Linz Textil englisch by Manfred Carrington

YEARS

Published by Linz Textil Holding AG

Roman Sandgruber Dionys Lehner Alexander Hofstadler

Authors: O. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Roman Sandgruber Dr. Dionys Lehner MMag. Ing. Alexander Hofstadler

Graphics, reprography and photo editing: Herkules Artwork Werbeagentur, Manfred Carrington, Panholzerweg 1, 4030 Linz, Austria, www.herkules-artwork.at

Published by: Linz Textil Holding AG, Wiener Strasse 435, 4030 Linz, Austria, Tel. +43/732/3996-0, www.linz-textil.at Picture credits: Lentia-Verlag, Carrington Manfred: Title page, 6, 10, 13, 15, 17, 20, 22, 24-27 o., 35-38, 47-51, 53, 55, 60-63, 67, 70, 71, 75, 83, 102, 104, 109, 100, 111, 112 u., 115, 117, 120, 122, 123, 124 o., 126 o., 127 o., 128, 130, 131, 135, 148 o., 150, 152, 153, 154, 156, 158, 162, 164, 165 u., 166, 167 u., 176, 177, 180; W. Schlafhorst: 16, 18, 19, 32, 34; Stift St. Florian: 108; OÖ Landesmuseum: 29; Voest Geschichte Club: 64; Luftbilddatenbank Dr. Carls GmbH: 68; Rieter Holding AG: 42, 44, 45, 114; Lenzing AG: 159; www.airpix.at: 165 o., 167 o.; OÖN (Volker Weihbold): 132; other photos from the Linz Textil AG archive. References: Linz Textil, company archive and Thyll collection; Aktien-Gesellschaft der Kleinmünchner Baumwollspinnereien und mechanischen Weberei or Linz Textil: financial reports, 1872–2011; Höfler, Stephanie: Die soziale Lage der Arbeiterschaft in Kleinmünchen 1919 bis 1938. Eine Frauenalltagsgeschichte, Diss. Salzburg 1991; Kapplinger, Astrid Maria: Arbeitersiedlung der Kleinmünchner Spinnerei. Historische Bedeutung, Sanierung und Erweiterung, DA, Innsbruck 1993; Lackinger, Otto: Die Linzer Industrie im 20. Jahrhundert, Linz 2007; Lackner, Helmut, Stadler, Gerhard: Fabriken in der Stadt. Eine Industriegeschichte der Stadt Linz, Linz 1990; Meixner, Erich: 1838–1950. Aktien-Gesellschaft der Kleinmünchner Baumwollspinnereien und mechanischen Weberei Linz-Donau, Linz 1951, Festschrift; Meixner, Erich: Männer, Mächte, Betriebe. Wirtschaftsgeschichte des Landes Oberösterreich, 1848 bis zur Gegenwart, Salzburg 1952; Lehner, Dionys, Sandgruber, Roman u.a.: Österreichische Industriegeschichte. Band 1, Die vorhandene Chance, 1700 bis 1848. Vienna 2003, Band 2, Die verpasste Chance, 1848 bis 1955, Vienna 2004, Bd. 3, Die ergriffene Chance, 1955–2005, Vienna 2005.

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CONTENTS FOREWORD .......................................................... 11

I. Industrial Innovation................................... 15

II. The founder - Johann Evangelist Grillmayr..... 23

III. The History of Linz Textil 1. The years 1838 to 1872 ................................... 31 2. The years 1872 to 1945 ................................... 43 3. The years 1945 to 1977 ................................... 71 4. The years 1977 to 2013 ................................... 89

IV. Water-based operations ............................ 109

V. Fire disasters ............................................ 125

VI. Technological Advances 1. Spinning shop updates 1974 to 1976................ 137 2. The S-500 as the heart of the weaving shop ......... 141 3. The great productivity leap in 1990 .................. 145 4. New weaving shop building in 2001.................... 149 5. The “Butterfly” project 2010 to 2012 ................ 153

VII. LINZ TEXTIL 2013 ......................................... 157

FOREWORD

Linz Textil is the oldest, still active industrial enterprise in Linz and Upper Austria. The saying: “Venerate the ancient,” is negative as far as a production facility is concerned, but certainly positive with regard to a company. In its jubilee year, Linz Textil has the newest machine pool ever. For when the company was founded in 1838, the installed machinery was also new, but from a technological perspective a copy of spinning machines that had already been in operation in Great Britain for some time. In 2013, the machines in the Linz spinning shop have an average age of around three years. In addition, they represent the latest technology. Consequently, on its 175th birthday, Linz Textil feels youthful. A feeling that also derives from the replacement of the for-

mer executive management in recent years with a new and markedly younger team. Furthermore, the company is in a very healthy financial position and with its products has a positive market standing. These are pleasant conditions in which to celebrate such a momentous company jubilee. However, this positive mood should not obscure two basic facts. The first is the major contribution of the company’s many employees during the long years of its history. This commitment relates to both the workplaces on the shop floor and in the managerial offices. At this juncture, we would like to express our gratitude for these endeavours to the benefit of the company. The second fact is an awareness that the company’s 175-year-history has

Dr. Dionys Lehner, the Linz Textil Holding AG CEO.

Left-hand page: Warp creel in the weaving shop built in 2001. In its 175th jubilee year, Linz Textil’s technology is state-of-the-art. 11

not been one of constant success. On the contrary, it has seen critical phases during which its existence seemed no longer guaranteed. Indeed, emergence from such crises unscathed merely serves to underline the view that this was only possible owing to a degree of good fortune and the safe hands guiding the business. The textile industry has been subject to major turbulence ever since the company foundation. However, after World War II, this instability has intensified greatly, especially following the opening up of global markets and the resultant progressive transfer of production to non-European regions. Exports have become imports and the dramatic dimensions of the challenges facing the European and thus the Austrian textile branch are evidenced by the trend in the domestic market. If in the post-war era at the beginning of the 1950s the level of self-sufficiency in Austria amounted to around 90 per cent, some 50 years later in 2012, it has fallen, and one could justifiably say collapsed, to roughly five

per cent. The related problems of adjustment that had to be overcome have been enormous and naturally have also had a huge impact on Linz Textil. Three personalities have exerted a special influence upon the 175-year history of Linz Textil. They are Johann Evangelist von Grillmayr, who founded the company, and Dr. Robert Thyll and his wife Lina, who guided the company group in the direction of a modern corporate structure. We are proud of the fact that the 175th jubilee of the company will be attended by the great-granddaughter of the company founder Johann Grillmayr, Ms Cristia E. von Grillmayer-Römer, and Lina Thyll’s niece, Ms Clio VischerBonnard. This lends expression to the company’s strong corporate culture. For it is a characteristic of Linz Textil that the people of tomorrow and those of yesterday are linked by a forward-looking approach. And it is the strength of this corporate culture that allows us to face the future with optimism.

Top quality Vossen terry towelling in bathroom surroundings. Linz Textil is to found the “Vossen-Bad GmbH” in July 2013. The product will consist of bathrooms as a complete concept.

Dionys L. Lehner

Left-hand page: Close-up of the airjet spinning shop at the Linz complex. Here, the Linz Textil Group currently has the newest machine pool in its history. 13

I. Industrial Innovation

In the 18th century, textile production was still dominated by spinning wheels and handlooms, which were traditional, manually operated production devices. A man or woman, and frequently a child, stood behind these simple machines and slowly produced yarns metre by metre and then textiles, square yard for square yard. Depending upon the fineness of the yarn, five to ten spinners were required in order to supply a weaver with yarn and one literally spoke of the “yarn hunger of the loom”. Therefore, the anticipation regarding the creation of an innovative machine that would offer a drastic increase in productivity and replace the spinning wheel, which had come to Europe from India in the 14th century, was palpable.

Britain becomes an industrial monopolist The call throughout the entire European textile industry to do something to still the “yarn hunger of the loom” was loud and clear. What was less clear was the country that would launch this innovation. However, in Britain the preconditions for such an advance appeared especially promising: • Owing to Britain’s colonies and lands in America, its thinking became global at an early stage. Left-hand page: James Hargreaves’ (1740–1779) spinning jenny from 1763, which initiated a new age in British textile manufacture. The machine had several times the output of a hand spinning wheel and had a revolutionary effect. It launched the rise of cotton spinning to the status of a national industry. By the end of the 18th century, it is estimated that 20,000 jennys were already in operation.

• As a result of their control of the trade flows to America and other parts of the world, the British soon developed an instinct for global market dominance. • The possession of numerous colonies, particularly in America, provided Britain with access to modern cotton fibres. In Britain, the desire to satiate the hunger for yarn was simultaneously a desire for market domination by means of a corresponding innovation. In 1761, the “Society for the Encouragement of Arts and Manufactures” initiated a competition for the development of a spinning machine that would produce at least six yarn threads simultaneously and be operated by one person. This lead to three significant inventions with regard to the mechanization of spinning: • The first machine to fulfil the conditions of the competition was the “spinning jenny” of 1763, which was invented by James Hargreaves, a poor hand weaver from Lancashire. The machine was manually operated, had eight spindles and produced eight times the output of a hand spinning wheel. • Richard Arkwright invented the second machine in 1769. This was a water frame spinning machine, which had a water drive. As opposed to the jenny, which produced a somewhat softer yarn for the weft, the water frame manufactured a stronger yarn that was also suitable for the warp. • The third machine was the mule spinning machine, presented by Samuel Crompton in 1770. This machine was

By the 18th century, the traditional spinning wheel was no longer able to satisfy “the yarn hunger of the looms”. Innovation was needed.

1)Modelled after the chapter “Die Textilindustrie” p. 188–218 in: Chaloupek et al: Österreichische Industriegeschichte, 1700–1848, published by Österreichische Industriegeschichte GmbH, Linz, 2003.

especially suitable for the production of fine yarns and was to dominate the spinning machine market for decades to come. Its further development resulted in the self-actor version, which was manufactured from 1830 until well into the 20th century. Of the three inventors, Richard Arkwright is undoubtedly the most fascinating personality. He started out as a poor barber and wig-maker and purchases of hair led him to the cotton and linen centre of Manchester, which brought him into contact with the branch. His innovations emanated from the dream of on the one hand developing a spinning machine that could produce yarn independently and would only require human supervision, and on the other, of designing and building a mill that would allow cotton to move in an uninterrupted flow from carding and drafting to the roving and water frame machines. Accordingly, Arkwright possessed a range of patents, which not only related to the spinning machines, but also the upstream phases. Moreover, Arkwright’s innovative spirit was not solely focused on spinning machinery, but also lowcost, high-quality yarn manufacture as a complete concept. In this regard, he can be seen as something of an example for Linz Textil. These innovations did not merely raise yarn spinning productivity, but literally caused it to explode. The first prototype spinning jenny increased the

output of previous spinning wheels by 800 per cent and this innovative tempo was maintained in the following millennium. Initially, the mule machines dominated and then the self-actor, before the upper hand was subsequently gained by the ring spinning machine, which in the final analysis derives from the water frame machine. Lastly, in the 1970s, open end technology, in which yarn is produced with a rotor, assumed

In his spinning mule, Samuel Crompton (1753–1827) combined the inventions of both Hargreaves and Arkwright. Equipped with weighted stretching rollers for the spun yarn and an external drive, the mule was capable of carrying up to 100 spindles.

Left-hand page: Richard Arkwright’s (1732–1792) patent from 1769 paved the way to the industrial use of spinning machines. His water frame replaced manual operation with hydropower. Consequently, the step towards continuous machine operation had been successfully taken.

productivity leadership. The following table illustrates the development of the quantities of yarn that a spinner could produce hourly: Year ca 1750 ca 1800 ca 1950 ca 2010

Technology spinning wheel early spinning ring spinning open end

Hourly quantity 0.004kg 0.4kg 15kg 400kg

As opposed to the spinning machine, the development of the mechanical loom was markedly slower and initially appeared somewhat amateur. The inventor of the mechanical loom, the English clergyman and poet Edmund Cartwright, described the circumstances that prompted him to make his invention in a letter: “Happening to be at Matlock in the summer of 1784, I fell in company with some gentlemen of Manchester, when the conversation turned on Arkwright’s spinning machinery. One of the company observed that as soon as Arkwright’s patent expired, so many mills would be erected and so much cotton spun that hands would never be found to weave it.” “To this I replied that Arkwright must then set his wits to work to invent a mechanical weaving mill. The Manchester gentlemen unanimously agreed that the thing was impracticable; and in defence of their opinion they adduced arguments which I certainly was incompetent to answer or even to comprehend, being totally ignorant of the subject, having never at any time seen a person weave.” This discussion clearly fired the ambition of the English reverend, who as noted, had never seen a loom in operation. After a year Left-hand page: “Spinning Mill with Roses”, mixed media on card from Christian Ludwig Attersee (2003). The artist based his work on a spinning scene from 1834.

of development work, he registered his mechanical loom for a patent in 1785. The machine functioned, but it required two strong men to put it into operation for even a short time. Therefore, the mechanical loom first reached full practical maturity in the second quarter of the 19th century and weaving shop industrialization only commenced in the mid-1800s. Consequently 1838, the year of Linz Textil’s foundation, was still very much in the phase of spinning shop industrialization.

In 1830, the breakthrough to automatic operation was made with the self-actor from Richard Roberts (1789–1864), which was a further development of the spinning mule. Operators were now only needed to join the broken threads and change the cops.

A hesitant industrial begin in Austria

Token for a half-day’s work at the Linz “Wollzeugfabrik”. It served as confirmation of the labour provided (1821).

As opposed to Great Britain, industrialization in Austria first began in Lower Austria in the area south of Vienna with a delay of some 30 years. The entire 18th century was characterized by manufacturing and a mercantile economic policy. The Austrian merchants in general and Philipp Wilhelm von Hörnigk in particular, were of the opinion that it was better to pay two talers for a domestic raw material than one taler for an import. To this end, linen and wool were to be promoted and war declared on cotton. Cotton was initially burdened with a complete import embargo and later with varying, high level customs duties. It was only in 1853, when the cotton industry had already won the day and the door was open for Austria’s over-

all industrial development, that cotton imports were released entirely and freed from import duties. The contrast between Britain and Austria in the early phase of industrialization was great. In Britain the new spinning machines already triggered a surge in cotton consumption in the final quarter of the 18th century, as indicated by the increase in cotton imports from four to 31 million pounds between 1771 and 1790. In Austria, the first cotton spinning mill of significance only opened in 1801 in Pottendorf and at the beginning of the 19th century there were a mere six cotton mills in Lower Austria, the largest of which was located in Schwechat. Here, cotton flocks were prepared centrally and then passed on to home spinners for the production of yarns on spinning wheels. At its peak, the workforce of

the six mills numbered around 80,000, of which the vast majority were home spinners. In Upper Austria, which with wool and linen possessed its own raw materials, in line with the mercantile principle, cotton was seen as undesirable for the spinning process. Here, too, one undertaking, the “K. k. priv. Wollzeugfabrik”, dominated. This privileged enterprise was huge and with some 50,000 employees in 1791, represented one of the largest pre-industrial operations on the continent. It is interesting that in spite of their powerful market position and specialist know-how none of these large operations succeeded in industrializing. Indeed, the six cotton mills in the Vienna area and the huge woollen yarn mill in Linz were all overwhelmed by the tidal wave of industrialization. At the time of the foundation of Linz Textil, the

“Wollzeugfabrik” still employed 6,000 people, but by 1845 only 205 remained and in 1851 the mill closed its gates for good. The first industrial enterprises in Upper Austria were founded in the period from 1830 to 1840 in the Linz area with a delay of another thirty years as compared to the Vienna region. The main personages involved were Johann M. Rädler, Josef Dierzer and Johann Grillmayr (later also written Grillmayer) and subsequently collegial competition commenced between the Grillmayr and Dierzer companies. A friendly match that Grillmayr was to win in the second half of the 19th century. The table below shows the spinning statistics for Austria in 1843:

Spinning mill statistics for 1843 Number of Number of Number of Province spinning mills spindles employees Yarn production (t) Lower Austria 40 387,468 7,869 6,240 Vorarlberg and Tyrol 17 140,718 2,488 2,002 Upper Austria 5 18,693 398 366 Styria 2 12,140 332 209 Total 64 550,019 11,087 8,817 Source: J. Slokar, Geschichte der österreichischen Industrie und ihrer Förderung unter Franz I. (Wien 1914) 316; report on the general commercial exhibition in Vienna 1845 (Vienna 1846).

At the end of the 18th century, the “Wollzeugfabrik” (wool factory) on the Untere Donaulände in Linz, which closed in 1851, was probably the largest pre-industrial undertaking in continental Europe. The factory was used for the processing of the domestic raw material wool. Drawing by Franz Joseph Preisch, 1795.

In the mid-19th century, Linz was dominated by the markets on the Hauptplatz, but still retained the air of a provincial town. Coloured lithography of the tranquil comings-and-goings on the Hauptplatz by Josef Hafner, 1850.

II. The founder - Johann Evangelist Grillmayr (1809–1881) Johann Evangelist Grillmayr was one of the seven textile magnates, who exerted a decisive influence upon Upper Austrian industry in the first half of the 19th century. One called them the “seven Fuggers from Linz” in a clear reference to the famous Fugger banking family of Augsburg in Germany, who in the 16th century became a byword for legendary wealth. These Upper Austrian entrepreneurs were certainly not as rich as the Fuggers, but it was their companies that set the regional economy, which today remains strongly industrial in character, in motion.

The “seven Fuggers from Linz” These seven men were all possessed of great dynamism. The first of them, Josef Rädler, came from the Alemmanic region and founded Upper Austria’s initial cotton spinning mill. Rädler started out with a cotton goods factory in the Untere Graben in the centre of Linz and employed hand spinners and home weavers from Linz and the surrounding area. Josef Dierzer was the grandson of a wool weaver, who moved from the Rhineland to Linz and in 1762 started up a woollen goods production business on the Promenade/Schmidttorstrasse in the middle of the town. For his part, Josef established a number of textile mills along the banks of the River Traun. In 1833, he founded the first mechanical, combed yarn spinning mill in Upper Austria in Theresienthal near Gmunden and in 1838, acquired the Weidingermühle in Kleinmünchen (the current Dauphine

strasse 11–13), where he installed a mechanical sheep’s wool and carpet weaving mill, complete with dyeing shop and finishing, which he subsequently converted into a cotton spinning mill. The Linz tradesman Anton Georg Pummerer was one of the founders of the Lambach flax spinning mill and the Wels oil mill, while Franz Honauer was a flag cloth weaver, who founded the “k.k. landesprivilegierte Baum- und Schafwollenfabrik Franz Honauer”. Between 1840 and 1844, Pietro Simonetta, the “weaving prince” from Lombardy in Italy, who boasted that his riches were such that he could pay for every stone in the bed of the Steinerne Mühl

Scene from the Obere Landstrasse at the exit to the Taubenmarkt in Linz. This is the spot to which Johann Ev. Grillmayr returned in 1835 following his military service. Coloured lithography by Josef Hafner ca. 1850.

stream with a ducat, built an impressive factory in Helfenberg, which today still shapes the small, local townscape. Johann Niclaus Vonwiller, who came from the Swiss canton of Berne, was based in Haslach, from where he created a sales organization for Mühlviertel textiles that extended over three continents. None of the companies founded by these six personalities still exists. Only that created by Johann Evangelist Grillmayr, the seventh of these Upper Austrian textile industry pioneers, is in full operation with mills equipped with the very latest technology, as the oldest industrial enterprise in Linz. Like his fellow-industrialists, Johann Grillmayr also exploited the gaps left in Upper Austria by the decline of the state-owned Linz “Wollzeugfabrik”. It was newcomers and often migrants, or as in Grillmayr’s case, persons with the simplest of backgrounds, who owing to their readiness to innovate and their organizational abilities, acquired wealth for themselves and created prosperity

for the region. Johann Grillmayr’s rise commenced with the money of his wife. The 28-year-old journeyman shoemaker married the 40-year-old widow Katharina Hörzinger, who apart from seven children, endowed the marriage with a sizeable fortune.

Grillmayr, the farmer’s son By 1838, the farmer’s son, Johann Evangelist Grillmayr, who was born on November 17, 1809, in Ehrenreith in the village of Wagenhub in the parish of Grünburg under the poorest of circumstances, had not yet assembled considerable wealth, but had nonetheless acquired outstanding knowledge. Grillmayr only received pre-emptory schooling and the fact that he never learned to write in correct orthographic style or formulate in a learned manner, was probably the reason why in spite of his reputation and great wealth he failed to occupy a leading function in the chamber of commerce newly founded in 1849, or the provincial or national parliaments. It was the village teacher in tiny Grünburg that first noticed Grillmayr’s mathematical talents and wished to recommend him for a clerical career at the monastery of Kremsmünster, which at that time was famous for its focus on natural sciences. However, this recommendation was only sufficient for a shoemaker’s apprenticeship in Grünburg. At the age of seventeen, Grillmayr had to join the army. He completed his service in Verona and other garrison towns in Lombardy, which at the time belonged to Austria. There was still an obligatory 12-year service period, but because Grillmayr was a trained shoemaker, he worked as such for the army and then used his mathematical skills to operate a small trading business with Italian textiles as a side-

line. The resultant savings allowed him to buy himself out of the service after eight years. And what was apparently of even greater importance was that he had not only obtained knowledge in the textile and commercial areas, but had also learned to deal with foreign cultures and other languages. In 1835, the 26-year-old returned to Linz and obtained a post with Franz and Katharina Hörzinger, who operated a thread, ribbon and linen goods business in Linz and acted as distributors for a number of home weavers, who were supplied with yarn. The Hörzinger family sent Grillmayr to England to purchase yarn. There he became acquainted with the new mule jenny and self-actor spinning machine technologies, the export of which to the continent was still subject to considerable difficulties. Grillmayr may or may not have made illegal sketches or obtained plans of the machines, but he certainly absorbed related information with a degree of precision that enabled him to build them from memory. After two years in England, he returned to Austria during 1836, where in the meantime Franz Hörzinger had died on May 28 of the same year. On January 10, 1837, Grillmayr married Hörzinger’s widow Katharina, who was twelve years older and not only possessed seven children, but also a considerable fortune. The witness to the ceremony and the children’s guardian was the harness maker and Linz citizen, Anton Wöss, who soon afterwards became Grillmayr’s business partner. The whole story reads like a Biedermeier fairytale. The young journeyman shoemaker, who having barely left the army is sent to England, undoubtedly without any knowledge of the language, but where he nonetheless proves successful. Then only having just returned to Aust-

ria, he captures the heart of his recently widowed mistress and they marry even before the end of the standard period of mourning. Still in 1837, the newly married couple also purchased a prestigious house in the Linz old town, the current Hofgasse 9, for 22,000 gulden where they installed a small hand weaving and manufactured goods business. Subsequently, the house was to become the headquarters of Johann Grillmayr’s enterprise and later the company seat of the Kleinmünchner Aktiengesellschaft. Until 1942, it also served as the central office of Kleinmünchner Spinnereien und Weberei AG.

