Brno: industrial trail by the river Svitava - Horydoly.cz - Outdoor Generation

Part of the Industrial Trail near Svitava are 11 outdoor panels commemorating specific industrial buildings and their history.

The First Brno Engineering Company Luz: the steam engine phenomenon

The history of the First Brno Engineering Company goes back to 1814, when a German entrepreneur Johann Reif changed the production scope of his company in the former castle in Šlapanice near Brno. Instead of textile, which was in crisis at the time, he started engineering production. Specifically, with the production of steam engines, at that time the basic driving engine of industry throughout Europe. In 1816, Heinrich Alexander Luz became a partner in the company, who initially trained as a watchmaker, but very soon began to devote himself to the construction of machines.

In 1820, after the death of Johann Reif, Luz married his widow and took over the management of the company. At that time, the company was still called Schöll und Luz, because the Schöll brothers had a stake in it. The company specialized in the production of steam engines, steam boilers and fire extinguishers. In 1838, Luz became independent and moved the entire company from Šlapany to Brno. He built a new business on Olomoucká Street. A remnant of this period is the main administrative building on the corner of Olomoucká and Životské, which despite later reconstructions still retains its original classicist character. In the building of the former entrance from Olomoucká street, one of the Luz steam engines is even installed behind a glass wall.

Under the new name První Brnoská strojírna, the company was constantly growing and its premises occupied a huge area from Olomoucká Street to the viaduct of the State Railway near the Svitava River. In 1881, the company under the name Erste Brünner Maschinen-Fabriks-Geseltschaft expanded production to include steam turbines. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, there was a merger with Friedrich Wannieck's foundry, making the First Brno Engineering Company the largest engineering enterprise in Austria-Hungary.

During the First World War, like most industrial enterprises, První Brno strojírna adapted to wartime needs and produced grenades and mortars. However, after the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic, it returned to its original production content. The largest branch plant was the former foundry of Friedrich Wannieck, the largest producer of steam turbines in Czechoslovakia. At the end of the Second World War, the factory premises were a frequent target of Allied air raids, and in 1945 work was stopped there. Production was gradually restored, and during the 1950s and 1960s, the First Brno Engineering Company became an important engineering company again. At that time, several operations outside Brno were also established, e.g. in Třebíč and Velká Bíteš.

Strojírna Ignaz Storek - Šmeral: the invention of the Kaplan turbine

Today's Šmeral Brno engineering plant was established in 1861 as a gray cast iron foundry of Ignaz Storek. He originally worked as a metallurgical scribe in the smelters on the Novoměstské manor and gradually became the administrator of the Domašov smelter and the Veveří manor. At that time, gray cast iron was one of the basic materials in the engineering industry, which is why his company grew very quickly. He remained in charge of the company until 1887, when he handed it over to his son Heinrich Storek. Heinrich introduced precision casting in the foundry and built the first Siemens-Martin furnace.

While the 19th century was the century of steam, the early 20th century saw the use of water power using turbines. At first it was a Francis turbine, but its disadvantage was that it could not process uneven water flow. In 1913, Heinrich Storek expanded the original foundry with his own engineering production. The main impetus was the collaboration with the inventor and professor of German technology in Brno, Viktor Kaplan.

Viktor Kaplan studied machine and diesel engine construction at the Vienna University of Technology. He then obtained a position as a designer at the Brno German Technical University and in 1909 completed his habilitation there. He spent much of his life trying to perfect Francis's turbine. He came up with the simple but revolutionary idea of ​​turning the rotor blades directly during operation, so that the turbine could be used even in case of fluctuating water flow, and thus the famous Kaplan turbine was born.

The first prototype was produced in Storek's factory in 1908 and was subsequently improved several times. Kaplan tried to patent the modified turbine as early as 1912, but he succeeded only in 1920. The production of turbines, which were initially very defective and expensive to manufacture, was ultimately not the main focus of the Storek company. This led to the purchase of forming machines and presses for processing iron in the twenties. During the Second World War, parts for the arms industry were produced here. After the nationalization of the German property, production was resumed and the plant was renamed after Bohumír Šmeral, the founder of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.

