This Homepage is Dedicated to my wife
Audrey and my Grand Children
(not all pages translated yet!)
OLd Clouth family emblem 17th Century &
New Crest Clouth Cologne Family1923
How it all began, or better: "As
time goes by"
At the
beginning of a company is often only the honest effort of an individual to prove
itself in life. Through an idea, through the environment, political incentives,
or even by chance, this search may someday be a direction and an end, as far as
the political conditions permit this of course. Founding years, as Francis
Clouth had at that time, we would have needed again urgently in Germany, a time
of the departure, the progress and the self-responsibility of the individual
(Calvin), as it existed before the escaping social state.Franz Cloud's time was
the industrial upheaval of the Ordo LiberalsEven today still possible during the
European upheaval?
Talking about
present Germany, reunited after the comunistic part (GDR) has been abolished?
Red tape,
presumption of advances, anti-innovation and care, risk-taking and pensions are
the standards of the left-wing thinking of today's politicians and large parts
of the comfortably elected electorate in reunited Germany as well as Europe. The
entrepreneurial freedom of the individual has, in recent times, been more and
more in the background through over-arching administration and over-regulation
by the German state and by directives of the European Community. The English
population expressed their criticism by their brexit striving.
The historical
development, which has become more and more entrepreneurial, began with the
theoretical ideas of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, who personally had an
uncanny local proximity to Wilhelm Clouth, the father of the company founder
Franz (see "Succession"). In this respect, the Clouth family, beginning with
Wilhelm Clouth, had experienced the time of the historical turnout of capitalism
as well as the "promotion" of Marx's and Engels' ideas of anti-entrepreneurial
world communism and socialism.
In the period
from 1830 to 1900, the "German industry", that which still feeds us today, was
successfully developed in the post-war period of Germany through the politics of
Prof. Dr. Ludwig Erhard within the framework of an ordo liberalism. A great deal
of hope for the entrepreneur would be the union of Europe if it succeeded to
revive the entrepreneurial liberties by defending a European central state in
the direction of a federal union and to protect it for every willing to venture.
There is already some evidence that the development of Community law and its
interactions with national law and laws, as well as the jurisprudence of EGH
(European Court), would be considered in terms of liberalism. On the other hand,
the emigrating political activity of the Socialist International / ICOR in the
area of Europe makes it clear that the will of the European Communist central
state, and thus of a government preferred by Marx.
As
entrepreneurs, we were watching the political development of Germany and Europe
and then reacting, according to the above maxim:
Freedom of work
Freedom of thought and action
Success
Rechtsanwalt & Merchant Jürgen..P. Clouth
German „Gründerjahre“
( = German Economical Founding Years :period 1871-1873
and the entrepreneurs)
Founding years in Germany
for setting up proper businesses would again be urgently needed, a time of new
economic departure, of new adventure, of new progress
Never before in the German
post-war history did the economy present such a picture of political jamming, as
in these days. This is why today's entrepreneurial spirit, the exaggerated
demands of the workers, the increasing greed of the taxpayer and the forcing EU
legislation, are also wretched. The German state itself suffers from a political
equilibrium, again in the direction of socialism, increasing national and
European bureaucratization and anti-innovation, the general population under
care, risk-taking and pensionerality in all departments of the German economy.
To be entrepreneurs is therefore in the young german population at least "out"!
Labor and social services
have also become so expensive that the production of many goods in Germany is
often no longer worthwhile because the international competition can
significantly undercut the German entrepreneur because of lower costs for the
costs of production. The true founder spirit is still found in the increasingly
helpless messages of the advertising psychologists.
Industrialization changed
the lives of people in the nineteenth century more radically than any other
event in history before. The industry was already giving people a new rhythm of
life, forcing the hitherto unknown forms of work, giving the work itself a new
value. At the same time, the new machine production system lifted the supply of
material goods to a level unprecedented by any generation. The
nineteenth-century machine-building era brought about entirely new products,
especially about England, and realized ancient human dreams.
