Unibibliothek in der Alten Aktienspinnerei

When Chemnitz Central Station was inaugurated in 1852, there was a rapid rush for nearby land. One of the first companies to move here was ‘Actien-Spinnerei AG’. It was incorporated on 30 March 1857 and was regarded as the most important public limited company in Saxony: banks in Leipzig and Berlin invested one million talers in the company. The company built its factory not far from the city centre, on the northern edge of Schillerplatz (which had been named in 1859 to mark the poet’s 100th birthday) – it was a rather unadorned building made of steel and concrete. But it was the ‘inner values’ that counted: around 60,000 spindles were in operation here, spinning cotton into yarn. Initially, 972,000 pounds of yarn were produced here each year – at a price of 120 pfennigs per pound, this represented a considerable turnover. By 1867, production had even risen to 1.6 million pounds whilst maintaining the same number of spindles. Only the American Civil War caused a temporary dip in output – as cotton became scarce.

What had initially proved to be an advantage – its proximity to the city centre and the main railway station – did not remain so for the “Actien-Spinnerei” for long: after the old spinning machines had been replaced by new English ones in the 1880s, production volumes rose considerably – so much so that the space available on the site was no longer sufficient. There was no longer any space available for expansion in the immediate vicinity due to the now dense residential development, and the wooden bridges leading to the station were no longer fit for purpose. Step by step, therefore, from 1895 onwards, the company moved to a new site with a railway connection in Altchemnitz. There, the company succeeded in becoming the largest German spinning mill of its time, both in terms of the number of spindles and the weight of yarn produced. The vacated building on Schillerplatz was acquired in 1899 by the city of Chemnitz, which sublet it to other companies. From 1933 onwards, the building was initially used to house units of the municipal police and military police, and later to house forced labourers.

From 1945 onwards, the building was put to a completely new use – initially as a department store run by the HO trading organisation, and from 1953 by Wismut AG. Cultural events were also held here, and from the mid-1950s onwards it also housed the city library. Schillerplatz, situated in front of the building, was converted into the central coach station, ensuring that the area was always bustling with activity. This was initially reinforced in the 1990s when the Neue Sächsische Galerie moved into the building. However, in 2004, both the gallery and the city library moved to the DAStietz cultural centre – for over a decade, the Alte Aktienspinnerei was used only for temporary exhibitions. In 2011, the Free State of Saxony purchased the building from the city of Chemnitz for one euro to house the now-completed Central University Library of Chemnitz University of Technology.

In 1883, 700 men and 300 women were employed at the Actien Spinning Mill. When profits began to fall, the company management appointed a new technical director. He sought to extend working hours and increase the workload – amongst other things, he forbade employees from leaving the premises during their breaks. This rule sparked a strike on 7 June 1883, which ended on 25 June with little success. The workers’ spokesperson was 37-year-old Ernstine Minna Simon, who had only been working at the company for a few weeks – the first woman in Germany to lead a major strike. A nearby street has been named after her since the year 2000.