Kesselkaul cloth factory

Former Administration building of the Kesselkaul cloth factory

The cloth factory JH Kesselkaul Enkel was one of the largest and most successful cloth factories in Aachen . It was founded in 1815 by Johann Heinrich Kesselkaul and Joseph van Gülpen and since 1855 has had its location at Aachen Krakaustraße 25-27. The company mainly produced for non-European countries and specialized in fine black cloths, draps croisés ( twilled cloths) and satins . Its products have won numerous international business awards.

In 1977 the cloth factory was shut down and the entire area was sold to a larger furniture dealer. The main building with the gate passage has been a listed building since 1983 , all other buildings in the factory no longer exist.

history

Cloth factory van Gülpen & Kesselkaul in Königstrasse

At the age of only 24, Johann Heinrich Kesselkaul (1791–1858) joined forces with Joseph van Gülpen, who was two years younger, in 1815, and they founded the van Gülpen & Kesselkaul spinning mill and cloth factory on the property at Königstraße 22 in Aachen . Influenced by the foreign contacts of his father Heinrich Albert Kesselkaul (1747-1805), who was resident in Canton (China) as well as resident and "Chef en Second" at the imperial Austrian company Triester in Malabar (India), Johann Heinrich Kesselkaul concentrated on this Foreign business, initially with a focus on North and South America. In addition, his partner van Gülpen rented the Großer Klüppel , where he set up a wool warehouse together with David Hansemann, who was then a wool merchant .

The joint venture was successful, and ten years later a new, even larger factory had to be built on Adalbertstrasse on the site of the former Pletschmühle , once operated by the Amya family , on the banks of the Johannisbach . This new factory was equipped in 1827 with a 12 HP steam engine to drive the "spinning, hoisting and shearing machines". In addition, Kesselkaul used a weaving mill on the neighboring property and a fulling mill in Weisweiler an der Inde . During this time, the company mainly produced cashmere cloth for the international market. As a representative summer residence, Kesselkaul acquired the Obere Müsch estate in the Müschpark in 1831 , in which a tree torso with the incised inscription: "1845 Johanna and Heinrich Kesselkaul" commemorates the owner. After a business relationship that lasted 23 years, van Gülpen left the company in 1838 and set up his own cloth factory in the Wespienhaus , which his son Eduard moved to Gut Müsch in 1864. The previous joint venture van Gülpen & Kesselkaul now traded as Tuchfabrik JH Kesselkaul .

Further increases in sales meant that this factory was no longer able to cope with the requirements, and in 1847 Kesselkaul relocated his company to a newly built factory in front of the Kölntor , which he also equipped with modern spinning mules . The company rose to become the third largest cloth factory in Aachen and was awarded prizes at the world exhibitions of the time. Quite soon, however, it turned out that this factory was also too small, and in 1855/1856 Kesselkaul moved his company to the extensive factory site in "Krakow", to which also significant rights to the Paubach flowing there with its particularly suitable for cloth production soft water belonged. He did not shy away from the competition from the Nellessen cloth factory on Mörgensstrasse, only a few 100 meters away .

Johann Heinrich Kesselkaul died just two years later, and three of his sons, Ludwig (1820–1891), Eduard (1826–1889) and Robert Kesselkaul (1831–1914), took over their father's cloth factory. These were the company's most successful years, employing 335 workers, including 70 women, and repeatedly receiving international awards. Although the factory had meanwhile also started worsted yarn production, South America and the Dutch East Indies in particular , but also many European countries, continued to be important sales markets for the previous smooth cloth, especially for the fine dark blue cloth "Drap Royal". In 1900 the factory was modernized again and equipped with another steam boiler.

Letterhead Kesselkaul on Krakow with awards

After the brothers Ludwig and Eduard died before the turn of the century, Gustav Kesselkaul (1854–1911), a son of Eduard, and after his death Gustav's son Eduard (1892–1962) joined the management and the company became a cloth factory JH Kesselkaul Enkel renamed. At the beginning of the First World War , the company was increasingly switched to military cloth, which, however, was replaced by the production of sackcloth from 1916 due to a lack of material supplies. After the war, by specializing in single-color qualities such as worsted, drapees , foulés , Eskimos and velor , earlier successes could be built on quickly.

With the beginning of the Second World War , the company again focused on the production of military fabrics. In the course of the war, the factory buildings were badly damaged, but were largely repaired by 1948, whereas the neighboring Nellessen cloth factory no longer began operations. A new steel chimney was built in 1955 and an oil-fired low-pressure steam boiler was installed in 1970. Nevertheless, the company was unable to build on previous successes, as it suffered considerable losses, mainly due to competition from low-wage countries, and operations ultimately had to be discontinued in 1977.

The furniture factory Schlachte & Co. took over the factory building, had eleven dilapidated buildings demolished and the remaining buildings converted for their own purposes. There she set up a forwarding agency and a furniture warehouse with sales halls as well as the central office in the main building, which in 1983 was the only building in the old factory to be listed as a historical monument . After the furniture store was closed, the area was divided among three new owners, the remaining old factory buildings demolished and the area declared as building land.

Awards (selection)

1851: Prize medal at the Great Exhibition in London
1855: Award for wool fabrics from the Kesselkaul company at the Paris World Exhibition in 1855
1862: Awarded at the London World's Fair in 1862
1873: Award at the 1873 World's Fair
1876: Awarded at the Centennial Exhibition in Pennsylvania
1888/1889: First prize for woolen yarns and clothing fabrics at the “Centennial International Exhibition” in Melbourne
1893: Awarded at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago
1900: Award at the Paris World Exhibition in 1900

building

The main building, which can be seen in two creative periods, is a three-story, eight-axis brick building with a hipped roof equipped with nine dormers . In the original construction from 1855, the five right axes show that these pilaster strips are structured and that, among other things, the plinth, the cornices above the ground floor and the second floor and the window sills are made of bluestone . These details were no longer taken into account during the restoration in 1980 along the three left axes. Furthermore, the bluestone plinth and the window sill are missing in the lower window on the first right axis, as the window was created from the conversion of the former entrance door to the porter's apartment. In contrast, the former round-arched entrance door is still present in the fifth axis, which is provided with a profiled bluestone frame and whose lintel is emphasized. The former wooden windows have meanwhile been replaced by modern plastic windows with lattice structure in the style of the 19th century. Since the earlier buildings on the north side have not yet been replaced, the windowless north wall was equipped with slate panels as weather protection.

The same fate suffered the round arched gate passage framed with bluestones with the massive keystone, which had to be demolished in 1979 as part of the general demolition measures and then rebuilt a year later in the same place with old stones but with a slightly modified facade. Similar to the main building, it is structured like a pilaster strip and with contemporary details is built flush and four-storey to the south wall of the building. The three floors above the passage are lower, so that the roof edge is only a little lower than on the three-story main house.

Other buildings from the factory's old stock such as the boiler house, the joinery and the shed roof halls are no longer available, contrary to the information in the "Rhenish industrial culture" source.

literature

Wilhelm Leopold Janssen : History of the company "JH Kesselkaul Enkel" ... Cloth factory in Aachen 1815–1940. A contribution to the history of cloth manufacturing in Aachen. Aachen 1940