Łódź - In the 19th century, industrialization led to the emergence of numerous industrial cities such as Manchester, Chemnitz, Łódź, and Berlin, characterized by factories, a growing population, and improved transport links such as the railway.

During the exhibition at the Chemnitz Museum of Technology, numerous exhibits explored the history of the development of industrial cities, using Chemnitz, Łódź, and others as examples. These cities were characterized by tenement blocks, a spatial separation of living and working areas, and the emergence of new transport routes and public facilities. We were particularly interested in the development of Łódź as a twin city of Chemnitz and summarized the following findings:

Tsar Alexander I develops Łódź into an industrial city

By decree of the Russian Tsar Alexander I, Łódź was developed into an industrial city starting in 1820. Within 100 years, a village of just under 1,000 inhabitants became a major city with 600,000 people.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the city grew rapidly, primarily due to the textile industry, and was generally considered the Manchester of Poland.

New development areas in the south of the town attracted the first German cloth makers in 1823. Most of them were recruited from western Germany, Saxony, Bohemia, and Silesia, and later also from the Prussian province of Posen.

The German weavers, spinners, and dyers, who soon formed the majority of the population, initially practiced their craft traditionally as home-based businesses.

Many Jews also moved to the city, but numerous Poles and Russians also lived here. The city developed into an important economic centre in the region.

Before the Second World War, Łódź had over 1,000 factories, and 85 percent of the workforce worked in the textile industry. One of the first factories was founded in 1826 by Christian Wendisch.

There is much evidence that he came from Chemnitz – human mobility and the transfer of knowledge were important drivers of industrialization. Four cultures shaped Łódź at the time: Polish, German, Jewish, and Russian, contributing to the industrial city's success.

However, the misery of workers was also widespread in Łódź. Child and infant mortality rates were at times as high as 70%, partly because the city lacked a sewer system for a long time.

Around 1900, 80% of Łódź's citizens were still illiterate. The Clothmakers' Guild was founded in 1825 as the city's first guild. The November Uprising of 1830/31 slowed Łódź's economic growth.

After the fighting, however, the economic boom continued, and in 1836, Louis Geyer (also Ludwik Geyer) built a textile factory, the so-called White Factory.

In 1848, Jews were permitted to settle in the newly built factory town for the first time.

Ludwik Geyer, one of the pioneers of the textile industry

Ludwik Geyer came to Łódź via Berlin and Saxony. His White Factory was completed in 1837. One year later, he commissioned the city's first steam engine. However, the heyday ended when, due to bad investments, a fire, and growing competition, operations were shut down in 1862. New operators, Geyer's descendants, took over in 1867. After the Second World War, textile products were manufactured under the name "Eskimo" until 2002.

Karl Wilhelm Scheibler founded his first factory in the 1850s, and the "Pfaffendorf" developed into the city's largest factory complex. In 1854, Carl Scheibler opened his first machine factory, and a year later, he built a modern spinning mill here. Several factories were damaged during a weavers' revolt on April 20, 1861. In 1865, the town received its economically important connection to the railway network.

In addition to the production buildings, there is a large workers' settlement, a hospital, a fire station, a power plant, and places of worship of various denominations – it is a city within a city. In the 1920s, the company merged with the Grohmann works, and in 1945, it was nationalized. Production continued under the name Uniontex until the 2000s.

Bankruptcies, Closures, and Reprivatizations in Łódź

Employment began to decline in the 1980s, and in 1989, a major slump occurred: bankruptcies, closures, and reprivatizations. With around 100,000 people, Łódź had the highest number of unemployed in the entire country. The conversion of the industrial facilities took place in the 2000s. The first major milestone was the Manufaktura in 2006. The Israel Poznański textile factory is now a shopping and cultural centre. Further transformations followed.

Industry is also on the rise again. Textile products continue to play a role; Ariadna and Dywilan still produce today. Many international corporations such as Bosch and Siemens have their factories here. Furthermore, the creative industries are gaining importance. The application, although not the designation as European Capital of Culture in 2016, is also bringing further momentum.

Museum in Memory of the Textile Industry

The Central Textile Museum (Centralne Muzeum Włókiennictwa) is located at Piotrkowska 282, in the so-called White Factory by Louis Geyer.

It covers all aspects of textile production, right down to the finished products. The exhibition space covers approximately 5,000 square meters.

The museum is divided into several departments: for tapestries, industrial textiles, folk textiles, fashion, technology, exhibition organization, library and archive, and the educational section.

The latter is intended to familiarize children and young people with the development of the textile industry, particularly in Łódź. The museum's origins date back to 1952, when Krystyna Kondratiukova began a collection at the Art Museum. Due to its rapidly growing size, it was established as an independent "Museum of Textile History" in 1960 and, in 1975, as the Central Textile Museum, with Kondratiukova as director.

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