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This firm was founded in September 1922 as part of the reorganisation of the German textile industry in the wake of the Great War. The centerpiece of the new firm was the former Norddeutsche Jute-Spinnerei und Weberei, which operated jute spinning and weaving mills in Billstedt bei Hamburg, Ostritz in Saxony, Beuel in the Rhineland, Harmburg-Harburg, Mannheim, Hersfeld and Leipzig-Lindenau. At the time of its organization it also acquired the firm of Gebrüder Spohn in Neckarsulm

It subsequent expansion included the purchase of the shares of Hanf, Jute und Textil-Industrie of Vienna, which was accomplished in 1931. In 1934 it purchased the assets and good will of Mechanische Netzfabrik und Weberei of Itzehoe, a specialist firm producing nets for high-seas fishing. This was followed in 1938 by the acquisition of Westfälische Jute-Spinnerei and Weberei of Ahaus.


Factories operated by the firm include:

Vereinigte Jute Spinnereien und Webereien AG, Werke Beuel
Vereinigte Jute Spinnereien und Webereien AG, Werke Billstedt
Vereinigte Jute Spinnereien und Webereien AG, Werke Harburg
Vereinigte Jute Spinnereien und Webereien AG, Werke Hersfeld
Vereinigte Jute Spinnereien und Webereien AG, Werke Lindenau
Vereinigte Jute Spinnereien und Webereien AG, Werke Mannheim
Vereinigte Jute Spinnereien und Webereien AG, Werke Ostritz
Vereinigte Jute Spinnereien und Webereien AG, Werke Wien


Subsidiaries of the firm include:

Gebrüder Spohn AG, Neckarsulm
Mechanische Netzfabrik und Weberei AG, Itzehoe
Westfälische Jute-Spinnerei and Weberei AG, Ahaus

The original workshops of this spinning and weaving concern opened in 1846 in Esslingen am Neckar, producing cotton cloth for sale across southern Germany. Years of prosperity followed, allowing it to grow into a significant force within the German textile industry. In the wake of the upheavals of the Great War – which saw much disruption of the Saxon textile industry – the firm was able to take advantage of its superior financial resources to acquire several competing firms.

The firm’s expansion continued throughout the second and third decades of the Twentieth Century. In 1928 it acquired a large-scale textile mill in the city of Bayreuth, and, the following year, purchased factories in the city of Köln. The long-established Ingolstadt firm of Rieter und Compagnie, manufacturers of looms and spinning machinery, was acquired in 1933 to permit the firm to manufacture new type of textile machinery to its proprietary designs.


Subsidiaries of the firm include:

Baumwollspinnerei Kolbermoor AG, Kolbermoor (textile manufacture)
Baumwoll-Spinnerei und Weberei Esslingen AG, Esslingen am Neckar (textile manufacture)
Baumwollspinnerei Unterhausen AG, Unterhausen (textile manufacture)
Ingolstadt Spinnereimaschinenbau AG, Ingolstadt (manufacture of textile machinery)
Kölnische Baumwollspinnerei und Weberei AG, Köln (textile manufacture)
Mechische Baumwoll-Spinnerei und Weberei Bayreuth AG, Bayreuth (textile manufacture)
Spinnerei und Weberei Kottern AG, Kottern (textile manufacture)

This firm was founded in 1837 and is one of the oldest textile production enterprises in Germany. Control of the firm was long in the hands of the banking house of Schaezler but in the aftermath of the Great War the firm was reorganised as a joint stock company.

Specialising in the spinning and weaving of cotton and cotton goods the firm operates four facilities within the city of Augsburg:

Werk I – “Spinnerei Altbau” – the Old Spinning Building – original works dating to 1837 but modernised
Werk II – “Rosenau” – built between 1887 and 1889, marking the firm’s second great period of expansion
Werk III – “Proviantbach” – built between 1877 and 1883, dating from the firm’s first great period of expansion
Werk IV – “Aumühle” – built in 1910, presently the largest of the four facilities in the city.

Between the four facilities the firm operates nearly 1,300 power looms and 124,000 spindles for the spinning of cotton yarns and the weaving of all grades of cotton cloth.

