Economic history of the city of Ruhla
As an industrial city, the city of Ruhla has an economic history that goes back to the 15th century .
Economic history until 1860
Around 1400 the Eisenach chronicler Johannes Rothe reported on the ironworks in Ruhla. In the Ruhla Valley and the neighboring towns, the division of labor and further specialization in the blade forging trade (knives, scissors, as well as cutting and thrusting weapons) became the rule. After 1550 the whole region benefited from the extraordinarily high quality of the iron ore mined in the legendary Mommel and Stahlberg mines near Trusetal and Schmalkalden. The craft guilds specialized continued, but it was only in 1656 that Ruhlaer obtained Cutlers the guild law, which previously in Eisenach was guild. The success of the Ruhla knife makers caused the growing needs of the neighboring communities. In 1665 Pastor Heßling von Brotterode complained "that our knife makers often felt compelled to have their knives sharpened in the Ruhl due to a lack of water, which means that 260 guilders went abroad every year ". A check in the same year showed that “there were a few hundred knife manufacturers in the Ruhl and 130 knife workers and 35 blade smiths in Schmalkalden, which is why it was necessary that a new grinding library be built in Brotterode to maintain the cutler's guild”. In 1683, the knife maker Wolf Schenk from Ruhla complained about a knife maker from Brotterode, "... because he was imitating the privileged master's marks and was such a shame".
At the beginning of the 18th century knives and cutting weapons were exported from Ruhla for 120,000 thalers each year , in 1747 only 40,000 thalers were sold. In the years 1747 to 1750, numerous cutlers moved to Eberswalde in Prussia , where shortly before Friedrich the Great had founded a knife and steel goods factory and, with a form of protectionism , banned the import of Ruhla products. An overview of the Ruhla population from 1797 reports that the following were employed in Ruhla in the manual and industrial sector: “... 500 cutlers, 25 file cutters, 14 locksmiths, 25 brass comb makers, 6 ivory comb makers, 282 pipe workers, 255 pipe head fitters, silver workers and lidders, 12 pipe turners and 9 freight transporters ... "
The division of Ruhla and the associated development problems, but also the competition, sales difficulties and the migration of 80 families of the cutlery guild, led to the decline of the Ruhla knife trade in the 19th century. Even during its heyday, a new line of business developed with the manufacture of pipe fittings and tobacco pipes were manufactured in Ruhla only a short time later . In 1750 the "fake" meerschaum ( sepiolite ) was invented in Ruhla . During this time, Ruhla became world-famous for pipe smokers.
Economic history after 1860
On September 25, 1862, the Thiel brothers registered a trade in pipe fittings. The company developed steadily and due to the general upswing in the early days, the decision was made to move into a new and larger building. The product range now included several small metal items and from 1874 the company considered producing a beer clock as a counter for innkeepers. The first Ruhla pocket watch was introduced in 1891 and, thanks to its very affordable price, was initially sold abroad, especially in the USA . After a revision, from 1901 there was also increasing sales on the German market. The parts were manufactured on specially developed machines that were also offered to customers. Ruhla developed into one of the most important places in the German watch industry. During the First and Second World Wars, production was almost exclusively limited to the manufacture of time fuses for the German Army and the Wehrmacht . Another example of the adaptability of the Ruhla industrial companies is the history of the Schlothauer und Söhne OHG, which was founded in the mid-19th century. The specialization in metal and sheet metal working for the meerschaum pipe production was the first economic basis. After 1900, a lucrative line of business was found with the specialization in brass processing (fittings and electrical contact parts). This led to the development of patented solutions for the still young automotive industry. In the 1930s, the German market was supplied with all kinds of electrical and mechanical installation materials, including cables, bicycle electrics, radio components and various brass items. For this purpose, further operational parts were built in Thuringia and Saxony. During the war production was switched to mechanical detonators . After the end of the Second World War, there was therefore concern that the armaments factory would be broken up, but this did not happen, and the original production range was resumed under Soviet administration. First the company called itself Elektrowerk Schlothauer, later Elektroarmaturenwerk Ruhla (EAW). Production sites in Brotterode and Gumpelstadt now also belonged to the company.
Economic history after 1930
In the largest company in town, the watch and machine factory Gebrüder Thiel , over 730 men and women as so-called Eastern workers as well as a large number of prisoners of war from France and military internees from Italy had to do forced labor during the Second World War . The company received the honorary title of "National Socialist Model Company" from the then Office for Work Beauty . In the company C. & F. Schlothauer more than 1000, in another eight companies more than 550 forced laborers were used. Nineteen graves in the Trinitatis cemetery commemorate the victims, who included five women and six small children . A French prisoner of war who was employed as a machine worker was arrested by the Gestapo and executed in a mass shooting in Webicht in Weimar in April 1945 .