Kaplan was the holder of several honorary doctorates during his lifetime, the Faculty of Social Studies of Masaryk University is located in the building where he lectured, and the library of the Faculty of Social Studies of Masaryk University is located in his laboratory. A frame crane, used to transport heavy loads, can still be seen under the ceiling of the library. In Brno, Viktor Kaplan is commemorated by a bust placed in front of the former BUT building on the corner of Úvoz and Údolní streets.

NEWS FROM THE MORAVIAN METROPOLIS: Brno

Kemka: labor movement

One of the largest spinning mills in Brno was founded in 1881 under the name Kammgarnspinerei. This rather complicated name gave rise to the abbreviation by which the factory was known throughout Brno - Kemka. When it was founded in 1881, there were 12,000 spindles in operation, but already at the beginning of the 20th century there were more than 40,000. Kemka became the largest spinning mill in Brno, which produced the then very fashionable worsted yarn.

The factory was built on a green field in the area bounded by the Svitav drive, Radlas Street and Plynárenská Street. Due to the relatively large floor plan, a layout of large ground-floor halls, in which the spinning mills were located, was created, atypical for Brno. The entire Kemka site caught the eye at first sight with its architectural form, which combined smooth brickwork and plastered surfaces. In this style, the halls of the spinning mills were built, as well as administrative buildings, the fencing near Radlas Street, and the bridge over the Svitavský náhon. Only a fraction of the original buildings have been preserved to this day, because in 1944 they were hit by both Allied air raids aimed at Zbrojovka in Brno.

The first workers' unions that fought for the rights of textile workers began to emerge in large-scale production facilities with relatively demanding working conditions from the middle of the 19th century. In 1895, the Workers' House / Arbeitsheim association was founded in Brno. Its mission was to collect funds to build a social and political center for workers from the Horní and Dolní Cejlo region. A plot of land was chosen for the building in what was then Jussová Street (later Spolkova Street, Marxova Street, and today Spolkova Street again). The original building was rebuilt in 1929 in a functionalist style according to the plans of the architect Eduard Göttlicher and included a social hall, club rooms and a cinema in the basement. Even before the First World War, the Workers' House became the center of the Brno workers' movement. During the Second World War, it fell to the employees of Zbrojovka, which owned it until the 1990s.

In addition to the workers' associations, a left-wing intellectual avant-garde began to form in the 1920s, and in 1923 the Brno Devětsil was established as a branch of the Prague Devětsil. The founders were journalist Artuš Černík, poet František Halas, film and theater critic Ctibor Haluza, translator and poet Vincenc Nečas, poet Jaroslav Seifert, theater critic Bohumír Svrček, Marxist literary critic and theorist Bedřich Václavek and literary historian Jaroslava Václavková-Nickmannová.

Soxlet's spinning mill - Woolen: Art protis studio

At Cejla 68, the extensive grounds of the original spinning mill of the company H. F. & E. Soxhlet from 1833–1835. It is one of the oldest spinning mills in Brno following the manufactories that made Brno a center of textile production and earned it the nickname of the Austrian Manchester.

The most prominent feature of the area is the building with a wide classicist facade facing Cejl Street, crowned by a tympanum with relief decoration. This is a type of industrial building in which the owners built their headquarters directly. The Schöller brothers did it in the same way on Cejla, or the Bochners on Mlýnská street. In the case of Soxhlet's company, an apartment building for employees was also built here. And despite the fact that it is a palatial house, towards the street it retains a palatial facade with the influence of Palladian architecture. The other operations were concentrated around the square yard. The spinning mill at its rear had 34,000 spindles in operation in 1854, making the business one of the largest on the continent.