This concern came into being in 1923 through the merger of two of Augsburg’s leading textile mills – the Augsburger Kammgarn-Spinnerei and the Kulmbacher Spinnerei. Originally a defensive move in the wake of the financial consequences of the Great War, the rationalisation of the firms’ assets allowed a rapid return to prosperity.

In 1929 the concern acquired the assets of two other textile firms, the Neue Augsburger Kattunfabrik and the Zwirnerei Göggingen, making it the largest textile firm in Oberbayern. In 1932 it acquired a textile conversion and dye works in Nurnberg to complement its activities in Augsburg.

The firm has expanded into the production of synthetic textiles, notably rayon, for many applications.


Subsidiaries of the firm include:

Augsburger Kammgarn-Spinnerei AG, Augsburg (cotton and synthetic textiles)
Bayerische Woll-, Flachs- und Hanf-Verwertungs AG, Nurnberg (textle conversion)
Kulmbacher Spinnerei AG, Augsburg (cotton and synthetic textiles)
Neue Augsburger Kattunfabrik AG, Augsburg (rubberized fabrics)
Zwirnerei und Nähfadenfabrik Göggingen, Augsburg-Göggingen (yarn and sewing cotton manufacture)

This concern was founded in 1920 through the defensive amalgamation of two of Saxony’s largest cotton spinning and weaving firms – the Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei and the firm of E. I. Clauß Nachfolger KG of Plaue – in the face of the competitive situation faced by German firms at the end of the Great War. Together possessing more than 500,000 cotton spindles the amalgamated firm was able to take a commanding position in the domestic market for textiles, and was soon able to expand. Some of the firms acquired joined the concern willingly – others were brought into the fold through aggressive price wars.

One of the earliest acquisitions was the firm of Tittel und Kruger of Leipzig, which gave the concern a foothold in the spinning and weaving of woolens. With the acquisition of the Glauchau factory of the Textilwerke Deffendorf in 1926 the concern was also able to enter the synthetic fibres market.


The subsidiaries of the firm include:

Baumwollspinnerei Flöha AG, Flöha (cotton spinning and weaving)
Baumwollspinnerei Glauchau AG, Glauchau (cotton spinning and weaving)
Baumwollspinnerei Plaue AG vormals E.I. Clauß Nachfolger (cotton spinning and weaving)
Buntgarnwerke Leipzig AG, Leipzig (cotton yarns and knit goods)
Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei AG, Leipzig (cotton spinning and weaving)
Sächsische Baumwollspinnerei AG, Venusburg (cotton spinning and weaving)
Sächsische Kammgarnspinnerei AG, Coßmannsdorf (cotton yarns and knit goods)
Sächsische Wollgarnfabrik AG vormals Tittel und Krüger, Leipzig (wool spinning and weaving)
Textilwerke Glauchau AG, Glauchau (artificial fibres)
Textilwerke Spengler und Fürst AG, Crimmitschau (cotton knit goods)
Weberei Curt Bauer AG, Aue (weaving of cottons, woolens and artificial fibres)

This concern was founded in 1937, in Berlin, through the merger of several established firms manufacturing artificial silk, cellulose and cellophane. The founder firms comprised Schlesische Zellwolle of Hirschberg, Christian Dierig of Langenbielau, Meyer Kauffmann Textilwerke of Wüstegiersdorf, and Wilhelm Winkler of Halbau. The concern was backed by the Dresdener Bank, and quickly gained a dominant position in its field. In 1938 it acquired the shares of the Vereinigten Strohstoff-Fabriken of Coswig, combine of factories manufacturing plaited straw for packaging and other commercial applications. In 1940 a subsidiary company was formed to construct and operate a new facility for the production of cellophane at Küstrin, which was followed in 1941 by a facility at Rheindürkheim near Worms.


