“Der glorreiche Lebenslauf unserer Fabrik”: Zur Geschichte von Dorf und Baumwollspinnerei Kuchen ed. by Christel Köhle-Hezinger, Walter Ziegler

Abstract

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 429 These are impressive voices, for they bring to life the rhythms of an industrial city during the last century. Some of what we hear is so different from the sounds heard now in the cities, factories, and offices that surround us. Yet some of it rings true and clear about the continuing fight by women to gain equal pay for equal work and their ongoing struggles against the male-dominated workplace. Thanks to Blewett’s careful editing and succinct and clear-flowing commentary that unites the short excerpts, we often come to know and appreciate individuals. Industrialization all of a sudden has a face, and that face is awfully human and familiar. Edward Jay Pershey Dr. Pershey is director of the Tsongas Industrial History Center, a hands-on history museum for students of the history of science, technology, and industry. The center opened in 1991 in the Boott Cotton Mills Museum. “Der glorreiche Lebenslauf unserer Fabrik”: Zur Geschichte von Dorf und Baumwollspinnerei Kuchen. Edited by Christel Kohle-Hezinger and Walter Ziegler. Weissenhorn: Anton H. Konrad, 1991. Pp. 373; illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. DM 58.00. This study deals with the history of a textile factory in the village of Kuchen, Württemberg, in the second half of the 19th century. It was founded in 1857 by a Swiss textile industrialist, Arnold Staub, who owned and managed it until 1881, when, heavily in debt, he had to resign and sell it. The eighteen essays constitute a brief introduction to the history of textile manufacturing in the Kuchen area, the history of the factory, the biography of Staub, and various aspects of the living conditions and culture of the workers in the factory, the workers’ settlement, and the village. The book also includes two articles on the factory in the 1980s, when it was finally closed down. Technology itself is treated too lightly throughout. Staub was a well-known and respected entrepreneur in Württem­ berg. He represented the typical paternalistic industrialist, with all the inherent contradictions of such a position. On one hand, he cared honestly (if only to a limited degree) for his workers; on the other hand, he exploited their labor rather ruthlessly to maximize his profits. These contradictions are well illustrated by the articles of Sibylla Miihleisen and Gisela Hengstenberg, which differ in their evaluation of Staub. Staub built a workers’ settlement, including even a bath, a pharmacy, and a school, as a result ofboth his need to recruit labor from outside the village and his bourgeois drive to improve his workers’ lot and character. Detailed rules on how to behave during work and his organization of their leisure time all served to discipline his workers in order to keep them as long as possible and to educate them for their own improvement. (The factory rules Staub laid down 430 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE are to be found not only in the cited 1875 brochure, but also in Peter Borscheid’s 1978 book on the Wiirttemberg textile industry in the 19th century.) In 1867, Staub was awarded a gold medal at the Paris Universal Exposition for his social accomplishments, a prize for which he had lobbied intensely. The study is well researched: the authors drew heavily on local and business archives; there are detailed statistics on the workers in the Staub era, their reasons for leaving the firm, and their gender and origins; and there is a rich bibliography. The marvelous illustrations deserve special mention, but it is hard to understand why the editors could not have included a map to help readers locate Kuchen. Stephan Lindner Dr. Lindner is a research fellow at the Centre de Recherche en Histoire des Sciences et des Techniques in Paris. He is currently working on the development of the French and German textile industries since 1929. Frankreich und Deutschland: Forschung, Technologie und industrielle Entwicklungim 19. und 20.Jahrhundert. Edited by Yves Cohen and Klaus Manfrass. Munich: C. H. Beck, 1990. Pp. xl+491; tables, notes, bibliography. DM 88.00. This volume presents the results of a remarkable four-day confer­ ence at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, convened in 1987 at the invitation of...