Railways and steamboats made
people more mobile than they had ever been before. Power engines raised human
performance, telegraphy and telephones became more and more aware of the
communication behavior. The electric light (Swan in Scotland / Edison in
America) extended everyday life and technical possibilities. Like many
entrepreneurs (in England William George Armstrong / Newcastle and Cragside),
Franz Clouth was also very important in the field of electrical engineering and
steam engines as part of the construction of his company, especially since the
entrepreneurial circle was still so clear Congresses and other meetings
personally and exchanged scientifically. That is why Franz Clouth was also
included in the international list of electrical engineers. Knowledge of steam
and electrical engineering was essential to the entrepreneur at the time, he
wanted to go with the technology of the time with regard to his machinery.
The force and the speed of
the industrial revolution were great enough to direct man's thinking into new
life-ways.
There was boundless
self-confidence, the belief in the progress of the founders. Struggling hard by
laws, and encouraged by the governments of the up-and-coming German states, they
created the modern industrial system, which still has a widespread impact on the
general well-being of the nation, even if it is now legally restricted by the
state and the EU. The then-wage for the unprecedented risk that entrepreneurs
were entering with the establishment of their factories, as well as today, was
more personal by means of risk-taking self-earned wealth and social advancement.
The punishment for failure was bankruptcy and quite a few of the social climbers
ended and still end up on the begging bar. The ethical middle class principle,
without founders and entrepreneurs, was and still is not a job and no income for
the "working class".
The social order of the
German states, which had been cemented for centuries, was thoroughly mixed with
industrialization. In the factory revivals, an ever-growing proletariat gathered
and aroused the impetus of theory critics such as Marx and Engels, but no
workers could live on their speeches and printed paper. On the other hand,
entrepreneurial progress made it easy for entrepreneurs to expand, to squeeze
wages, and to jump with their workers as they pleased, an entrepreneurial
mistake which was in accordance with the theory of inter alia. Marx and Engels
only offered a visible starting point.
The middle bourgeoisie
cultivated in its rise of meaning the ideal of noble nobility in order to
distinguish itself from the "proletarian" and to "flatter" the "upper". On the
other hand, the founders neglected their unique opportunity to convince or even
replace the noble upper class, which was incapable of economic thought. In this
respect, the nobility remained unswerved until the First World War.
To the most educated German
nobles and estates, the industry, with its noise, stinking blast furnaces,
unrestrained hunt for gain, sweating squatters, seemed to be no more than a
downfall of the West as a social new beginning. The German idealism, which had
hitherto been valid, if it were not to be called "dreaming", was to yield to the
art of the founders, who virtually lifted the manufacturer as a half-god and
gave him a much needed cultural background. The new genius cult was a fine trick
with which its creators themselves wanted to promote themselves in social
Olympus; they overlooked the fact that this is alien to the uncapitalistic
German being, unlike the Calvinist thinking of Englishmen and Americans. A
favorable fertile ground for the increasingly prevailing socialism, be it
national socialist or, as today, neo-Marxist.
At that time, the Germans
were as successful as the Japanese, Korean, Chinese of today. They did not
shrink from any effort, nor from any infamy, to seek the leading
industrialization of England, the "West" as a whole. There was and is still
spied and deceived, bribed and stolen, at that time even worse than today in the
business centers of Hong Kong or Singapore, Koreas or China. Africa is not yet
far, but coming.
It was at that time the time
of the inventors and armourcers, the railway kings and Ruhrbarone, financialists
and stock speculators, the great landowner and group founder, and the time of
the great social clashes that had ever taken place in the western part of the
world.There was no scientifically trained management and computer science, no
backed up data and decision-making, there was only the unwavering will to
overcome all difficulties. Countless were the lapses and the omissions of the
pioneers, incredible their brutality and hardness. What is most striking though
is the fact that despite serious mistakes, threatening blunders, and rude
competition, they are always able to stay where they had promoted themselves
with a one-time effort: "above."
Germany's forgotten "economical
flowering" years, although they are still valid today
In the young Kaiserreich,
globalization and innovation were regarded as an opportunity. Many of
the structural problems that had to be overcome are reminiscent of today.