Factories operated by the firm include:

Kurmärkische Zellwolle und Zellulose AG, Werke Halbau (artificial silk and other viscose materials)
Kurmärkische Zellwolle und Zellulose AG, Werke Hirschberg (artificial silk)
Kurmärkische Zellwolle und Zellulose AG, Werke Langenbielau (cellophane and cellulose)
Kurmärkische Zellwolle und Zellulose AG, Werke Wüstegiersdorf (artificial silk)


Subsidiaries of the firm include:

Vereinigten Strohstoff-Fabriken AG, Coswig (packaging materials)
Vereinigten Strohstoff-Fabriken AG, Dohna (packaging materials)
Zellwolle und Zellulose Aktiengesellschaft Küstrin AG, Küstrin (cellophane and other viscose materials)
Zellwolle und Zellulose Aktiengesellschaft Rheindürkheim AG, Rheindürkheim (cellophane and other viscose materials)

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)

This firm was organised in the 1920s by Isaak Adler and Ferdinand Oppenheimer, whose wholesale leather business had formerly been located in Strassburg. In 1920 the partners opened a factory for the tanning and processing of leather and leather goods in the town of Neustadt. Success followed and in 1927 the partners acquired the firm Lederfabrik Emil Köster AG, which operated leather processing and fabricating plants in Neumünster and Haart, and the combined concern adopted the title of Norddeutschen Lederwerke.

In 1930 the partners organised a subsidiary, Aktiengesellschaft für Lederfabrikation München AG, to acquire and rationalise a number of small leather factories in Bavaria and Franconia. In 1932 the firm established an export/import subsidiary in the Netherlands, N. V. Amsterdamsche Leder Maatschappij.

This firm was organised in the city of Weimar in 1935 to undertake the manufacture and processing of artificial textile fibres and their by-products. The firm established its first facility in Weimar that same year, manufacturing raw viscose rayon and spinning it for further processing. In 1937 it expanded its operations by establishing a second production facility in Cottbus. In 1938 it took over the Lenzinger factory in Agerzell and re-equipped it for manufacture of cellulose. The firm established its own training and research centre at Denkendorf in the autumn of 1939, and in 1940 acquired half the shares of Schwäbische Zellstoff in Ehingen, expanding both its market and its production base.


Subsidiaries of the concern include:

Lenzinger Zellwolle und Papierfabrik AG, Agerzell (manufacture of cellulose-based packaging materials)
Westfälische Zellstoff AG, Wildhausen (manufacture of cellulose and allied products)
Zellwolle Lehrspinnerei GmbH, Denkendorf (training and development centre)


Affiliates of the firm include:

Schwäbische Zellstoff AG, Ehingen (manufacture of cellulose and allied products)

This firm was formed in 1907 to carry on the business of the firm of Carl Siems und Compagnie in Plauen bei Flöha; the Siems firm had been established in 1898 for the manufacture of cotton, silk and celanese lace and netting, including the spinning and processing of its own and purchased yarns. With the organisation of the joint-stock company the firm was able to expand its production base and expand into the production of such products as mosquito netting, lingerie and lampshades. In 1927 it acquired the Baumwollspinnerei Falkenau, and in the subsequent years made significant purchases of forest preserves in the vicinity of Ebnath in the Fichtelgebirge. In 1934 it reorganised the failing firm Faradit-Isolierrohrwerke Max Haas of Chemnitz as the Faradit Rohr und Walzwerk, to manufacture roller bearings and other components for textile machinery.


Subsidiaries of the firm include:

Baumwollspinnerei Falkenau AG, Falkenau (cotton spinning and yarns)
Faradit Rohr und Walzwerk AG, Chemnitz (textile machinery and components)
Waldbesitzes Ebnath KG, Fichtelgebirge (forest products)

This concern was founded in 1897 to exploit the celanese patents of chemist Max Fremery and engineer Johann Urban; its first factory and present headquarters was in Wuppertal-Elberfeld. Originally used to make filament for lamp bulbs, the founding partners quickly saw the potential of the product for use in textiles, and converted their factory to the production of artificial fibres in 1902. In 1911 the firm acquired patent rights to viscose rayon and swiftly brought this product to the German market. It made great strides during the Great War and was able to overcome the economic distress of the immediate postwar period. During the 1920s and 1930s the concern came to hold the largest share in the German market for artificial fibres and greatly expanded its network of factories, subsidiaries and affiliates. In 1924 it helped found, and in 1928 acquired the Bayerische Glanzstoff Fabriken at Obernburg, which specialised in the manufacture of viscose rayon yarns for reinforcing motor car tyres. In 1925 it joined together with the British artificial fibres firm Courtaulds Limited to establish a joint venture,


