The history of the former upholstered furniture factory began in 1960 with the founding of a PGH (Produktionsgenossenschaft des Handwerks). These were unions of individual craftsman to work together in order to share their means of production. Despite not being completely finished, the factory already produced upholstered furniture and mattresses in 1965 under the name PGH „Polstermöbel und Matratzen“. There were 3 foremen, 16 regular workers and 1 office worker employed during this time. Some years later a car paint shop was added to the factory and the PGH was renamed in “Polacent”. The furniture was manufactured for the domestic market as well as for export. There was even a seating group that was produced for Ikea and sold there with the label “Waldvogelfedern”. It is also said that various pieces of furniture such as sahara-brown couch sets made their way into the Quelle catalog (a West German mail order business).
In 1972, the PGH was transformed into a state-owned enterprise and was now called VEB Polstermöbel und Autolackierung. As a result of this change, the factory switched to using coal for heating its premises and a chimney was built, which still marks the location of the factory ruins today. In 1981 the enterprise was subordinated to the Möbelwerk Erfurt. The production of upholstered furniture continued beyond the German reunification as part of the Polstermöbelunion Erfurt/Gispersleben. However, the demand for their products declined, leading to the eventual shutdown of the factory in the 1990s. The property was sold to a company from Mecklenburg with a core business in railway supplies, which demolished a large part of it. The buildings still left aren’t cared about and are decaying further and further, causing displeasure among its neighbors.
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