The Soxhlet family ran the factory until 1856 and were subsequently replaced by several owners. After nationalization in 1945, it was included in the company Vlněna, specifically plant 02, on Tkalcovská Street. In 1964, the art phenomenon of the time, Art Protis, was also invented at the Vlněna 02 plant. František Pohl, Václav Škála and Jiří Haluza are considered its inventors. The Art protis technique is a kind of painting with a woolen fleece, which is laid in layers on the base. After the completion of the artistic solution, the entire surface is stitched at regular intervals with fine silicone thread. This is a cheaper and faster alternative to woven tapestry. Compared to tapestry, it also has the advantage that the design can be changed during production.

His popularity was greatest in the 1960s and 1970s. It won several awards, for example at the World's Fair in Montreal in 1967 and the World's Fair in Osaka in 1970. It was mainly used as large wall paintings for public buildings, but it also appeared in many homes. Given that its production was almost exclusively limited to Vlněna in Brno, artists from all over the world flocked to the local workshops even in the times of socialism. In Czechoslovakia, for example, Jiří Trnka, Jiří Rajlich and especially Inez Tuschnerová devoted themselves to it.

Gebrüder Samek: Jewish entrepreneurs in Brno

Already in the Middle Ages, a Jewish community belonged to Brno, built in the lower part of Masarykova Street, around Františkánská Street and Římské náměstí. The synagogue stood on the site of today's Mary Magdalene church, and the Jewish cemetery was located in front of the walls in the area of ​​the Main Station. In 1454, King Ladislav Pohrobek issued a decree to expel Jews from the royal cities. From this year until 1848, Jews essentially disappeared from the life of the city of Brno. With varying degrees of success, they managed to obtain certain privileges, but mostly with uncertain results. The only place where Jews coming to Brno for business were allowed to spend the night was on Křenová street in the Nový svět inn.

In 1726, the so-called Familiant Law came into effect, which allowed only the oldest son from a Jewish family to marry. This law forced a large number of Jews to relocate from Moravia to Hungary. Maria Theresa subsequently had all Jews evicted from the lands of the Czech Crown. Better times began to flash in 1792, when the Tolerance Patent of Joseph II was issued. Definitive relaxation only occurs after 1848, when the last segregation regulations are abolished and Jews become full-fledged residents of the monarchy. This is also the moment when the foundations of later business families, such as the Gomperz, Löw, Löw–Beer, Stiass and others, come to Brno from all over Moravia and Galicia.

In 1853, the first synagogue began to be built in Brno, and a year before that, a new Jewish cemetery was opened in Židenice. The Jewish community reached its peak during the First Republic, when, for example, the Jewish Real Reform Gymnasium was opened on Hybešova Street (the former villa of the textile entrepreneur Skene) and many other educational and cultural institutions. Unfortunately, the majority of the Jewish population not only in Brno, but throughout the territory of the protectorate was decimated during the Second World War.

The Gebrüder Samek company was established at Cejlo 38 in 1868 and was founded by Jakob Samek together with his brothers Johan and Albert. It specialized in the production of tweeds, suit fabrics and worsted yarn fabrics based on the English pattern. The company was very successful at many European exhibitions. Jakob Samek founded a premium savings bank for his deserving workers. The company existed for two generations of Samk and was liquidated in 1935.

Moritz Fuhrmann: Villa Löw Beer

Moritz Fuhrmann's plush and wool factory was established at Cejlo 72 in 1872, but it was not until 1895 that Fuhrmann bought it. The most interesting object of the entire area is undoubtedly the building built in 1913 in the back part of the plot towards the river Svitava. Since there was no space to build extensive ground-floor halls in the existing factory premises, entrepreneurs and architects used reinforced concrete structures and built multi-storey buildings. In their individual floors, huge spaces divided by supporting columns were created, where spinning mills and weaving mills were located.

This is also the case of the Moritz Fuhrmann company building, where the architect did not even render the facade of this purely utilitarian building without interesting details, such as the central protruding rizalite, or the triangular tympanum on which the company's name was placed. The entire facade was divided by large factory windows in steel frames, which gave it a poetic airiness. Currently, the building is being rebuilt for housing needs, and its interesting facade has disappeared under an insensitive reconstruction, during which the large windows were replaced by small window openings and the facade was insulated.

