Museum Wäschefabrik

Description

In Bielefeld the Museum Wäschefabrik preserves at its historic site the working and everyday life of a former laundry production. The complex conveys the production conditions and social circumstances of a laundry factory of the early 20th century directly in its original environment.

The business traces its origins to the linen and laundry shop M. Dahl (from 1884). In 1899 leading employees took over the business; from 1907 production operated under the name Vereinigte Wäschefabriken. The factory building on Viktoriastraße was erected in 1912/1913 and simultaneously served as the residence of the Jewish founding family Juhl. In the 1920s the operation reached its highest employment with up to 210 seamstresses and expanded production across several sites; products included, among other things, bed and table linen, nightwear and underwear, as well as shirts and blouses. The Great Depression and structural changes led to declines from the late 1920s; in 1938 the business was sold in the context of Aryanization to the Brüder Winkel. Wartime caused relocations and destruction; after 1945 production resumed in a reduced form. From the 1960s onward the textile crisis, changing household appliances and legal reforms led to further decline; the workforce shrank significantly into the 1970s.

The conversion into a museum began after the discovery of the building in 1986. A support association campaigned for its preservation, the building was placed under monument protection, later acquired and opened as a museum. The initiative received an award from the Deutschen Nationalkomitees für Denkmalschutz; the house is part of international and regional networks for textile and industrial history.

As a preserved site open to visitors, the museum displays original workstations, inventory and machinery that have remained largely unchanged since 1964. In the sewing hall are more than 50 sewing and embroidery machines (manufacture dates 1914–1962) from makers such as Dürkopp, Adler, Anker, Phoenix and Singer. Interpretive texts at the workstations explain the production process and working conditions; the entrance area presents the history of the founding Juhl family. The ensemble is regarded as a unique testimony to the region’s industrial culture of the first half of the 20th century.