Building history of the C. F. Jäckel textile factory
In 1879, the pattern draughtsman and weaver Carl Ferdinand Jäckel (1839 – 1904) takes over the property at Schützenstraße 1/Antonstraße in the immediate vicinity of the railway station of Hohenstein-Ernstthal from the previous owner August Aurich (silk ribbon weaving mill). Extensions to the old building begin in the same year. The new factory building, which today houses the museum, is inaugurated in 1899. An administrative/industrial building (on the right in the picture) is built directly next to it and the Jäckel family home to the right. In 1903, the factory and living quarters were electrified. In 1922, an additional storey was added to the business and factory building and the entire factory premises were equipped with a telephone system.
Museum history
During the GDR era, the company was incorporated into the VEB Möbelstoff- und Plüschwerke Hohenstein-Ernstthal, MPW. As early as 1991, production stops, the company is closed down and subsequently transferred back to the heirs of the former mechanical weaving mill C. F. Jäckel. At the same time, Gisela Rabe, an engineer who worked at the VEB, began looking for allies and funding in order to continue to make the history and textile heritage of the town visible and tangible. In 1992, a support association was founded and the city Hohenstein-Ernstthal was finally persuaded to buy the factory building in 1994 and set up a textile and local history museum. Machines and products are not only exhibited here, it is above all the demonstrations that make clear the labour and performance involved in production, from the construction of the machines to the manufacture of a fabric. In 2001, the permanent exhibition was expanded to include the history of the Sachsenring racing track and the museum was renamed the ‘Textile and Racing Museum’. The museum, which is run by the ‘Förderverein Textil- und Rennsportmuseum e.V.’, to this day relies on the voluntary commitment of many citizens.
