partial reduction of bank debts. There were still some difficulties to overcome before the " economic miracle " boosted the demand for tiles and the factory grew steadily.
By 1948, Ostara's production had grown to 30,000 m² of tiles per month. New loans were granted and the production facilities were expanded. In 1950 the first tunnel kiln in Germany was inaugurated, which made Ostara one of the most modern tile factories in Europe. In 1951, the new administration and residential building was built, which is one of the few remnants of the factory premises that has been preserved to this day (as of 2010) and is used as a residential building. A company pension scheme was introduced at the beginning of 1952 and apartments were built for employees near the factory premises from 1952 . In the summer of 1953 a vacation home was built for the workforce in Kühlenbusch in the Eifel. Uniform work clothes were also introduced in 1953 .
By the mid-1960s, the production capacity was continuously expanded to more than 100,000 m² of tiles per month, additional tunnel kilns , warehouses, a new administration building and a slurry tank were built and the company premises were enlarged.
Decline
From the mid-1960s, Ostara got into a sales crisis, so that the newly built production furnaces could not be fully utilized. At the same time, the price and quality of the raw materials deteriorated. In the autumn of 1968 the export tax and import subsidies were introduced, so that exports had to be throttled and important sales markets abroad were lost. Even a sale of the Ostara housing company subsidiary and the company's own residential buildings did not bring any salvation. In order to maintain their loans for the Ostara, the banks demanded integration into a financially stronger group or a merger with a larger partner. After a few months of negotiations, Ostara in 1973, with 600 employees at the time, was sold in full as a subsidiary to the ceramic holding company in Laufen , with which a close cooperation had been maintained for several years.
Despite the takeover at the end of 1973, the traditional company from Osterath continued under the name Ostara and was further expanded by Keramik Holding AG Laufen. All 600 jobs were also retained. Even before the takeover was completed, there were plans for a modern production facility for glazed mosaics, so that it could be put into operation as early as 1975. Further investments were the rapid fire systems , each costing 6 million DM , which were built in 1982, 1985 and 1988 and which helped Ostara to regain its boom. Despite these technical innovations and the resulting advantage of saving energy and labor, Ostara tiles came under increasing pressure from rising energy prices and the competitive and price pressure from cheap imports.
As a result of this increasing pressure, all shares in Ostara Laufen Keramik GmbH were transferred to Deutsche Steinzeug AG in 1998 . With this takeover, they strengthened the object competence in ceramic covering materials within the group. However, in view of the economic development, the closure of the Meerbusch plant, originally scheduled for 2004, was brought forward to 2001.
Subsequent use of the company premises
After the factory was closed, the Carat investor group from Oberhausen took over the site and is planning a new development in the center of Osterath. Residential and commercial buildings are to be built on 14 hectares:
In the northern half, with 220 new residential units, the focus will be on living. The planned residential buildings are to be built as passive houses . In addition to the shielding of train noise, some office buildings for the service industry are being built along the railway lines. In the southern part of the site, “non-disruptive” business and other office buildings for the service industry will find their place, so that 300–400 new jobs can be created. There is also a 4,000 square meter supermarket .
A power plant is to be built by the Meerbusch commercial enterprise to provide heating and hot water to the site. The nearby planned fresh market will also be supplied with cold from this power plant. The heat generation is mainly regenerative and CO 2 -neutral. Due to the need for cooling and heating, the use of CHPs is considered; Construction should start in 2014. [obsolete] Coordinates: 51 ° 16 '15.4 " N , 6 ° 37' 34.1" E