Moritz Fuhrmann was also the owner of a very interesting residential building, which unknowingly stood at the birth of another architectural gem. This is a family villa built on Drobného street (formerly Parkstrasse) on the lower edge of the Černých Polí slope. The representative building in Art Nouveau style was built in 1903 according to the design of Viennese architect Alexander Neumann. In the press of the time, we learn that the villa contained four apartments with a total of 14 rooms and 7 cabinets, 3 kitchens, 2 bathrooms and 6 toilets. The entire layout of the house is centered around a central hall with wooden paneling and a glass ceiling through which daylight enters.

After the death of Moritz Fuhrmann in 1913, the heirs sold the villa for 290,000 crowns to another textile industrialist, Alfred Löw-Beer - that is why it is known today as Löw-Beer. Alfred Löw-Beer donated the upper part of the plot belonging to the villa and an unlimited budget for the construction of the family home to his daughter Greta, married to Tugendhat. The art nouveau, originally Fuhrmann's villa, eventually stood at the birth of the Tugendhat villa, which is one of Brno's best-known architectural monuments.

Löw - Zwicker: aryization of Jewish property

The area of ​​the former textile factory founded by Adolf Löw in the second half of the 19th century lies on the triangular plot between Cejl Street and the Svitava River. Adolf Löw, like most members of the first generation of Jewish entrepreneurs, came from a poor family from the Highlands. He trained as a weaver, and after founding a weaving factory, together with his brother-in-law Bedřich Schmal, he became one of the most prominent entrepreneurs in Austria-Hungary. He gradually moved the textile production to Vysočina to Malé Beranov and Helenín, where he also passed it on to his equally successful son Karl. He sold the buildings on Cejl Street in 1900 to Himmelreich & Zwicker, which continued textile production here.

Most textile companies from the middle of the 19th century belonged to Jewish owners who came from poor families with a tradition of textile production on one loom, or selling textile goods. Within one or two generations, these self-made men managed to build factory empires that far exceeded the borders of Austria-Hungary and the successor Czechoslovakia. During the period of the First Republic, the majority of Jewish businessmen claimed to be of German nationality, and their main language of communication was German.

During the politically tumultuous 1930s and the rise of Nazism in Germany, the more politically astute began to look for ways out of threatened Europe. Some of them succeeded, but most of them remained in Czechoslovakia, and after the creation of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, the full weight of the so-called Nuremberg Laws fell on them. These legal regulations, valid in Germany since January 1, 1938, forbade Jews to engage in trade and manufacturing and to offer commercial services. On their basis, German businesses were so-called Aryanized. In practice, this meant that a forced administrator was placed in Jewish businesses, who had two options. Either he brought the business entrusted to him to bankruptcy, or he sold the business on very favorable terms, mostly to himself. The original Jewish owners were evicted not only from their companies, but also from their houses and apartments, and were moved to former workers' tenement houses in the area of ​​Cejl, Francouzská and Bratislavská streets. From there they were subsequently transported to concentration camps.

After the end of the Second World War, formerly Jewish, now Aryanized companies were confiscated by decree of the President of the Republic as German property. If the original owners managed to survive the Holocaust and asked for the return of their property, they mostly did not manage to resolve the restitution until 1948. After the communist coup, it was swept off the table and no one dealt with it further. Subsequently, most of the textile mills in Brno were merged into the Vlněna and Mosilana plants.

Mitop: the demise of textile production

In 1890, the Joint Stock Company of Austrian Felt Factories was founded, which was supported by the companies B. Engel & spol., Adolf Löw & son and Seidl & Jellinek. Its production was concentrated in the operation of the former factory Adolf Löw & son on Zábrdovická street. Since 1900, the company has been operating under the name United Felt Factories a.s. with its headquarters in the German city of Giegen an der Brenz.

