Brennet Textile Museum

Exterior view of the textile museum, with a view of the former laboratory technician's house

The Brennet AG textile museum, which opened in 2001, is located in the center of Wehr on the grounds of the Brennet AG weaving mill . The museum has an exhibition area of around 700 square meters.

Workplaces faithfully reconstructed with dolls, looms , weaving and sewing machines , laboratory and other equipment, models, canteen and office scenes, sample books , print models, posters from the 1920s, textiles and other exhibits are intended to convey a picture of the South Baden textile industry .

One focus is the presentation of the company culture with social facilities, celebrations, honors, company sports and excursions.

history

The area is important for the history of the industrialization of southern Baden . An iron hammer or hammer mill has been located here since the Middle Ages and has been used industrially since the 18th century. In 1863 the hammer mill was closed because it was no longer competitive.

In the year it was closed, a weaving mill with mechanical weaving machines was located in his building. In 1888 this became the property of Brennet AG, a mechanical colored weaving mill founded in 1881 in the Wehrer district of Öflingen .

At that time, the textile industry replaced iron production, which was traditional on the Upper Rhine, and drove the industrialization of southern Baden .

Museum division

The manor house of the hammer mill director, built around 1750, to which a workers' house (the laboratory technician's house) was attached, dates from the time of the Wehrer hammer mill. The museum extends over both historical buildings.

Mansion

On the ground floor of the former manor house of the hammer mill director, companies from the southern Baden textile industry, such as Lörracher KBC , as well as the liquidated companies Teppfabrik Wehra AG, Hummel dye works and Hanf-Union Schopfheim are presented. Other commercial enterprises such as the Wehrer paper factory Lenz or the printing works Bader, which were closely related to the local textile industry, can also be found in the museum.

A special presentation is dedicated to the Humbel pumped storage power station built by Brennet AG in the early 1920s and the importance of energy in the manufacture of textiles.

Laboratory house

The history of Brennet AG since the 19th century in connection with the development of the southern Baden textile industry is documented on four floors in the former laboratory technician's house. One floor is reserved for each of the four generations (as of 2012) of the Denk entrepreneur family , who own Brennet AG and the textile museum.

ground floor

The era of the founding fathers in the second half of the 19th century is depicted on the ground floor.

Shown is the rapid expansion of the mechanical colored weaving mill Brennet (now Brennet AG). It was founded in 1881 in the Brennet district of Öflingen. In 1888 the Baumgartner & Co weaving mill, located in the former Wehr hammer mill, was taken over. Another takeover in 1894, this time a spinning mill in Hausen im Wiesental , enabled full textile production.

1st floor

The first floor houses the second generation of entrepreneurs "before and between the two world wars" (1900–1945).

The focus is on the entrepreneur Carl Denk, who broke new ground in the use of regenerative energy by building his own pumped storage power plant . For his life's work, he received the title of a Baden commercial council and honorary citizenship of the community of Öflingen.

An exhibited cycle of photos by the pioneer of modern industrial photography , Paul Wolff , shows the Brennet company in 1941.

2nd Floor

The third generation of entrepreneurs "from the post-war period to the crisis in the German textile industry" (1945–1980s) is presented on the second floor .

It shows the efforts of the Central European textile industry that began in the 1960s. Competition from low - wage countries should be countered through research and marketing alliances .

Another theme in this area of the museum are the various leisure activities and social initiatives of the company and staff. Especially in the 1950s and 1960s, z. As football tournaments, corporate outings, company parties and carnival working life.

Attic

The fourth generation of entrepreneurs will be thematized in the attic under the motto "Successful survival in the age of globalization ".

A photo documentation in light boxes shows the state of textile production at the turn of the millennium. It is a counterpart to the photo documentation by Paul Wolff from 1941 on the 1st floor and is intended to show the change to fully automated production.