The Baumwollspinnerei Aktien-Gesellschaft Gelenau was founded in 1906, at a time when the textile industry in the Saxon Erzgebirge was experiencing rapid growth. The new spinning mill was built on the Wilisch in Gelenau and quickly became one of the most prominent industrial buildings in the village. The main production building was constructed in 1906 and featured a characteristic red-brick facade, a steel-frame structure, large multi-pane windows and two distinctive towers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The factory was closely connected to the development of the local textile industry. Gelenau already had a long tradition of cotton spinning, with earlier mills operating along the Wilisch during the nineteenth century. The location of the new factory was particularly advantageous because it was connected to the Wilischthal narrow-gauge railway. A dedicated railway siding was built to serve the factory, with tracks extending directly into the works. Raw cotton, coal and other materials could therefore be delivered by rail, while finished products could be transported efficiently to other textile companies in the region. The factory remained an important customer of the railway, with shunting operations continuing until the narrow-gauge railway was finally closed in 1972.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Baumwollspinnerei Aktien-Gesellschaft became an important employer in Gelenau and played a major role in the economic development of the village. During the first decades of the twentieth century, the factory was repeatedly expanded. The different construction phases can still be recognized in parts of the surviving complex. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The factory continued operating through the First World War, the Weimar Republic and the Second World War. After the end of the Second World War, the political and economic structure of the factory changed fundamentally. Like many privately owned industrial companies in Saxony, the business was transferred into state ownership as part of the socialist transformation of the economy in the Soviet occupation zone and later the German Democratic Republic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Gelenau factory became part of the state-owned textile industry and was eventually incorporated into the VEB Feinspinnerei Erzgebirge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the GDR period, the factory remained an important local employer. Production was integrated into the centrally planned economy, with raw materials, production targets, investment and distribution increasingly controlled by the state. The factory continued producing textile yarns for the wider East German textile industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1971, the VEB Feinspinnerei Erzgebirge lost its legal and economic independence and became part of the larger VEB Vereinigte Baumwollspinnereien und Zwirnereien Fl\u00f6ha. The Gelenau factory continued to operate as Werk II within this larger state-owned structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The political changes of 1989 and 1990 brought the factory’s long industrial history to an abrupt end. On 1 July 1990, the VEB Feinspinnerei Erzgebirge was transformed into Feinspinnerei Erzgebirge Venusberg GmbH, a subsidiary of the S\u00e4chsische Baumwollspinnereien und Zwirnereien AG Fl\u00f6ha. The Gelenau factory was still officially listed as Werk II at this point, but the economic situation was already extremely difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The factory was ultimately liquidated later in 1990. The machinery was removed and the production halls were abandoned.<\/p>\n\n\n\nngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Baumwollspinnerei Aktien-Gesellschaft Gelenau was founded in 1906, at a time when the textile industry in the Saxon Erzgebirge was experiencing rapid growth. The new spinning mill was built on the Wilisch in Gelenau and quickly became one of the most prominent industrial buildings in the village. The main production building was constructed in 1906 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27622,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[159,223,47,13,63],"class_list":["post-27575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-urbex","tag-erzgebirge","tag-gelenau","tag-germany","tag-industrial","tag-saxony"],"yoast_head":"\n