Elbers textile factory

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The Elbers textile factory was a company in Hagen that existed from 1822 to 1932. Located in the center of Hagen, the premises of the cotton textile factory were of great importance for the city's economic development.

As early as the middle of the 19th century, the company devoted itself to providing housing for its employees. The textile workers' estate in Walddorfstrasse , designed by Richard Riemerschmid in 1906, is a testament to this company housing construction.

Administration building (1905–1906), Dödter Straße 10, a listed building

In 1996, the company for Elbersdrucke was the last successor and the last major company to close down in downtown Hagen.

Company history

Carl Johann II. Elbers (1795–1853), painting around 1830

The Elbers brothers' textile factory was founded in 1822 as a textile printing and dyeing factory. The manufacture of fabrics began with the addition of spinning and weaving mills in the 1860s. In the autumn of 1895, the family company was converted into a stock corporation to raise outside capital . The company was initially called Hagener Textil-Industrie, formerly Gebr. Elbers . In 1920 the well-known family name came back to the fore when it was renamed Gebr. Elbers AG .

The production facilities were converted to electric drive in 1898. An important factor for the further expansion of the facilities was an extensive property swap with the city of Hagen in 1905, which resulted in a uniform, coherent factory site that enabled various new buildings to be built. In 1914 the company employed around 750 workers who produced around 6500 ring spindles , 620 looms and 15 printing machines.

The share capital in 1895 was 3.7 million marks . In 1905 and 1909 it was increased to 5 million marks, and in the final phase of inflation in 1923 it was finally doubled to 10 million marks. After the currency had stabilized, the changeover to 4 million gold marks took place in October 1924 , and later to 3 million Reichsmarks .

In the mid-1920s, Wilhelm Elbers, a family member, was a member of the board . At that time, members of other industrial families in Hagen, such as Eicken , Altenloh and Harkort, were also represented on the Supervisory Board . The company had business relationships with A. Schaaffhausen'schen Bankverein (Cologne) and Disconto-Gesellschaft (Essen branch), which merged with one another in 1929 as part of a larger bank merger .

Represented by its - in the late 1920s of the Osnabrueck Hammersen Group was holding corporation German cotton AG (Debag) - majority shareholder of Elbers AG Gebr. . During the world economic crisis , the company ran into great difficulties. In 1930 the Hammersen Group carried out extensive restructuring measures, which were ultimately unsuccessful. In August 1931, Gebr. Elbers AG stopped making payments, shut down production and laid off the workforce except for a small part who supervised the factory facilities and kept them operational or salable. A settlement procedure opened on October 21, 1931 was terminated after around two months and resulted in liquidation . By October 1932, the creditors had received around 40% of their claims.

The factory premises became the property of the city of Hagen in December 1931, and the city of Hagen leased some of it to the newly founded company Gesellschaft für Elbersdrucke mbH , which continued the economically stable Elbers production line of fabric printing until 1996.

building

The existing buildings of the Elbers textile factory document a wide range of typical architecture between 1850 and 1960 in a very small space.

After the administration building on Dödter Strasse was entered in the list of monuments of the city of Hagen in 2001, the remaining company buildings are also to be placed under monument protection.

The administration building from 1905-1906 was built based on the Italian Renaissance . The boardroom, however, was designed by Henry van de Velde . Today the former administration building of the municipal music school Hagen serves as accommodation.

Turbinenhaus (1904–1905), Dödter Straße 12, a listed building

Also based on the Florentine Renaissance, the turbine house on the Volme was built between 1904 and 1905 . Since the renovation in 1982, it has served the Great Hagen Carnival Society as a clubhouse.

The machine house of the former weaving and spinning mill, which was built between 1862 and 1864 in a neo-Gothic style , is well worth seeing . The brick building with a choir- like finish is also called the “chapel” due to its sacral-like exterior.

The boiler house's chimney, built in 1861, is one of the oldest preserved in Westphalia and, at 85 meters high, was long considered to be one of the tallest chimneys in Germany.

Todays use

Factory hall of the textile printing shop (1956–1957), from April trampoline hall

This is where the center of social life in Hagen developed, based on the market activity of traveling traders. Until its destruction in World War II , this was the socio-cultural center of the city. Later, the area around today's town hall gained increasing importance through the construction of numerous administrative buildings. At that time, this development also excluded the Volme River from the urban context.

As part of the revitalization of the Elbershallen , the first steps were taken to restore the bank areas. The Elbershallen site is not only to be seen in this context as an important building block in the overall urban context. In the course of the revitalization, the city of Hagen has already succeeded in establishing new, culturally relevant institutions in terms of sustainable urban development and linking cultural and leisure functions in the city of Hagen together with the investors and operators. In addition to temporary uses such as concerts and other events, restaurants, cultural and leisure activities and other service providers such as marketing agencies have settled in the Elbershallen . These include the Theater an der Volme, the city's music school, the Bethel.regional foundation including a workshop, the Capitol large disco , an indoor playground and the Sprungwerk trampoline hall .

literature

  • Wilhelm Elbers : Hundred Years of Cotton Textile Industry , 11th edition, 2013, ISBN 9783663202455 .
  • Handbook of German Stock Companies , 30th edition 1925, Volume I, p. 1571 f.
  • Handbook of German Stock Companies , 37th edition 1932, Volume IV, p. 5915.

Web links

Commons : Textilfabrik Elbers  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Handbook of German Stock Companies , 30th edition 1925, Volume I, p. 1572.

Coordinates: 51 ° 21 ′ 12 ″  N , 7 ° 28 ′ 48 ″  E