The factory burned down in 1911 and was generously rebuilt according to the project of the German architect Phillip J. Manz. The reinforced concrete building with brick linings and large factory windows still stands opposite the former Premonstratensian monastery (now Military Hospital Brno), to which it forms an interesting counterpart. The dominant feature of the entire building is the overhanging tower, covered with a Biedermeier helmet, in which the water reservoir was originally located. Incidentally, the water towers were part of most Brno textiles. Behind this new building, which looks very airy thanks to the large windows, the operational buildings followed along the river Svitava.

The company's production program was very broad, including technical felt, clothing felt, lining felt, for engine covers, for locomotive boilers. Finished products were first exported to European countries, but in the second half of the 20th century, exports were expanded to countries in North and South America and Asia. After the Second World War, the company was confiscated on the basis of the decree of the President of the Republic and a national administration was introduced in it. In 1948, it was incorporated into the national enterprise Mitop, a combined felt factory based in Mimoni. Although a new dyeing and finishing plant was built in the years 1952–1955, production continued on the original machines from 1913 during the 1980s. After 1989, Mitop n.p. was privatized and Panatex was established. Currently, the area is used for rentals and has undergone a total renovation. This is one of the successful reconstructions where, despite certain modernization elements, the building has retained its original character and is an example of a very successful conversion of a factory building for current needs.

Zábrdovické nádraží: railway and industry

In the area of ​​construction in front of the Zábrdovické bridge over the Svitava, there is still a building reminiscent of the defunct railway line Brno – Tišnov. This is the original station building, which served its purpose in the years 1885–1962. The dispatch building with a wooden gable (closest to the river) and the railway depot with a ramp and original sliding doors have survived from the original station. In the places where the piece of track ended, there is a concrete stop, the so-called sturc, even with the rest of the stopping sleeper. The single-track railway line Brno – Tišnov was put into operation in 1885 by the private Austrian State Railway Company (StEG) as the basis of the planned connection between Brno and Havlíčkový Brod. The company operated the railway until 1909, when it was nationalized and taken over by the Austrian State Railways, followed by the Czech State Railways after the creation of the Czechoslovak Republic.

Already in the period of the First Republic, it became clear that the new planned line connecting South Moravia through the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands with Bohemia would lead on a different route than the old Tišnovka. The final decision was made in 1938, when a completely new two-track railway was planned. However, due to the events of the war, its construction was stopped and the old Tišnovka continued to serve its purpose. After the end of the Second World War, the construction of the Brno – Havlíčkův Brod railway was resumed, which was completed in 1953. This eliminated the non-Brno section of the Tišnovky line, but its urban part between the main station and the Královo Pole station was used for passenger transport until 1962.

Tišnovka has not been in operation for almost sixty years, but its remains are still recognizable. The route started at the Brno main railway station, from where it went out along the viaduct in the direction of Česká Třebová, after the present-day Brno gas works, it disconnected from the embankment. A descending ramp from the embankment towards Svitava can still be seen here. It continued around the river, where the industrial Posvitavská railway branched off from it, and the Radlas three-track freight yard stood at Tkalcovská street. From there, the line continued along the Svitava embankment past Fuhrmann's textile mill to Cejl Street, which it crossed at level, to the Zábrdovice railway station. At the crossing of Cejl Street in front of the Zábrdovický most, a crossing protected by barriers was placed. After the embankment, it spanned Vranovská Street, where the pillars of the canceled bridge (Mostecká tram stop) are still visible today. There is still a distinct embankment with culverts behind the former Husov cemetery (now Marie Restituty Park). It continued over the Černopolký hill on the route of the large city circuit through Královo Pole, Řečkovice and Česká railway stations to Tišnov. On the current line leading to Havlíčkov Brod, for example, the building of the stop in Česká reminds of the old Tišnovka. Its location respects the original route of the Tišnovka tracks and is turned sideways to the current track yard.

