Joint Textile Enterprises K. H. Barthel and Company, Libeč

Collection

Title (official language):: Spojené textilní závody K. H. Barthel a spol., Libeč

Scope and content:: The documents in the inventory are just a fragment of the original registry. A joint inventory was created for the spinning mill in Libeč and the cotton and linen mill in Úpice, as they were owned by the Jewish Oberlander family for most of their existence. Most of the materials from the activities of both companies (K. H. Barthel and F. M. Oberlander) from 1904–39 have been preserved. The documents are particularly important sources on the history of the linen industry in the Trutnov region, especially in Úpice and Libeč. Articles of incorporation and minutes of general meetings record company history. Contracts illustrate the expansion of the company through land purchases. One valuable document is a stock certificate of the Libeč mill from 1865, with a picture of the building and its machinery. The events of autumn 1938 are reflected in a small set of documents concerning the removal of material from the Libeč mill by the Czechoslovak army before the German seizure of the borderlands.

Archival history:: Only a fragment of the archive has been preserved. There is no information about the circumstances under which the other documents were destroyed. The surviving documents from the flax spinning mill in Libeč were transferred to the Texlen archive in Trutnov, probably during the integration of the mill into the Czech Flax Textile Enterprise, later the Texlen company. In the late 1960s the documents were transferred to other textile fonds. The fonds is now kept in the depository of the state district archive in Trutnov.

Administrative/biographical history:: The Libeč spinning mill began operating in 1865, but was unsuccessful and was sold in 1904 to Frederick Oberlander of Úpice. A merger between the Libeč mill, the Úpice cotton and linen mill owned by Max Oberlander and the Hronov cotton mill, where Max Oberlander was CEO, occurred in 1932, resulting in the establishment of a new company, F. M. Oberlander and Hronov Cotton Mill, a.s., Joint Spinning and Weaving Mills. In the autumn of 1938, when the Czechoslovak borderland was occupied by Nazi Germany, the former director Theodor Rumler was appointed administrator of the Libeč mill. Shortly before the occupation, the Czechoslovak army took the supplies of flax and finished yarn and some tools into Czechoslovak territory on 6 and 7 October 1938. As the Libeč mill was Jewish property, it was sold in 1939 to the Viennese firm Joint Textile Enterprises K. H. Barthel & Company, which had already bought a mill in Svitavy. After the liberation of May 1945, the Libeč mill was administered by the central management of the firm in Vienna. In 1946 the mill was nationalised and incorporated into Czech Flax Textile Enterprises Trutnov, after 1958 called Texlen Trutnov.

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

System of arrangement:: The fonds is arranged as follows: I) Management and administration of the Company: 1) Articles of Incorporation 2) Assets 3) Judicial issues 4) Insurance 5) Building issues 6) Taxes, II) Employees, III) Accounting and reporting, IV) Technical documentation: 1) Building plans 2) Plans of distribution system.

Finding aids:: Smutný B., Spojené textilní závody K. H. Barthel a spol., Libeč 1865 - 1946. Sdružený inventář, 1980, 56 s., ev. č. 516.