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Name
Enoch Kern's Son (Enocha Kerna syn), military cloth and woollen goods factoryMotorpal -
Address
Strojírenská 9/5, Jihlava -
Date
1541, 1860, 1888, 1893–1895 -
Authors
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Trail
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Code
43G -
GPS
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Type
Industrial Object -
Monument preservation
No protection
In 1846, the family of Isaak Enoch Kern (1780–1854), who owned a tannery in Kateřinov near Polná from 1840, appeared in the Jihlava region. The Kern family bought the paper mill building, moved the Kateřinov factory to Staré Hory and started producing light blue cloth for trousers for the Austrian army. In 1859, war broke out between Austria and Italy. By then, the factory was already managed by Isaak's successor Berthold Bernhard Kern (1819–1893). The Austrian army asked for another supply of trousers and Kern thus won the largest order in the company's history. Unfortunately, he did not enjoy his success for long, as the factory burned down shortly after the contract was signed. Kern, however, started rebuilding, demolished the burnt-out building and built a larger, modern one. He installed two turbines to drive the machines and purchased a steam engine with a rocking beam. The new building boasted several preparation machines and thirteen spinning jennies with 3,120 spindles. The equipment also included a twisting machine with 200 spindles, which wound (twisted) several threads together. In addition to 90 looms, which were still worked by hand, the first 30 modern mechanical looms emerged.
In 1869, Kern concluded an agreement with Alfred Skenne, a cloth weaver from Brno, and Johann Liebieg, a manufacturer from Liberec, and together they joined the War Woollen Industry Association (Válečný spolek vlnařského průmyslu). Thanks to their cooperation, the businessmen managed to obtain advantageous military contracts. But they only lasted until 1874. After that, the production of military cloth in the Kern factory had to stop for three years. The company therefore moved to the production of civilian goods and began to produce mainly woollen blankets.
In 1888 and from 1893–1895, the premises were expanded and modernised. The construction was led by Theodor Kern (1858–1919), who also served as the chairman of the local government of the Štoky judicial district, in the Commercial Trades Association (Obchodní živnostenský spolek) and a branch of the Economic Credit Bank (Hospodářská kreditní banka). For his merits, he was named an honorary citizen of Jihlava.
After the fire in 1899, however, the old spinning and weaving mill building, which had stood at the southern entrance to the site, was not rebuilt again. The main building received a new roof over the first floor in the form of a reinforced concrete vault with a span of 16 metres. It was one of the first similar constructions in the monarchy, made according to the patent of the Viennese engineer Josef Melan (1853–1941). The work was carried out by the Prague branch of Pittel & Brausewetter. In 1907, a three-storey combed yarn spinning mill was built in the northern part of the premises. Bruno Bauer (1880–1938), an Austrian industrial buildings designer and a student of Melan who worked for Pittel & Brausewetter at the beginning of the 20th century, designed the building with a reinforced concrete skeleton. Bauer also designed another weaving mill for Kern. It stood in Jihlava in the vicinity of the infantry barracks. Today, the building is adjacent to the Vysočina Region Headquarters on Žižkova Street. Bauer probably also cooperated with Kern at the beginning of the First World War, when the company won other large military contracts. The largest building in the complex in Staré Hory, the weaving mill's southern building, then took the form it has today. Kern's modernised factory for military cloth and woollen goods was equipped with 8,000 spindles and 200 looms, a steam engine, a turbine, and an electric drive. After the war, however, the factory was no longer profitable and the management had to file for settlement proceedings in 1927. It was not until 1931 that Erwin Lang revived the factory operation. He transported other machines from a closed factory in Brno and installed Kaplan's turbine. During the Second World War, BMW manufactured aircraft engines on the site. After the war, it was acquired by the national company Motorpal for the production of fuel pumps for diesel engines. The new owner is now renting and renovating the complex. In the middle of the premises, there is a villa with a garden, which is still a reminder of the times of Kern’s factory.
MP
Literatura:
Michaela Ryšková [ryš], Továrna na vlněné zboží a vojenská sukna Enocha Kerna syn, in: Hana Hlušičková (ed.), Technické památky v Čechách, na Moravě a ve Slezsku II, Praha 2002, s. 166.
Libor Blažek (ed.), Vlnařská centra Evropy: Brno - Jihlava: od počátků do 20. století. Archiv města Brna 2008, s. 46-47.
Václav Šplíchal – Miloslav Vítek, Papír a ruční papírny v Jihlavě a kraji Vysočina, Jihlava 2010, s. 33-44, 61-63.
Lukáš Beran – Vladislava Valchářová – Jan Zikmund (eds), Industriální topografie / Kraj Vysočina, Praha 2014, s. 47–48.
Lukáš Beran, Architekt Dr. Techn. Bruno Bauer: Bruno Bauer a industriální architektura v českých zemích, Praha 2016.
Ostatní zdroje:
Státní okresní archiv v Jihlavě – Stavební archiv, čp. 9, 5