Cloth factory Aachen

Intzeturm of the former cloth factory Aachen AG

The textile mill Aachen AG was one of the major textile company in Aachen . It was founded in 1859 by the entrepreneurs Alfred Ritz and Conrad Vogel in Aachen, initially under the name "Ritz & Vogel" and in 1873 in a new factory built according to plans by Otto Intze on Charlottenstrasse on the banks of the Beverbach in the Frankenberg district , which at that time still belonged to the neighboring village of Burtscheid . In 1887 the complex was taken over by the factory owners Siegmund Sternau and Albert Süskind, who brought in their “Süskind & Sternau” cloth factory founded in the 1870s, and in 1897 they converted the new company into “Cloth Factory Aachen AG”.

After partial destruction in the Second World War , the "Tuchfabrik Aachen AG" could no longer build on its pre-war successes and went bankrupt in 1952. A large part of the old buildings could be preserved and restored and refurbished for their new uses as office and commercial property, but only the so-called Intzeturm was listed in 1989 .

history

Cloth factory Aachen AG around 1925

The manufacturer Alfred Raimund Ritz (1834–1886) and his partner Conrad Vogel rented a building complex from the Suermondt family at Franzstrasse 24–26 in Aachen, in which they together set up their new cloth factory “Ritz & Vogel” in 1859. Just a few years later, their sales were so good that they had to relocate the business premises, and in 1873 they finally received approval to build a new factory on Charlottenstrasse with the water rights to the Beverbach. According to plans by Otto Intze, they had a new, spacious factory complex built there with two shed roof halls , fabric storage facilities, work halls as well as a machine room, stair tower and administration building and were finally able to move into this facility in 1874. This was Intze's second factory building after the Lochner cloth factory in Aachen and the first local shed roof building.

After the cloth factory was relocated to Charlottenstrasse, co-partner Alfred Ritz gradually withdrew from the day-to-day affairs. From then on he devoted himself to his second passion, theater culture, and from 1881 to 1883 took on the role of director at the Theater Aachen . He then moved with his family to Austin , Texas, where he died in 1886. In 1887, his former business partner Conrad Vogel sold the cloth factory to the Jewish manufacturers Siegmund Sternau (1847–1895) from Büren and Albert Süskind (born 1847) from Oberdollendorf , who sold their “Süskind & Sternau” cloth factory, which they had jointly run since 1877, as capital Lothringer Strasse in Aachen to the new company. The "Süskind & Sternau" factory consisted of a spinning mill, weaving mill and finishing, and fabrics for women and men were made.

Share over 1000 RM of the cloth factory Aachen vorm. Süskind & Sternau AG from September 1929

Two years after the early death of Siegmund Sternau and the exit of the co-partner Albert Süskind, who is entered in the historical address book of Aachen as a "pensioner" from 1899, and since Sternau's sons were still too young to take over, the company became In 1897 it was converted to a stock corporation and from then on operated as "Tuchfabrik Aachen, formerly Süskind and Sternau AG". In the period that followed, the company developed into one of the largest cloth factories in Aachen and employed up to 1,200 weavers in its best annual balance sheet. The cloth factory also survived the economically difficult period after the First World War without any major losses, while other large Aachen factories such as the Erckens cloth factory and the Delius cloth factory had to give up in 1932 and a total of more than 1,400 workers became unemployed.

Since Siegmund Sternau's two sons, Kurt Sternau (born 1881 in Aachen, died 1938 in Berlin) and Alfred Paul Sternau (born 1890 in Aachen, died 1943 in Auschwitz, lawyer, film director and film producer) did not work for the company got on board and therefore no Jews were represented in the company management and since the stock corporation was run by a non-Jewish executive board, the company was spared from a possible Aryanization during the National Socialist era , with only the addition of "formerly Süskind and Sternau" from 1939 onwards Company name was deleted. As chairman of the board of the stock corporation from 1932 Willi Rüggeberg and from 1943 Ernst Stein as well as chairman of the supervisory board Hans Simon (1880-1960), director of the Dresdner Bank Aachen, was listed in the balance sheets.

During the Second World War, only parts of the factory were destroyed and production could continue with restrictions. Difficult social and structural conditions after the war and the effects of the Korean crisis meant that the company, which was the largest cloth factory in Aachen in the post-war period, had to file for bankruptcy in 1952 and around 640 employees lost their jobs. After extensive renovations, commercial users and departments of RWTH Aachen University and, from 1973, SaGeBau AG (renovation and commercial building stock company) took over the building.

building

A large part of the factory buildings erected in 1873 have been preserved and can still be recognized as such, although the modernization measures have meant that only the so-called Intzeturm meets the criteria for inclusion in the list of historical monuments. The main building, the boiler house with the chimney and the pump houses for the extinguishing water, which were used to pump the water from the extinguishing water pond into the tower , are no longer available . The extinguishing water basins themselves are still visible, but dried up and overgrown with mosses, grasses and weeds.

This three-storey octagonal tower had a triple function and served on the one hand as a stair tower for the main building of the factory, which has now largely been destroyed, for the press house and for the office building, which were all connected to one another in the past. On the other hand, it was designed as a water container for the extinguishing water and, with its inner core shaft, was also intended to serve as a chimney, which was never used because there was a separate chimney at the boiler house.

As part of the renovation work on the tower, the parapets of the upper platform and the drum had to be removed and the walls of the building reinforced with non-visible ring anchors .

The other building stock of the old factory includes the following objects:

Tuchfabrik Aachen AG - administration and office building

The exterior of the office building has largely remained in its original condition from 1873, only the base was plastered and the bluestone on the window sills was replaced by concrete block. On the east side of the house the rudiments of a bridge can be seen that once connected the office building with the tower.
The gatehouse built around 1874 with three to two axes and a pent roof , was later increased by one floor.
The press house from 1874, in which the fulling mill was housed, was changed the most of all buildings and has only little of its old substance.
The northern shed roof hall from the same year of construction initially served as a warehouse and was converted into a tamping shop a little later. For this purpose, the stepped gables were straightened and additional windows were installed in the facade.
The southern shed roof hall, subsequently built around 1895 as a three-axle structure, was extended a year later and completed in 1908 with the last section up to the gatehouse.

Cloth warehouse at the office building

The five-axis cloth warehouse, built in 1873, which adjoins the office building to the south, was originally also a shed roof hall and has been changed several times. A flat roof was added, the former four window openings were extended by a further window and one of the windows was converted into a gate entrance. The base area was plastered and the projections were replaced by a smooth brick wall, to which the company name is attached in large, no longer complete metal letters.
The brick walls and cornices with yellow clinker bricks were saved from another old warehouse, the roof of which had been destroyed in 1943 . After the last restoration, the hall was converted into a garage, among other things.
The machine house from 1874 has been preserved as a whole, only the cornice is missing. The gate was replaced by a modern steel gate. The former boiler house connected to the machine house was demolished in 1994 and the remains of the old chimney were found.