In 1837, the newly married Grillmayrs purchased the town house at Hofgasse 43 (later no. 9) in the Linz old quarter (fourth house from the right). Later it was to serve as the head office of the antecedent Kleinmünchner AG. Photo, 1912.

The company founder In March 1838, Anton Wöss, the witness at the Grillmayrs’ wedding, started to build a “Baumwollgespunst-Fabrika” (cotton

While purchasing yarn in England, Grillmayr became acquainted with spinning machine technology like the mules at Swainson Birley Cotton Mill near Preston, Lancashire, shown in this drawing by Thomas Allom, 1834.

spinning mill) on the River Traun. He had purchased the water rights from Ambros and Elisabeth Hager with whom he founded a related company on November 24, 1838. Following commissioning by the district authority on August 21, 1838, Wöss received building permission on November 25, 1838. His intention was to install two rows of traditional spinning wheels on the Jaukermühlenbach stream, which instead of treadles would be powered by a waterwheel. A spinner was to have sat at each wheel and therefore the actual spinning would have remained manual. Apparently, Wöss possessed no further technical knowledge and more-

over, whether or not this production model, which he transferred directly from the rural spinning parlours to his small mill, would have functioned at all, or have brought a noteworthy increase in productivity, is a matter of conjecture. Wöss clearly not only lacked the necessary technical know-how, but also the required capital. The new enterprise was due for entry into the company register on the November 24, 1838. However, the Royal Court Chamber demanded proof of sufficient funding prior to approving the company, which in the eyes of the authorities Wöss was unable to produce.

Therefore, Wöss had to search for a partner and with the Grillmayrs found what he was looking for. It was equally the ties of family and friendship, as well as Grillmayr’s technical expertise and the evident financial means of his wife, that led Wöss to form this partnership and Johann Evangelist Grillmayr acquired the participation intended for the Hager family and took a half-share in the project. The mill building was considerably enlarged as compared to the original plan and around a hundred people were to be employed on the installation of the ten large spinning machines, which Grillmayr designed and built himself on the

Above: The Swiss spinning shop built in 1845/46. The Ebelsberg castle and market can be seen in the background. Left: After the death of his first wife Katharina, Grillmayr married Elisabeth, née Much.

Johann Ev. Grillmayr’s only son, Johann Karl (1862–1915), a textile industrialist in Schwanenstadt und Mährisch Krumau.

basis of the models that he had seen in England. On November 25, 1839 another attempt was made to receive local government permission to establish a factory. The corresponding file of the Linz District Commission states that the company employs a not insignificant number of workers and produces a sizeable amount of yarn. Further, that the premises consist of a two-storey building and a fitter’s shop in which ten spinning machines have been built, which are already running at full speed. The fitter’s shop currently employs 15 persons and the spinning shop 64. The Commission sums up by saying that the company is worthy of special treatment, “in order to offer the manufacturers of spun cotton an opportunity to obtain the necessary yarn in the country and to produce their products in a quality and fineness equal to that of foreign products.” Therefore, the application was now adjudged positively. On March 26 and April 17, 1840, the Upper Austrian regional government allocated the owners of the Johann Grillmayr et Wöss company an imperial certificate of regional approval for their mill. In October 1840, the “Johann Grillmayr et Wöss” company was registered: “Following the purchase of the Hammerwiese and Jaukerwiese properties from the Hager family, Johann und Katharina Grillmayr declare their readiness to complete the partially finished buildings.” Moreover, in view of the fact that Anton Wöss had already spent considerable sums on the construction of the mill and machine purchases, the Grillmayrs recognized the presented receipts and undertook to reimburse Anton Wöss for half of his expenses. The Grillmayrs also received exclusive rights to the sale of mill products via their business in Linz. Wöss left the company in 1841.

The palace owner What followed was a remarkable story of success in the hothouse atmosphere of the early machine age, the hungry 1840s, the revolution of 1848 and the difficult neo-absolutist era, which ended in 1859 with the loss of Lombardy and led to the serious economic crisis of the early 1860s. Grillmayr’s energy and his technical skills are indicated by the notes and machine sketches that he made during numerous journeys and company visits. By comparison, only a few details are known about his family life. On January 12, 1860, the Grillmayrs purchased a suitably prestigious home. For 56,000 gulden they bought Würting Palace near Lambach complete with 200 acres of land and a farm. Grillmayr set about renovating the dilapidated, moated palace, which dated from the 16/17th century, with great care and expense and filled it with artworks from cellar to ceiling. The palace chapel was furnished with a new altar and at around the same time Grillmayr’s alleged ennoblement took place. Therefore, the chapel altar was decorated with his coat-of-arms bearing a farm girl and lilies. The fact that in the patent of nobility, Grillmayr’s name was altered to Grillmayer was probably a spelling error. The good fortune of the new palace owner was short-lived. His wife Katharina died on June 20, 1860 and two days after her death Grillmayr established the Johann Grillmayr & Söhne company, which included his stepsons Georg, Johann and Julius Hörzinger and his sonsin-law Moritz Cramer and Wilhelm Stucki. Company capital was set at 200,000 gulden and its management remained solely in the hands of Johann Grillmayr. On January 18, 1862, the 53-year-old

widower remarried. His second wife was the 24-year-old Elisabeth Much, the daughter of the owner of the “Zum Goldenen Hirschen” Hotel in Vienna. This marriage produced Grillmayr’s only natural son, Karl, who was born on October 21, 1862. Grillmayr’s enterprise was also caught up in the stock exchange fever that ensued in the company boom years after 1867, but the float in 1872 was far from successful. The accompanying bank went bankrupt in the course of the stock exchange collapse of 1873 and Grillmayr was forced to repurchase a considerable number of shares, which saved the company but cost him a large part of his fortune. A new corporation was founded with Grillmayr as its president, but he only remained in office for six months before being replaced by Dr. Rafael von Kremer-Auenrode. Grillmayr stayed on as a vice-president until his death in 1881 at the age of 71. However, following the

departure of his stepson, Johann Hörzinger, from the administrative board in 1882, the Grillmayr family ceased to be represented in the managerial bodies of the corporation. The size of their shareholding at that time is unknown.

Top: In order to live up to his status as the “lord of the manor”, Johann Ev. Grillmayr obtained the services of a heraldic office, in a move that was fashionable among the major industrialists of the time. This designed the coat-of-arms on the top and produced a typographic error in the name with the result that from then on the industrialist called himself “Grillmayer” instead of “Grillmayr”. An official ennoblement did not occur. Left: In 1860, the Grillmayr family purchased the moated Palace of Würting near Lambach. Lithography by Leopold Weismann.

III. The History of Linz Textil 1. 1838 to1872: The glory and misery of early industrialization The growth of Grillmayr’s company and the new mill location in Kleinmünchen was explosive. Indeed, by the middle of the 19th century, Kleinmünchen had become Austria’s “Manchester”. This description can be read in the commemorative publication of the German and Austrian Alpine Association to mark its 14th General Meeting, which took place in Linz in 1887. And even if such a designation was hopelessly exaggerated, as far as Upper Austria was concerned, it was appropriate. In 1848, some 61,000 cotton spindles were installed in Upper Austria, of which roughly two-thirds were in Kleinmünchen, with around 12,000 in each of the mills of the vicinity erected by Rädler, Grillmayr and Dierzer.

Grillmayr’s first twenty years (1839–1859) Year for year, Grillmayr steadily enlarged his mill. In October 1841, Wöss withdrew from the company, as he regarded the project that Grillmayr was so energetically pursuing as being excessively risky. Grillmayr thus became the sole owner and this was of decisive importance for the further development of the enterprise. The dynamic Grillmayr steered his company, which operated under the name “Johann Grillmayr” onto a course of rapid expansion. If the first machines had been built in the firm’s own workshops in line with Grillmayr’s instructions, it would seem Left-hand page: Purchase tax certificate from the “Johann Grillmayr & Söhne” company dating from 1860.

Grillmayr mill machines, workers and production 1840–1859 Spinning Year machines 1840 10 1841 16 1842 30 1843 35 1844 39 1845 145 1846 178 1847 199 1848 205 1851 224 1854 119 1857 127 1859 *

no. of Spindles Total employees * 79 3,600 99 5,732 109 6,736 130 7,334 96 8,754 147 15,046 232 11,178 223 11,698 302 24,488 299 26,960 526 39,920 526 39,086 451

Men * * * * * * 65 65 94 99 199 169 140

Women Children under 14 Yarn production (t) * * * * * * 87 80 106 113 206 184 196

* * * * * * 80 78 102 87 121 173 115

* 69 85 98 99 111 137 175 58 237 266 332 437

Source. Statistical tables of the Austrian monarchy, 1841–1859

that he also succeeded in obtaining mule jennies and self-acting spinning machines with preparation and finishing directly from England. Whatever the case, this initial mill subsequently received the soubriquet “English spinning mill”. Whether that meant that the machines were built in Linz according to English designs, or that from 1842 onwards, they actually came from the British Isles is uncertain. However, the power definitely came from a waterwheel. In 1845/46, a second spinning shop became necessary. For this purpose a fourstorey extension was built, although the initial construction work ended in failure, as the shell collapsed in a severe storm. The building was finally opened in 1846 and was fitted with Swiss spinning machines from Rieter & Cie. The supply of the

machines from Switzerland was more straightforward than deliveries from England and it was then that the still unbroken relationship with Rieter & Cie. in Winterthur commenced. In 1848, a total of 11,698 spindles were installed in the two spinning shops The technology aficionado Grillmayr liked to name his operations in accordance with the origins of the spinning machines. Therefore, the newly created shop was called the “Swiss” and the third mill, built in 1856 with modern turbines, gas lighting and steam boiler was designated the “New English”. This was due to the fact that once again British machines were used, which on this occasion, were actually “Made in England”. In 1859, mechanical weaving was in-

stalled in the old English spinning shop. At this time, 58 mechanical, powered looms were already in operation along with 25 regulator looms in the so-called pattern weaving shop. This complete refurbishing of the spinning shop took almost ten years and was only finally completed at the beginning of the 1870s. The refit with mechanical looms in Kleinmünchen was very much in tune with the times and occurred simultaneously with the growth of the weaving mills around Reichenberg (Liberec) in northern Bohemia. Up to that point, Grillmayr had acted as a distributor, employing around 200 hand weavers in the Mühlviertel.

The English spinning shops. A mechanical weaving shop was installed in the “Old English“ in 1859. Photo from 1924.

Left-hand page: A shuttle loom with overpick dating from 1860. Two horizontally moving picking arms with leather belts drove the pickers into the shuttle boxes with a whiplash motion.

Revolution!

Close-up of a spinning mule from Samuel Crompton. Its operation meant hard labour during a regular 84-hour working week.

The successes that Grillmayr was able to demonstrate in his first business decade were spectacular. At the time of the allocation of the privilege in 1840, 79 people were employed in the Grillmayr couple’s new mill. Ten years later, they numbered over 300 and by the 1850s, more than 500. During the “Vormärz” period, the workers toiled for 14 hours a day and for six days a week from Monday to Saturday, which added up to 84 hours per week. As a rule, the working day in

the Kleinmünchen spinning shops commenced at five in the morning and lasted until eight in the evening, with an hour’s break for lunch. Breakfast and supper were eaten at the running machines, “not with a complete halt to working, but in such a way that each worker gradually left for a maximum of half an hour.” In the case of production losses during the week, it was also possible that Sunday working would be ordered. Spinning on the mule jennies was hard physical work. Moreover, in the early years the textile industry was characte-

rized by child labour. The men operated the machines, the women creeled the bobbins and the children knotted the broken threads. Children under fourteen constituted roughly a third of the entire workforce employed at Grillmayr’s mills, while the women accounted for almost 40 per cent. The daily wage paid at the Grillmayr works was given as being 16 kreuzer and large penalties were incurred for lateness. For a full week’s work without deductions, an employee could earn one and a half gulden, which added up to 75 gulden per year. After more than eighty working hours per week, the employees of the early industrial age had little time for leisure. On Sundays they had to attend mass and the children went to Sunday school. Moreover, they were more or less forced to live in the vicinity of the mill, as otherwise this regime would have proved impossible. In the late 1840s there was insurrection in the air. However, the revolution year of 1848 passed by in Linz relatively peacefully. The unemployed in Linz stated that one should go out to Kleinmünchen and Grillmayr and Dierzer and smash their confounded machines, which had only brought misfortune to the spinners and weavers. A leaflet signed “Thirty Conspirators from Linz” circulated in the town and read: “Dierzer, Rädler and Grillmaier steal your work and livelihood. They become rich and you poor; so burn down their factories! We are thirty conspirators; we will lead you, follow us for the answer is being shouted from the rooftops; stand up, take revenge, fetch bread and protect your sacred human rights. Stand up! Do not lose any time!” This call for an uprising was also directed against the wellmeaning councillor Adolf Ludwig Graf Barth-Barthenheim, who had invited the workers to a meal and then subsequent-

ly informed them that they had been served horsemeat: “Count Barthenheim gives you horsemeat to eat so that you become ill. Down with him! Beat him to death! ...” However, unlike Vienna, Linz remained calm. Perhaps the revolutionaries decided that the march to Kleinmünchen was too far. All that happened was a storming of the food consumption tax lines, which became known as the “cider revolution” and some caterwauling in front of the windows of known reactionaries.

“Der freie Linzer-Postillon” of December 27, 1848 posed the question: “What is going to happen to Austria?” In spite of the revolution Linz and Kleinmünchen remained quiet.

Cholera! In the 1850s, almost 1,000 men, women and children were employed in the three Kleinmünchen spinning shops. Within a decade, the small farming and fishing village had been transformed into an industrial location. Moreover, it was essential to find accommodation for the many workers that had been recruited from the Upper Austrian and southern Bohemian regions. At first, Grillmayr sought to solve this problem not through building, but rather the purchase of existing mills and farmhouses, which were then converted into workers’ barracks. This enabled him to solve two difficulties simultaneously, as not only was the problem of quarters solved, but more importantly, the company also bought up the vital water rights that were connected to these mills and farms. By 1860, eleven houses had been acquired and converted into workers’ accommodation. Along with the buildings came the land with the result that the Kleinmünchen spinning mill was soon the largest property owner in the vicinity. Barracks that had been built for railway workers building the “Westbahn” were also purchased, as proximity to the works was of decisive importance. This was simply due to the fact that following a 14-hour working day, it was impossible for employees to undertake additional, lengthy travel. Moreover, riding to work was not even a consideration. A degree of luxury could not be expected in any of the early workers’ homes. In fact, they were barracks with hygienic and sanitary conditions that were

not only seemingly dramatic from a current perspective. The overcrowding with four to six and even eight to ten persons crammed into every room permitted not the slightest comfort or privacy. Moreover, as the small number of latrines was insufficient for such a large number of people, not only was the stench appalling, but dirt and vermin represented further sources of disease. In addition, there was a gross shortage of quality drinking water. In 1855, cholera broke out in Kleinmünchen and the physician Dr. Franz Keinzelsberger, who had been sent to the area by the district authorities, describes the contagion in a surviving report. The majority of the victims were employees at the spinning mill. The epidemic began in Grillmayr’s House No.1, before spreading to the “Fuchsenhaus” and other properties. Sick bays were established in the works along with an emergency hospital in the “Franzosenhaus”. Cholera cost the lives of 61 people throughout Kleinmünchen, most of whom were textile workers.

Members of the Kleinmünchen ambulance unit in around 1910. Up to World War I, the health of the workers in Kleinmünchen was poor.

Left-hand page: Large families lived under partially precarious conditions. Hygiene and sanitation were lacking. Photo from the “Aschensiedlung” in around 1905.

1872/73: Stock exchange float and crash

Josef Dierzer v. Traunthal (1800–1857), textile industrialist and politician.

Adolf Hofmann, vice-president of the administrative board, 1881–1885.

At the end of the 1850s, the “Westbahn” railway reached Kleinmünchen and from 1860, there was an uninterrupted rail link from Vienna to Munich. This also meant a new basis for Kleinmünchen’s transport connections. The early 1860s were not an easy period for the textile industry. In 1859 the Habsburg monarchy was involved in a costly war, which ended with the loss of the prosperous Lombardy region. Moreover, the American civil war also caused cotton prices to surge. The price for raw cotton rose four- and five-fold and in 1862 cotton imports to Austria fell by over 56 per cent. All in all, it is estimated that of the

350,000 people employed in the cotton industry of the northern and western areas of Austria-Hungary in 1861, only a fifth still had work at the beginning of 1864. Austria was thus suffering from a serious economic crisis, but after the war of 1866, which concluded with defeat by Prussia and the surrender of Venice, an unexpected upturn occurred that continued until 1873. This was Austria’s great founder period and resulted in a stock exchange boom, but as is frequently the case, this was followed by a major crash. The Kaiserin-Elisabeth-Bahn railway bridge over the Traun from Ebelsberg to Kleinmünchen. Castle Ebelsberg is on the left and the buildings of the Grillmayr company on the right, 1859.

Upper Austria was also sucked into this stock exchange maelstrom. In 1869, the “J.M. Scheibenpogens Eidam” banking house founded by Carl Franz Planck together with Linz tradespersons and industrialists (including Josef Dierzer and Adolf Hofmann), and the Wiener Bankhaus S. M. v. Rothschild were floated on the stock exchange as the “Bank für Oberösterreich und Salzburg”, or “Oberbank” for short. In addition, the “Industrial- und Commerzialbank für Oberösterreich und Salzburg”, or Commerzbank The first financial report of the corporation founded in 1872 and the agenda of the 1875 general meeting of shareholders. The stock exchange crash of 1873 nearly cost the company its existence.

for short, was founded in 1870. Its most important transaction, which took place in 1872 at the height of the stock exchange boom, was the transformation of “Johann Grillmayr und Söhne” into the “Actien-Gesellschaft der Kleinmünchner Baumwoll-Spinnereien und mechanischen Weberei”, an undoubtedly elaborate name. With share capital of 1.5 million gulden, the new company took over the works and properties in Kleinmünchen and St. Peter from “Johann Grillmayr & Söhne”. The related machine pool consisted of a total of roughly 45,000 spindles, 181 mechanical looms and 410 hp of hydropower derived from waterwheels and turbines. The main stockholder was the

The banker Josef Hafferl, seen here in his uniform as the head of the Linz Voluntary Fire Service, was a member of the administrative board and also a director of the Commerzbank.

A share of the ActienGesellschaft der Kleinmünchner Baumwoll-Spinnereien und mechanischen Weberei from 1872, when the company was transformed into a corporation in the middle of the stock exchange boom.

Commerzbank, which retained a large share package in its portfolio that it may have been unable to sell. The reasons that prompted Grillmayr to float his family company on the stock exchange are unknown. However, clearly with fresh capital he would have been able to finance further expansion. Or Grillmayr had grown old and wished to enjoy life and pay more attention to his private needs. Perhaps he was also attracted by the idea of easily earned money. Whatever the plan, the Vienna Stock Exchange crash of May 9, 1873 was to thwart any such ambitions.

Both new Upper Austrian bank corporations, the Oberbank and the Commerzbank, were sucked into the stock exchange crisis. But unlike the Oberbank, the Commerzbank had to cease payments on July 25, 1873 following the storming of its counters. Its collapse also threatened Grillmayr’s life’s work and he was forced to react. Using every financial means available, he was able to buy all 700 endangered shares from the assets of the bankrupt Commerzbank and to repurchase a further 1,800 shares from private owners. The shares were then destroyed and this action, which was linked

to a capital reduction, saved the company. The share capital was reduced from 1.5 million gulden to 950,000. However, the costs for Grillmayr must have been high. He only remained president of the Kleinmünchen company for a short time and was replaced in the first year by Dr. Rafael Ritter von Kremer-Auenrode. Grillmayr remained the company’s vicepresident, but his holding in the company was markedly reduced. Indeed, with his death in 1881, the direct influence of the Grillmayr family on the Kleinmünchen spinning and weaving corporation also ceased.

Top: An advertisement for the Bank für Oberösterreich und Salzburg at the Hauptplatz no. 34. Bottom: At the Vienna World Exhibition of 1873, Kleinmünchner AG presented looms, fabric and yarn samples and received several awards.

2. 1872 to 1945: The path to becoming Austria’s largest spinning mill The corporation is tested As a result of Johann Grillmayr’s spirited intervention, the newly founded Kleinmünchen spinning and weaving corporation was able to survive its first year, while the founding bank and main stockholder, the Industrie- und Commerzialbank für Oberösterreich und Salzburg collapsed. Moreover, in the coming two decades between 1873 and 1896, which have gone down in both European and Austrian history as the “great depression”, the Kleinmünchen undertaking nevertheless developed in excellent fashion. Indeed, for the first time since the late 1850s, major investments were made in the company. In 1874, Kleinmünchen had 44,710 spindles and the whole of Upper Austria 96,738. In terms of present-day Austria, this was a relatively small percentage, as in the same year Lower Austria had 419,550 in 25 companies and Vorarlberg 174,158 in fourteen. However, in the second half of the 1870s, which were generally regarded as years of crisis, a fresh wind began to blow in Linz and by 1918, the Kleinmünchen spinning mill was the largest in the new Austrian Republic. During the 1870s, the workers in Kleinmünchen became the first employees in the Linz area to be taught how to use the telephone and between 1876 and 1879, in cooperation with the Rieter company, the “New Swiss” spinning shop was erected as an extension to the 30-year-old

Left-hand page: Plan from 1893 prepared by the Swiss company Rieter/Winterthur regarding the “reorganization project” for the old Swiss spinning shop.

