WesWorld

This firm came into existence in January 1869 through the merger of the Neuen Baumwoll-Spinnerei Hof and the Mechanischen Weberei Hof; at that time if formed the largest integrated spinning and weaving firm in the Hof district. In 1908 it acquired a factory in the nearby town of Münchberg, which was organised as a subsidiary, Textil-Gesellschaft Münchberg. In the years following the Great War new facilities were built in Nördlingen and Moschendorf for the manufacture of printed cottons, and, in 1931, the firm acquired the works of Hermann Ebenauer, a manufacturer and printer of artificial textiles.


Subsidiaries of the firm include:

Bleicherei, Färberei und Appreturanstalt Uhlingen AG, Uhlingen (cotton textiles)
Textil-Gesellschaft Münchberg AG, Münchberg (cotton textiles)

This enterprise was founded in 1881 by Robert Vollmöller and Carl Behr as the Mechanische Tricotwaarenfabrik Vaihingen, to undertake the manufacture of tricot and, from 1888, the manufacture of ready-made undergarments for retail sale. The firm’s first factory was constructed in Stuttgart- Vaihingen. The partnership was converted to a joint stock company in 1901, following the firm’s rapid growth and the creation of additional branch factories in Herrenberg, Plieningen and Untertürkheim. By 1910 the firm was employing more than three thousand workers and was the largest enterprise of its kind at that time.

Following the Great War the firm continued to develop its retail line, commencing the manufacture and sale of ready-made bathing suits in 1932. In 1934 it created two Berlin-based subsidiaries, Vollmöller Wirkerei und Färberei and Vollmöller –Mode; the first a manufacturer of knitted garments, the second a design house. In 1939 it created Wolle und Tierhaare AG of Berlin as a manufacturer of flying suits for the Luftwaffe.

This firm was established in Freiburg im Breisgau in 1919 to manufacture and market embroidery threads for commercial and domestic use. The company quickly made a name for itself as a producer of top-quality embroidery yarn, with a combination of traditional values and innovation in materials and manufacturing processes. It manufactures machine embroidery yarns and threads, floss for hand embroidery and embroidery accessories including foils, needles, adhesives and fleeces. It also manufactures and sells specialised embroidery machines of proprietary design.

The origins of this firm trace to the establishment of a jute-weaving factory in Vechelde in 1868. It is a manufacturer and distributor of yarns and fabric made from jute, hemp, flax and paper, for use in the filter cloths, the production of linoleum, and the manufacture of bags and packaging materials for grain, flour, sugar, salt, cement, fertilizer etc. In 1926 the firm was reorganised as a joint stock company with factories then operating in Potsdam-Babelsberg, Braunschweig and Vechelde. In 1932 it acquired the Deutschen Jute-Spinnerei und Weberei in Meißen.

Affiliated companies include:

Max Bahr AG, Jutespinnerei und Weberei, Plan und Sackfabrik, Hamburg (bags and cloth containers)
Weidaer Jute Spinnerei und Weberei AG, Weida (jute yarns and twines)

In 1883 Eduard Becker established in Chemnitz a factory producing gloves, hosiery and knit fabrics. In 1922 his sons, Karl and Arthur Becker took over the management of the firm, and converted it to a joint-stock company. With the additional capital raised thereby they relocated the manufacturing portions of the firm to a new facility in Jahnsdorf in the Erzgebirge, leaving the headquarters and sales organisation in Chemnitz. The firm remains one of the leading manufacturers of hosiery and knits and presently employs more than six hundred workers in its Jahnsdorf factory in addition to the staff in Chemnitz, which numbers more than one hundred.

This firm, one of the largest manufacturers of shoes in Europe, dates its foundation to the establishment in 1885 of a small shoe factory in the town of Kornwestheim. In 1891 the founder, Jakob Sigle, joined with a commercial agent from Berlin, Max Levi, to market the factory’s product and the establishment became known as Sigle und Compagnie; by 1897 it had expanded to employ more than one hundred workers. In 1900 the firm joined with shoe retailer Rudolf Moos to market a shoe that could be sold competitively for 12.50 marks, and in 1905 the sales firm Salamander-Schuhverkaufsgesellschaft mbH was formed to market the factory’s output. Access to direct retailing gave the firm unprecedented opportunities for growth – in 1905 the firm operated only five retail stores; by 1909, this had grown to twenty-six, and by 1913 to fifty. The firm expanded its market reach through exclusive sales agreements with small shoe manufacturers across Germany and with firms abroad. The firm’s factories also expanded, employing more than two thousand workers by 1909 and three thousand five hundred by 1913, when more than two million pairs of shoes were sold.

