L. Auspitz’s Grandsons, Brno 1888–1948

Collection

Scope and content:: The importance of this fonds is only supplemental, despite the fact that the company was one of the most important in its field in Austria-Hungary and during interwar Czechoslovakia. Archival records from the period before 1940 are fragmented. The oldest documents are laundry manufacturing books from 1888-1931. Documents on the legal development of the company are of historical importance-statements from the commercial register 1943, 1946; about property matters of the owner Dr. Filip Gomperz 1941, 1948 and the estate of Kornelia Gomperzová 1947; also documents on nationalisation from 1946-1948; documents on “Aryanisation” of the company from 1943 relate to the period of the Holocaust. Other archival records relate to operational and manufacturing matters, employees, accounts, property and business of the company, in particular from the 1930s and 1940s.

Archival history:: The fonds was stored in the associated company archives of wool companies attached to the Research Institute for Wool in Brno, later at the Vlnařský průmysl-Directorate General Brno. The fonds was processed here in 1964 in the form of a card catalogue. After dissolution of the Directorate General, the company archive were taken over in 1988, together with this fonds, by the successor Unitex Brno, which handed over the L. Auspitz’s Grandsons fonds to the Moravian Provincial Archives in 1991. It was arranged here in 1997 and provided with an inventory.

Administrative/biographical history:: The L. Auspitz’s Grandsons (L. Auspitz Enkel) cloth factory was established in 1837 by Emanuel and Filip Gomperz, bankers from Brno, who named it after their maternal grandfather. It was originally based at Silniční 40 (now Hybešova). In 1853, Max and Julius Gomperz built a factory using a design by the Viennese architect Förster at Ugartova 6-10 (now Hybešova). Goods produced by the company with the emblem of a falcon carrying a ring with the letters LAE were some of the very best in their field. Continuity in management by the Gomperz family was interrupted by Nazi Occupation in 1939, when German administration was imposed and the company was confiscated by the Nazis. In 1945 national administration was imposed on it and in 1946 it was confiscated by the Czechoslovak state as Reich property. The last owner Filip Gomperz was unsuccessful with his claim for restitution. In 1948, the company was incorporated into the national enterprise Moravian-Silesian Wool Plants in Brno.

Subject terms:: Manufacturing; Plunder; Plunder--Aryanisation; Trade and commerce; Trade and commerce--Clothing and textile trade

System of arrangement:: The fonds is structured according to an artificial scheme: I. Corporate management and administration; II. Employees; III. Finance, accounting; IV. Commerce; V. Production; VI. Technical documentation.

Finding aids:: Krystýnková H: L. Auspitze vnukové, Brno 1888-1948. Inventář 1997, s. 19, ev. č. 1560.