Factories operated by the firm include:

Vereinigte Glanzstoff-Fabriken AG, Werke Kelsterbach (manufacture of celanese and viscose products)
Vereinigte Glanzstoff-Fabriken AG, Werke Oberbruch (manufacture of celanese and viscose products)
Vereinigte Glanzstoff-Fabriken AG, Werke Obernburg (manufacture of technical viscose products)


Subsidiaries of the firm include:

Glanzstoff-Courtaulds GmbH, Köln-Niehl (manufacture of artificial yarns and textiles) (50% Courtaulds interest)
Spinnfaser AG, Kassel (spinning of artificial yarns for industrial applications)


Financial interests of the firm include:

Schwäbische Zellstoff AG, Ehingen (pulp mill)
Sächsische Zellwolle AG, Plauen (viscose spinning and processing)
Westfälische Zellstoff AG, Wildshausen (pulp mill)

This firm was founded in 1847 at Reichenbach in the Saxon Vogtland for the dyeing, printing and finishing of textiles – cotton, wool, linen and silk; and – in later years – rayon. The firm established its success by exploiting new fabric finishing techniques obtained from the French firm of Jourdan et Compagnie of Cambrai, and cemented its success by overcoming the opposition of the local guilds of fabric workers, who opposed the introduction of a modern factory system.

The firm overcame the death of the founder in 1850 and continued to prosper under the guidance of other members of the Schleber family. In 1859 the firm introduced aniline dyes for its operations, significantly enlarging its market. In 1871 the firm bought a second factory at Greiz, formerly the dye works of Metzner und Sohn. The growth of the firm required more capital, and in 1892 it was incorporated as joint-stock enterprise. The demands of the two factories necessitated the firm founding an industrial railway in 1902 to link its various plants and facilities.

Having overcome the financial and material trials of the Great War the firm was able to rebuild in the postwar period and remains one of the nation’s foremost textile manufacturing firms.

In 1904 entrepreneur Eduard Thilo, with the financial backing of Niederösterreichische Escompte-Gesellschaft, organised the Erste österreichische Glanzstoff-Fabriken to undertake the manufacture of celanese and other artificial fibres in the territories of the Hapsburg monarchy. It erected its first factory in Vienna in 1905, and quickly came to dominate the protected Austro-Hungarian market; demand was such that the firm constructed a larger factory in St. Pölten and transferred its operations there in 1908. Production of viscose rayon fibre commenced in 1911, and by the outbreak of the Great War the firm employed more than 1,700 workers. During the war years the firm contracted for much military work, and suffered greatly in the confusion that followed the breakup of the Hapsburg territories; markets in the east were lost and the factory was not able to resume a normal level of production until 1922.

The integration of the Austrian provinces into the greater German market brought a return of prosperity to the firm, with greater access to credit, materials and a far larger domestic market. The firm was able to re-enter the market for artificial fibres in Hungary, Yugoslavia and Romania to a significant degree. Since 1935 the firm has concentrated its efforts in supplying the industrial sector with cording for the manufacture of automobile tyres and other products.

The city of Pirmasens in the Palatinate has long been known as the center of the German shoe industry. The factory of Peter Kaiser was established in 1838 as one of the first commercial shoe factories in the nation, and a leader in the export of pre-made shoes – opening a sales agency in Australia as early as 1843. It has long specialised in the manufacture of women’s shoes but during the Great War converted its factory to the production of boots and other leather equipment to military order. The firm employs more than 800 workers with a daily output of more than four thousand pair of shoes.