During the GDR era , the company Uhrenwerke Thiel became public property in 1952 by decision of the government of the USSR . In addition to alarm clocks, wristwatches, chess, car and table clocks, production again included machine tools. In 1963, the development of new production technologies led to the world's only fully automated production of the legendary caliber 24 , which was built into more than 120 million watches by 1987.
After 1980, serial production of the digital clock began , based on special microelectronic components. The high-tech production capacities required for this were built up in a specially built plant in neighboring Seebach , while a network of service and supplier companies, for example for plastics processing, measuring equipment and tool construction, was created in the vicinity.
Companies
After the Soviet authorities transferred the EAW to the Association of Nationally Owned Enterprises Installation, Cables and Apparatus (VVB IKA) in 1950 ; For a short time the company called itself IKA Elektro-Armaturen , then VEB Elektro-Fahrzeugeinrichtung Ruhla (EFR). By 1958, the Ruhla-based vehicle supplier had developed into a leading company in this branch. The operations of the automotive industry in the GDR were to state guidelines under the umbrella of collective combines together. This is how the VEB Kombinat Fahrzeugelektrik Ruhla was created with over 2000 employees at times, from which FER Fahrzeugelektrik GmbH emerged in 1992.
Numerous parts of the company, mostly in poor structural condition, were located throughout the city of Ruhla and the surrounding communities, and the combine management was relocated to Eisenach . The Ruhla manufacturing companies produced alternators, starters, headlights and signaling devices (horns, horns, rotating beacons).
VEB Elektroinstallation Ruhla (ERU), with over 800 employees at times, was one of the other Ruhla-based companies at that time , whose production focus was on the manufacture of electrical installation material for building and house technology, switches and sockets. The VEB Electronic Components Ruhla (EWC) with over 300 employees specializing in the construction of switches for microelectronics; just like VEB Schaltbau Ruhla (SBR). At times, the company VEB Uhren- und Maschinenkombinat Ruhla (UMK) had over 2500 employees . Another watch production in Ruhla was provided by VEB Uhrenwerke Ruhla , the leading company in the Microelectronics Combine (UWR). Around 7500 people were employed at all locations together.
Today's economic situation
After the fall of the Wall , the Ruhla watch industry began to reshape itself. The VEB Uhrenwerke Ruhla gave rise to private, highly specialized small and medium-sized companies such as Gardé Uhren und Feinmechanik Ruhla GmbH . To this day, the name Ruhla is known as a watch city. At the same time, numerous small and medium-sized companies have settled in Ruhla and benefited from the successes of the automotive industry in the Eisenach economic area as suppliers or service providers.
Ruhla is also an important location for Thuringian forestry. Hurricane Kyrill caused severe damage in the Ruhla forests on the Rennsteig.
Related Links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bickel, Chronicle v. Brotterode (1925)
- ↑ This is how we lived - Thuringia a hundred years ago; ISBN 3-932642-00-7
- ^ Emanuel Sax: The house industry in Thuringia. Economic history studies. Ruhla and the surrounding area . In: Johann Conrad (ed.): Collection of economic and statistical treatises . Second volume. Seventh issue. Gustav-Fischer Verlag, Jena 1884, p. 5-71, 83-96 .
- ↑ See F. Bauer: Pocket and Wristwatches - Production and Special Machines for Toolmaking by Gebrüder Thiel GmbH, Ruhle, Thuringia. Leipzig 1938.
- ↑ Hans Biallas, Th. Hupfauer, Heinrich Hoffmann, Erich Fischer: The National Socialist Model Companies 1937/38. Raumbild Verlag, Diessen am Ammersee, 1938
- ↑ Thuringian Association of the Persecuted of the Nazi Regime - Association of Antifascists and Study Group of German Resistance 1933-1945 (ed.): Heimatgeschichtlicher Wegweiser to places of resistance and persecution 1933-1945, series: Heimatgeschichtliche Wegweiser Volume 8 Thüringen, Erfurt 2003, p. 328 , ISBN 3-88864-343-0
- ^ Sources on the history of Thuringia. The Secret State Police in the NS Gau Thuringia 1933-1945, Volume II, p. 473; ISBN 3-931426-83-1