“Old Swiss” shop. The new three-storey building remained in use until 1945 and instead of running from the top to the bottom floor, the production sequence functioned in the opposite direction. The heavy machinery such as bale openers,

The first stationery of the corporation from 1875 with a report of the products stored in the cotton magazine of the sales branch in Vienna.

Rieter/Winterthur company plan for the equipping of the Zizlau spinning mill with machinery, 1884.

beaters, cards, drafters and slubbing machines was located on the ground floor, with the fine spinning machines and winders in the upper storeys. Nonethe足 less, the multi-storey design of the shop still necessitated complicated vertical transports and the central drive did not permit any other machine layout. The

new, three-storey spinning shop had an area of 37 x 30m and was supplied with power by two turbines. The resultant energy was distributed to the machinery by means of transmission shafts and drive belts. In March 1884, the administrative board decided to erect another spinning shop

on the “Eßmühle” (grain mill) property, which had belonged to the company since 1859 and was located on the Zizlauer stream not far from the confluence of the River Traun with the Danube. A central power plant was built with a directly adjacent works consisting of a three-storey cleaning building and a

three-storey spinning complex (38.6 x 33.1m, subsequently enlarged to 71.5 x 33.1m). A boiler house for the heating of the production halls was erected to the east. It was calculated that the shop disposed over 800 hp of energy, which was sufficient for 50,000–60,000 spindles.

Part of the early machinery of the Kleinmünchen mill from the 1889 catalogue of Joh. Jacob Rieter & Co.

Carl Reichel, director general, 1894–1910.

Ludwig von Gallois, technical director, 1890–1928.

However, it was decided not to risk this number in a single phase. Therefore, initially two 200 hp turbines were installed, which could operate 24,000– 30,000 spindles. 14,472 were first installed with planned expansion of up to 30,000. The electrical equipment was supplied by the Österreichische Waffenfabriks-Gesellschaft in Steyr, which was headed by the outstanding industrialist Josef Werndl. In 1906, the neighbouring merchant mill belonging to “Actiengesellschaft für Mühlen- und Holzindustrie” (formerly the Brüder Löwenfeld & Hofmann), which had already been shut down, was purchased for 700,000 crowns. This mill employed hydropower from the Jaukerbach and was converted into the so-called “Mühlenspinnerei” with roughly 18,000 spindles. The transition from group drives with transmissions to individual electric motors was completed, but the related power plant was first built after 1945. At the same time, the Zizlau shop was enlarged with some 9,000 ring spind-

les, which brought its spindle count up to 28,000. Moreover, in the decade after 1900 the number of spindles in the company’s six spinning shops was almost doubled and the workforce grew to over 900. The value of the yarns and fabrics sold increased by 75 per cent to approximately five million crowns and prior to World War I the Kleinmünchen operation represented the largest textile plant in Upper Austria. In 1902, with a workforce of around 750, Kleinmünchen was the second largest employer in Linz and after 1918, the largest. The company’s share capital was raised from 2 million to 2.6 million crowns and finally to 4 million crowns in several phases. The Union Bank assumed the largest part of the newly emitted share package. Two personalities exerted a major influence on the highly successful development in Kleinmünchen in the period prior to World War I, the young Linz engineer Ludwig von Gallois and director general Carl Reichel, who came from Bohemia.

Ludwig von Gallois joined the company a few months after the death of Grillmayr. He was a member of an old Huguenot family from the Lorraine, which moved to Linz in the “Vormärz” era (1815-1848). In addition to Josef Werndl, Gallois was one of the first persons in Upper Austrian industry to pay intensive attention to the productivity problem and sought long-term improvement. Apart from the engineer Gallois, Carl Reichel, who was named as director general in 1894, was the second major personality to shape the company. He was an expert in the international cotton trade in which purchases were made in Alexandria or Liverpool. Egyptian cot-

ton came from Trieste, while all other overseas grades, especially those from America, were supplied via Bremen. The cotton market was most unstable and prices fluctuated greatly. Therefore, the fate of the mill was largely dependent upon the skill and intuition of the buyers.

Top: The mechanical weaving shop workforce with a selection of their products in 1903. Bottom: Picture postcard motif with a view in the direction of the mill spinning shop and Ebelsberg market. The detail on the right shows the wooden Traun Bridge in around 1910.

Left-hand page: View of the Zizlau spinning mill. Preparations were made initially for 14,500 spindles, although the technical possibilities would have permitted 50,000 – 60,000.

The view from the water tower of the Swiss spinning shop over the roofs of the “Aschensiedlung” between the Grillmayer- and Schnopfhagenstrasse. In the background the Kleinmünchen station (left) and the Zizlau spinning mill (above right) can be recognized. The farms converted for accommodation are in the foreground. Around 1935.

Social progress The social situation of the Kleinmünchen workforce was improved gradually. Child labour ceased in the second half of the 19th century, not only due to social legislation, but also improvements to the spinning machines, as the thread knotting for which the children were employed was no longer necessary. Working hours were subject to a phased reduction, falling from fourteen to eleven and then ten hours per day. An 8-hour day and a 48-hour week were the main social aims and were attained in 1918. The first large workers’ meeting took place in Kleinmünchen in 1868 and in 1870 a workers’ cooperative society was

founded, which developed in exceptionally positive fashion and received approval for its statutes on March 21, 1870. In 1878, a “Kleinkinderbewahr-AnstaltsVerein” (nursery association) was formed and Wilhelm Löwenfeld provided land and 24,000 gulden for the project. The association was funded from the annual subscriptions of its members, the care charges for the children and contributions from local authorities and benefactors. The nursery was open from 5 a.m. until 7.30 p.m. and children were accepted from the end of their third year. By 1890 there was already a company canteen and from the 1880s the workers had obligatory sickness and accident insurance. However, what was still missing

was security against unemployment and above all, regulated retirement pensions. In view of the growth at the plant, the extensive migration to Kleinmünchen, in particular from southern Bohemia, continued with the result that more accommodation had to be created. In 1876, three houses were erected for six parties each and from 1895 to 1914 there followed a second phase in which a company estate, the so-called “Aschensiedlung”, was built. This consisted of eleven one-floor, four family houses and sixteen double houses with apartment sizes ranging between 32 and 45m2. The buildings were either called “Aschenhäuser” because they were built from coal ash and cement, or “four-door houses”

Top: Workers in around 1910. Their situation improved gradually from the second half of the 19th century onwards. The 48-hour week was introduced in 1918. Above: Houses in the “Aschensiedlung” built between 1895 and 1914. The company also bought the adjacent farms and converted them into workers’ accommodation.

Emperor Franz Joseph visited the “Aschensiedlung” on June 9, 1903, accompanied by director general Reichel and Emil Dierzer von Traunthal, the president of the administrative board. The works management provided furniture and carpets for the apartment to be viewed in order to create a pretence regarding the living standard of the workers. Notwithstanding this ruse, in European comparisons the estate was regarded as exemplary.

because each of them had four entrances, with two on the front facing the road and one each on the narrower sides. On June 9, 1903, Emperor Franz Joseph visited the plant and the estate and showed himself to be suitably impressed. “I was most pleased” was his obligatory comment. The emperor was also shown some of the workers’ housing, which had been specially spruced up for the occasion. The company management provided extra furniture for the state visit, which had to be returned subsequently. However, even the emperor probably regarded the freshly laid carpets with incredulity. In 1918, there were 48 workers’ houses,

which served to accommodate the rapidly expanded workforce. Some 400 families were housed in company apartments.

World War I in the hinterland Unlike the second world war, World War I did not see devastation in the hinterland, but the hostilities still had serious effects upon the business activities of the textile industry. The Kleinmünchner Spinnereien und Weberei AG was not an important wartime production company, although the military requirement for uniform materials should not be underestimated.

In 1914 there were only very limited stocks of cotton and a halving of production was already announced in the autumn of 1914. In January 1915, the cotton reserves were successfully, but only briefly, replenished and following Italy’s entry into the war in May 1915, cotton supplies were virtually severed. One shop after another had to be shut down, starting with the “Mühlenspinnerei” and then the “Swiss” and the Zizlau. The weaving shop worked exclusively for the military and by 1916, at full capacity. Owing to the shortage of raw materials, an increasing volume of paper yarn was spun and in 1917, paper weaves and sacks were the only products. In 1918, the annual report noted: “The spinning mill received a few small batches of cotton, which were spun into yarn for a modest payment. Otherwise, only paper yarns were manufactured, which were then processed in the company weaving shops. The production was roughly at the level of the preceding year.” The workforce had shrunk to less than 400 and consisted almost entirely of women and elderly men.

Moreover, the situation at some of the spinning mills in the vicinity was even worse. The Dierzer company with around 20,000 spindles and 220 employees shut down as early as 1914, although since the death of Emil Dierzer in 1904, the company had steadily lost its entrepreneurial drive. Until 1882, Emil Dierzer had been a member of the administrative board of Kleinmünchner Spinnereien und Weberei AG and from 1902 to 1904 was even its president. Whether or not Dierzer had intended to merge his company with that in Kleinmünchen during the last year of his life, or had planned to create his own corporation, remains a matter of conjecture. The wartime difficulties resulted eventually in the sale of the Dierzer works to its large neighbour in Kleinmünchen and at the time of purchase on July 11, 1917, it only possessed roughly a quarter of the 80,000 spindles of the Kleinmünchen operation. Furthermore, these were all at a standstill. Nevertheless, the 700,000 crowns that Kleinmünchen paid for Dierzer was to prove a solid investment, as a few years later the money would have

Emil Dierzer Ritter von Traunthal, the deputy-governor of Upper Austria and president of the administrative board, 1902–1904. Top left: The Dierzer works on the Weidingerbach and Dauphinestrasse. Joseph Dierzer had converted the former mill into a textile undertaking in 1838.

been worthless. In September 1917, the company also bought the k.k. privilegierte Baumwollspinnerei und Weberei F.C. Hermann in Reutte with 21,000 spindles and 630 looms. This was also a far-sighted purchase, as after the collapse of the Habsburg monarchy the new republic was faced with a shortage of looms, but a surplus of spindle capacity. At the end of the war, the Kleinm端nchen enterprise had five companies with a total of 101,000 spindles and 524 looms at its disposal. In addition, the company also owned the spinning and weaving shops in Reutte/Tyrol, purchased in 1917, with Capacity of the Kleinm端nchen spinning and weaving shops in 1919

The F.C. Hermann cotton spinning and weaving mill in Reutte, which was purchased in 1917, proved to be a strategic investment in view of the crumbling monarchy.

Operation

Spindles

Spin. shop I (merchant mill) Spin. shop II (Swiss) Spin. shop III (Zizlau) Spin. shop IV (Dierzer) Weaving Shop (English) Reutte (Tyrol) Total

18,000 34,000 28,000 21,000 * 21,000 122,000

Looms 86 * * * 438 630 1,154

21,000 spindles and 630 looms. All in all, the company possessed around 122,000 spindles, which were mainly self-acting. The two weaving shops contained a total of roughly 1,154 mechanical looms and there was also a bleaching shop, a

dyeing shop, a finishing shop, a farm, an ice plant and a large number of employee houses, which added up to around 70 buildings. The workforce consisted of over 2,000 employees and the Kleinmünchen company represented Austria’s lar-

gest textile plant. However, the firm was one among many, as in 1910 the Habsburg monarchy possessed 4.7 million spindles, France 7.2 million, Germany 10.3 million, the USA 28.5 million and Great Britain 53.9 million.

Textile workers from the neighbouring Dierzer cotton spinning mill, which was taken over by Kleinmünchen in 1917.

Tiny Austria, massive inflation The problems in the new, small economic region formed by the young Austrian Republic were huge. The country possessed excessive spinning capacity for its few weaving mills. The usual division of work with the Sudeten area, where the weaving mills were located could no longer be easily continued, as this was now part of Czechoslovakia. Moreover, with 120,000 spindles, yarn production capacity within the Kleinmünchen operations was also far too large to allow further processing on the company’s own looms and supplies of cotton were still lacking. The manufacture of paper yarns continued until 1920/21 and a return to cotton only took place very slowly. The fluctuating order situation and surplus spinning capacity led repeatedly to production cuts and short-time working. On occasions, use of capacity was as low as 60 per cent and the bulk of production took the form of working to order for other companies. Nevertheless, the Kleinmünchen company survived the hyperinflation of the postwar years in an astonishingly positive fashion. There was no increase in capital or share dilution and while the spinning shops had to battle against enormous over-capacity, the weaving shops were exceptionally busy. The 1924 balance sheet showed a net profit of 5 billion crowns and the stockholders received a dividend of five per cent on the share capital. In addition, a supplementary dividend of ten gold crowns or 144,000 paper crowns was paid on each share. This amounted to five per cent interest on the pre-war capital. The currency transition to the schilling Left-hand page: Invoice from December 21, 1926 to the technical director Louis (Ludwig) von Gallois regarding 40m of chiffon and flannel cloths. The stationery shows all the company’s plants.

took place on December 20, 1924 and in the gold opening balance of January 1, 1925, share capital was raised from four million to six million schillings, divided into 20,000 shares with a nominal value of 300 schillings each. This was carried out without a request to the stockholders for a capital injection and an additional three million schillings were also set aside as reserves. Consequently, as opposed to the owners of savings books

In 1920, the shortage of (metal) coins caused by hoarding and smuggling led to the issue of socalled emergency money. Virtually every district produced such notes. In Kleinmünchen, they bore a view of the area with the former Dierzer works (top left), which at the time already belonged to KAG.

and bonds, the Kleinm端nchen stockholders were able to survive hyperinflation relatively unscathed. In 1925, the company possessed an astoundingly large capital cushion, although this was a result of the fact that between 1907 and 1925 practically no investments had been made, which was not unproblematic. This policy continued in virtually unaltered form until 1938 and thus year for year, the company made operative losses. Nevertheless, the stockholders received extremely large dividends of between eight and ten per cent. They were even allocated a super dividend of 41 per cent in 1934 at the high point of the Depression.

Owner fluctuations Since the stock exchange crash of 1873, the company had a highly unstable shareholder structure. Apart from the Grillmayr family, whose influence had become extremely limited and was steadily declining further, a number of Upper Austrian industrialists, Viennese investors and various banking houses were stockholders. If at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, Linz citizens and Upper Austrian industrialists and investors controlled the administrative board, in the twentieth century this weighting moved increasingly in the direction of

Vienna. Members of the Grillmayr family were last mentioned in the voting list of the general meetings in 1893 and the balance of power shifted steadily towards the banks and the Viennese textile industry. The distortions in the Viennese banking landscape in the period between the wars also affected the Kleinm端nchen company. As the crisis started to spread to the Wiener Unionbank in the 1920s,

View of the old (left) and new Swiss mills on the Weidingerbach. The sprinkler tower on the end wall of the building is most striking. Around 1924.

it was rescued by the Bodencreditanstalt, which thus also assumed the relationship of the Kleinmünchen company with the Unionbank that had existed since the beginnings of the 20th century. For its part, the Bodencreditanstalt was also faced with collapse in 1929 and owing to governmental pressure, had to be saved by the Credit-Anstalt through a merger. The Credit-Anstalt für Handel und Gewerbe also took over the 25.2 per cent holding in the Kleinmünchen firm from the Bodencreditanstalt. By 1930, the CA had raised its Kleinmünchen share package to 27.8 per cent. However, in the meantime the Credit-Anstalt had itself become a case for restructuring and in 1931 had to be rescued by public money and partly nationalized in a massive operation. In 1937, after the death of Julius Stern, Dr. Josef Joham, the director general of the Creditanstalt-Bankverein became the president of the Kleinmünchen administrative board and by 1938, the Creditanstalt-Bankverein possessed 6,533 Kleinmünchen shares, a holding of 32.7 per cent.

The global economic crisis In the 1920s the Kleinmünchen workforce reached its maximum size with almost 2,000 employees. Production amounted to 2,381t of yarns and 6.6 million metres of woven goods. However, the financial and technical substance of the company had been damaged. In 1929, which was basically a boom year because the crisis first became apparent in the fourth quarter, director general Willy Nahlovsky wrote: “It cannot be denied that it would

Left-hand page and top right: Scenes from the weaving shop in Works I. After World War I, the Linz location had some 524 looms in the English and merchant mills.

be far more economic if the spinning shops were to be shut down entirely rather than to continue to produce at a loss.” The global economic crisis caused a serious slump in sales and at the peak of the Depression in 1932, these had shrunk by 30 per cent as compared to the figure for 1929. Workforce numbers had also fallen to around 1,000 and unemployment was rife. In addition, wages had been cut significantly. The annual reports between the wars show a strangely contradictory picture. Virtually nothing was invested and constant references are made to the extremely poor business situation. Nevertheless, by contrast high dividends of between eight and ten per cent were

Willy Nahlovsky, director general (1910–1939)

Throstle yarn shop workers in 1937, when the Kleinmünchen company was the largest industrial operation in Linz.

paid out regularly and with a resolution at the general meeting of April 25, 1934, share capital was reduced from six million to four million schillings. Ironically, in the difficult year of 1934 almost 50 per cent of the share capital was paid out to the stockholders and administrative board members in dividends, super dividends and bonus payments. High speculation earnings were said to justify such large dividends and director general Nahlovsky genuinely understood how to profit through favourable cotton transactions. However, these gains were costly and bought at the company’s expense. Indeed, of the machines available in 1938, the best and newest dated from the period prior to World War I. A tentative recovery commenced in 1934 and the workforce was once again increased to around 1,240. In 1937, spinning

shop output stood at 3,000t of yarn and was thus 20 per cent higher than in 1928. Moreover, at 9.3 million metres, weaving shop production was also up by more than a fifth on that of 1928. Nonetheless, the profits achieved in 1936 and 1937 of over 400,000 schillings were once again withheld from investment and almost entirely paid out as 10 per cent dividends. In terms of employee numbers, in 1937 Kleinmünchen was the largest industrial company in Linz, which was an industrial centre even before 1938. As at July 1, 1938, there were 85 industrial enterprises in the town with a total workforce of 6,394, of which roughly one-sixth were Kleinmünchen employees. Another 500 workers from outside the town further supplemented these figures. However, 1938 was to change fundamentally the appearance of Linz as an industrial conurbation.

Textile or steel town? Owing to the high dividend payments, which were taken from the reserves, the Kleinmünchen company suffered from a chronic shortage of capital and the necessary plant update was neglected. Following Austria’s “Anschluss” with the Third Reich, German economics researchers compiled a status report regarding Austrian industry. This report was undoubtedly tendentious, as it was intended to show the undesirable developments in Austria as opposed to the successes achieved in National Socialist Germany. However, as far as Kleinmünchen was concerned, the assessment was probably accurate, for half of the spinning machines and looms merely possessed museum value. Kleinmünchen’s existence was subject to a triple threat. Firstly, owing to the wave of German competition, which

broke over the Austrian textile industry, while at the same time the loss of export possibilities and foreign sources of materials due to the National Socialist policy of autonomy. A second danger emanated from the development of new industries in the Linz area in the form of the metallurgical plants of the “Hermann Göring Werke” and the fertilizer and chemical

Top: Apart from land, the Zizlau mill was also requisitioned for the building of industrial plant. The photo from 1942 shows the area behind the processing workshops and the foundations of the rolling mill. Above: In front of the newly built blast furnace: Paul Pleiger (2nd from l.) with Hans Malzacher (3rd from l.) and Gauleiter August Eigruber (4th from l.).

Below: Several buildings were purchased from the Kleinmünchen company (frequently for water rights reasons) and then converted into workers’ housing. This was also the case with the “Eßmühle” in the photo. This had to be handed over to the Reichswerke Hermann Göring in 1938.

production of the “Stickstoffwerke Ostmark”, which sucked in labour and demanded land. The third hazard derived from the war economy limitations in the consumer goods area, which increasingly reduced the allocation of investment goods, raw materials and supplies to the textile companies.

As the biggest industrial company in Linz and the second largest in Upper Austria, Kleinmünchner Spinnereien und Weberei AG had five production facilities spread over an area of several square kilometres with a total of 99,400 spindles and 530 looms, and with them the largest property reserves in the ur-

The sprinkler towers of the Swiss and Dierzer shops and the tower of the Kleinmünchen church can be seen clearly behind the newly erected Mühlbach station. Around 1942.

ban area, which were the object of massive covetousness. From a war economy perspective, the company was regarded as irrelevant. A considerable part of its site was within the area of the planned Hermann Göring works and assignment negotiations commenced in May 1938. The first transaction was finalized on August 12, 1938 and related to roughly 250,000m2. A further 500,000m2 were soon demanded and the talks stretched out until April 30, 1940. This transaction led to the closure of Spinning Shop III and eight employee houses. Although the purchase contract was first concluded in April 1940, the Reichswerke Hermann Göring commenced construction work on the Kleinmünchner premises in the course of 1938. Almost 1 million square metres of undeveloped land, a number of residential buildings and all the land and buildings of the Zizlau spinning mill were to be handed over to Alpine Montan AG Hermann Göring. Clearance had to take place virtually overnight with the result that spinning machines were disassembled with excessive haste and subjected to careless destruction. A long list of the scrap volumes was drawn up with the Reich’s Independent Economy Authority, which reported that to date 350t of textile machinery had been broken up. On March 31, 1941, KAG wrote that within the course of its restructuring measures,

since August 1940 it had delivered 785t of machine scrap to the German stockpile and that another 500t could be expected in the near future. In October 1942, a further 69,000m2 of land was handed over for residential buildings and all in all, the company was more or less “voluntarily forced” to sell 833,000m2 of property along with the Zizlau works. The purchase price was fixed at RM 0.32 per square metre and thus Kleinmünchen received RM 520,000 in compensation. This was only paid out partially and with sizeable delays, but nonetheless the intention was to use the money to finally buy new machinery from Switzerland, as no major investments had been undertaken since 1908. KAG applied for a foreign currency allocation for the import of 20,000 ring spindles from Switzerland, but this did not occur. Well-meaning competitors from the textile industry knew how to obstruct the granting of funds and the originally approved sum was reduced from 2.5 million to 430,000 Swiss francs or RM 240,000. Eventually, the greatly reduced batch of machines arrived, but were never unpacked or assembled, as the majority were destroyed by fire in the autumn of 1945. After 1945, Kleinmünchen attempted to retrieve the assigned buildings and land from the VOEST, but the claims proved fruitless.

