Cloth factory Gebr. Pfau
The cloth factory Gebr. Pfau in Crimmitschau is a technical monument with a museum character. It is part of the Saxon Industrial Museum Association and represents the Saxon textile history. Until 2012 the house operated under the name Westsächsisches Textilmuseum.
The Pfausche factory is unique in Central Europe in terms of its size and the completeness of its historical buildings and machinery, as the manufacture of cloths is done step by step, from the delivery of the raw materials (wool, rayon and Dederon ), their mixture, to the finished product packaged bales of fabric is documented. The aim is not only to show the history of technology, but also the working and living conditions of textile workers in the 20th century.
history
In 1859 Friedrich Pfau founded a hand-weaving mill at Leipziger Strasse 49 in Crimmitschau. To increase capacity, a new factory was built in 1885 on the corner of Leipziger Strasse and Sahntalstrasse (today Leipziger Strasse 125) - a four-storey factory building with a boiler house and chimney. All production steps of a cloth factory that produces and processes carded yarn could take place on the site. The fabrics were exported worldwide in the 1890s.
In 1899 a fire destroyed large parts of the factory. Therefore Friedrich Pfau passed the business on to his sons Otto and Adolph Pfau. Under the new company name 'Gebr. Pfau 'they rebuilt the factory. In 1903 the workers of the Pfau'sche cloth factory also took part in the great textile workers' strike. In 1907 Otto Pfau moved into a new prestigious villa on the corner plot of Leipziger / Sahntalstraße directly on the factory premises. In 1910 a representative administration and production building was built on Leipziger Strasse. By purchasing the premises of the neighboring spinning and dyeing mill Zeiner & Schumann in 1916, the area of the Gebr. Pfau cloth factory, where military cloths were manufactured during the First World War, doubled. In the period between 1920 and 1930, the company was converted into a general partnership and then into a limited partnership with the participation of other entrepreneurs. The fresh capital made it possible to invest in the machinery.
In 1930 the company became a family business again with Werner Pfau, the son of Adolph Pfau, as technical director and managing director. From 1939, the production of military cloths was expanded as a result of the Second World War, which at the same time led to the modernization of the machinery. With the end of the war, the occupation of Crimmitschau by the Allies and a halt in production, production was resumed in June 1945, primarily for reparation deliveries to the Soviet Union.
From 1947 onwards, cloths for men's and women's outerwear, such as coat and suit fabrics as well as costume and skirt fabrics, were again produced for domestic use. From 1957 the company had to accept state participation. A large part of the production was now made for western countries. In the 1960s, the machine inventory was modernized. In 1972 almost all of the state-owned companies were transferred to public ownership , which changed the name - from Gebr. Pfau KG to VEB Modetuche. Finally, in 1976, seven Crimmitschau textile factories, including VEB Modetuche, were combined to form Plant 7 of VEB Volltuchwerke Crimmitschau. This now primarily produced mixed fabrics and, in addition to the classic carded yarn cloths for outerwear, also denim and tapestry goods . In the following years there were hardly any funds available for investments, which led to difficulties in the course of the political and economic turnaround in 1989/1990.
In 1990, production on the factory premises was finally stopped and the entire factory complex, including the machinery, was placed under monument protection. At the same time, the first plans for a museum on the history of the textile industry began. With the founding of the Friends of the Westsächsisches Textilmuseum Crimmitschau eV in 1993, work began on building a museum. In 1995 the city of Crimmitschau acquired the site, so that the first renovation work could begin one year later. With the accession to the newly established Saxon Industrial Museum, the development of the museum went into the next stage, when in 1999 the first full-time staff were hired and regular events were offered. Despite an architectural ideas competition and the decision of the Crimmitschauer City Council in 2003 to implement a presented museum concept, there was no further expansion into a full-fledged museum. Today the historical factory can be visited with guided tours. Smaller special exhibitions complete the program.
The cloth factory Gebr. Pfau is to be expanded in 2020 as a side show for the 4th Saxon State Exhibition on the subject of industrial culture.
literature
- Jörg Feldkamp, Zweckverband Sächsisches Industriemuseum (Ed.): Sächsisches Industriemuseum. Five stations of industrial culture in Saxony. Chemnitz 1999.J
- Rita Müller (Ed.): Crimmitschauer villas tell history. Chemnitz 2013.
- Peter Hauschild: The cloth factory Gebr. Pfau in Crimmitschau. In: Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden - Saxon State Office for Museums (Ed.): Museum digital !? Potentials and Limits. New ways for exhibition, communication and mediation. Museum Bulletin Muzeum 22. Chemnitz 2015, pp. 159–163.
- Peter Hauschild: A monument to Saxon industrial history. The cloth factory Gebr. Pfau in Crimmitschau. In: Sächsischer Museumsbund e. V. (Ed.): Industrial culture in Saxony. Information from the Saxon Museum Association V. 49. Chemnitz 2016, pp. 25–28.