This concern was organised in December 1940 by the financial entrepreneur Günther Quandt to acquire and rationalise a number of small textile firms across Germany to better compete in expanding markets abroad. The base for its growth was the Deutsche Wollenwaren-Manufaktur AG, a combine of woolen-goods manufacturers previously organised by Quandt. In rapid succession it was able to acquire long-established firms including that of Müller in Furth, of Stöhr and Schultz, both in Leipzig, and the great works of Mann und Reinhard at Barmen. The concern operates as a holding company, placing control of the mills themselves in operating subsidiaries, including the aforementioned Deutsche Wollenwaren-Manufaktur, which concentrates on woolens, and the Vereinigte Textilwerke AG, which controls the concern’s cotton spinning and weaving mills. The concern has also established its own foreign trading subsidiary to expand its sales in South America.
Principal subsidiaries of the concern include:
Deutsche Wollenwaren-Manufaktur AG, Berlin (woolen-goods manufacture and sale)
Vereinigte Textilwerke AG, Barmen (cotton-goods manufacture and sale)
Deutsch-Südamerikanische Export-und-Import AG, Berlin (overseas sales)
Subsidiaries of Deutsche Wollenwaren-Manufaktur include:
Norddeutsche Wollkämmerei & Kammgarnspinnerei AG, Bremen (textile manufacture)
Viersener AG für Spinnerei und Weberei, Viersen (textile manufacture)
Wiesbadener Wollwarenfabrik AG, Wiesbaden (textile manufacture)
Woll-Wäscherei und Kämmerei in Döhren AG, Hannover-Döhren (textile manufacture)
Mills of the Vereinigte Textilwerke include:
Mechanische Baumwoll-Spinnerei und Weberei Kaufbeuren AG, Kaufbeuren (cotton textiles)
Vereinigte Textilwerke AG, Werke Barmen (vormals Mann und Reinhard), Barmen (cotton textiles)
Vereinigte Textilwerke AG, Werke Furth (vormals H. C. Müller), Furth (cotton spinning and weaving)
Vereinigte Textilwerke AG, Werke Gronau, Gronau (cotton spinning and weaving)
Vereinigte Textilwerke AG, Werke Leipzig, Leipzig (cotton textiles)
Vereinigte Textilwerke AG, Werke Neugersdorf (vormals H. Herzog), Neugersdorf (cotton spinning and weaving)
Westfälischen Baumwollspinnerei AG, Paderborn (cotton textiles)