Dr. Thyll becomes the most important decision-maker In the balance sheet from December 31, 1938, the share capital of 4,000,000 schillings is converted at the official, schilling/ reichsmark exchange rate and amounts to RM 2,667k. The shares with a value of 200 schillings were exchanged for stocks with a nominal of RM 133.33. On the occasion of the opening reichsmark balance at the beginning of 1939, share capital was raised to RM 4,000,000 and one share with a value of RM 133.33 was exchanged for a new one with a value of RM 200. The company was also transferred to German corporation law and a supervisory board replaced the administrative board. Several members of the latter had to resign for political reasons, or owing to the racial laws. Thirty days after the outbreak of World War II, the long-serving director general, Willy Nahlovsky, also retired. He died on April 5, 1946. The A. Stern & Sohn banking house, which was designated as Jewish, owned some 4,000 of the 20,000 Kleinmünchner shares. These were purchased by the Creditanstalt, which by mid-1940 has thus raised its holding to 11,200 shares, or 56 per cent. On June 21, 1940, the Creditanstalt then sold this entire package for RM 3.58 million to Vereinigte Färbereien AG in Vienna, which in turn was fully owned by Schweizerische Druckereien und Färbereien Trust AG in Chur, Switzerland. This group’s main representative was Dr. Robert Thyll jun., whose father, Dr. Robert Thyll sen., had established the Swiss holding in 1921. On April 30, 1945, Dr. Thyll held 58 per cent and the Austrian Moritz Seidel 30 per cent of this holding in the Swiss canton of GrauDr. Robert (1897–1971) and Lina Thyll (1915–1998) held a majority holding in the Schweizerische Druckereien u. Färbereien Trust AG in Chur.

bünden, which in several stages increased its participation in Kleinmünchner AG to 75 per cent via the Vereinigte Färbereien. The decision to purchase by the Vereinigte Färbereien in 1940 was inspired by a number of motives. Founded in 1906, the Vereinigte Färbereien operated contract dyeing plants, printing and finishing works at six locations in Austria, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. Annual output amounted to 3050 million metres and the company employed 2,000-3,000 white- and blue-collar workers. The German tax law, which applied after the “Anschluss” clearly advantaged vertically, integrated operations and the National Socialist planned economy also moved in this direction. Moreover, companies wished to create greater room for manoeuvre by this means. Another motive for Robert Thyll was the acquisition of the hydropower reserves belonging to the Kleinmünchen spinning mills, which represented a “long-term asset”. In addition, at the time of the purchase in 1940, Dr. Thyll was probably unaware

that Kleinmünchen also owned a far from small plant in Reutte with 20,000 spindles and 500 looms. Between 1940 and 1942, Kleinmünchen was a risk factor, as the overwhelming power of the Hermann Göring Works threatened to crush the neighbouring textile operation. Indeed, there was even uncertainty as to just how much would remain of the Kleinmünchen operation in the war economy. Perhaps one thought that a company under Swiss ownership would be better able to withstand the Göring works and whether or not the National Socialist authorities knew about the Swiss umbrella holding is unclear. In total, Vereinigte Färbereien paid RM 4.9 million for the purchase of the share package. Payment was made via debt. A necessary bridging loan was obtained from the Industrie-Bank Berlin. The debit balance in 1945 still amounted to around RM 3 million. But post-war inflation freed the Vereinigte Färbereien from the burden of this repayment virtually automatically.

Spun rayon and bombs

An increasing number of employees suffered a “hero’s” death in the field. The casualty lists were printed in the company’s annual report.

In order to secure a supply of raw material despite the autonomy policy of the Third Reich, in 1938 Kleinmünchen subscribed a total of 7.5 per cent of the share capital of the “Zellwolle Lenzing Aktiengesellschaft”, founded on May 31, 1938, amounting to one million reichsmarks. As a result, Kleinmünchen obtained a claim to an allocation of spun rayon, instead of cotton, which was also barely available during peacetime. In order to provide the stockholders with a special incentive to subscribe, the Austrian subscribers (in addition to the Kleinmünchen company, Pottendorfer,

Rhomberg, Ganahl and Schindler, etc.) were given spun rayon allocations of 1,000kg and “Reichsdeutsche” were allotted an allocation of 500kg per subscribed share with a nominal value of RM 1,000. Following a series of capital increases in Lenzing in which Kleinmünchen did not participate, in 1945 the company still retained a holding of 1.6 per cent. However, after the de facto post-war bankruptcy of Lenzing this investment was lost entirely. As the war progressed, neither cotton nor spun rayon was available in sufficient quantities. The technical obsolescence of the Kleinmünchen machine pool, the autonomy policy of the Third Reich and events in the war economy were all reflected by the company’s results. The accumulated losses in the years from 1939 to 1943 amounted to RM 1.7 million and as compared to 1938 production fell by two-thirds. Lastly, employee numbers dropped from 1,100 to a mere 320. Attempts were made at rationalization and the central office was moved from the Linz old quarter to adapted facilities in Ebelsberg. However, at the same time the cuts due to the war economy became increasingly drastic. On November 14, 1943 the board received an order from the Reich’s Minister for Armaments and War Production for the closure of the Kleinmünchen works with effect from December 15, 1943. Any materials remaining were to be handed over to other companies and the entire labour force and buildings allocated to the neighbouring tank factory. After long negotiations the order was diverted, as the production halls had shown themselves to be entirely unsuitable for tank manufacture. Nonetheless, production in Kleinmünchen never really recovered, especially

in view of the intensified air raids and the danger to Kleinm端nchen owing to its proximity to armaments factories. In the autumn of 1944 and winter 1945, in the course of eight air raids, a total of 896 bombs hit the company premises and in particular, major damage was caused by the attacks of October 16, 1944 and February 17, 18 and 25, 1945. The Spinning Shop II, five residential houses and the administrative building were all destroyed and 56 other buildings were damaged to varying degrees. The company in Reutte escaped lightly with only minor damage caused by the demolition of the Lech Bridge in the final days of the war.

Top: Reconnaissance photo taken during an air raid on the Linz industrial complex. In Kleinm端nchen, Works II, housing and the office building were severely damaged, 1944. Bottom: Flak unit near the former Zizlau spinning mill, 1943.

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US Air Force reconnaissance photo from May 1945 showing the Kleinmünchner AG properties marked in red. The numerous bomb craters indicate how hard the works premises were hit. Works II – Dierzer (1), the mill spinning shop (2), the Grillmayr palace (3), the weaving shop (4) Works I – Swiss (5) in front of the “Aschensiedlung” (6).

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Right: The Swiss letter of protection complete with a note from an officer of the American military government instructing all army patrols to provide help in the case of any interference. Bottom: On May 5, 1945, tank units spearheading the American advance reached the Linz Hauptplatz. The town surrendered without hostilities.

3. 1945 to 1977: The post-war period No battle on the Traun Bridge As the fronts moved ever closer, the Kleinmünchen spinning mill was also faced with the threat posed by the scorched earth policy. Neither supplies, nor an intact plant should fall into the hands of the advancing Allied troops. Therefore, preparations were made for the demolition of the bridges on the mill’s premises. However, a few courageous men not only succeeded in removing the explosive charges, which had already been put in place, but also in hiding a considerable amount of the stores and working materials from confiscation or plundering. The last heavy air raid took place on April 25, 1945 and on May 5 the land war reached the mill. For a brief period, the front line even ran directly though the company premises and there was thus the acute danger that at the last minute, the site could become the scene of a battle for the Traun Bridge. At 2 p.m. the first armoured units of General Patton’s US III army tank division rolled through Kleinmünchen and were confronted by the tank traps on the Traun Bridge, which had been in position for weeks. However, the first battle on the Traun Bridge that took place in 1809 and cost many dead during hostilities, which Napoleon described as some of the most senseless in the history of warfare, was not to be followed by a second slaughter. Two parliamentarians appeared on the bridge and the commander of the American tank units, a major, accepted their surrender. The Kleinmünchner AG raised the Swiss flag and presented a long-prepared Swiss consulate plaque,

which was intended to signify its status as a Swiss company. On May 5, 1945, the war in Linz was over. The mill in Reutte was officially closed from January 25 until April 15 owing to a shortage of coal and American troops entered the town on April 29. Reutte did not experience any devastation due to bombing, but work on repairing war damage still had to continue until May 27. This was due to the fact that the company premises had suffered considerably in the demolition of the Lech Bridge on the last day of the war.

French POWs show their joy at liberation. This photo was taken near the Lunzerstrasse underpass in Kleinmünchen.

Courage for a new start The Kleinmünchen team had very poor conditions for a restart. The weaving shop was closed entirely and the spinning mill largely shut down. Concrete slab production (Ferro-Betonit) had been installed in the halls and the machinery had been inadequately stored in the cellars. By May 1945, only 176 of the 1,400 employees from 1939 remained and they consisted mainly of elderly men and women. The

Dr. Josef Joham, director general of the Vienna Creditanstalt-Bankverein, chairman of the Kleinm端nchner AG Supervisory Board (1937-1959).

A significant spun rayon allocation allowed start-up after the war. Spinning shop workers in 1948.

forced labourers left the mill and returned to their home countries, while the Austrians came back to their jobs. There was however one major plus. Kleinm端nchen had come to rest in the American occupation zone and although the border with the Soviet zone north of the Danube and east of the River Enns was very close, the chances were seen to be better with the Americans, as was reflected by the number of refugees, who sought sanctuary in their zone. Nonetheless, before production could even be considered, huge amounts of debris had to cleared away. With 896 bombing impacts, Kleinm端nchen numbered among the companies hardest hit and the production facilities had suffered serious damage. The buildings of the merchant mill, which had been closed and cleared

since 1940, had been virtually destroyed by a direct hit along with the power plant. The foundations of the Swiss spinning shop had also been so severely affected by vibrations that a resumption of operations or reuse appeared inadvisable. Moreover, owing to a number of bomb hits, the power plant at the expropriated spinning mill in Zizlau was at a standstill and the Dierzer spinning shop would be out of action for a considerable period. The English spinning shop had also been expropriated and partially cleared, but at least was barely damaged. The administration building, newly adapted in 1943, had been completely destroyed by a direct hit and the employee housing had also been seriously damaged. In addition, the access roads and rail links required repair. The only positive factor was

In spite of difficult conditions, work could also be resumed in the weaving shop. Around 1948.

that a considerable amount of viscose rayon had been saved from confiscation and offered a potential basis for an operational restart. A report sent by Herbert Müllersen, the chairman of the KAG board, on August 9, 1945 to Dr. Joham, the Supervisory Board president, provides a vivid impression of the first weeks of peace: “The plant has been protected against plundering by means of constant day and night watches. For roughly 14 days, I along with 20 old and reliable workers have been on guard in the factory 24 hours a day and have thus prevented any plundering or damage to the spinning and weaving shops. However, during the initial days we did not have control over our farm until we received American sentries after about ten days. The merchant mill was occupied for about six weeks and as a result was in a partially very unpleasant state.” Nonetheless, both the spinning and weaving shops were to start running again towards the end of May.

The main problem was that following the removal of the Polish and Russian forced labourers, the elderly workers were insufficient to use a mere quarter of the mill’s capacity. Therefore, Müllersen demanded that: “Fundamentally, the young people who for the past six years have gone to the “Göringwerke” must be removed and not only be taught spinning and weaving, but also educated from a moral standpoint. In addition, I have employed all the Lower Austrians and Viennese that I could get hold of in order to repair windowpanes, roofs and other damage. The reconstruction of the weaving shop is to continue; old looms are being reinstalled and fitted with individual drives and large shuttles, given a general overhaul, and started up. Since the arrival of the Americans, we have set up 70 new looms. All the roofs have either been repaired or fully replaced. The biggest problem is the shortage of glass, which we need to repair the damage from the air raids on February 17, 18 and 25.” ... “Prior to the Americans’ arrival, we managed just in

Robert Thyll, deputy-chairman of the Supervisory Board in around 1950.

Herbert Müllersen, chairman of the Managing Board.

A fire in the Swiss spinning mill in 1945 brought the idea of building a new production hall to maturity. In spite of raw material rationing, work started on the project in 1946.

time to secure enough raw material for a year’s production both in Kleinmünchen and in Reutte. This used up our entire bank reserves.” Müllersen then concludes: “At the moment, we are employing around 600 people.” At the end of May, production in the spinning shop recommenced with around 10,000kg of yarn monthly. However, from August 3 to October 4 it was forced to shut again owing to a shortage of raw materials, although towards the end of 1945, it was possible to slowly increase spinning shop production to 30,000kg per month.

The Kleinmünchen weaving shop, which was closed by the authorities in 1942, was reactivated using the looms stored in the cellar. Production restarted in June with 10,000m and by the end of the year, the 102 looms installed were manufacturing 40,000m of fabric monthly. There were sufficient workers owing to the large numbers of refugees who had gathered in the Linz area. Some 700 were taken on and roughly 300 stayed for longer. The Reutte weaving mill commenced production in June with an output of 58,000m, which by the end of the year had risen to 72,000m. At the close of 1945, Kleinmün-

chen had 447 employees and Reutte 160. During the war, Dr. Robert Thyll, the exponent and vice-president of Druckereien und Färbereien Trust AG in Chur had been virtually unable to exert any influence on the Austrian mills. However, he was the object of considerable hope owing to the possibilities available to him as a Swiss citizen. A general meeting was held in November 1945 at which a new supervisory board was appointed. The holding also had to readjust, as the companies in Czechoslovakia and Hungary were endangered and would eventually be lost. Moreover, the future of the Austrian companies located in the Soviet zone was uncertain. However, Austria’s economy turned to the West, which naturally strengthened the Linz and Reutte locations.

New construction instead of reconstruction By the end of 1946, two-thirds of the looms in Kleinmünchen had been reinstalled and put into operation. The production of the spinning shop rose from 29,000kg to approximately 60,000kg per month, while that of the weaving shop increased from

40,000m to around 120,000m. In 1947, the bombed out Zizlau power plant and the merchant mill power plant were rebuilt and recommissioned. At the end of the year, the workforce numbered 890 and sales revenues totalled ATS 12.7 million. This figure was once again near the prewar level with one quarter deriving from exports. In 1948, the following capacity was available. The Spinning Shop I in Kleinmünchen was destroyed, while the Spinning Shop II had around 18,000 spindles, which were partly used in two-shift operation. Spinning Shop III had been sold and Spinning Shop IV had 2,600 thread spindles. The weaving shop was in the development phase with 200 looms operating in two shifts. A further 120 looms were ready for operation following receipt of the motors. In Reutte there were 10,000 spindles and approximately 400 looms. A fire in the Swiss spinning shop on October 26, 1945, caused by a short circuit, additionally hindered the reconstruction process. However, precisely for this reason it also assumed new directions. The mill management decided to concentrate all the Kleinmünchen spinning activities in a new large hall, complete with administra-

Watercolour of the completed shed hall in 1949 with the administration building in the foreground.

Plan for Rieter/Winterthur from the shed hall completed in 1949. This offered sufficient space for production on one level.

tive building. Work started in 1946, but due to the virtually insurmountable difficulties relating to the acquisition of the necessary building and working materials, completion in the years from 1946 to 1949 was barely possible. Construction materials were rationed and for a long period were only available subject to allocation. Therefore, precise accounts were kept, which reveal that the new hall and administration building with over

Equipment: 1176 cards with revolver can presses, 12â&#x20AC;?card. 16 cotton wool machines 22 drawing frames with winders, 6 feeds each

10,000m2 consumed more than 2,400t of cement, 500t of structural steel, 600m3 of building timber, 5,000m3 of gravel, 1.2 million bricks, 20,000m2 of roofing paper, 180t of coal pitch, 15,000m2 of cork insulation sheeting and 1,300m2 of industrial glass. In view of the post-war shortages, this was an outstanding logistical achievement. On September 15, 1949, the new shed hall was finally finished. The new hall with an

22 sliver drafters, 6 feeds each 22 coarse medium flyers, Type g-MN with 150 spindles each 90 Mod. 31 ring spinning machines each with 360 spindles, 82.55 mm gauge 10 Mod. 31 ring spinning machines each with 448 spindles, 66.67 mm gauge

area of around 11,000m2 offered a possibility for the installation of machines on one level. A modern flat building had at last been obtained as a production location and with it easy production sequences and transport routes. The number of workers per spindle could thus be reduced by 50 per cent. The Linz facility, which was located in the American zone, was allocated Marshall Plan aid as a priority case and given a USD 13 million ERP grant. The Kleinm端nchen team used the money for the purchase of a modern spinning machine set with 10,000 ring spindles from Switzerland, which raised the capacity of the spinning shop by two-thirds. At the same time, the weaving shop was modernized with individual drives, extra-large shuttles and warp thread feelers. All in all, 25,000 spindles and 330 looms operated in double shifts in Kleinm端nchen and 12,000 spindles and 600 looms in Reutte. In 1950, the company again employed a workforce of around a thousand consis-

ting of 396 men and 683 women. Roughly a hundred people were salaried. The average age of the personnel, which during the war had risen to 55, fell to 32 and in 1950, 500 blue- and white-collar workers lived in works housing. The Reutte works, which had been largely unaffected by the war, provided the initial profits. Nonetheless, it also required investment, as the machinery pool was even more outdated than that in Linz. Owing to the fact that the Linz facility was located directly on the edge of the Soviet sector and in Linz the risk of nationalization was far greater than in Reutte, deliberations began with regard to giving Reutte its independence. In 1949, the Reuttener Textilwerke was founded and received a lease on the Reutte operations from KAG. Another motive for this move may also have been the fact that in Linz 44 hours were worked, whereas in Reutte and other Austrian textile firms, the working week had 48 hours.

View of the 176 Rieter cards with revolver can presses. Around 1950.

Around 1950, Kleinm端nchen employed roughly 1,000 blueand white-collar workers.

Photo of the ring spinning shop in the new shed hall with 100 Rieter Model 31 spinning machines with 360 and 448 spindles respectively. The shed hall was so designed that the light areas on the north side were guaranteed constant daylight, but were not in direct sunlight. 79

Thanks to the looms stored in the cellar, the weaving shop, which was closed by the authorities in 1942, resumed production in June 1945. By year-end 40,000m of fabric were being manufactured monthly with 102 looms. The photo from around 1960 shows the weaving shop with the new Sulzer looms. 80

The missing economic wonder By 1950 the reconstruction phase was over, not only in Kleinm端nchen, but throughout Austria. Emergency farming ceased and there were no more ration cards or coupons. However, initially the economy failed to move up a gear, due not only to the Korean War, but also internal Austrian shortcomings. Planned economy elements in the foreign exchange transactions and price controls first required abolition before the budget and foreign trade could be brought into equilibrium. There was an enormous longing for consumer goods. The talk was of eating, clothing, household appliance and motorization waves, which had to be satisfied in turn. From around 1950, the so-called clothing wave created a corresponding demand for textiles. However, in the international markets the competition

At the beginning of the 1950s textiles were in great demand. In the picture a sectional warping machine and behind a Schlafhorst parallel warping creel.

from the Far East was already tangible and at the time emanated from Japanese textiles. In terms of quantity, the employment situation was very good, but there were complaints as far as prices and costs were concerned. During the 1950s, Linz operated on a two-shift, 44-hour basis. 60 per cent spun rayon was used and 40 per cent cotton, which derived largely from North America. In 1957, which was the best year for the textile industry since 1951, a third shift was introduced in the spinning shop. Of the 2,650t produced annually in the spinning shop, over 1,000t were exported. 1958 saw the foundation of the European Economic Community from which Austria was excluded and also the beginning of an increasingly difficult period for the textile industry. Exports to the EFTA, which was founded in 1960, and thus the classic British and Swiss textile markets could not provide a substitute. There were massive setbacks in export business, especially with regard to spinning mill production. Sales revenues from the spinning shop fell from ATS 65 million to ATS 56 million, but remai-

The 6x5m mural in the adminis足 trative building dating from 1950 expresses the mood of change prevailing in the post-war years.

The title page of the 1975 annual report shows the new Rieter ring spinning machines. The ATS 120 million investment programme was completed between 1974 and 1976.

ned virtually unchanged in the weaving shop at ATS 30.5 million. From 1955 during the classic period of the economic wonder, the company tended to produce losses in the operative area, which from 1960 became endemic. The competitive pressure in connection with wages and salaries grew steadily owing to the proximity of the VOEST and the Linz chemical works. In addition, the local authority also sought to exert pressure for the sale of land for impending housing projects. These factors fed the growing deliberations regarding a move to a rural area and the sale of the Linz properties for housing and power plant projects. The opening schilling balance from 1955 already revealed the silent reserves, which were reported at the highest possible level in order to avoid taxation on any extraordinary income derived from subsequent land sales. As the only company in Austria, a revaluation in a ratio 1:30 was completed, which provided the stockholders with a significant dividend. The nominal value of the schilling was raised from 100 to 3,000, while savings bank credits had to be written down from 100 to 12. During the 1960s, in terms of employment, the Kleinmünchner Bauwollspinnerei und Weberei AG continued to be the largest privately owned industrial operation in Linz. However, with continuing rationalization, the workforce shrank steadily, falling from 900 to around 600, or almost a third, in the period between 1955 and 1964. Nonetheless, even in the 1970s, the Kleinmünchen works still retained an industrial core of 128,000m2 and roughly 600 employees, which kept it among the ten largest industrial enterprises in Linz. By contrast, the increase in production was most modest and the works failed

to leave the loss zone. The group as a whole was a highly complex weave of companies with the holding in Switzerland, the Vereinigte Färbereien with its headquarters in Vienna and Reutte, the operations in Möllersdorf and Hacking, the spinning and weaving shops in Linz, the large MIAG dairy in Vienna, agricultural activities in Lower Austria and Burgenland, the lost companies in Czechoslovakia (for which Dr. Thyll as a Swiss was able to win compensation), a company in Brazil and last, but not least, test operations in Tyrol aimed at entering totally different branches such as the winning of molybdenum. The 1960s were also characterized by considerable provisions for legal costs, owing to litigation with stockholders relating to the profit transfer and loss acceptance agreements with Vereinigte Färbereien Ges.m.b.H. derived from a pooling of interests between the companies, which was created in order to reduce taxation in the case of eventual profits. The suggestions from stockholder circles to mobilize those parts of the real estate reserves not in industrial use for investment and loss cover became ever more pronounced. Indeed, from 1964 onwards, large amounts of property were sold off, which created extraordinary income of ATS 3.6 million in 1964 and ATS 29.1 million in 1965. Without this extraordinary income, a loss of ATS 9.4 million would have been incurred. During the 1966 financial year, real estate disposals amounted to a total of ATS 24.8 million and in 1967, property sales followed with a gain of ATS 12.1 million. Once again, without the extraordinary income from land sales, a similarly high loss would have been incurred. During 1973, a service station premises was unloaded for ATS 2.4

million, while in November a property was sold for ATS 7.1 million to its longterm tenant and in September real estate was turned over to a housing company for ATS 45.1 million. In February 1974, a purchase option was granted on another property regarding a sales contract worth ATS 6.5 million. The annual report for 1972 states that, to an unexpected extent, the textile industry had developed into an extremely capital-intensive industrial branch and that this scenario demanded the use of every available means for the modernization of the production systems. The approved hydropower project on the Traun, which the Kleinm端nchen team had brought to complete maturity, was therefore sold to the city electricity company. The ESG purchased the already fi-

nished structures and the necessary land and repaid the entire project costs with a sum of ATS 96 million. A major aspect of the contract was a long-term electricity delivery and supply agreement. 1973 saw the start of increased investment activity within KAG and from 1972 to 1973 and from 1973 to 1974 respectively, investment spending doubled. The investment programme for the modernization of the spinning shop involved ATS 120 million and was continued during 1975 and 1976. In spite of these efforts, the losses in 1975 and 1976 amounted to some ATS 20 million per year. The point had been reached where a decision had to be taken, involving either a complete reorientation of the corporate concept or a shutdown and the realization of the valuable reserves of land and water rights.