The firm was reorganised as a joint stock company in 1910 when it adopted the present corporate style. Rationalisation in the postwar period and increased productivity has allowed the company to retain its dominant position in both the manufacture and sales of shoes in the German market. In its network of factories it presently employs more than nine thousand workers and produces more than eight million pairs of shoes per year.

A specialist in the manufacture of insoles, specialist work shoes, shoe care products and accessories, this firm was founded in 1914 as a one-man operation by Carl Baumann of Dresden. The demand for footwear arising from the Great War allowed the new firm to expand, while the austerity of the immediate postwar period also drove demand for the company’s products. By 1939 the firm had grown to employ more than four hundred workers and in 1940 the construction of a branch factory in Mosbach in Baden-Württemberg was begun. When completed, this factory is expected to add a further five hundred employees to the firm’s work force and more than double its output.

This family business was founded in 1818 by Christian Getzner, Franz Xaver Mutter and Andreas Gassner to manufacture cloth in the town of Bürs, in the Vorarlberg. In the years since it has grown to be one of the major textile manufacturers in the Austrian provinces, with three mills, a finishing plant and a dyeworks, employing more than eight hundred workers. It specialises in the production of shirtings and ladies-ware fabrics, but also manufactures high-quality damask fabrics for export, particularly to West Africa.

Founded in 1801 the textile spinning mill at Pottendorf was the first textile mill to be built in the Austrian Crown Lands, and the firm remains today as one of the Austrian provinces' largest and successful textile concerns. In 1890 a second spinning mill was acquired at Rohrbach, and in 1922 the firm merged with the Felixdorfer Weberei und Appretur, adopting the present corporate style. Between its three works the firm employs more than two thousand workers, engaged in the production of wool, cotton and linen textiles.

Formed in 1920 by the merger of three of the largest textile mills in Krefeld this firm is one of the largest manufacturers of high quality coated fabrics in Germany. Its output includes tentage, vehicle tarpaulins and flexible containers. Control is vested in the family holding company Johann Friedrich Scheibler und Söhne, who hold approximately forty percent of the share in the company.

Germanys largest manufacturer of Smyrna and Tournai style carpets, this firm originates with the factory of Theodor Kühn, which was established in Cottbus in 1861. In 1865 this works was employing ninety workers on twenty five looms, producing eighty carpets and more than one thousand blankets weekly. In 1894 the original factory of Kühn was amalgamated with the Cottbus factory of Pietsch, works of Gevers und Schmidt in Schmiedeberg and Dehmann, Sands und Friedrich in Hanover-Linden to form the current enterprise. The firm's products have been exported widely around the world.

In 1845 Samuel Frankel established a linen-weaving factory in Neustadt in Silesia, and in the subsequent years expanded his activities in the textile trade through the opening of new linen works and the acquisition of insolvent works until by the late 1890s the Frankel enterprise had a near monopoly on the weaving of linens within the province, and was one of the largest exporters of textiles in the world. The firm maintained offices in all the principal trade centres of Germany as well as offices in Amsterdam, Paris, London and New York. The Great War cut the firm off from much of its overseas business, which was only slowly regained in the postwar period. In 1925 the firm adopted the name Frotex for its products, and expanded its activities beyond its traditional linens into cottons and newer synthetic textiles. The several factories of the Frankel enterprise presently employ more than four thousand workers.

This firm, one of the largest manufacturers of ready-made clothing in Westphalia, was founded in 1873 by the brothers Josef and Hermann Elsbach as the Herforder Hemdenfabrik J. Elsbach und Compagnie. Its first products were cotton and linen shirts; later, ben linen, trousers and lingerie were added to the product line. The company was converted into a joint stock company in 1907, and by 1914 it was considered the largest clothing manufacturing firm in Europe, employing more than 2,700 workers by 1914. It survived the Great War, and in 1922 opened a branch factory in Bielefeld. Today the firm produces an extensive line of ready-made clothing and outerwear, and between the main works at Herford and the branch factory in Bielefeld continues to employ more than two thousand workers.

This firm was founded in 1919 in Jever, Friesland, by Adolf Ahlers, a wholesale dealer in linen and drapery. In 1925 he transferred his business to Oldenburg, and again to Herford-Elverdissen in 1932. There he entered the business of manufacturing textiles, erecting a linen factory that was completed in 1936. The firm subsequently concentrated on the manufacture of ready-made clothing, and benefitted from contracts for military uniforms. Its works employ more than 1,500 workers.

