Hermann Pollack and Sons Plush Factory (Plyšárna Hermann Pollack a synové)

   
In the 1930s, Hermann Isak Hirsch Pollack established a textile brokerage business in Vienna. Together with his sons Bernhard and Leopold, he gradually expanded it and the company Hermann Pollack & Söhne was founded. Leopold took it over after his father's death. The company owned a factory for electric bleaching, dyeing and finishing in Floridsdorf near Vienna. Gradually, it purchased and established some spinning and weaving mills in Česká Třebová, Velké Ves, Chrastava, Nová Ruda, Hlinsko, Višnová near Frýdlant, and Jihlava. At its peak, Hermann Pollack & Söhnehad a dozen factory buildings and over 4,000 employees.

The company Hermann Pollack & Söhnecame to Jihlava in 1895, when the Pollacks bought a plot of land near the Koňský Pond (Koňský rybník) and established a factory for the production of plush and krimmer. The site plans were drawn up by the town builder Karl Wagner, the first factory building on the left bank of the Jihlávka River was designed and built by the Brno civil engineer and builder Jan Kowarzik. Plush and krimmer (finely woven imitation lambskin) were hand woven by weavers on home looms or in Pollack's factory in Hlinsko and transported to the factory in Jihlava to be dyed and finished.

In 1911, Leopold resigned from the management of the company and was succeeded by Alfred Willheim. He ran the business for 10 years. At the end of this period, both the Jihlava and Hlinsko plants were in debt and production was taken over by the Joint Stock Company for Textile Industry in Jihlava(Akciová společnost pro textilní průmysl v Jihlavě). The management moved the entire production of plush and krimmer from Hlinsko to the plant in Jihlava. The company supplied plush for children's toys and furniture upholstery. It produced imitation furs, powder puffs, and similar goods. It also exported its products abroad. At the beginning of the 1920s, around 140 employees worked in the fully mechanised factory in Jihlava. The company was also modernised structurally. In the 1920s, a multi-storey weaving mill was built, and a four-storey building with workshops, a machine room, and a boiler house were added. At the beginning of the 1930s, an elongated building for the dye-works and drying rooms was built towards the Koňský Pond (Koňský rybník) according to the design drawn up by Karel Rejchrt, which was partly extended above the bank of the old millrace thanks to its reinforced concrete structure. In 1938, a part of the factory was added to the southeast in a functionalist style according to Jan Schindler's design. A few years later, the boiler house was renovated. At the end of the 1930s, the Joint Stock Company for the Textile Industry in Jihlava (Akciová společnost pro textilní průmysl v Jihlavě)became interested in the Student Mill (Studentenmühle), which was located by the old Brněnský Bridge towards what is now the zoo and belonged to Anton Frühauf. The company purchased the property and set up a carded yard spinning mill from 1947–1948.

Due to political events, the company changed its name several times. During World War II, it was renamed Textilia, after nationalisation in 1948, it briefly fell under the national enterprise Velveta Varnsdorf. In 1949, the national enterprise Krimetwas established, producing plush and krimmer (in addition to Jihlava, it also included factories in Kraslice and Liberec-Rochlice). Later on, the factory concentrated on the production of soft furnishings and operated under the name of the national enterprise Bytex. At the turn of the millennium, the joint-stock company Alfatexwas founded and used the industrial area for a number of years.

In 2018, a business couple from Jihlava took over the complex of unused buildings and converted them into residential blocks with a number of flats and commercial premises. The intended dominant feature of the newly reconstructed complex is the disused factory chimney, which the owner is considering using as an observation tower in the future. The German concrete shelter “Einmannbunker” remains as a curiosity and a reminder of the war years, and is now part of the complex. It is located at the northeast wall of the building. It was probably made in Dresden and transported to Jihlava during the Second World War. The observation tower, which was used by guards during World War II, is said to be the only such small building of its kind in the Vysočina Region.

MP
Literature and other sources 

Next buildings on the trail