In 1968, three Schlafhorst Autoconers (Mod. GKN) with 4 x 19 spindles and suction were installed.

Aerial view of the area between the Dauphine- and Wiener Strasse from 1975. At the bottom edge, parts of the mill spinning shop demolished in 1978 and the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Donau-Sportplatzâ&#x20AC;? are recognizable. The Weidinger and Jauker streams have also not yet been regulated. They flow in the direction of Works I, where the administration building can be seen, next to the weaving shop demolished in 2009.

The company balance sheet as at December 31, 1977. The loss for the year amounted to 16 per cent of sales revenues. At that time, the direction in which Linz Textil AG would develop was unclear.

4. 1977 to 2013 In the summer of 1977, the position of the “Kleinmünchen” team was precarious. It was the eighteenth year in sequence in which the company’s figures were in the red. Moreover, all three product segments consisting of the spinning, weaving and printing shops had incurred losses. The gross profit in the income statement for the 1977 financial year of ATS 63.7 million was smaller than the “wages and salaries” item amounting to ATS 64.3 million. If this figure is supplemented by the expense for social payments and other wage- and salary-related contributions, overall personnel costs in 1977 totalled ATS 78.7 million. The loss for the year stood at ATS 32.5 million, which represented some 16 per cent of total sales revenues. Moreover, depreciation of ATS 11.2 million led to a genuine cash drain of over 10 per cent of sales and the shortage of liquidity had become an existential problem. The coverage of losses over many years meant the slow erosion of the group’s reserves. The liquidity gaps were only bridged with difficulty and there were initial signs of disquiet among suppliers. This prompted a readiness to launch a massive structural change. However, the guilt issue was not as easily apportioned as one might have expected. For in this case, the executive management was not solely responsible. A slow and unreliable decision-making process within the group meant that in some ways the supervisory board and the main shareholder were also partly to blame. Accordingly, the discussions regarding the resignation of Thomas Siegmund, Ivo Becke and Michael Voggeneder from the board took place in a constructive atmosphere and by mutual agreement.

Night shot of a neon advertising sign on the roof of the weaving shop on the Wiener Strasse in around 1975.

With effect from September 1, 1977, Dr. Dionys Lehner, who had been appointed to the supervisory board in July 1976, was selected as company chairman. His educational background provided an excellent grounding for the restructuring task that lay ahead. Born in 1942 in Lucerne, Dr. Lehner studied economics in Zurich and following several years spent as a business journalist, obtained a doctorate in public finances at the same university. From 1970 to 1972 there followed MBA studies at Harvard Business School and consultative employment at Mc Kinsey & Co. from 1972 to 1974. In the years from 1974 to 1977, Dr. Lehner served as an advisor to the Thyll Group in Vienna and this proved to be first class preparation for his imminent assignment in Linz. The supervisory board allocated Dr. Lehner carte blanche authority to act for a period of two years, which was the window in which restructuring had to succeed. At this point in time, the direction that the journey was to take was completely unclear. Within Dr. Thyll’s company group, Reuttener Textilwerke AG (RTW), headed by Hans Brandner, was the most successful company in relative terms. The focus of production was on rib velvet and the

With effect from September 1, 1977, Dr. Dionys Lehner was appointed as Managing Board chairman.

Thomas Siegmund headed the Kleinmünchen company from 1971 to 1977 as its managing director. His greatest achievement was the complete modernization of the spinning shops between 1974 and 1976.

company possessed spinning, weaving and finishing shops. RTW and the Kleinmünchen company (KAG) were constantly in internal competition within the group and both had workforces of around 500. Moreover, as it became apparent in summer 1977 that a change of management at Kleinmünchen was impending, Hans Brandner wrote a letter to Dionys Lehner in July in which he described the future chances of KAG as a spinning and weaving mill as questionable. From RTW’s perspective, the Linz location appeared unfavourable owing to a lack of “cheap and diligent” labour, not to mention the “presence of the large VOEST steel plant, which raised wages and the working mentality of city-dwellers.” Among other proposals for KAG, it was suggested that, “The textile machinery pool be moved to Reutte and the buildings and land be sold off, which would strengthen RTW’s textile position. Fur-

thermore, that the Lechtal spinning mill, which was planned at the time, be built in Reutte with financial assistance from both regional and federal government as part of the Lechtal industrialization programme.” Dionys Lehner answered these propositions by saying: “Let us allow both companies to continue to compete for three to four years. The winner will subsequently become the group’s headquarters.” This contest was clearly won by the Kleinmünchen team.

The restructuring phase As a first step, a management team was assembled and the posts involving direct reporting to the board were slashed from fourteen to five. Michael Voggeneder was re-employed for the infrastructure area at a markedly lower salary, but with cash flow sharing, which would subsequently allow him to make good his personal, financial sacrifices. Wolfgang Buhl assumed responsibility for the spinning area, Helmut Grießmayer for the weaving shop and Franz Lemmerhofer for the finances. Initially, Manfred Kubera took over internal strategic planning in a staff-like, organizational role, before working in the infrastructure, weaving and spinning areas. Since 2011, he has been a member of the Linz Textil Supervisory Board. In spite of various attempts to headhunt them following the subsequent success of the company, all the members of the team mentioned above remained with Linz Textil until retirement. This was important for the creation of a solid corporate culture and the services of each of these managers are relevant to the fact that Linz Textil has successfully reached its 175th jubilee. Owing to the financial situation, a maximum of two years were available to guide the company into the black. In order to

accelerate the establishment of a framework for the future, project management was introduced immediately with subtargets such as cost reductions, increased productivity, a new company accounting system and an audit of the production programmes, which extended to the “conclusion of litigation with small stockholders.” Project teams were formed on the basis of their ability to contribute and not hierarchical criteria. Moreover, during the restructuring of decision-making processes care was taken that the boxes in the organizational diagrams were not only allocated clear areas of responsibility, but also the necessary competence in the appropriate dimensions. There was a degree of uncertainty in the markets, especially in the case of the weaving shop, as to whether Kleinmünchen would continue to exist as a client. For this reason two measures were initiated, which were also intended for communication in the media, in order to show a sign of life in the markets. Firstly, a small mail order programme was launched with weaving shop products. Secondly, Professor Ernst Fuchs was commissioned to create three bedding designs, which could be marketed as an exclusive product. The highly respected Beck fashion house then provided a display window for each of the three designs. These test initiatives were not enduring, but nonetheless achieved the company’s objective of demonstrating its vitality. Part of the reorientation process was also the new name “Linz Textil AG”. This was introduced as the old name “Actien-Gesellschaft der Kleinmünchner BaumwollSpinnereien und mechanischen Weberei” was unsuitable for modern marketing. Moreover, automatic looms had been in operation since the 1960s and therefore the term “mechanische Weberei” (mechanical weaving shop) stood for outda-

ted technology. It was also the case that Kleinmünchen spun very little cotton and the dominant fibre was spun rayon, which today is known as viscose. The new name was deliberately short and was intended to show where and what was being produced; hence Linz Textil. The new name was introduced in 1978, a year in which the capital structure was also altered. The previous capital of ATS 120 million was reduced to ATS 80 million. This ATS 40 million write-down was composed of compensation for the loss-carryforward of ATS 31.6 million and repayment to the stockholders of ATS 8.4 million. The latter was made primarily in order to recover the confidence of the anxious small stockholders.

Prof. Ernst Fuchs designed three bedding patterns for Linz Textil. These allowed the company to again show signs of life.

The new loan doctrine In many textile industry companies going into debt was regarded as “elegant”. The idea was that when one developed a production facility on a debt basis, after a certain period of time it would still be in one’s possession while the debts would have automatically become smaller owing to inflation. The massive destruction of debt after World War I as a result of hyperinflation appeared to corroborate the probity of this opinion. Incurring debt was also not seen as a real problem within the Thyll Group and the purchase of Kleinmünchen in 1942 from the CA bank by the Vereinigte Färbereien of Vienna was financed entirely with loans. Furthermore, power plants played a major role in group development after 1945. This was because owing to their long service life, the long-term value of the investment was especially pronounced and over the years the debts were literally diluted. However, the experiences of the Vereinigte Färbereien in the 1970s and the liquidity problems in Kleinmünchen during 1977 and 1978 resulted in a new loan doctrine. Debts would no longer be regarded as inflation-consolidated, investment opportunities. Interest also ceased to be the main problem, but rather the fact that loans have to be repaid. This meant that only in the most extreme of cases were debts permitted and then exclusively with short-term repayment intervals. Furthermore, the annual total assets in turnover were

Left-hand page: Worker using the Rieter G0/2 ring spinning machine in 1975. At that time, any thread breaks still required manual repair.

introduced as an important key indicator. The intention was that total assets should amount to 1.6 times the turnover figure instead of the mere 0.6 times of 1977. This new doctrine retains its unaltered validity in the jubilee year of 2013.

Kleinmünchen’s first open end spinning machine, the BD 200, was manufactured in the then Czechoslovakia. Photo from the shed hall in around 1970.

The strategy search During the second year of restructuring there were indications that after 20 years of losses, the company had a good chance to move back into the profit zone in 1980. The time had therefore come for the definition of a new strategy for the next 15 years. It was also clear that the product range had to be reduced in size, in order to achieve a concentration on segments that would allow industrial manufacture. What was astonishing in this situation was not that restructuring was to be supplemented by a complex search for a strategy, but rather that the strategy resulted from restructuring as a virtual

Dr. Gustav Harmer (Supervisory Board vice-president), Dr. Karl Josef Steger (Supervisory Board president), Dr. Dionys Lehner (Managing Board chairman), Ing. Michael Voggeneder (Managing Board member).

by-product. The restructuring process had provided such profound insights into what was, or was not, achievable that the concentration on the feasible led automatically to strategy definition. As compared to Vorarlberg and Munich, it was clear that fashion in Linz had little chance. Chemie Linz, which measured its output in tons and the VOEST, which defined its production in kilometres of sheet, characterized the industrial image of the city. The status of a forklift driver was higher than that of the designer who coloured in the designs for the bedding from Professor Fuchs and prepared them for printing. Therefore, Linz Textil also arrived at the logical conclusion that it should express its production in terms of tons and kilometres, namely of yarn and woven fabrics. This resulted in the strategy of focusing upon industrially produced semi-finished products. As a consequence, the Möllersdorf textile printing shop, the bedding concept and the rural patterns

and colourful yarns as production segments had to be sacrificed. The company began to concentrate fully on textile semis with quality, cost efficiency, service orientation and precise disposition as objectives. It was this orientation that was to characterize the long-term strategy of the Linz Textil Group.

Massive expansion In 1977, the spinning and weaving segments accounted for EUR 11.5 million of sales revenues totalling EUR 14 million. These revenues were far too small for an industrial semi-finished product concept in the textile industry based on yarns and grey fabric. Accordingly, a relatively aggressive growth concept had to be implemented, whereby expansion was sought through both organic growth and acquisitions. The problem with this objective was the financial situation, where there was a critical bottleneck. Therefore, it was clearly defined that every investment had first to be digested prior to the next one taking place. Over the years, this rule was rigorously adhered to. In the fifteen years up to 1995, the following companies were purchased: • In 1982, the Felixdorf spinning mill was acquired. This was sold off by the owning bank, the Creditanstalt, in the course of the media tumult surrounding the Textile West project and following many years of losses. This saw Linz Textil step into the second phase, cotton processing, as the programme in Felixdorf was built around the quality “combed cotton with a 1 1/8 fibre length.” • 1984 saw the acquisition of the Telfs weaving mill, which had a similar grey fabric programme to that of the weaving shop in Linz.

open end bergin

• In 1985, the Matrei spinning mill was bought, which had a programme focused on “carded cotton”, but only possessed outdated machinery. • In 1987, the Reutte weaving mill was acquired, the grey fabric shop having been a sister operation of Linz Textil. This was bought out of the group in order to end a competitive situation that was disruptive with regard to the market. • 1992 saw the purchase of the Klarenbrunn spinning mill in Bludenz from Getzner Textil AG. This mill was active in the premium cotton segment, producing fine Pima yarns for shirt fabrics. The acquisition also brought Gerhard Metzler, the Klarenbrunn operations manager, into the Linz Textil group management team. Subsequently, he was to become the successful head of the entire cotton concept.

• In 1994, the Landeck spinning mill was acquired with its production of “combed medium-staple cotton”. This ultramodern mill was deeply in the red and suffered from the cost pressure emanating from over-investment.

The slivers from the drafting frame are processed into rovings on the Rieter F1/1 flyers in the middle of the picture. On the right at the back are Rieter cards and the D0/2 first drawing frame.

As already mentioned, the objectives in the strategic expansion concept not only envisaged acquisitions, but also organic growth. In the retrospective it must be said that owing to greater calculability, the return on the euros invested in organic growth was higher. With the exception of the Reutte weaving mill, where the shop had been completely renovated in 1984, by 1995 Linz Textil had augmented all its companies with new buildings. The better textile situation still prevailing at the time meant that apart

Application plan for the roughly 4,000m2 open end spinning shop dating from 1986. Below the shed hall and left bottom the administration building.

from the enlargement in Telfs, all these investments paid dividends. The expansion steps were as follows: • Refurbishing in 1981 of the grey fabric weaving shop in Linz and an increase in production of around 40 per cent. The main investment was in a new Saurer S-500 double rapier machine. • The complete renovation of the Matrei spinning mill in 1986 through the building of a greenfield plant on 14,000m2 to accommodate produc-

tion, logistics and administration. The entire ring spinning shop was switched to modern combination machines. • In 1987, the Linz spinning mill was enlarged with a modern, open end spinning shop. Schubert & Salzer RU 14 technology, Rieter autolevelling and Trützschler high-performance preparation machinery were installed. • In 1990, a new combined spinning shop was built in Felixdorf for the securing of a three-year yarn delivery

contract with Messrs Huber Trikot in terms of quantity and quality. At the end of 1989, a plant in Teesdorf was purchased from this company, but related efforts at modernization failed owing to the lack of employee skills. In this connection, Dionys Lehner asked a master at Teesdorf if he knew what he was doing. He was met with the reply: “No, but the others don’t know either!” The plant had to be shut down in 1992. • In 1990, all the machinery in the shed spinning shop in Linz was replaced and at the same time, the production hall enlarged by 4,500m2, which corresponded with a roughly 50 per cent increase in capacity. External and internal expansion resulted in a massive growth surge. Linz Textil, which in 1977 achieved sales revenues with spinning and weaving of EUR 11.5 million, attained a sales volume of EUR 100 million sales for the first time in 1991 before passing the EUR 150 million mark in 1994. Cash flow, which in 1967, still amounted to a critical minus 10 per cent, rose in the second half of the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s to a standard le-

vel of around 12 per cent. This self-financing potential allowed the financing of growth in a reasonable fashion from company resources. In 1989/90 ideas were considered with regard to the supplementation of the textile group with another area of activity. Two “greenfield” companies were founded in quick succession in the electronics area. The first of these was Technosert Electronic Gesellschaft m.b.H. with nominal capital of ATS 7 million, which was active in the component assembly field. The second, Safeware Ges.m.b.H., had nominal capital of ATS 4 million and was involved in computer system security through the development of electronic locks and keys. Both company launches were successful, but in the course of the 1990s it became apparent that the parallel administration of the electronic and textile worlds was leading to excessive burdens upon the management. The group was committed to the textile industry and therefore the two young companies were sold off. Technosert was the object of a management buyout and Safeware left the Linz Textil group following a merger with the German market leader Utimaco.

In 1987, the Linz location was equipped with modern, open end spinning equipment from Schubert & Salzer.

D-Day in ten years1

1) Modelled after the chapter “Die Textilindustrie” p. 261–278 in: Lacina et al: Österreichische Industriegeschichte, 1955–2005, published by Österreichische Industriegeschichte GmbH, Linz, 2005.

From the mid-1990s, the Austrian textile industry had to fight against increasing competition from Asia, which was to steadily intensify. In 1994, the Uruguay Round was signed and with effect from January 1, 1995, the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) was replaced by the WTO (World Trade Organization) and the phasing out of the MFA (Multifibre Arrangement) was initiated. The MFA had been of great importance for the textile industry, as it constituted a set of rules regarding tariffs and volume quotas for individual product groups on their journey from the developing countries to the consumer nations of the industrial world. The new world trade agreement envisaged the complete dismantling of the MFA following the expiry of a period of ten years on January 1, 2005. This represented a red alert for the industry, although there was no major disquiet in view of the ten-year time horizon. However, Linz Textil took this scenario for the future very seriously and in the spring of 1995, it was the object of intensive discussions between Dionys Lehner and his management team. It was decided to abandon the expansion strategy and adopt a policy of only moderate growth in tandem with a drastic increase in equity as preparation for 2005. The equity ratio, which at the beginning of 1994 stood at around 38 per cent was to be increased to 60-70 per cent by the “D-Day” in 2005. In 1996, Linz Textil’s sales revenues stagnated with an accompanying drop in profits and write-downs. At a management meeting, the decision was taken to give up the group practice of supplying acquired subsidiaries with more “financial mother’s milk” than was supplied to the core operations in Linz. The group’s eight plants were divided into two categories, with the spinning and weaving shops in

Linz and the spinning mills in Landeck and Klarenbrunn being designated as core enterprises. These would be permitted to make higher investments, but at the same time would have to provide the Linz Textil dividends. Conversely, a flatter investment curve was foreseen for the four other companies comprised by the Felixdorf and Matrei spinning mills and the Reutte and Telfs weaving mills. They were not required to contribute to the Linz Textil dividends, but had to be able to finance themselves. This orientation simultaneously constituted a look in the direction of 2000. Moreover, constructive internal competition between the Linz Textil operations was desired.

A financial crisis on the horizon En route to 2000, the price pressure emanating from the dominant Asian competition continued to increase. It became evident that in the long run, the four aforementioned operations in Felixdorf, Matrei, Reutte and Telfs would be unable to finance themselves from their own resources. Furthermore, the first clouds loomed up on the horizon as precursors of the dangerous climatic situation that was to arise in the financial system owing to the “new economy” excesses of the 1990s. An uncontrolled collapse of the over-liquid financial system was not imminent, but no longer appeared to be absolutely impossible.

As he had done regularly for many years, in 1999 Dionys Lehner attended the World Economic Forum in Davos. During a small seminar held on this occasion, he witnessed a key event. For during a panel discussion involving Hans Tietmayer, the president of the Federal German National Bank, Wim Duisenberg, the president of the ECB, Jean-Claude Trichet, the president of the French National Bank, and Fritz Leutwiler, the former president of the Swiss National Bank, topics regarding the current situation in the financial situation were reviewed. Dionys Lehner asked the panel whether it might not be sensible to introduce a Tobin tax on

The Linz location in 2002. The new weaving shop in the left-hand half of the picture became operational in 2001. The old weaving shop can be seen at the top edge of the photo shortly before its demolition in 2009. In the centre are the Spinning Shops I and II, the administration and logistics buildings. Part of the “Aschensiedlung” can be recognized at the bottom and the Grillmayer palace at the top right.

financial transactions in order to build up a huge emergency fund, which in the case of a serious financial crisis would allow the financial system to finance risks itself. The answer was clear: “A financial transaction tax will never be introduced and from a current perspective a financial system collapse is unthinkable.” This response represented a salutary shock for Dionys Lehner and convinced him that should a major calamity occur, business would be caught entirely unawares. He also clearly understood that with its current structure, Linz Textil would find it difficult to survive a severe crisis without a period of preparation. Accordingly a plan was developed to close the four operations lacking sufficient selffinancing capacity in a phased and orderly fashion, as disposals appeared to be unrealistic. At the same time, the resultant gaps in sales revenues were to be filled by the creation of production capacity in other countries with lower cost structures. The possibility of diversification was also not to be excluded. The unfortunately necessary closures took place as follows: Photo of the Klanjec spinning mill in Croatia, purchased in 2002 and subsequently modernized.

