-1728-
Since 1892
129 years of silk spinning mill Camenzind & Co.
how it all started
how it all started
It is no coincidence that Camenzind & Co. is based in Gersau: the textile industry was also the pacesetter of industrialization in Canton Schwyz. However, the focus here was on processing silk and not cotton. This is schappe or floss silk, a silk yarn made from raw silk waste and the silk from damaged cocoons.
1892 - The new beginning
In 1892 Hermann Camenzind (1854-1916) and Caspar Josef Camenzind (1851-1911) acquired the three silk factories and their accessories from the bankruptcy estate of the company, which had previously gotten into difficulties, and dared to restart silk processing in Gersau.
They did not rush blindly into this venture, but as the owner of the Altdorf foil spinning mill (since 1887) they had the necessary commercial and technical knowledge. They put the company on course despite considerable difficulties. In 1904 Hermann Camenzind left the company, which was now known as «Camenzind & Co.» was renamed.
After the death of Caspar Josef Camenzind, his sons Josef and Werner and later his sons, Walter and Otto Camenzind (1902-1965) took over the management of the spinning mill.
2021 tradition and innovation
Tradition has its beautiful sides - innovation too. Therefore: old machines out, new ones in. With the installation of a new spinning machine, we continue to commit ourselves to our location in Gersau and transfer the manufacturing idea into the 21st century.
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-1730-
GERSAU MOVES TO THE CENTER
In 1730 the council of Gersau approved Melchior Rigert, a ferger of Augustin Reding, to set up a silk rot in Gersau. It is unclear why Augustin Reding took this step in Gersau and not in Schwyz. Tradition wants to know that the Schwyz council rejected a request to this effect because the rotting of the silk was a "stinky" matter. However, there is no evidence in the Schwyz council minutes that deals with the rejection of such a request. The location on Lake Lucerne, which is favorable in terms of transport, may have played a decisive role. Because the raw material, which came from Italy, was transported by sea from Flüelen. And the lake also offered the simplest transport connections for the further processing of the raw silk.
Whatever the reason for establishing the silk rot in Gersau, the decision had a lasting impact on Gersau's economic development. As a result, up to seven people from Gersauer worked as Ferger (silk distributors) for foreign publishers such as Augustin Reding (Schwyz) or Heinrich Imbach (Lucerne). They got to know the silk trade thoroughly and thus acquired the knowledge that enabled them to become independent silk publishers.
-1760-
THE GERSAU SILK MEN
Johann Anton Küttel (1725–1808) was the first person from Gersau to take the step to become a publisher. In 1760 he founded the company "Johann Anton Küttel & Co.", which soon flourished. Johann Anton Küttel was able to count on the support of his stepbrother, the Einsiedler Stiftstatthalter and later prince-abbot Beat Küttel.
Land clerk Andreas Camenzind (1706–1772) was the initiator of the second publishing house, the company «Andreas Camenzind & Sohn» (1771). After his early death, his son Josef Maria Anton Camenzind (1749–1829) continued the business and brought it to great prosperity in a short time; he was the richest silk lord. At his death he left a fortune of 442,786 guilders; during his lifetime he had already paid his children over 300,000 guilders.
Johann Melchior Camenzind (1730-1776) founded the company "Johann Melchior Camenzind & Sohn" in 1773. He had acquired the necessary knowledge as a partner of Johann Anton Küttel, with whom he fell out in 1773. This company also thrived under the management of the son Johann Caspar Camenzind (1754-1831) and was the largest publishing house in Central Switzerland at the end of the 18th century.
The Gersau silk gentlemen provided work and income for people in a larger geographical catchment area. These included Gersau, Altes Land Schwyz, the Einsiedeln region, the Engelberg valley and villages in the cantons of Uri and Zug. Their number was around 9,000 to 10,000 people in the late 18th century.
At the head of a silk house was the publisher. He was responsible for the purchase of the raw material, commissioned the Ferger with the processing of the silk and was responsible for the sale of the products. The entrepreneurial risk lay with him. For a successful activity he was dependent on good trade relations. You can call him entrepreneurial
-1771-
THE CHANGE
The three Gersau silk houses were extremely successful in the second half of the 18th century, which can be seen in their representative residential buildings and the large inherited fortunes. Georg Küttel, co-owner of the company «Johann Küttel & Co.» built the "Hof" in 1782, Johann Melchior Camenzind, the owner of the company "Johann Melchior Camenzind & Co." built the Grosslandammannhaus in 1776, and Josef Maria Camenzind, co-owner of the company "Andreas Camenzind & Sohn" was the builder of the "Minerva" villa.
The debate in the late 18th century about the advantages and disadvantages of cottage industry is revealing. The supporters emphasized the improved living conditions; thanks to the higher income, these could be improved. In the case of Gersau, a report on Gersau in 1797 stated: “…who amassed a considerable fortune and built beautiful houses without their old frugal way of life suffering; and it is no doubt these new sources of food which they procured for their fellow-citizens which have since increased the population by nearly a third."
Other voices were critical of working from home. Moral-moral motives came to the fore. Those employed in homework would surrender to luxury and become more and more alienated from their original way of life. They did not correspond to the ideal image of the "unadulterated, pure" human being that many
Travelers in the 18th century hoped to discover the «Alpine idyll». This also resulted in their irritation, which the shepherds hoped to meet. Christoph Meiners, who traveled twice through the Swiss Confederation in the 1780s, said: “This drinking of coffee and eating veal has spread from the homes and workshops of factory workers to the dairy huts on the highest Alps, where the dairymen live instead of the goat and the goat cheese-milk, which formerly was almost their only food, with the most delicious coffee and the most exquisite veal and even with baked goods.”