This firm was founded in 1888 by the Berlin clothier Bernward Leineweber as one of the nations first factories for ready-to-wear garments, which Leineweber sold through his own shop in the Oranienstraße. In 1892 Leineweber opened a second shop, and by the late 1920s operated through a domestic network of no fewer than twenty-seven retail outlets. In 1931 the Tengelmann family of Herford acquired control of the firm and relocated its manufacturing facility to Herford in Westphalia. Today the firm manufactures a full line of clothing for the gentleman, including trousers, jackets, suits, overcoats and other outerwear.

This firm was founded in 1853 by Valentin Mehler to manufacture table linens. In this role it prospered modestly, and in 1887 moved to a new and larger factory where mechanisation of the production process could be fully employed. In 1903 the company underwent a reorientation, concentrating on the production of canvas and other waterproof fabrics for tarpaulins and horse blankets. The firm became a joint stock company in 1915.

In 1926 the firm began production of waterproof outerwear for men and women, as well as sports clothing under the brand name Valmeline, and in 1932 it began production of large tents for civil and military use. The firm was among the first to develop and market cord reinforcements and other metabolomics for automobile tyres, introducing its first such products in 1935. At the present time the firm employs as staff in excess of 1,300, and has sales agencies in Paris, London and New York.

With its works located in Hannover-Mellendorf this firm was established in 1876 by Franz Reinecke as Franz Reinecke's Kunstwerkstätten für Fahnen, Paramente und Tapisserie, a manufacturer of flags, banners and textile decorations for events, as well as theatre decorations. In 1897 the firm became the official supplier of flags of all kinds to the Kaiserliche Marine and prior to the Great War it held a number of Imperial and princely warrants for the supply of flags.

Today the firm employs some three hundred workers in the manufacture of national and signal flags for the Kriegsmarine, the Heer and the Luftwaffe, as well as many German shipping concerns, among them the great HAPAG and Norddeutscher Lloyd concerns.

In 1892 Emil Hamburger, a Vienna industrialist, organised a paper mill in Lenzing in Upper Austria. This firm was converted to the manufacture of pulp and viscose fibre production using the calcium bisulphite method. The raw material produced by this firm was supplied to textile mills for the production of artificial textiles.

This firm was organised in 1930 to succeed the business of the former Vereinigte Österreichische Textil-Industrie Mautner, the industrial holding company of the entrepreneur Isidor Mautner, which had formerly owned no fewer than forty-two textile enterprises across the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The new firm operates cotton spinning and weaving works at Waerndorf and Unterwaltersdorf and the large mill complex at Marienthal. At the present time the work force numbers in excess of 1,800.

One of Germany’s leading artificial textile manufacturers, the Bamberg concern was founded in 1792 by Johann Peter Bemberg, owner of a mercantile house in the town of Elberfeld, selling dyestuffs, linen, and imported textiles. In 1813 Bemberg took his son-in-law Friedrich Platzhoff into the company as a partner, into whose hands the leadership of the firm passed in 1847. As Germany began to industrialise in the wake of the wars against Napoleon the firm moved into the manufacture of textiles.

In 1865 a cotton mill was founded at Öhde, a district of Langerfeld. As the business continued to expand new factories were acquired in Barmen, Krefeld and Augsburg. It was one of the first companies to engage in mercerisation of cotton yarns and fabrics, and for a long time was a leader in this field. The firm began to produce artificial textile fibre commercially using the cuprammonium process in 1897, and six years later, in 1903, was organised as a joint-stock company under the current title.

In 1901 Edmund Thiele developed a stretch-spinning system for Bemberg, which began to produce fine-filament artificial silk under the Bemberg® trademark in 1908. With this process the firm was able to make rayon with filaments of 1–1.5 denier, comparable to Chardonnet silk and physically superior. Bemberg founded a factory using Thiele's process at Ölde, near Barmen. In 1911 the concern entered into a series of agreements with Vereinigte Glanzstoff-Fabriken to exchange technology.

The firm operates rayon plants at Barmen/Wuppertal, Hölken, and Siegburg, employing more than 4,400 workers and manufacturing more than eighty tons of rayon per day.

Overseas Interests

Bemberg technology has been widely licensed abroad, including firms in France and Great Britain. In 1925 a subsidiary, American Bemberg Corporation, of Elizabethton, Tennessee, was founded. It operates two factories in that city, employing more than 3,000 workers and producing twenty-five tons of rayon per day. In 1927 a second subsidiary, Seta Bemberg SA of Gozzano, Italy, was established.