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• 2002 Telfs weaving mill • 2005 Felixdorf spinning mill • 2007 transfer of the Matrei spinning shop to Landeck, reduction in the prior programme of Landeck, and closure of the Matrei mill • 2008 closure of the Reutte weaving mill, which two years previously had undergone a 50 per cent capacity reduction During the same period, the plans for foreign expansion assumed concrete form and the efforts towards diversification were realized through a brand purchase: • In 2002, the Klanjec spinning mill was acquired and the project proved successful. A pilot project launched in 2000, involving 10,000 spindles in Neuhausen in the Czech Republic, was stopped in 2005 in favour of Klanjec. In addition, the plan to build a new spinning mill in the Czech Republic with 30,000 spindles was abandoned. • In 2004, the Vossen company was purchased and hence one of the leading brands in the terry towelling area in the German-speaking region. This acquisi-

tion involved an increase in the prior holding from 30 to 100 per cent. Vossen possessed a newly built make-up operation near the Austrian border in Szentgotthárd, Hungary. The first ten years of the new millennium also witnessed numerous changes with regard to the capital structure of Linz Textil AG. 2001 saw the transfer of the nominal capital from schillings into euros. At the same time, the par value shares were converted into 300,000 no-par value shares in the course of a share split involving the exchange of one old share for two new ones. Nominal capital was increased to EUR 15 million through an injection of free capital. Subsequently, the comfortable liquidity situation permitted a twophase reduction of this capital to EUR 6 million during the period up to 2007. In 2005, the Dr. Robert und Lina Thyll-DürrStiftung in Switzerland sold its 30 per cent holding in Linz Textil Holding AG to the Allgemeine Sparkasse in Linz, which then brought this purchase onto the market in numerous individual packages. Linz Textil has been listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange since 1872 and 60.5 per cent of the voting rights are held within the group. Since 2006, Eltex Verwaltung GmbH, which is backed by a trust, has represented these votes at annual general meetings. This unavailable for sale 60.5 per cent will probably also continue to influence decision-making at the annual general meetings of shareholders in the coming fifteen years through long-term industrial objectives.

Mastery of the financial crisis Following the bursting of the so-called Internet bubble in 2001, the USA, the leading nation within the Western economies, escaped with a slight recessi-

on lasting just two quarters. The reason was a seamless transition to a huge real estate bubble. As a consequence, the liquidity overflow pipeline not only contained one bubble that had not been dealt with, but also another that was in the process of expanding. The new and rapidly growing financial products, which would later be designated as toxic assets, were hedged with so-called

Shares of the company, which has been listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange since 1872, to the value of ATS 30,000 (1959) and ATS 10,000 (1979). In 2001, share capital was switched to the euro.

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Spinning shop with Rieter J 20 machines producing yarn using airjet technology.

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credit default swaps (CDS). It was their proliferation that was to lend expression to the insanity of this development. In 2001, they amounted to less than USD 1,000 billion, but six years later in 2007, they already totalled USD 65,000 billion, which corresponded roughly with the size of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gross national product. In 2007, this derivative-built Tower of Babel started to collapse in the course of a financial earthquake with its epicentre in Manhattan, New York, which was also to cause aftershocks in Europe. The warning lights in the first real economy companies quickly turned to red with regard to the expectations concerning the economic outlook and this was also the case at Linz Textil, which had anticipated an economic storm.

The prior shut-down of three of the four critical operations now proved to be a major advantage, as did the fact that the fourth, the Reutte weaving mill, was only operating at a reduced capacity of 50 per cent. An analysis for the turn of the year 2007/2008, presented in the course of an autumn seminar, showed that after almost thirty years of virtually constant growth, a reduction in capacity and personnel of around 30 per cent was necessary. For although the media portrayed the upheavals as being banking industry problems that would not affect the real economy, in the spring of 2008 the Supervisory Board decided to act quickly and implement all the planned reduction measures in the shortest possible time. By November 2008, the reduction

programme had been realized in full. The fact that this had been vital is illustrated by a comparison of Linz Textil GmbH sales in January 2008 totalling EUR 11.4 million with those of January 2009, amounting to EUR 6.9 million. In 2011, group sales revenues stood at EUR 162.7 million, which meant that the pre-crisis figure for 2006 of EUR 164.0 million had been virtually reattained. In a reaction to the crisis, Linz Textil’s solid financial position and the funding released from the reduction in current assets permitted record investments of EUR 18.5 million during 2008. Apart from a project in China, major spending also took place in Austria. Two major fires caused by arson in December 2009 and January 2010 destroyed the entire logistics capacity of the Linz spinning The installation of a high-bay warehouse was part of the “360°” project concluded in autumn 2012.

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shop. There could be no doubt that rebuilding would be required and this led to radical deliberations regarding investments. In the subsequent period from 2010 to 2012, the investment picture was characterized by the “Butterfly” and “360°” projects. The former involved the complete renewal of the preparation facility and the installation of modern airjet capacity with Rieter J20 machines for viscose yarns. “360°”, which was concluded in the autumn of 2012, fulfilled the objective of renovating and brightening up the premises in Linz. “360°” enabled uninterrupted walks around the complex and ensured that every part of the company would appear equally smart and new. This programme also included the construction of a high-bay storage facility, a new laboratory, the building and equipping of an advanced test spinning shop and the provision of new social amenities for the workforce. These investments also represented pleasing, if unintentional, preparations for the celebration of the company’s 175th jubilee, which took place at the Linz plant on June 20, 2013. Following the successful mastery of the crisis year 2008, the summer of 2010 also witnessed a change in the organizational management. Dionys Lehner, who as the chairman of the Linz Textil Holding AG board, was responsible for group administration and the operative management of Linz Textil GmbH handed over the latter to Alexander Hofstadler. Following double degree studies in mechanical engineering and graduation in economics at the University of Linz, as well as six years of experience at Linz Textil, he was the ideal candidate as a successor to the post of

Linz Textil GmbH CEO. Dionys Lehner retained the management of the group at Linz Textil Holding AG, as well as responsibility for Vossen, which manufactures finished goods. Linz Textil also survived the financial crisis well as a listed share on the Vienna Stock Exchange. In view of the fact that concerns regarding the ability of a textile company to overcome a severe economic crisis always play a role in share evaluations, the share tended to be undervalued. However, Linz Textil’s crisis management provided firm proof of its high degree of economic resilience. In 2013, the share is now worth two and a half times more than its high prior to the crisis. Moreover, in the business magazine “Gewinn” from March 2013, Linz Textil occupied top spot with regard to its mastery of the financial crisis. Nonetheless, as far as the future is concerned a repeat of this performance can be virtually excluded.

In March 2013, the business magazine “Gewinn” selected Linz Textil as the best performer on the Vienna Stock Exchange.

Left-hand page: Drafters and rotor spinning machines in the modernized shed hall in Linz. Photo from 2013.

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The artistic trilogy describing the company’s business environment. “Goldhauben” (above), “Fadensuche” (bottom of righthand page) and “Dschungel der Märkte” (left). Peter Hauenschild and Georg Ritter, pastel crayon on wood, 2005, 2009 and 2012.

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Linz Textil and the arts Linz Textil has long felt an obligation to the arts. Therefore, at irregular intervals it has both supported a variety of artistic projects and commissioned works. Accordingly, as part of Linz 09, the city’s year as the European capital of culture, the company participated in the “KUNST FLOW” (“ART FLOW”) project. The idea was that a company would sponsor a work by an artist and then organize an opening on its premises. The choice fell on the artistic pair Hauenschild/Ritter, who have established a reputation with large-format, pastel chalk drawings. Linz Textil had already commissioned the artists with a work in 2004, which bore the title “Fadensuche” (“Thread Search”). Further commissions followed in 2009 (“Goldhauben”*) and in 2012 (a copy of the “Negro Attacked by a Jaguar” by Henri Rousseau, 1910). Linz Textil thus possesses three works from Hauenschild/ Ritter, which are intended to represent a trilogy relating to the company’s corporate environment. “Fadensuche” stands for the

product, “Goldhauben” for the company location in Upper Austria and the picture from Rousseau symbolizes the “market jungle” in which Linz Textil is active. * Traditional headwear made using gold thread, worn by women in Austria and southern Germany.

Linz09 artistic director Martin Heller and Dr. Dionys Lehner during the presentation of the “KUNST FLOW” cultural project in which Linz Textil participated.

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IV. Water-based operations The uses of water Water is the reason why Linz Textil is situated in its current location. Textile manufacture was once dependent upon water. Water was needed for dyeing, fibre moistening during spinning and the sprinkler systems, which not only provided the appropriate atmospheric humidity and a reduction in the dust plague, but by the end of the 19th century were also being installed for fire protection purposes. However, the main reason for the location of spinning mills and subsequently of mechanical weaving shops in the vicinity of water was hydropower. Since the late 18th century, the mechanization of the spinning process demanded motors and the best and cheapest motors during the early industrialization era were waterwheels. Indeed, the works in Britain, the motherland of industrialization, were and are called “mills”. Tried and tested mill technology was cheaper than the new steam-driven equipment. And until far into the 19th century, waterwheels were also superior to the less mature steam powered machinery owing to their much smoother running, which led to less frequent thread breakages. Water had only one disadvantage. It created a dependency with regard to both the location and water flow. In winter the millstreams froze over repeatedly and thus covered the waterwheels and turbines with ice. Moreover, sometimes there was too little of it and sometimes too much. Flood damage was a frequent occurrence and the millstreams and embankments, locks and weirs, bridges and dams were all expensive with regard

to their construction and maintenance. Last, but far from least, suitable water rights were in short supply and litigation involving neighbours and competitors both up- and downstream, not to mention shippers and fishermen, proved to be endless. For centuries, water ownership and usufruct rights were sacrosanct and hotly contested.

The Traun industrial adder The River Traun has had a profound impact upon Upper Austria’s economic history. Salt, which was long the region’s most important source of income, was transported on ships from the mines in the Salzkammergut to the Danube from where it was distributed to consumers. The early industry in the province developed along the Traun in the form of spinning and paper mills, as well as chemical companies. After 1900, the Traun also drove Upper Austria’s first large-scale electricity generation plant. The waters of the Traun rarely froze and above all its innumerable branches and feeders, as well as its wide banks were favourable for industrial development. In addition, there were no weirs on the Traun to obstruct shipping. Three streams flow through Kleinmünchen, which are branches of the Traun. The Weidingerbach, which joins the Wels Mühlbach above the Binderhäusl lock, the Jauckerbach and the Magerbach. These three millstreams were and are the arteries of the location. Even before industrialization, they provided sites for a number of hammer forges and mills, the oldest of which dates back to

A so-called “Salztrauner” on its journey downstream. Originally the Traun was reserved for salt transports until the Gmunden – Linz – Budweis horse-drawn railway replaced shipping in 1836.

Left-hand page: The plan drawn by the cartographer Anton Schön in 1807 is regarded as the most reliable description of the situation at the time. The Traun and Danube are still unregulated and branch out into many tributaries. Farmland continues to exist between the town of Linz and the village of Kleinmünchen.

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the Middle Ages. In the late 18th century, the Linz “Wollzeugfabrik”, which due to its location on the Danube lacked the possibility to use hydropower, already considered a partial move to Kleinmünchen. The “Schörgenhubmühle” was leased by the “Wollzeugfabrik” and reequipped as a cloth mill. In the late 18th century it was known under the name “Fabrikenwalke” (Works Mill). With the decline of the “Wollzeugfabrik”, its objects on the Traun were available for sale. In 1830/32, the brothers Franz X. and Johann Michael Rädler bought two such objects, the “Markmühle” in the Schörgenhub and the neighbouring “Schörgenhubmühle”. They already started with the conversion into a mechanical cotton spinning mill with thirty looms in 1830 and this employed some 150200 workers. This was the first largescale, mechanical mill in Kleinmünchen and the first significant operation in the branch in Upper Austria. The joint application of Johann Wöss and Ambros and Elisabeth Hager for the building of a water-driven mill on the Jaukermühlenbach dating from 1838 is the first document that refers to the founding of the Kleinmünchen spinning mill and is also celebrated as the birth date of Linz Textil. A commissioning took place on August 24, 1838 and building permission was allocated on November 25, 1838.

However, two years after the initial activities of Wöss and Grillmayr, when the works were already finished, controversies began with the companies upstream. In September 1841 Johann Wilhelm Rübsam, the owner of a cotton printing works and the Jauker mill in Kleinmünchen, raised an official objection to the project of Johann Wöss and Johann Grillmayr on the grounds of excessive backwater: “The illegal backswell means that every day my mill output is 300kg lower, as the machinery in the mill is subject to damaging breaking and a loss of power because the banks of my meadows are being washed away and owing to a rise in water levels the water is spreading onto the fields.” Rübsam alleged that a proper project hearing had not been held and that no subsequent building permission should be granted. Rübsam’s complaint led to a temporary halt to the construction work, but an agreement was eventually reached. Industrial development was unstoppable.

With the founding of the corporation, Kleinmünchen underwent expansion. In addition to spindles and looms, various turbines and waterwheels were installed. Turbine plan from 1875.

In the 19th century, a growing number of watermills were converted into spinning mills. This applied to the former merchant mill on the Jaukerbach, which was taken over by the “Aktienspinnerei” in 1907 and demolished in 1978. The photo dates from 1938.

Left-hand page: Technical equipment in the turbine house in around 1910. As early as the 19th century, an increasing number of watermills along the Traun were converted into spinning mills.

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In order to use hydropower, in 1884 the company moved a spinning shop to the Jaukerbach in Zizlau, which was located roughly a kilometre away from the main works. The shop replaced the “Eßmühle” (grain mill) and as an absolute novelty, possessed electric light.

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Water rights are valuable Ten years later in 1852, the Upper Austrian Chamber of Commerce wrote in its annual report that the number of grain mills on the Traun was steadily decreasing as they were being sold to industry owing to the need for hydropower. Spinning and weaving mills sprung up everywhere along the Traun River, from Kleinmünchen and Traun, to Marchtrenk, Wels and Gmunden. Moreover, other types of industry were also using water to drive their machines. The replacement of waterwheels in the 1850s by the first turbines to be installed in Kleinmünchen (in 1854 in the merchant mill of the Löwenfeld & Hofmann

brothers, and during 1855 in Grillmayr’s “New English” spinning shop) resulted in wearisome conflicts between all those involved and shifting alliances. Grillmayr and the Löwenfeld & Hofmann brothers joined forces to fight the dyehouse owner Adrian and other neighbours, then Grillmayr and Dierzer teamed up against Löwenfeld. And when, at the end of the 1850s, the owners of the merchant mill presented plans for a partial diversion of the work’s backwaters, they were met with protests from Dierzer und Grillmayr. Finally, the fact dawned on all those involved that all the textile operations had to cooperate in looking after the river. From the outset, it was water right con-

siderations that prompted Grillmayr to make far-sighted acquisitions of additional capacity for expansion. These included a hammer forge in the Blümelmühlau and the Zizlau grain mill. The idea of transferring power from these mills to the spinning shops, which were already suffering from acute power shortages, by means of a wire rope was considered. The Rieter company had already designed systems for this purpose in which brick columns or lattice masts were erected at intervals of around 140m with grooved pulleys on bearings for the wire rope. This guaranteed a power transfer to distant objects with relatively low energy losses. However, it was decided

to abstain from the use of such constructions and instead build a spinning mill in Zizlau where the hydropower of the grain mill, which at the time was unexploited, was directly available. In the 1890s an extensive project was prepared, which would facilitate the location of additional industrial enterprises in Kleinmünchen. The intention was to increase the flow of water from the Traun into the Weidingerbach and the Jaukerbach. A new canal carrying 25m3/sec was planned and the installation of four turbine plants was envisaged. In combination, this was intended to form a major power plant project that would not only involve companies in Kleinmünchen, but

As early as the 1850s, the first turbines replaced waterwheels in Kleinmünchen. The picture shows work on the English weaving shop in around 1905.

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A complex transmission system transported the hydropower to the machines. A cross-section of the Zizlau spinning mill designed by the Swiss company Joh. Jacob Rieter & Cie./Winterthur, 1884.

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also in St. Martin and Traun. However, the project was not implemented owing to massive opposition on the part of the RĂ¤dler company. Then electricity arrived and duly revolutionized the location conditions. Electric light was first employed during construction work on the Zizlau spinning mill in the autumn of 1884. A report states: â&#x20AC;&#x153;In the meantime, the time of year was so advanced that the shortening of the days made itself unpleasantly felt. Therefore, we decided to obtain lighting and installed three 1,100-candle arc lamps. The lighting was so reasonable that night work has

now been introduced for the necessary piloting of the foundations of the turbine room.â&#x20AC;? The power for the dynamos was obtained from a waterwheel placed in the riverbed. In 1893, a dynamo house with a 300hp dynamo was added to the turbine house of the Zizlau spinning mill built in 1884. The energy was not needed by the Zizlau mill, but in the Swiss shop, where the machine pool had been enlarged to around 17,000 self-actor spindles. In fact, the energy requirement was to increase still further. In 1907, the mill spinning shop was converted from combined drives with transmission to single

drives using electric motors. Electrical drive meant that shafts, belts and rope transmissions were no longer required. This not only brought greater flexibility with regard to machine positioning, but also a reduction in accident risk. Notwithstanding these advances, the planned expansion of hydropower to meet the growing need for electricity still did not take place until after 1945.

The Traun weir During the inter-war period, the Kleinm端nchen company had access to a number of energy sources. These con-

sisted of the Wels M端hlbach and Weidingerbach power plants, the power plant of the old Dierzer spinning mill with two turbines and a total output of 104 kW, and some 800m downstream, the power plant of the Swiss spinning shop with another two turbines and an output of 330 kW. The Jaukerbach drove the power plant of the old merchant mill with two turbines and 300m downstream, there was the power plant of the old English spinning shop with two turbines and 280 kW. After the confluence of the Weidingerbach and the Jaukerbach, there followed the Zizlau power plant with four

Energy generation was always a central issue. After 1945, it was decided to build a weir in the Traun in order to secure throughflow volumes. The construction work is shown in this painting.

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Construction work on the Traun weir for regulation of the river commenced in March 1948. The weir was finished in July 1950.

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turbines and approximately 850kW. Mill operations required 3,300â&#x20AC;&#x201C;3,400 kW of energy evenly distributed throughout the year. In reality less than 2,000kW were available and this was subject to the precondition that the calculated water volume of 25m3/sec was actually attainable. In fact, it was repeatedly the case that the water flow amounted to 10m3/ sec or less. It was only in the course of the rebuilding process after 1945 that restructuring of the power plants could be considered and a comprehensive scheme was drawn up in 1946. The plan was to obtain the approval of the water rights authority for a flow of 70m3/sec instead of the previous 25m3/ sec. The authority agreed eventually to 55m3/sec. This provided the basis for water rights negotiations with some forty private neighbours and representatives of the authorities, and it was only due to the conditions prevailing during the first

post-war years that these talks could be concluded so rapidly. The water rights issue was wound up within a year and in October 1947, after a year of preparation, work was able to commence. The construction site occupied an area of 53,000m2 and roads and railways had to be laid for the transport of materials. Two revolving tower cranes and various diggers were in operation. Around 60,000m3 of earth and 13,500m3 of gravel had to be moved. 450t of steel paling, 450t of structural steel and 210vt of iron, as well as large quantities of cement, wood, roofing paper and fuel were needed and all this at a time of acute post-war period shortages. A massive steel weir was built along with an inflow structure and a connecting canal to the Weidingerbach with nine new locks and a link to the Jaukerbach. Four serious floods in the course of 1949 further hampered the progress of the building work, but the project was nonetheless concluded in April 1950 after a two-year construction period.

Power plant instead of a works? In the 1960s, KAG was increasingly faced by a directional choice between investments in the modernization of the Kleinmünchen production location, or the use of the available property reserves and a concentration on the exploitation of hydropower. It was the era when at brief temporal intervals, one power station after another was erected along the Danube and its tributaries. Kleinmünchner AG also considered the possibility of putting its capital into a large hydropower project on its own premises, but this threatened to exceed its capabilities. The annual report for 1972 refers to the fact that the textile industry had unexpectedly become an extremely capital-intensive industrial branch. This demanded the use of every available means for the modernization of the production facilities and therefore the approved hydropower project, which the corporation had already brought up to readiness for construction, was sold to the Linz city electricity company, ESG. This purchased the already finished structures and the necessary land and repaid the entire project costs with a

sum of ATS 96 million. A major aspect of the contract was a long-term electricity delivery and supply agreement. The power plant, with an output of around 10 MW, went into operation as a municipal utility in 1978. In 1975, the Donaukraftwerke AG started work on the Abwinden/Asten barrage. This had major effects on the area around the mouth of the Traun and hence the Kleinmünchen spinning mill. Donaukraftwerke AG claimed plots of land on the banks of the lower Traun from Kleinmünchner AG.

View of the Kleinmünchner AG administrative building and weaving shop during the widening of the Wiener Strasse, around 1960.

However, prior to the excavation work, this property had to be handed over and riverside woodland needed to be felled. At first, no agreement was reached during the negotiations regarding compensation and therefore expropriation proceedings were initiated. The contract that was finally agreed was not disadvantageous for the Kleinmünchen company as the funds received for both the riverside land, which would have been difficult to develop for any other purpose, and the negotiated water rights, provided a solid foundation for the investment programme of subsequent years.

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1. Former Dierzer spinning mill on the Weidingerbach In 1838, Joseph Dierzer purchased the “Weidingermühle” and then steadily expanded it, while earning himself a good reputation as a cotton spinner and carpet manufacturer in the process. The mill was enlarged with a red dyeing shop in 1872 and then sold to the “Aktienspinnerei” in 1917, which retained ownership of the operation with 21,000 spindles until the Vereinigte Linzer Wohnungsgenossenschaft bought it in 1947. The building was demolished in 1982 after a fire. Some of the secondary buildings still exist on the Gebauer & Griller company premises.

2. “Mühlenspinnerei” (formerly Löwenfeld) Following submission to its Hungarian competitors, the former Löwenfeld & Hofmann merchant mill, which was owned later by the AG für Holz und Mühlenindustrie, was shut down and in 1907 sold along with its hydropower reserves for 70,000 crowns to the neighbouring “Aktienspinnerei”. The building was then converted into the “Mühlenspinnerei” with 18,000 spindles, which operated until closure in 1940. The mill was demolished in 1948 and today its only remnant is the Löwenfeld Villa.

3. Old and new “Swiss” spinning shops In 1845, the Grillmayr company equipped its new building with Swiss machines. This “Old Swiss” shop was then replaced in 1876/79 by the vertically operating “New Swiss” shop. The threestorey building was used up to 1945 prior to demolition after a fire. A modern shop then took its place. In the foreground is the striking water tower, which was used to moisten the air and feed the sprinkler system.

