Vollmoeller AG

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The United Trikotagen Vollmoeller AG was a German textile company that existed from 1881 to 1971 in Vaihingen (Stuttgart) and in 1910 was the world's largest company of its kind with over 3000 employees.

Company history

The company was founded on June 15, 1881 by Robert Vollmöller and Carl Behr in Vaihingen (Stuttgart) . It initially carried the name "Mechanical Tricotwaarenfabrik Vaihingen ad Fildern, Behr & Vollmoeller". The company relied on so-called mass-produced goods, such as underpants and shirts, but pursued an outspoken reform approach. Robert Vollmöller, who was acquainted with the zoologist Gustav Jäger , took over his health-promoting, woolen reform clothing and produced it under license. Vollmöller's friend Robert Bosch was one of the staunch supporters of Jäger's reform clothing; also known Vollmöllers, the literary figures Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw . The latter campaigned for the spread of the reform clothing produced by Vollmöller in England. England was the company's largest sales market alongside Germany until 1914.

In 1888 Robert Vollmöller paid Carl Behr out and became the sole owner. Three branches were established in Herrenberg , Plieningen and Untertürkheim . On May 30, 1901, the company was converted into a stock corporation , the "Vereinigte Tricotwaaren Actiengesellschaft". The rapid growth of the AG continued until 1914, the beginning of the First World War . As early as 1910, the company was the largest jersey manufacturer in the world with over 3000 employees.

However, it is not only the business success of the AG that is remarkable. Vollmöller and his wife Emilie, who died in 1894, were among the pioneers of a social balance between employees and entrepreneurs in the sense of the later social market economy . In 1897 the Neue Rundschau of S. Fischer Verlag wrote : “ In this Emilienheim there are spacious rooms in which the girls can stay during the free lunch hour and eat their lunch. There are also dormitories with around 50 beds for those girls who are too far away from home to return every evening. A large garden around the building allows the girls to enjoy themselves in the open air; the same is released for unhindered use for all workers on Sundays . "

In 1898, “Der Industrielle”, Eckstein Verlag, reported on Robert Vollmöller and his factories: “ It is a world of its own that is presented to us here. The main factory with the associated apartments, welfare facilities and facilities covers an area of ​​around 1000 ares, in which rooms have been created which, in terms of abundance of light and air, cannot be matched by many factories in Germany. In general, the company's hygienic, social and welfare facilities are so great that it is not wrong to say that this factory has, to a certain extent, solved the social question on a small scale. It should only be mentioned that a girls' day nursery has been set up for the young workers in the factory, under the name 'Emilienheim'. Likewise, more than 80 own family apartments have been built for the officials of the factory and the foremen, and for the commercial staff of the company there is a separate, comfortably furnished house with a garden, 'Der Filderhof' (also an inn, which has about 30 rooms for use for the commercial (unmarried) employees) . "

In 1908 Jakob Hubert Schütz wrote in “The Practical Social Politician”: “ As far as light and air are concerned, these factory premises can serve as a model for many factories. Robert Vollmöller took care of his employees in a hygienic and social respect in a highly thoughtful manner ”.

On October 29, 1909, the company founder Robert Vollmöller was made an honorary citizen of Vaihingen, now the state capital of Stuttgart, for his social commitment and for his economic successes. Ten years earlier, on the occasion of his 50th birthday, his friend, King Wilhelm II of Württemberg (Württemberg) had appointed him to the Council of Commerce.

In June 1914 the company was converted into a family company, the "Vereinigte Trikotagen Vollmoeller AG", which operated under this name until it was dissolved in 1971/72. 1925 joined Rudolf Vollmöller, eldest son Robert Full Moller, from the board of the AG and founded in Switzerland an independent Vollmoeller Textil AG, which existed until 2002 and from 1951 through a subsidiary, the "Volma knitwear GmbH", licensee of Jockey International has been .

In Germany, Karl Gustav Vollmoeller took over a seat on the supervisory board in 1909, and was chairman of the supervisory board from 1939 until his death in 1948. It was also he who in 1932 signed a license agreement with the US “Jantzen Knitting Inc.” for the production of swimsuits. In 1934 Vollmoeller AG founded two subsidiaries in Berlin, “Vollmoeller Wirkerei und Färberei GmbH” and “Vollmoeller-Moden GmbH”. In addition, there were holdings in "Schwäbische Zellstoff AG", Ehingen Donau, founded in 1937, and "Wolle und Tierhaare AG", Berlin, founded in 1939. On the night of November 22nd to 23rd, 1942, the headquarters in Stuttgart-Vaihingen was bombed and 90% destroyed. Production continued in the branches in Plieningen and Herrenberg as well as in Berlin. The Berlin factories were completely destroyed in November 1944. To compensate, the company acquired a 50% stake in a textile factory in Leinfelden near Vaihingen.

At the end of April 1945 the company was occupied by the American occupation forces and the family was expropriated. Part of the workforce took over the company in trust until the company returned to family ownership in mid-1946. Funds from the Marshall Plan as well as cotton deliveries from the USA made it possible to rebuild and restart production. The economic boom made a remarkable new beginning possible; in May 1956 the 75th anniversary could be celebrated. The onset of globalization and the crisis in the German textile industry also affected Vollmoeller AG in the 1960s. In 1971/72 the company and its extensive property were sold. The buyers wound up the company. The huge company site in a central location in Vaihingen was newly built. In place of the former main building, the hotel "Pullman Stuttgart Fontana" stands today. The former “Filderhof” is the only building from the Wilhelminian era to survive. Today it houses a retirement home.

literature

  • 75 years Vollmoeller , commemorative publication for the 75th anniversary. Hoppenstedt, Darmstadt 1956
  • August Holder: Robert Vollmöller - Life and Work . Heilbronn 1912
  • Frederik D. Tunnat: Karl Vollmoeller: poet and cultural manager. a biography . tredition, Hamburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-86850-000-4 .
  • Frederik D. Tunnat: Karl Vollmoeller: A cosmopolitan life under the sign of the miracle . tredition, Hamburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-86850-235-0 .

Magazines

  • Neue Rundschau , 8th year, issue 3 1897, S. Fischer Verlag Berlin
  • The practical social politician , magazine, Berlin 1908
  • Der Industrielle , magazine, Eckstein Verlag Berlin, 1898