Delius cloth factory

Former Delius cloth factory, now residential building

The C. Delius cloth factory was one of the largest textile companies in Aachen . It was set up in the former Startz spinning mill in 1851 and since 1907 has been based in what is now Deliusstrasse, Mauerstrasse and Kuckhoffstrasse in Aachen. Strong revenue losses due to the global economic crisis in 1929 meant that the textile mill Delius had to be closed in the 1932nd

A large part of the old factory facility, which was partially destroyed in the Second World War , was taken over by the Leonhard Monheim AG chocolate factory in 1949 and used by them until 1980. Then the main production building was restored and refurbished and converted into an apartment building and placed under monument protection. The Delius cloth factory was included in the cross-border wool route initiative .

history

The entrepreneur Carl Delius (1821–1887) from Salzkotten initially ran a smaller cloth factory in Imgenbroich . In 1851 he leased premises in the Startz spinning mill on Löhergraben in Aachen, where he set up a fulling mill, a roughing mill and a shearer corner. He also bought a weaving mill in the neighboring Jakobstrasse and then closed his Imgenbroich cloth factory.

After the company's founder died, his sons Carl junior (1846–1914), Gustav (1848–1923) and Robert Delius (1852–1923) successfully continued their father's work as partners. The company recorded steadily increasing sales and assumed a leading role in the Aachen cloth industry, which necessitated a spatial expansion. The management therefore initially acquired the "burned mill" near the Hangeweiher with the water rights to the Pau and in 1906 received the approval to build a new factory between the upper Mauerstrasse, today's Deliusstrasse and today's Kuckhoffstrasse with the latest technology. At the same time, the company benefited from the fact that the Lochner cloth factory, only a few hundred meters away, was liquidated in 1907 and the facility was used for other purposes. In addition, Carl Delius co-founded the newly established Kammgarnwerke AG in Eupen in 1906 , which enabled the company, which specialized in carded yarn products, to obtain worsted yarn cheaply and thereby expand its product range considerably.

After moving the cloth factory from Löhergraben to the new premises on Mauerstraße, the company experienced its most successful period when around 1200 workers and 100 employees found their work there. After the death of the partner Carl Delius junior, the son-in-law of Emil Lochner , the manufacturer Eugen Peltzer (1871–1955), was appointed as an external partner , later the entrepreneur Herbert Brockhoff (1888–1945) and the sons-in-law Kurt Georg Alfred Mumm von came Schwarzenstein (1874–1935) and Hans Richard van Gülpen (1878–1975) were added.

Due to the aftermath of the First World War , which left large gaps in the workforce, as well as the unrest in Aachen on the occasion of the separatist uprising of 1924 and the beginning of the global economic crisis, sales fell significantly. To counteract this, on July 3, 1928, the Delius cloth factory joined forces with Ernst Friedrich Weissflog AG , the Aschaffenburg brothers cloth factory in Mönchengladbach , the Bautzner cloth factory , Wm. Focke & Co. worsted yarn mill in Gera and Joh. Erckens Söhne GmbH in Aachen - Burtscheid zur Toga Vereinigte Webereien Aktiengesellschaft with a capital of 15 billion Reichsmarks. But already on February 8, 1932, the decision to dissolve the toga was resolved, all individual businesses - including the Delius cloth factory - were shut down, the creditors paid off and the loans repaid, which completely depleted the share capital.

After long years of vacancy and partial destruction in the Second World War, the Leonhard Monheim AG chocolate factory initially occupied the complex from 1949 to 1980, before the main building was taken over by AachenMünchener , who finally had it converted to make it a listed building.

building

Former Delius cloth factory

After the takeover by AachenMünchener, the main building was converted into an apartment complex with 78 residential units according to plans by the architects J. Schwarze and H. Feldmann, for which the old adjacent commercial and technical buildings of the factory on the Delius area had to be demolished. Taking into account the monument protection requirements, the attic of the main building was expanded and the external shape of the building was slightly changed in some cases, and instead of a single entrance, several of them were installed along Deliusstrasse. In addition, the entire area of the original basement was converted into an underground car park.

The former main building of the factory from 1906, as it is today, is a four-story brick building , with the lower floor being developed as a mezzanine floor and the top floor being designed as an attic floor . The building, which is divided into three axes towards Mauerstraße and 17 double axes towards Deliusstraße, does not have a rectangular floor plan like the usual factory buildings, but is slightly concave in accordance with the course of Deliusstraße. In the course of the attic level, the transitions between the axes are emphasized by pilaster-like decorations with a rounded gable structure. All facades of the block are characterized by Gothic ornamental shapes and plaster facings similar to pinnacles, whereby the external appearance conveys the character of a defense architecture.

This impression is reinforced by the slightly prefabricated tower-like shape of the building on the corner of Deliusstrasse and Mauerstrasse, which is modeled on a Malakow tower , as it was actually used in mining in the 19th century. It has the side dimensions of a double axis and is decorated with attached round corner turrets.

In the two middle floors of the main building, the windows are paired in pairs and set in arched, recessed, round-arched wall fields that extend over both floors. On the long side, they are also laid further inwards, so that the free space between the wall opening and window serves as a loggia . On the mezzanine floor there are simple, double-coupled arched windows without any particular wall accentuation, whereas on the attic floor the windows are threefold coupled and built into rectangular wall panels decorated with friezes . Striking are the bevelled sills , which in the lower and in the first floor Gesimsartig are interconnected.

Benno Werth's fountain in the Deliusviertel

The new buildings on the former area of the cloth factory in the rear area of the main building along the new Kuckhoffstrasse all date from the 1980s and have been adapted in style and shape to the old factory building. Together with the redeveloped main complex, they convey an inner-city place of tranquility with their square-like layout, the traffic-calmed paths and squares and a fountain system by Benno Werth , which is supposed to remind of the water power for the cloth industry.