St ra ttn er st r.

Map from 1924

Gluckhaus 41

Wi en er

Ja uk er Ba ch

Weaving shop (English)

tr. ns ge fha op hn Sc

Spinning shop (Swiss)

Merchant mill

We idi ng er Ba ch

6 Blümelhof

. Spinnereistr

KG Kle inmün chen KG Ebe lsberg

Traun

Mü hlb ac h

KG Ufer

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Ebelsberg castle

Kleinmünchen station

railway Vienna-Linz

. str er y a illm Gr Workers’ housing (“Aschensiedlung”)

KG K leinm ünch en KG S t. Pe ter

Re ich str .

Da up hin es tr.

Madlsederstr.

Dierzer

The works on the Traun tributaries The tributaries of the Traun, the Weidingerbach and Jaukerbach, furnished the natural prerequisites for the development of the Linz suburb of Kleinmünchen. Six mills had long used the hydropower provided by the streams and these then provided the sites for the companies that were to turn the area into a centre of the Austrian textile industry. Owing to its location on the Vienna State Highway and connection to the Kaiserin-Elisabeth-Bahn (West Railway) in 1858, the outlook for Kleinmünchen appeared favourable.

4. The “English” spinning shop From 1838/40, the “Old English” shop on the Jaukerbach formed the first production facility of the Grillmayr company and replaced the Steinbruck mill. In 1859/61, the shop was switched to mechanical weaving following the start of spinning in the adjacent “New English” shop. The buildings remained intact and were only demolished around ten years ago. A supermarket now occupies the site.

5. Zizlau spinning mill In 1859, Johann Grillmayr purchased the Zizlau grain mill with the intention of building a machinery factory. However, in 1884 it was decided to use the available hydropower for another spinning mill with 14,500 spindles and horizontal operation. Upon completion in 1886, the mill caused a stir in specialist circles, as with its operation, the working day in all the company’s shops was cut from 14 to 12 hours. The “Reichswerke Hermann Göring” requisitioned the Zizlau mill in 1940.

Trakteuer Fixlhaus 36

Workers’ housing 34

Waldhaus 35

Backhaus Kirchbauer

Zizlau spinning mill

Mühlbach

Danube

6. Employee housing The Kleinmünchen company owned a large amount of property for the accommodation of its workers. This consisted of housing in the famous “Aschensiedlung”, the site of today’s Schnopfhagenstrasse, as well as farm objects purchased in the cadastral districts of Kleinmünchen and St. Peter-Zizlau. It was often the case that agriculture continued on these sites.

Eßmühle

ach Fallb

Traun

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Bridging exercise of the Kleinm端nchen Volunteer Flood Brigade in 1913. The unit was founded at the initiative of director Gottfried Riva. Below: Flooding in the centre of Kleinm端nchen in 1902.

Water shortages and a flood brigade River flooding has virtually always posed a constant threat and continues to do so. The water levels in the Traun were subject to massive and extremely fast fluctuations. In fact they could rise by as much as six metres in only a few hours. This was possible in winter following a sudden thaw and happened every year in spring. However, such occurrences were also possible in summer after long wet periods or in the wake of heavy, autumn rainfall. Therefore, under the auspices of Director Gottfried Riva, the Kleinm端nchen Flood Brigade was formed, which was divided into rescue, communications and land service teams. Various winking and flashing lights, and horn sig-

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nals were used in a Morse-like system to warn the Kleinmünchen population of impending danger. Membership of this flood brigade or the fire service was regarded as an honour and the 40-man crew had to be ready for action throughout the year. One was proud to be in its ranks and the brigade even had its own song: “Auf, auf Männer von der Wasserwehr / Zum Berufe löblich und hehr! / Wenn die Traun fängt an zu schäumen, / gibt es für die Wehr kein Säumen, Hipp, hipp, Hurrah!”* Roughly ten men worked on hydraulic structures and river regulation on a rota basis. The Traun repeatedly altered its bed in hundreds of small branches, streams and sand banks. River regulation had been undertaken since the 17th

century and protective dams had been built, but the banks of the Traun constantly required fresh consolidation. In its crudest form, this took place using so-called fan or broom defences. These simply involved the ramming of fences made of stakes into the riverbed and their intertwining with bulrushes, which secured the necessary water depth and the corresponding protection of the bank walls. Flat-bottomed boats, so-called “Nürschen” were used for the work on the water. Flooding on the Traun was greatly feared and severe devastation was caused at more or less regular intervals. In 1862, the dye grinding mill on the Magerbach, bought and leased by Grillmayr, was swept away by high water and the flood disaster of the summer

The installation of “fencing” in the shape of so-called “fans” was intended to secure the banks and was thus the oldest form of river regulation.

*“Up, you men of the Flood Brigade / Your work is praiseworthy and so brave! / When the Traun its foamy tricks doth play /The Brigade simply knows no delay; hip, hip hurrah!”

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The works canal had to be freed from mud and debris following every flood in order that production was not endangered. This photo shows the Flood Brigade in front of Works II (Dierzer) during clean-up operations. Around 1930.

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of 1897 caused major damage to the Swiss spinning shop. The fire services were involved in continuous operations lasting several days. Moreover, the flooding of 1899 was to far exceed that of 1897. It not only damaged equipment, bridges and buildings, but also blocked the works canal with silt and gravel, which caused prolonged interruptions to production. In the wake of the catastrophic floods of the 1890s, work commenced on a comprehensive dam system extending up the Traun to Wels. High water in the Danube also repea-

tedly caused problems for the Kleinm端nchen works, for although this did not lead to any damage, water tailbacks resulted in losses of capacity and production standstills. For example, continuous, extremely high water on the Danube between March and September 1896 rendered the full use of capacity in the spinning and weaving mills impossible. Furthermore, the reverse situation with water shortages could also threaten the existence of industry and low water was even more feared than flooding.

Drought like that in 1921/22 or 1943, could force company shut-downs lasting several weeks or months, while as a rule the interruptions to production caused by flooding were of far shorter duration. Above all, the increasing depth erosion of the Traun was a major concern, as it meant that the supply of water to the works canal became steadily more difficult. Water-related danger can never be entirely excluded, but the construction of dams in connection with the building of power plants along the Danube and

the lower Traun during the 1970s changed the relationship to the rivers. The flooding threat had been removed and the production stoppages caused by low water consigned to history. There was greater independence from the elements with regard to the energy supply and the energy available and its price have been transformed from regional, location factors into global issues. Above: In 1907, it was planned to force the Traun into its bed between Kleinmünchen and the mouth of the river with a “small water regulation”. A regulated water situation was of existential importance to the company.

A view from Ebelsberg in the direction Kleinmünchen in August 2006. Despite river regulation and the installation of barrages, the company remained subject to the residual threat of flooding.

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Photo of the company fire service in 1907. Some of the equipment like the axe and the richly decorated leather helmet of the commander have survived to this day.

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V. Fire disasters Fires in the textile industry are not unusual, either in the past or present. Therefore, safety precautions play a very special role. The Ebelsberg Volunteer Fire Service was founded in 1875 and on May 18, 1877, during a major fire at the “Aktienspinnerei”, the unit excelled itself to

such an extent that it received a certificate of recognition from the Central Committee of the Upper Austrian Fire Services. Under the works director, Ludwig Gallois, a company fire and flood service was created, in order to better counteract the constant threat of fires and high water.

After 1880, the “New English” was severely damaged by fire for a second time in 1891.

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Above: Small fires like this one in 1899 were not a rarity. The picture shows two steam pumps in action. Today, a great deal of value is attached to the restoration and care of old equipment. Accordingly, an Austro Perl rescue pumper truck dating from 1931 is part of the company fire serviceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vehicle fleet.

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In 1880, fire broke out in the English spinning shop. In 1891, it was again destroyed with the loss of 12,000 spindles. Sprinkler systems were installed to moisten the air and serve as fire protection. In 1901, there was a fire in the Spinning Shop II, which devastated the second floor. In 1907, the construction of the sprinkler tower on the south wall of the new Swiss spinning shop was completed along with the equipping of the adjacent spinning mill with an automatic sprinkler system.

A portable pump of the “Aktienspinnerei” Volunteer Fire Service from 1935.

The Löwenfeld & Hofmann company owned one of the first steam pumps in the monarchy. The photo shows the “Donau” following the takeover of the company by the “Aktienspinnerei” in 1906.

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Top: American bombers over the Linz industrial area. The company premises can be seen enveloped in smoke between the Danube and the Traun rivers. Right: Around 900 bombs fell on the company site and the mill spinning shop was severely damaged. It was demolished in 1978.

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The fire from above During the second world war, the fire rained down from above and in a total of seven air raids, the works was hit by almost 900 bombs. Damaging attacks occurred on October 16 and December 15 and 20, 1944, as well as on January 20, 1945, and on three days in the same February. The emergency services faced extreme challenges. Initially the shock was greater than the effects. Smashed windowpanes, unhinged doors, uncovered roofs and broken electricity lines and water pipes were the result, but the majority of the bombs landed in the river meadows. The reports state: “In the fields, wood and water meadows belonging to our farm, the craters are partially side-by-side. At a rough estimate there are 300.” 1945 was turbulent in every respect. Following the heavy attacks, the plant director reported to Moritz Seidel in Vienna on February 23, 1945: “After an adventurous journey from Vienna to Linz, unfortunately I found the works in a desolate condition due to the raids of February 17 and 18. The merchant mill and the administration building have suffered direct hits and in addition numerous homes have been either completely or partially destroyed.” At the end of February 1945, no one knew what would happen next: “Another air raid on February 25, which although not as damaging as those from February 17 and 18, was serious enough. Incidentally, the Zizlau spinning mill is burned out, but fortunately our e-plant is still operating. Our turbines, generators, the production machinery in the spinning and weaving shops and the welding shop are largely intact. Apart from this the situation appears hopeless and in the long run we will only survive

the law of averages if the stars are on our side.” The rescue and fire fighting teams made superhuman efforts. Everyone available was mobilized for clearing up operations, including the elderly, women, forced labourers and prisoners of war. The Adriatische Versicherungsgesellschaft assumed the costs of the war damage to Kleinmünchen’s fixed assets, but this was of little use, as the human and material resources needed for repair work were no longer available.

Below: The Opel Blitz 3.6, a fire truck taken over during the second world war, has been kept until today as a veteran vehicle. Bottom: The works air raid protection recruits in 1944/45 largely consisted of women.

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Above: Fire at the farm caused by the self-ignition of hay on June 21, 1958. In the background in Works II (Dierzer) and behind the column of smoke the Kleinm端nchen church tower. Curious bystanders watch the fire services at work. Right: Team photo of the company fire service with Commander G端nther in around 1955.

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Post-war fires As the clearing up operations finally started to bear fruit in the summer of 1945 and production slowly started to pick up speed, the newer part of Spinning Shop II (Swiss) was destroyed entirely by a major fire in October 1945. Arson was suspected and owing to a telephone line defect, the fire service could only be reached in a roundabout manner. Accordingly, by the time it arrived the building was already in flames. As the press reported, this was one of the first, large-scale peacetime operations of the Linz Professional Fire Service, but there was not much left to save. Moreover, in view of the shortages situation, the losses were more than doubly felt. 17,000kg of spun rayon, a large number of the machines newly delivered from Switzerland and still awaiting unpacking, as well as 200 of

the new window frames were all destroyed. The damage amounted to over one million schillings, which was roughly the same sum as that caused by combined bomb damage. On June 21, 1958, the “Meierhof” (farm) belonging to the Linz spinning mill went up in flames with the loss of 80 cartloads of freshly mown hay. Then on July 1982, the unused, old Linz Textil building caught fire. The related situation was especially critical because the 30m-high water tower threatened to collapse and the 35, generally elderly, residents of the neighbouring house at Dauphinestrasse 13 were endangered. Emergency accommodation was prepared for them in a nearby inn, but the general public’s opinion as reported in the Upper Austrian press was that: “The old derelict building should have been demolished long ago!” The fire was probably caused by arson.

Fire at the former Dierzer spinning shop, which had been empty since 1970, on July 7, 1982. Arson was suspected as the cause.

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A major operation by the Linz fire services at the second fire on December 13, 2009. The Finished Goods Store I was hit and apart from the 2,100m2 hall, pallets of yarn ready for dispatch were also destroyed.

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The series of fires in 2009/10 The most spectacular conflagrations consisted of the series of fires between October 2009 and January 2010, which placed a very serious burden on the company. The first incident on October 20, 2009

destroyed the packaging material store. A spread of the fire to the production facilities was prevented and thus the damage was limited to some EUR 200,000. However, the situation relating to the fire in Finished Product Store I on December 13, 2009 was different. The 2,100m2

in January 2010 and thus to meet delivery obligations to the best possible extent. Then came the third blow. In the early hours of January 9, 2010, the viscose spinning shop was seriously damaged by fire for the third time in three months. On this occasion the 2,800m2 Finished Product Store II was hit and by the time the Linz Professional Fire Service arrived at 3.30 a.m. the warehouse was already in flames. The volunteer fire services from Ebelsberg, Pichling, Pรถstlingberg and St. Magdalena were also called out as back-up, but the

Weaving shop

Logistics

Spinnereistrasse

hall burned to the ground and the yarn pallets, which were ready for dispatch were totally destroyed. The damage to the building amounted to EUR 3 million and goods worth EUR 2 million were lost. Fortunately, no one was injured and it was possible to restart the spinning mill

Production: OE spinning shop

Production: shed hall spinning shop

Production: ring spinning shop

Administration

Wieners

trasse

1st fire, Oct. 20, 2009 (box store) 2nd fire, Dec. 13, 2009 (yarn store, logistics) 3rd fire, Jan. 9, 2010 (yarn store, logistics) 133

warehouse in which roughly 500t of yarn were stored collapsed. Apart from the store, the entire goods logistics, laboratory, employee amenities and the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s textile museum were all obliterated. Production, which now lacked any internal logistics, had to be closed for several days due to the lack of heating and compressed air lines. And the wintry conditions not only made fire fighting more difficult, but also the resumption of production.

Impressions from the third and final fire on January 9, 2010, when fire was laid in the Finished Goods Store II of the viscose spinning shop.

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While initially technical defects were the suspected cause of the fire, on the third occasion the arsonist was definitively identified by means of a surveillance camera and a DNA sample. The three fires caused damage totalling some EUR 12 million, which was covered by insurance. However, it was only thanks to the enormous commitment of the workforce that the numerous threatening consequences of failures to deliver or customer desertions could be avoided and the production losses were thus quickly made good. After a brief, but all the more intensive planning phase, the company succeeded in initiating construction

work during the first half of the year with the scheduled objective of already completing the yearly inventory with the newly built high-bay warehouse in December 2010. The fact that full business capacity was maintained at all times can be attributed to the organizational performance demonstrated in the production and sales logistics departments, as well as the improvisation skills of the entire staff. Stunning events such as fires have accompanied Linz Textil throughout its history. And although on several occasions they have shaken the company to its foundations, it has always risen from the ashes even stronger than before.

The company fire service crew in the 2013 jubilee year. The service is equipped with a pumper truck and a small pumper and represents an important instrument for fire prevention and fire-fighting.

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VI. Technological Advances In the thirty years leading up to its 175th jubilee, Linz Textil has initiated above-average investment activities. Indeed, the investment ratio was at least double the branch average. It was technological advances that repeatedly necessitated such large-scale spending, however this has also had the beneficial side effect of ensuring particularly effective preparation for the future. The following describes the focal points of these activities.

1. Spinning shop updates 1974 to 1976 At the beginning of the 1970s, the Linz spinning shops were equipped with production technology from the 1950s, which was ripe for replacement. However, the earnings situation ruled out such a major investment entirely. The only possibility was the sale of the “family silver” of which Kleinmünchen possessed a great deal in the form of real estate and power plants. This approach was adopted and apart from land disposals, the sale to the Linz municipal electricity company of an approved hydropower project on the River Traun, that was ready for building, provided earnings of ATS 96 million. This paved the way for the refurbishing of the spinning shop. The modernization programme had a volume of ATS 120 million and consisted of the purchase of 27 C1/2 cards, eight flyers and 41 Rieter ring spinning machines, each with 504 spindles, as well as corresponding winding capacity from Schlafhorst. The investments were implemented between 1974 and 1976 and must be regarded as Left-hand page: The investment programme between 1974 and 1976 included 41 Rieter ring spinning machines. These involved the manual creeling of the flyer bobbins. Right: Two of the twelve Rieter C1/2 cards from 1974 with a 40 x 42 inch can press.

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being decisive to the continued existence of the Linz spinning facility. The machines purchased were the best on the market from both a technical and a mechanical engineering perspective. However, the related productivity resulted in one disadvantage, as the Rieter machines did not have a doffer in order to allow automatic cops removal. This meant that production continued to be over personnel-intensive. Accordingly, in spite of the major investment endeavours, the spinning mill was again in the red in 1977. At that time, the sale of assets to ensure the prolonged existence of the company was standard practice in the textile industry. Nonetheless, as opposed to some traditional companies, which accepted a weakening of their substance for such a prolonged period that liquidation, or the path to the bankruptcy court were the only options open, asset sales in Kleinm端nchen took place with a greater sense of proportion. In order to pay suitable tribute to the performance in the period subject to the managing directorship of Thomas Siegmund, it must be stated that when Dionys Lehner assumed the management of the company in the fourth quarter of 1977, it still had sufficient substance to finance the entire, subsequent restructuring process from its own resources. No funding was obtained from the stockholders or the public purse.

Above right: Four of eight Rieter D0/2 fast drafters from the 1974 investment programme in the shed hall. Below right: Worker on a Rieter B2/2 mixed bale opener. Adjacent are viscose bales and behind the machine the collecting conveyor belt can be seen. Left-hand page: The Schlafhorst Autoconer winder rewinds ring spun cops onto cones. The cones represent the raw material for weaving and knitting shops.

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Ground plan of the old weaving shop and the extension from 1980. The new Saurer brand looms were installed on the areas marked in green. The S-500 represented a weaving technology quantum leap.

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2. The S-500 as the heart of the grey fabric weaving shop At the 1979 International Textile Machinery Fair (ITMA) in Hanover, the Swiss loom manufacturer Saurer presented its new S-500 tandem rapier loom. The twin-arm rapier emulated and exceeded the production values of the high-performance looms of the competitors using shuttle and air weft feeding systems. Two characteristics made the S-500 so superior: • Firstly, the machine’s weft preparation employed air bearings, which meant that weft weaving was virtually tension-free. • Secondly, the S-500 wove constantly, or in other words at 360°. While other rapiers and the shuttle worked halfempty for the reloading of the weft, the S-500 simultaneously used the time for weft preparation on one side for weaving on the other. This continuous weaving made the machine extremely energy-efficient. Dionys Lehner made extensive efforts to bring a test machine of this type to Linz. However, the Saurer company, which up to this time had not realized that Linz Textil also possessed weaving operations, refused his requests. It was only after Lina Thyll intervened on the company’s behalf with the president of the Saurer supervisory board that a test machine was obtained for Linz. As compared to the Sulzer shuttle machine, the new loom presented an unfavourable mechanical engineering aspect, but from a weaving technology standpoint it was outstanding. Therefore, in spite of the concerns of the weaving shop management, Dr. Lehner decided to build a

new hall for the S-500. His stated reason was that: “We do not sell our customers looms, but grey fabric and we will learn to master the technology.” The Linz shop, which was erected in 1981, was the first new company building to be completed since the construction of the shed hall after World War II in 1948/49. The company bank was unwilling to finance the project, but another institute sprang into the breach. The overall concept involved a total of 54 S-500 machines, 36 of which were to be installed in the first expansion phase and then the remaining eighteen in the second. At the time of the conclusion of this purchase, the order represented Saurer’s first S-500 sale on an industrial scale. Accordingly, the manufacturer provided Linz Textil as the initial customer with excellent support. The mechanical engineering problems were solved and apart from quality, this resulted in considerable production advantages. Due to Saurer’s new, high-performance rapier looms, Linz Textil was quickly able to extend its range of grey fabric to demanding segments. However, it should be added that the reputation established in the market as an outstanding grey fabric weaver in line with the exemplary Swiss fine weavers, was due less to the efforts of the Linz team than the S-500 machine with its superior woven fabrics. Together with the switch to the S-500 of the weaving mill in Telfs, which was purchased in 1982, by the mid-1980s Linz Textil possessed the largest weaving capacity using this Saurer machine in Europe.

With the Saurer S-500 tandem rapier loom, Linz Textil was able to position its grey fabric in demanding segments.

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54 S-500 tandem rapier looms from the Swiss company Saurer formed the nucleus of the weaving shop, which was newly built in 1981. As a first customer, Linz Textil received excellent support from the manufacturer and owing to the new technology it was possible to establish high-quality grey fabric from Linz in demanding market segments.