Berans´s Söhne: Zbrojovka

The site of today's Zbrojovka was created in 1918 by the reconstruction of the original textile factory Berans's Söhne, which had been located on the banks of the Svitava River since 1894. After the creation of the Czechoslovak Republic, the state the Czechoslovak Weapons Production Company in Brno. In addition to the original buildings of the Beran company, the plant area was extended along Lazaretní Street to the embankment of the railway line on Česká Třebová. A huge modern area was created with an interesting administrative building at the entrance, where the plant director's apartment was also located.

In addition to weapons for the Czechoslovak army, sewing machines and licensed typewriters of the Remington brand were also produced in Zbrojovce. In addition to its own weapons production, German and Austrian Mauser and Manlicher rifles were assembled in the factory. In the 1920s, the production of own-brand cars started, first OMEGA and Disk, then the Z 18 car. By 1930, 2,500 of them had been produced. In 1935, for example, the folk car Z 6 Hurvínek was created in Zbrojovce. Due to the worsening political situation in Europe, it was decided to end the production of automobiles, and from 1936 only weapons were produced here again.

During World War II, weapons for the Wehrmacht and Waffen SS were assembled here. Arms production also caused the factory premises to become one of the main targets of Allied air raids on Brno and was heavily damaged at the end of the war. After the end of the war, it was decided to develop new tractors. In November 1945, a prototype of the Zetor Z-25 tractor was produced. The name Zetor has remained to this day. It comes from the words Zet (spelled the first letter of Zbrojovka) and Or (the end of the word tractor). The production of tractors was gradually moved to the factory in Líšno, which even adopted the name of the first tractor in its name.

In the 80s of the 20th century, the production of weapons is gradually reduced and the production of communication and computer technology is switched over. After 1989, the lively enterprise completely disappeared. Currently, the entire area is privately owned and the construction of the Nová Zbrojovka residential and administrative district is planned here. The revitalization envisages the preservation of some original factory buildings and their conversion to housing.

Briessův pivovar: Zetor

In the courtyard between Dukelská and Garguláková streets stands a distinctive brick tower-like building. The multi-storey structure combines plastered masonry with brick detailing, a style typical of industrial buildings at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. It also includes the original chimney. From the end of the 19th century, a malthouse founded by Rudolf Briess, a businessman of Jewish origin, born in 1869 in Prostějov, operated here. In 1900, public partner Jakob Feiwell was added to the commercial register and the firm continued to be known as Feiwell & Briess. In 1906, Rudolf Briess left for Olomouc, where he founded a new malt house, and the operation in Husovice became a branch of the Olomouc company. After the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918, the company was divided. The Husovice branch became independent and Rudolf Briess moved permanently to Brno.

In 1931, Rudolf's son Erich joined the company as a procurator. In the late 1930s, the Briess family had to deal with how to face the growing Nazi threat. Erich managed to leave Czechoslovakia for the United States in 1938. After the occupation of Czechoslovakia, forced administration was placed on the Briess malt house as a Jewish property. Rudolf Briess was transported to Terezín in 1942, where he subsequently died. During World War II, the Briess malthouse was attached to Zbrojovka and produced weapons for the Wehrmacht.

After the war, Erich Briess tried to get the property back and restore malting production there. However, this plan did not succeed and the malthouse was nationalized along with the other operations. Descendants of the Briess family still live in the USA today and even do business in the same field as their ancestors in Brno, i.e. malting. After the Second World War, the former malt house was left in the property of Zbrojovka and subsequently transferred to the Zetor company, Motory division. In the 1980s, a new Zetoru engine plant was built nearby, and the old malt house buildings were gradually abandoned. After the end of production in the engine plant in 1999, the Sladovna building was purchased by Kubíček, a hot air balloon manufacturer. Subsequently, there were studios and art workshops here for some time. At present, the entire area is awaiting a number of changes in connection with the construction of a large urban ring road and its associated roads. However, the building of the Briess malt house would certainly deserve reconstruction and meaningful use as an interesting building of Brno's industrial heritage.

INFO: TIC Brno

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