Zwicky & Co.
Zwicky & Co. (today Zwicky & Co. AG ) was founded in Wallisellen ( Canton Zurich , Switzerland ) in 1840 as a silk and cotton twisting mill. The company became a world-famous manufacturer of sewing threads and silk threads in the 19th and 20th centuries.
history
In 1838 Jakob Brecker-Locher bought the “Neugut” mechanical locksmith's workshop in Wallisellen, which was built in 1832, and in 1839 set up a spinning mill there. In 1839 he received the right from the Zurich government council to use the water of the Chriesbach in Wallisellen for the waterworks of his spinning mill. In 1840 he sold the spinning mill to the Zurich companies David Römer-Schinz & Co. and Hans Conrad Pestalozzi (1793–1860) & Sons .
In 1841 Johann Caspar Guggenbühl (1799–1862) leased the silk and cotton twining mill in Neugut an der Glatt near Wallisellen and expanded it from 1841 to 1847 into a four-part group of buildings with a production facility and a residential building. He acquired the twisting mill in 1851 and 1858 and expanded it with a dye works, gas factory and food stores to form an important building ensemble in Zurich's industrial history.
In 1851, Guggenbühl applied to build a new, expanded factory canal in order to be able to use the water power of the Glatt. Glatt and Chriesbach supply the company with energy by means of a turbine. The company benefited from what was then the leading industry, the textile branch, but it did not produce fabrics, but threads. In 1855 315 workers were employed and for a long time it was the largest employer in Wallisellen. Guggenbühl opened its first branch in Frauenfeld in 1859 .
His son Johann Jakob Guggenbühl (1824–1886) continued the company in 1861. In addition to the production of silk twine for weaving, the sale of embroidery and sewing silk was expanded. The factory was rebuilt and modernized by 1865. In order to be able to handle the time-consuming winding and cleaning of the coarse Japanese and Chinese silk more efficiently, this work was outsourced to home workers or external winding buildings in the canton of Zurich, who were equipped with hundreds of small winding machines. At the end of the 19th century this homework was given up again because the silk had already been pre-processed in Japan and China for cost reasons.
In 1886 Fritz (Fridolin) Zwicky-Guggenbühl (1853–1941), the son-in-law of Johann Jakob, took over the silk twisting and dyeing factory that had existed since 1838 and was named after it. In 1902 he had new production buildings and the large twisting mill built (existing today). Shiny real silk was used for buttonhole, embroidery and weaving threads; matt schappet silk was more used for sewing, as it cools the needle of the sewing machine better because of its hairiness. Another production facility was added in Fällanden. Because of the high tariffs after 1914, branches and factories were opened in France ( Paris 1898, Lyon 1908, Hégenheim 1920), Austria ( Vienna ), Czechoslovakia (Prague), Poland (Krakow), Hungary, Romania (Bucharest), Yugoslavia, later founded in Germany ( Gotha , later Pirmasens ) and a sales office in England. Zwicky was president of the Swiss silk twister association for 38 years.
Shortly before the First World War , Fritz Zwicky's son Ernst and son-in-law Carl Adolf Burckhardt joined the company as partners. In 1930, Ernst Zwicky had a factory owner's villa built by the architect Gustav Gull on the Wallisellen site . The company grew rapidly and invested in new product development. In 1940 the company employed 300 people.
During the Second World War , the company was hit by the crisis, which could only be overcome with the upswing after 1945. The Gotha plant came under compulsory administration in the GDR and had to be replaced by a new factory in Pirmasens.
In the 1960s, sons Dieter Zwicky and Christoph Burckhardt took over management of the company. The successful export in 1960 required the construction of a new twisting mill building with a larger capacity. The synthetic fiber found its entrance and began to replace the silk and cotton threads. The lowering of the Glatt because of the highway construction in 1973 led to the loss of hydropower. In 1982 the general partnership was converted into a stock corporation. After Christoph Burckhardt's retirement and the unexpected death of Dieter Zwicky in 1988, his son Peter Zwicky took over the management of the company.
The general relocation of textile production to low-wage countries hit the sewing thread supplier Zwicky once again, despite excellent products and the best service. As a result, several locations were closed in the 199s (Vienna, Fällanden and also Frauenfeld). At the beginning of the 1990s, the company was still producing around 150 tons of silk thread and 250 tons of sewing thread in its factories. A few years later, the manufacture of woven silk was given up and that of sewing threads was concentrated on Wallisellen, Hégenheim and Pirmasens. In addition to the well-known sewing threads for household and clothing, Zwicky developed special products for the automotive industry, in particular for sewing airbags. However, the outsourcing of textile production to low-wage countries continued. The customer base was getting smaller and smaller, an independent survival was hardly conceivable. By the mid-1990s at the latest, it became clear that the Wallisellen production site on the outskirts of the city of Zurich could no longer offer long-term prospects. A pilot project showed that the existing buildings on the 22 hectare site could be successfully converted and rented out.
In 2001, the operative business was merged with that of the competitor Gütermann and a conversion of the area was initiated. Peter Zwicky took over the management of the combined group of companies and accompanied the development of the Zwicky area for several years. In 2003 a first private design plan was approved and three major construction projects were then implemented. In 2008, Peter Zwicky's sister Monica Zwicky took over the operational management of the area. Then a second design plan was created, which met the greater need for living and improved some of the problems of the first plan. Since then, numerous other renovation and new building projects have been implemented. Peter and Monica Zwicky expect the conversion of the area to be completed in 2022. The old industrial area has then become a lively and attractive new city quarter between Wallisellen and Dübendorf. Numerous buildings from the old days still refer to the former industrial past.
literature
- Barbara E. Messerli: silk. To the story of a noble fabric. Publishing house NZZ, Zurich 1985.
- Lucerne University of Applied Sciences, Silk Memory: Zwicky
Web links
- Veronika Feller-Vest: Fridolin Zwicky. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
- New life for the Chriesbach
Individual evidence
- ^ Zwicky & Co. AG: Milestones in a founding story.
- ^ Factory Hégenheim: History .
- ^ Gütermann: Milestones Zwicky
- ↑ Investment boost in the anniversary year: Zwicky & Co. AG, Wallisellen. Mittex: the trade journal for textile yarn and fabric production in German-speaking Europe Volume 97, 1990, issue 8
- ^ Wallisellen municipality: By (not) a thin thread
- ↑ Forum Architecture 2016: Monica Zwicky: Zwicky - Wallisellen / Dübendorf: silk thread newly twisted, a quarter takes shape. Prof_Dr_Monica_Zwicky_Forum_Architektur_Zuerich.pdf ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
Coordinates: 47 ° 24 '16.8 " N , 8 ° 36' 5.8" E ; CH1903: 687 782 / 251079