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The machinery in the shed hall shown in this plan was entirely sold off to Indonesia in 1989. Subsequently, the hall was completely re-equipped with an open end spinning shop and enlarged with a hall for the new ring spinning shop. 1 Hergeth waste bale breaker AB 2 Hergeth mixed bale breaker MB 3 Hergeth collecting transport belt 4 Hergeth MZ mixing roller 5 Hergeth SW beater machine 6 Hergeth dust filter 7 Murao roving stripper

8 Rieter B 2/2 mixed bale opener 9 Rieter waste bale opener 10 Rieter collecting transport belt 11 Rieter mono-roll cleaner 12 Rieter ERM cleaner 13 Rieter flock feeder 14 Rieter C1/2 card

15 Rieter C1/3 card 16 Rieter D0/2 coarse drafter 17 Schubert & Salzer RSB 51 (20â&#x20AC;?) regulating drafter 18 Rieter D 0/2 fine drafter 19 SRS RSB 51 (20â&#x20AC;?) regulating drafter 20 Rieter D 0/2 fast drafter

7 2 2 2 1

6 5

9 14

19 19 14 20

Administration

10 15

13 14 14

10 14 15 15

12 15

18 16

Shedhall

32 32

32 32 32

Ring spinning SHOP New Extension ~ 5,000m2

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28 Schlafhorst Autoconer 107 29 Schlafhors Autoconer 138 30 Schlafhorst Autoconer DX40 31 Schlafhorst Autoconer DX20 32 Saurer-Alma DD twisting maschine 33 Mettler doubling frame

14 14

22 22 22 23 23

21 Rieter F1/1 flyer 22 SRS RU 11 rotor spinning machine 23 SRS Spincomat automatic rotor spinning machine 24 Rieter rotor spinning machine 25 Zinser SL 319 ring spinning machine 26 Rieter GO/2 ring spinning machine 27 Schlafhorst BV station

3. The great productivity leap in 1990 During 1987/88, Dionys Lehner worked on a project, which bore the working title “60T”, with which he was entrusted by Rudolf Streicher, the Austrian minister with responsibility for nationalized industry, and Hugo M. Sekyra, the head of the ÖIAG, which administered the related state-owned holdings. Dr. Lehner was the vice-president of the supervisory board of the nationalized Chemie Linz AG and possessed an insight into the complex and frequently outdated structures of both Chemie Linz and Voestalpine, which were located on the same industrial site. “I jointly approved investment budgets for the Chemie Linz, in which the percentage to be used for repairs was larger than that allocated to new investments. Moreover, the internal rail network of the Voest, was larger than that of Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) in the federal province of Vorarlberg.” “60T” was aimed at achieving a large-scale reduction in the overall size of the location of both major companies and the expansion of their output focus in the direction of finished products. Together with newly located service companies, 60,000 people were to be employed on the premises of the two companies, but in 1989, the project came to a halt as being “politically infeasible.” In the meantime, many of the aspects of the project have become reality. Dionys Lehner, who during this 18-month period dedicated roughly 40 per cent of his time to “60T”, then returned fully to his duties at Linz Textil and resolved: “To practice what I preached with “60T” and to show a greater readiness for radical measures at Linz Textil.” Accordingly, in the summer of 1989 he sold off the complete Linz spinning shop machinery as it had stood from 1974 to 1988 to Indonesia. This was deli-

vered in 1990 and the spinning shop subsequently enlarged from 10,000 to 15,000m2 and fitted with a completely new machine pool. “In 1990, we constantly had five rolling construction sites: • old machinery in operation, • old machinery undergoing disassembly, • new asphalting of the premises, • new machines undergoing assembly • and new machines in operation.” Thanks to the military precision of the network plan drawn up by Horst Kastner, the head of the Infrastructure Department, this complex investment undertaking was successfully completed in just eleven months. The effects were huge. For if production in January 1990 is regarded as 100 per cent, by December 1990 it had risen massively to 170 per cent. The extension of the building by 5,000m2 resulted in a 50 per cent increase in production capacity. Moreover, new open end spinning and link spinning shops with 18,000 ring spindles were con-

Panorama of the Linz location in 1991. In the middle is the administration building and at the rear and right, the ring spinning shop with the OE spinning shop on the left.

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nected and optimized from a production flow standpoint by means of separate preparation machinery. Since then, in European comparisons, as far as the productivity criterion is concerned, the Linz spinning shop has occupied first place. This was the largest ever investment undertaken by Linz Textil and had a volume of around ATS 200 million. It moved into the black immediately after realization. At that time, two other major projects were completed simultaneously in the Austrian textile industry. The first was the construction at a cost of some ATS 400 million of an entirely new spinning shop in Landeck, complete with full cellar and 19,200 spindles for the manufacture of combed cotton yarns. The second related to a new facility in Schwechat near Vienna, which also involved an investment of roughly ATS 400 million and was built by the Japanese company Suzuki for the flyerfree production of combed cotton yarns. The operation in Landeck subsequentLeft-hand page: A Schubert & Salzer drafter in the foreground, which prepares material for the OE spinning shop. The drafting of the carded slivers provides the predefined fibre compaction for the spinning process.

ly went bankrupt and the Japanese shut down their plant after around five years. Lehner asked himself: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Why?â&#x20AC;? And an analysis showed that the value added derived from production in the market per million schillings was roughly twice that of both the other projects. These were unable to achieve payback owing to over-investment and in 1994, Linz Textil took over the Landeck spinning mill.

On the occasion of the 150th company jubilee in 1988, Dr. Dionys Lehner provided the then finance minister Dr. Ferdinand Lacina with a tour of the company.

A Schubert & Salzer open end spinning machine in the Spinning Shop II hall built in 1981.

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The newly built weaving shop became operational in 2001. Here yarns are shown on the warping creel. Installing a new weaving shop on 30,000m2 of valuable building land was a courageous, but necessary step.

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4. New weaving shop building in 2001 In the second half of the 1990s, the decision to build a new weaving shop was a major issue and two initial decisions were taken. Firstly, Telfs was chosen as a location and later Zittau in the threenation triangle comprised by Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland. However, during planning, both projects came to a halt due not least to broken promises. This led to the adoption of Linz as the location. Building a weaving shop north of the Alps as a greenfield project on a 30,000m2 site with a market value of EUR 300 per m2 may have appeared courageous to the point of foolhardiness. But this choice was simplified by the company’s strong financial position and the thought that: “A building can also be demolished!” The guideline was: “If we are going to build, then without compromises.” The project involved a 17,500m2 building with part-cellar, a weaving hall for around 100 skein-fitted, high-performance looms with a column-free, bridged span of 52 metres, two sizing machines with new size boxes, and an optimized, production flow concept. The investment was implemented in 2000/01 and by the end of 2001, the old weaving shop was shut and the newly equipped shop in full operation. The decision to build a new shop was daring, but in the retrospective it was decisive for the continuation of the Linz weaving concept. There can be no doubt that the old shop would not have survived the 2008 crisis and with the new shop this was possible without a cash drain. As in 1990 with the preparation of the complex planning for the spinning shop, Horst Kastner was again responsible for the building aspects of the “New Spinning Shop” project. Dionys Lehner

and Otmar Ornezeder, the weaving shop manager, developed a weaving system that was fully oriented towards the production flow and the building was trimmed to exactly match. Consequently, the subsequent use of the building for other purposes was practically excluded. The new weaving shop went into operation in the autumn of 2001 virtually without a hitch. Sadly, Horst Kastner was unable to witness this event as he became seriously ill and died in October 2000. A plaque in the weaving shop serves as a tribute to his outstanding achievements, the effects of which are still felt in the jubilee year 2013.

Ground-breaking ceremony for the new weaving shop on April 7, 2000. From the l. Dr. Dionys Lehner, Mayor Dr. Franz Dobusch, Governor Dr. Josef Pühringer, Helmut Grießmayer and Horst Kastner.

The memorial plaque for Horst Kastner in the entrance area.

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Airjet technology is employed on the Omni+ looms from the Belgian company Picanol and weft insertion takes place pneumatically. This process facilitates 1,000 picks/minute and the production of roughly 60,000m of grey fabric daily. The system has been in operation since August 2001. 150

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5. The “Butterfly” project 2010 to 2012 At the end of 2009, the outlook for 2010 showed clearly that Linz Textil had initially overcome the massive financial crisis. Nevertheless, the question arose as to how the Linz location could prepare for the next large-scale, market slump. However, the two major fires at the plant at the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010, during which the entire 6,000m2 logistics area of the Linz spinning shop was destroyed, forced the company management to rethink a production programme that would suffice for the future. In the course of various stress scenarios, the weaving shop was assessed as being able to adjust, but as far as the spinning mill was concerned, an alteration to the production concept was seen as urgent. The result of these deliberations was the “Butterfly” project. A new preparation facility with two over-long, take-off machines was to provide the “wings”, while the “body” was to be formed by three rows of drafters. The “head” was to be constituted by the installation of a modern group of airjet machines. Open end capacity was planned for the areas in front of the “wings” and to the left and right of the “head”. A decisive element of the project was the objective that in the case of temporary and partial capacity shutdowns, underproduction could continue for a certain period at acceptable cost without the necessity for redundancies. A further important prerequisite for the realization of the project was the fact that no loans were required. This precondition was fulfilled Left-hand page: Fully automatic opening of the compact fibre bales takes place on a Blendomat from the German company Trützschler. Further transport to the card is pneumatic.

owing to the company’s strong financial position at the start of the project and the cash flow in the period from 2010 to 2012. The “Butterfly” project, during which the interior of the plant was also modernized and renovated, was concluded in the summer of 2012. Linz Textil does not anticipate a major economic downturn during its jubilee year 2013. However, it assesses the overall situation in the global economy as extremely fragile and therefore, in an emergency the “Butterfly” project should ensure enhanced stability.

The Rieter SB- and RSB-D 45 autoleveller combines various card slivers to form a unified whole for J20 and R40/R60 spinning machines.

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The Rieter J 20 airjet system in the shed hall. In this spinning process, the card slivers are inducted into the machine and air spun by means of a specially shaped nozzle. The working process is fully automatic and highly productive. The resultant products are used primarily in the fashion area.

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VII. LINZ TEXTIL 2013 The textile industry numbers among the world’s most globalized branches. Accordingly, the process of transferring large, longer-term, plannable volumes to countries with lower input factors has increased the pressure upon European textile companies to adjust and resulted in branch consolidation. As a consequence, in the period from 2005 to 2011, the numbers of people employed in the textile industry in the EU 27 fell by a third and developments in Austria mirrored this overall European trend. If in 1977, the Austrian textile industry employed a workforce of 49,520, by 2012 this had shrunk to 12,225. Notwithstanding this general trend, a number of Austrian textile companies have managed to successfully survive in the market and happily these include Linz Textil. By contrast to the historical development of employee numbers, during the period mentioned above, Linz Textil has been able to augment the size Employment in the Austrian textile industry 1977–2012 50,000 (Source: Austrian Textile Industry Association, April 8, 2013, Schramme)

40,000 30,000 20,000 10,000

1977 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2012

Left-hand page: Trützschler TC 07 cards specially designed for the processing of synthetic fibres.

Linz Textil Holding AG – key indicators 2012 Sales revenues: 144.5 m EUR EBIT: 5.0 m EUR Equity ratio: 79.5% Employees: 649 Export quota: 85.1%

of its workforce. In 1977, following initial restructuring, the company employed some 450 people, but by the end of 2012 this figure had risen to around 650. Linz Textil is currently an extremely sound textile company, which has entered its jubilee year of 2013 with an unbroken, 33-year sequence of profits. Since 2008, the world markets have been shaken by a serious financial crisis, which has had far-reaching consequences for industry. Linz Textil took early precautions for this situation with an investment-intensive business model and a high degree of modernization that has ensured efficient and productive processes. Resultant high quality forms a cornerstone of customer service, which constitutes a major factor in all the company’s strategic thinking. This is exemplified by the fact that on average the Linz spinning shop’s equipment is around three years old. Consequently, even if the company were to cease investment entirely for a two-year period, the shop would still number among the most modern in the European branch. Over the years, the desire to operate with the latest technology has led to close cooperation with textile machinery manufacturers. These strong relationships are important, as they provide an insight into the technologies that are planned for market introduction during an early de-

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velopment phase, which in turn facilitates optimum equipping with production models. Apart from card development with the Trützschler company of Germany, the airjet spinning project with the Swiss company Rieter provides a classic, recent example of this teamwork. In 2006, Rieter Holding AG and Linz Textil started to advance Comforjet® airjet technology from prototype status to serial production maturity. This technology is now en route to becoming the third important spinning technology in the global textile market alongside ring and rotor spinning. Accordingly, through its commitment to this new production system, Linz Textil has gained a know-how lead over its international spinning mill competitors, which undoubtedly benefits its customers. An approach similar to that employed in the technological area is also applied with regard to raw materials. On the one hand, a broadly based sourcing profile has been established with respect to raw cotton and cotton fibres are used from around ten countries. On the other, for many years the viscose fibre area has been characterized by exclusive cooperation with Lenzing AG. Linz Textil has shown a strong commitment to this partnership ever since the Lenzing company was founded. As previously mentioned, with a participation of 7.5 per cent, in 1938 Linz Textil was the largest Lenzing shareholder from the textile branch. Furthermore, in the 1980s when Lenzing had to reposition itself with regard to the European competition in the fibre segment, Linz Textil again proved itself to be a trusty partner and provided sizeable support in negotiations with Lenzing’s owner banks during the preLeft-hand page: Comforjet® airjet spinning technology from the Rieter company was jointly developed with Linz Textil.

liminary phase of the Lyocell investment. The close relationship to Lenzing AG has demonstrated its value up to the present day and Linz Textil remains the company’s largest single customer for viscose from the global spinning segment with a processed volume of approximately 30,000t annually.

Lenzing AG and Linz Textil are linked by a strong partnership – not only because the company is the largest spinning segment customer for viscose.

Semi-finished products The Viscose Division forms the nucleus of the current structure in the semi-finished textile products area. In addition to the modern mill at the parent company in Linz, in the past decade this area has been the object of intensified internationalization with the founding/acquisition of two operations outside Austria. The spinning mill in Klanjec (Croatia) offers expansion possibilities for the future and is flexibly equipped as a spinning technology full-liner. The viscose spinning mill in Nanjing (China) is positioned in the upper quality segment of the domestic market and in a tough business environ-

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A jacquard loom at the Vossen mill in Jennersdorf. Here, cotton yarns are being processed.

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ment has captured productivity leadership. In the cotton spinning business area, the Klarenbrunn mill in Bludenz is positioned in the high-quality Pima segment and is a long-term partner of the Getzner company for shirt material and damask. The largest operation in terms of volume is the Landeck spinning mill, which has an extensive range. The mill has exceptional â&#x20AC;&#x153;built-in flexibilityâ&#x20AC;? and a high market service capability, which in combination with a variety of yarn

types enable it to deal with the sizeable fluctuations in this business area. These efforts are also supported by the clearly defined customer-orientation of the company workforce. In the raw materials sector, Linz Textil is also currently involved with polyester, the third volume fibre. The products developed and offered to date have convinced customers with their excellent quality and entry into this segment on an industrial scale is planned for the second half

of 2013. Twelve years ago, the grey fabric weaving shop at the parent company in Linz was literally built as a greenfield project and therefore, with regard to its structure continues to fulfil current market needs. Its product profile has steadily shifted in the direction of technical applications, which now predominate. However, despite a decline, the hometex and clothing areas still possess appropriate weight and the anticipated branch consolidation in Europe could well provide fresh opportunities in these segments.

Brand structure Apart from the Vossen® brand, which is well established in the towelling product segment in the German-speaking region, a brand structure has also been created in the semis area. The first step into the world of brands with the purchase of Vossen proved to be a learning process for Linz Textil and sharpened the company’s awareness of the significance of branding. Today, Linz Texil also operates in the viscose segment of the textile semis area with a brand structure. The probity of this move is evidenced by the fact that it facilitates both clear differentiation and the support of growth-oriented topics. Linz Textil is also conscious that brand management demands a degree of cultivation and clearly from a client perspective must be underpinned by genuine content.

Challenges The creation of liquidity in the financial system has provided a temporary respite and a “deceptive quiet”. However, the system remains subject to enormous instability and another discharge with disadvantageous effects for both Linz

Vossen brand products have become well established in the German-speaking area in the terry towelling segment. Profresh, sensolite and viscoblend all guarantee quality in the textile semis segment.

Textil and its clientele can be anticipated. Accordingly, Linz Textil continues to prepare for this eventuality and is so positioning itself that should such a situation arise, its customers can be provided with flexible support. Raw materials and currencies have always been subject to rises and falls, however the fragility of the financial system has exacerbated these effects and increased their amplitude. The risk of making a false decision has become greater and purchases can be made that are excessively expensive and in addition occur at an unfavourable exchange rate. This means that in order to minimize the range of fluctuations to which customers are

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The executive management at a Supervisory Board meeting in 2013: Dr. Dionys Lehner (centre), Chairman and CEO, Linz Textil Holding AG, MMag. Ing. Alexander Hofstadler (right), CEO, Linz Textil GmbH and Mag. Otmar Zeindlinger (left), CFO, Linz Textil Holding AG.

The Supervisory Board at a meeting on April 24, 2013, the Linz Textil jubilee year Front: Dr. Andreas Gassner, Mag. Barbara Lehner, Mag. Reinhard Leitner (Supervisory Board President). Back: BR Ing. Bernhard Schinko, BR Josef Stellnberger, Mag. Anton Schneider (Supervisory Board Vice-President), KR Manfred Kubera.

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subject, management is faced with fresh demands relating to hedging. Linz Textil plans to maintain its structures at the most modern level possible in years to come. The declared objective of additional structural adjustment processes is the retention of an equity ratio within a range of 75 to 80 per cent. In this connection, the following eight double pages provide

an overview of the Groupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile in its jubilee year of 2013. In spite of its solid group structure, Linz Textil is well aware that its activities during recent decades have been blessed with good fortune. Therefore, the company feels an obligation to continue to make every effort on behalf of its customers, in order to also earn these blessings in the coming years.

HOLDING AG

Holding GMBH

Operative UNIT

production siteS

LINZ Spinning Shop

Linz weaving shop

klarenbrunn Spinning Shop landeck Spinning Shop

LinZ (Nanjing) Viscose Yarn Co. Ltd.

LT liegenschaft s.r.o.

100% 9.0 m EUR

100% 12,000 KCZK

Linz Textil Klanjec d.o.o.

weaving shop RTK spol. s.r.o.

100% 75.0 KHRK

50% 2,760 KCZK

predionica Klanjec d.o.o. 100% 12,836.4 KHRK

CEESEG Corp. 0.4% 18,621 KEUR

Linz Textil JH s.r.o.

BEATUS Consulting & Partner GmbH

100% 40,000 KCZK

2% 750 KEUR

Property management Reutte GmbH 100% 600.0 KEUR

vossen GmbH

vossen Frottierwarenvertriebs GmbH

100% 100.0 KEUR

100% 25.6 KEUR

vossen GmbH & Co KG

vossen UK Ltd.

100% 6,785.3 KEUR

100% 2.0 GBP

vossen Hungaria Kft.

vossen Frottier Kft.

100% 11 KEUR

100% 92 KEUR

Organizational diagram of Linz Textil Holding AG with its operative unit, Linz Textil GmbH.

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Linz viscose spinning shop Technology: .......... Rotor and airjet spinning machines Raw material: ........ Lenzing AG cellulose fibres Products: ............... viscoblend速, sensolite速 and profresh速 yarns

Aerial view of the Linz viscose spinning shop from the west. The equipment, such as the open end (photo left-hand page) and airjet (photo left) machines is located in the shed hall and the red-coloured hall extension.

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Linz weaving shop Technology: .......... Air and rapier looms Raw materials:....... Viscose, cotton, polyester and blended yarns Product:................. Grey fabric for the technical, hometex and clothing segments

View of the 17,000m2 weaving shop newly built in 2001. The photo shows the hall with 114 Picanol looms, which forms the nucleus of weaving operations.

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Landeck cotton spinning mill Technology: .......... Rotor, conventional and compact ring spinning machines Raw materials:....... Cotton and polyester fibres Products: ............... Cotton, polyester and blended yarns

The Landeck (Tyrol) mill purchased in 1994 now contains a rotor and a ring spinning shop. The photo on the lefthand page shows a Rieter spinning machine and that on the left, the Rieter E 72 cards.

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Klarenbrunn/Bludenz cotton spinning mill Technology: .......... Conventional and compact ring spinning machines Raw material: ........ Extra-long-staple cotton fibres Product:................. Cotton yarns

Linz Textil took over the Klarenbrunn/Bludenz spinning mill in 1992, since when the mill has produced worsted as its sole product. The photos show a S端ssen-Fiomax ring spinning machine (left-hand page) and a Rieter E 65 card (left).

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Vossen Jennersdorf Technology: .......... Jacquard and dobby looms, finishing line Raw material: ........ Cotton yarns Products: ............... Terry goods

In 2004, Linz Textil purchased the Vossen mill in Jennersdorf, Burgenland, which opened in 1961. The photos show a selection of the product range (left) and work on a jacquard loom.

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Vossen Szentgotthard (Hungary) Technology: .......... Make-up machines Raw material: ........ Terry weaves Products: ............... Terry goods

The Vossen mill in Szentgotthรกrd (Sankt Gotthard), Hungary processes the towelling weaves from its sister plant in Jennersdorf into finished products.

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Klanjec viscose spinning mill (Croatia) Technology: .......... Rotor, ring and air jet spinning machines Raw material: ........ Lenzing AG cellulose fibres Products: ............... viscoblend®, sensolite® and profresh® yarns

The purchase of the Predionica Klanjec d.d. spinning mill in 2002 provided a strengthening of the company’s market presence and an expansion of its offer range. Left: Detail of the cops on the Zinser ring spinning machines. Left-hand page. The Rieter drafters in front of the open end and airjet spinning shop.

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Nanjing viscose spinning mill (China) Technology: .......... Rotor spinning machines Raw material: ........ Lenzing AG cellulose fibres Product:................. Viscoblend® yarns

The Nanjing plant in China, which became operational in 2009, mirrors Linz Textil’s objective, in its capacity as Europe’s largest viscose spinner, of having a location in the nation with the largest viscose production volume. Nanjing operates in the close vicinity of a Lenzing AG plant. The photos show the rotor spinning machines (left-hand page) and the Trützschler cards (left).

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THE COMPANY MANAGEMENT sINCE 1838 Managing Directors Dr. Dionys L. Lehner since 1977 Thomas Siegmund 1974–1977 Dipl.-Lw. Adolf Herand Erlach 1972–1973 Dr. Robert Thyll 1953–1971 Herbert Müllersen 1943–1953 W.F. Arnold Hadank 1941–1943 Anton Herkner 1940–1941 Gustav Hefter 1939–1940 Willy Nahlovsky 1910–1939 Carl Reichel 1894–1910 Vinzenz Gartenauer 1872–1894 Johann Grillmayr 1839–1872 Anton Wöss 1838–1839

Presidents of the Administrative Board, Chairmen of the corporation’s Supervisory Board Mag. Reinhard Leitner since 2001 Dr. Erasmus Schneditz-Bolfras 1993–2001 Karl Josef Steger 1967–1993 Fritz Eggstein 1967 Dr. Heinrich Foglar-Deinhardstein 1959–1967 Dr. Josef Joham 1937–1959 Julius Stern 1926–1937 Richard Hofmann 1911–1926 Carl Reininger 1904–1911 Emil Dierzer von Traunthal 1902–1904 Dr. Rafael von Kremer-Auenrode 1872–1902 Johann Grillmayr 1872

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