Nordwolle

The Nordwolle or more correctly the Nordwolle museum or the Nordwestdeutsche Museum für IndustrieKultur is situated in and around the engine house of the former Norddeutsche Wollkämmerei & Kammgarnspinnerei in Delmenhorst. Nordwolle was a dominant company that processed wool and worsted, it closed between 1981 and 1984. The building and the factory housing is listed as a Denkmalschutz The museum is an Anchor point on the European Route of Industrial Heritage.^[1]

The *Lahusen-Villa* built in Delmenhorst in 1886

Former „Beamtenhäuser“ (homes of officials)

History

In 1884, Christian Lahusen,^[2] a textile manufacturer from Bremen, set up the Norddeutsche Wollkämmerei & Kammgarnspinnerei (North German Wool Combing and Worsted Spinning Mill) next to the railway line in Delmenhorst, which brought wool from Bremen docks. The family business expanded into a major concern producing a quarter of all the world's rough yarn and employed almost 4,500 workers in the complex. Labour came from Eastern Europe. Between 1885 and 1905 the population of Delmenhorst tripled causing a chronic lack of housing. The firm responded by building ever more company housing on the “Nordwolle” site.

Under his son, Carl Lahusen,^[2] and his English born wife Armine Matthias,^[a] the factory town provided cooperative stores, canteens and baths, a hospital,^[3] a kindergarten and a library. The world slump and mismanagement bankrupted Lahusen's firm in 1931: though it continued in a smaller scale until 1981.^[1]

Museum

The Nordwolle Factory Museum opened in 1996 in the turbine hall and adjacent sheds. A year later the Municipal Museum open in the “Lichtstation”, the first engine room of the disused textile works.^[1]

Collections

The museum shows the production processes^[4] involved in worsted spinning and the social conditions of the young immigrant workers.^[1]

References

Notes

^ Armine Matthias was the daughter of a pastor who had lived in English mill towns and experienced patriarchal housing such as provided at the Houldsworth Model Village

Footnotes

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Nordwolle museum". European Route of Industrial Heritage. 2014. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
^ ^a ^b Frese, Frauke; Peter Frese (2014). "Fabrikmuseum - Familie Lahusen" (in German). Arbeitkreis Fabrikmuseum. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
^ Frese, Frauke; Peter Frese (2014). "Fabrikmuseum - Das Wollekrankenhaus" (in German). Arbeitkreis Fabrikmuseum. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
^ Manemann, Klemens (2014). "Fabrikmuseum Wollproduktion auf der Nordwolle" (in German). Arbeitkreis Fabrikmuseum. Retrieved 17 January 2015.