This concern was established in 1882 and under the leadership of the founder quickly became the largest shoe factory in the city of Pirmasens. By 1911 it employed more than 1,500 workers manufacturing not only complete shoes but shoe components for supply to other works in the city. Leadership of the firm passed to the sons of the founder in 1918, and the firm was put on a joint-stock basis. The firm moved into the export market, establishing sales agencies in Denmark, England, Switzerland and the Balkans; by 1927 it employed more than 1,800 workers and was producing more than five thousand pair of shoes per day. The works were extended in 1937 and the work force increased to 2,300. A second works was established in Offenbach two years later, where 1,200 additional workers are employed.

The entrepreneur Emil Paqué established his first shoe factory at St. Wendel on the outskirts of Pirmasens in 1894, where he installed the most modern machinery of the period and employed 150 workers to manufacture boots and shoes. In 1926 he took over the buildings and equipment of the larger Neuffer factory and organised the current firm to control both production facilities. Production is approximately five thousand pair of shoes per day.

This firm was founded by the brothers Rudolf and Adolf Dassler who in 1924 opened a factory in the town of Herzogenaurach in Bavaria for the production of sport shoes. Growth of the firm in its early years was severely limited by the economic situation then prevailing but in its first ten years the firm managed to build up sales of some 20,000 pairs of shoes per annum. In 1936 the firm came to the attention of the world when several gold medal winners at the 1936 Berlin Olympics wore shoes provided by the company. Such a fillip boosted the demand for the firm’s products and by 1939 annual production had advanced to 200,000 pair of shoes of all kinds, much of which was for export to Europe and to the United States. The firm continued to cultivate its relationship with the sporting world by pursuit of sponsorship arrangements with several European football clubs.


(Historical fact – the Dassler Brothers had a falling out in the wake of the Second World War; the elder, Rudolf, would go on to found the sport shoe and apparel firm Puma in 1948; the younger, Adolf, would found Adidas in 1949. Both represent continuation of the Gebrüder Dassler firm in the real world.)

This firm was founded in 1834 in the town of Bad Vöslau by Johann Heinrich von Falkner-Geymüller, the lord of the Herrschaft Vöslau, and his partners, Carl Deahna and Emil Rhode, entrepreneurs from Vienna. A factory of 24,500 m² was erected and two years later more than two hundred workers were employed. The firm rapidly expanded its activities and by 1839 it had established additional spinning and washing mills in Vienna, Budweis and Kamnitz, and its work force had expanded to more than seven hundred. In 1846 it was converted into a corporation; Friedrich Schey was appointed general director of the firm in 1854. A second major works was organised in 1875 at Möllersdorf, not far from Bad Vöslau. While prosperous, the firm increasingly came under the domination of the Creditanstalt.

In 1906 the firm opened a branch factory in Kreschitz in Bohemia, and in the following years acquired several competing firms – notable the Bielitz-Bialer Kammgarnspinnerei and the Brünner Kammgarnspinnerei. At the outbreak of the Great War the firm was the largest textile firm in the Hapsburg Monarchy, employing more than four thousand workers at its several plants.

War brought severe disruption to the firm – it was cut off from most of its raw material supplies, its factories were converted to war production and its workers dispersed. The breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire forced the transfer of its Bohemian facilities to new owners due to the Czechoslovak policy of nostrification. Nevertheless the firm was able to resume production by the close of the decade, and by the 1920s was employing more than 2,600 workers at its Austrian works. The firm established a third major mill in 1933 at Ödenburg, and embarked on a programme of vertical integration, assuring its own raw material supply and diversifying into the production of ready-made apparel.

The family of Johann Samuel Elias established its first textile factory in 1800; in 1831 his son, Carl Samuel Elias, constructed a new factory in Cottbus, in the province of Brandenburg, which eventually became the largest integrated textile mill in the Kingdom of Prussia.

The complex on the Ostrower Damm included its own steam plant (constructed in 1869), spinning and weaving facilities, wool washing and bleaching facilities, dyeing facilities, workshops processing cotton and warehouses; also included in the complex were housing for the factory owner himself as well as workers housing.

The factory is engaged in the manufacture of high end natural textiles that have a national reputation for quality.