THE STEP TO MECHANIZATION
The emerging mechanization of silk production in the 1830s also affected Gersau companies. In the end, only one company survived, the one founded in 1771 by Josef Maria Anton Camenzind, because of its short stature, called the "Little Landammann". He was just as successful in business as in politics, was elected Mayor of the Republic several times by the citizens and also sat in the Senate of the Helvetic government. In 1846/47 the first large silk factory was built in "Eggi", which was followed in 1859/60 by that in "Bläui". In 1861 the third factory, the "Seefabrik" was built. Large factory buildings were the result of the rapidly developing mechanization of silk processing. However, the basis for mechanization was water. All three factories were built on the village stream. The water from the Rigiberg was needed to drive the machines and the raw materials and silk products were delivered via the lake.
THE CRISIS
In the early 1870s, business was very bad because of the Franco-Prussian War, as well as internal difficulties. In 1875 bankruptcy had to be pronounced. This blow hit Gersau hard, because the village lived from and with the silk industry. Operations resumed in 1880, but had to be abandoned again in 1884. The easiest way to document the severe crisis that the bankruptcy triggered is with population figures. In 1870 it was 2270 people, in 1880 it had fallen to 1775 people; In 1900, after the start of silk processing, it had increased to 1887 people. The three once proud factories stood still for several years. From 1890 various banks took over the factories and tried to restart operations, with limited success.
-1870-
NEW BEGINNING
In 1892 Hermann Camenzind (1854-1916) and Caspar Josef Camenzind (1851-1911) acquired the three silk factories and their accessories from the bankruptcy estate and dared to restart silk processing in Gersau. They did not rush blindly into this venture, but as the owner of the Altdorf Florettspinnerei (since 1887) they had the necessary commercial and technical knowledge. They put the company on course despite considerable difficulties. In 1898, for example, the steam engine operation was replaced by electrical energy. In 1904 Hermann Camenzind left the company, which was now known as «Camenzind & Co.» was renamed. After the death of Caspar Josef Camenzind, his sons Josef and Werner and later his sons, Walter and Otto Camenzind (1902-1965) took over the management of the spinning mill. The factory in the "Eggi" burned down in 1926 and was never rebuilt. The third generation and their successors led the company through the difficult years of the two world wars into the boom phase after 1945. In 1965, the fourth generation took over with Walter Camenzind-Auf der Maur, Richard Camenzind-Kühn and Theodor Beeler-Camenzind the company. Back then, Paula Camenzind-Rigert and Jeannette Camenzind-Hobi were the first women to be shareholders in the company. On March 28, 1994, the shareholders decided to set up a stock corporation. In 1996, Theodor Beeler-Camenzind rose out.
The big fire
A drastic event was the factory fire of 1926. The upper/rear factory, the largest of the three factories at that time, burned down completely in the night of August 7th/8th, 1926. No one was injured, but there was extensive property damage. The processing of raw materials into yarn had taken place in this factory building, which is why its destruction paralyzed production for a long time.6 Female workers in particular were affected by the fire. Most of them were released. This was probably also the reason why the women's home was closed in the same year. Camenzind & Co. decided not to rebuild the upper factory and instead upgrade the other two production sites.
Social facilities
Camenzind & Co. maintained various social institutions early on. However, the sources for this are rare. For example, from 1897 the company ran a workers' hostel at the middle factory, which was closed after the factory fire in 1926. From 1893 to the 1930s, a directory of women who have recently given birth has been handed down, and until around 1992 the company employed Italian nuns who took care of the childcare in their own crèche. In addition, Camenzind & Co. rented numerous inexpensive apartments to their employees, which also included the staff house with a crèche and lounge that was inaugurated in 1969.
In 1920, the company founded the employees' and workers' welfare foundation of Floretspinnerei Camenzind & Co., Gersau, with endowment capital of CHF 421,756.84, which grew to around CHF 2 million by the 1960s. This foundation formed, so to speak, the roof of all company-owned social facilities and, according to Art. II of the foundation deed, pursued the following purposes: establishment and operation of “pension funds, health insurance, workers’ homes, holiday homes, crèches, small children’s schools, further education schools, support for women who have recently given birth, construction of workers’ housing, etc. etc.” . In addition, according to the foundation deed, "the support of needy employees and workers and their families" as well as the "creation of opportunities for instruction, entertainment and activity for employees and workers" were among their tasks. No sources have survived from most of their fields of activity, so their work can hardly be understood.
Until 1960, the contributions were paid from the income from the endowment capital, which had been accumulated and expanded by the company. Only then did the insured pay contributions into the new pension fund, which was set up on January 1, 1961 to supplement the welfare foundation. The company's own pension fund existed until the final introduction of the Federal Law on Occupational Pensions (BVG) in 1987 and was then transferred to the VOSKA (pension foundation of the Schweizerische Kreditanstalt).
-1870-
THE FIFTH GENERATION
The "Seefabrik" was shut down in 1996 and the entire operation in the "Bläui" was merged into the so-called "Middle Factory". The necessary production area was created by extensions in 1939, 1946, 1954, 1989, 1996 and 2001. In 1994 the limited partnership became a public limited company called Camenzind + Co. AG. Today the spinning mill is run by Nicole Camenzind and Mathias Camenzind in the fifth generation continued.