We are under the impression that suddenly a tremendous power has
appeared in our midst, "wrote the Times in London on the events that
took place at the beginning of 1871: France had been defeated by
Prussia-Germany of Bismarck proclaimed the Prussian King William I to
the German Emperor on 18 January 1871. The nation staggered in the
happiness of unity, but the old discord seemed to have been overcome.
The Germans looked
euphorically into the future. After overcoming the small-townies in the
interior with Zollverein and Norddeutsche Bund, the road to world power
had now become free. The development potential of the politically
saturated young national state was in the economy. In an unprecedented
series of victories, the latter continued to be at the forefront of
industrial development in Europe.
The great euphoria of the break-up, which, like everywhere on the old
continent, had seemed to have barely known since the invention of the
steam engine and the telegraph, quickly disappeared. In May 1873 came
the Vienna stock exchange crash. This did not have consequences for
Germany, where speculative fever had long since surpassed the real
upturn. The share prices fell into free fall. The number of company
lines reached a frightening scale. And the deflationist monetary policy
of the Reichsbank intensified the situation.
But this economic crisis, the "Gründerkrach", which seemed to be
repeated more than a hundred years after the second German unification,
was less a "great depression," written by historians like Hans Rosenberg
or Hans-Ulrich Wehler. It was a modernization crisis. The economy of the
young imperial empire had to adapt to the rapidly changing economic and
technical conditions. In Europe, a huge market began to develop with the
rapid expansion of the railway network. The economic activities seemed
to have opened up new dimensions. The flow of goods and capital flowed
across state boundaries. This was a beginning of globalization.
What today is perceived as a new, all-defining challenge to our future
is nothing more than a further boost to this development, which had
already begun in the middle of the 19th century.
Even yesterday 's
problems are reminiscent of today' s: in the Kaiserreich, the
profitability of industry and agriculture gaped widely in the now
growing countries. Cereals from Russia and overseas were unrivaledly
cheap compared to German production. Bismarck, on the other hand, was to
help in 1879, which in turn encouraged the advocates of free trade.
Industrial state or agricultural state, was at that time the
passionately discussed alternative for the Reich. It was a conflict
between agrarianprotectionist and world-market-oriented interests,
between the exponents of trade, the export industry and the left-wing
parties, as well as their opponents from the ranks of agriculture and a
protectionist-oriented majority in the Berlin Reichstag.
Bismarck, who, as a
chancellor of the Reich, had to keep an eye on the economic interests of
the whole country, was a Party of the East. At the same time, the duties
of grain were not only a concern of the "Prussian Junkers", to which he
belonged. The Westphalian peasant associations also fought with the same
emphasis on the protection of their products. Nevertheless, the
agricultural sector was exposed to enormous pressure to modernize, which
led to higher yields.
While agriculture remained a caring child of the imperial empire,
enormous industry growth began in the 1980s. This applied not only to
the heavy industry, but also to new industrial branches. Thus, the
electrical industry was inspired by breakthroughing inventions, such as
the electric motor and the incandescent lamp. Everything shattered the
chemical industry. The pain reliever aspirin produced by Bayer became a
global sales slump. At the beginning of the 1980s Germany's chemical
industry had a fifty percent share of the world market, which could be
increased to ninety percent by the turn of the century.
The banking system made a
significant contribution to the economic upturn. Since the beginning of
the seventies, large and small private banks have developed into large
banks. They provided industry with the necessary loans in the
capital-poor Germany.
This also contributed to the fact that the share of foreign trade in the
gross domestic product in 1913 should rise to a considerable 31.1 per
cent. In the middle of the 1970s the foreign trade rate, ie the ratio of
exports and imports to the gross domestic product, was in the most
important OECD countries of this size from Germany in 1913. In 1995,
Germany and France also exceeded this level only marginally, while Great
Britain still remained - figures showing that even before the First
World War, a degree of global economic integration comparable to today
was achieved.
The economic prosperity of Germany, however, was not founded solely on
the opportunities offered by the cross-border trade of goods, which had
opened up through globalization. In addition to economic policy, the
prosperity was also founded in the educational system of the conflicting
state, which was an authoritarian military state and, at the same time,
a liberal state of law, in which "modern and overpowered" mingled, as
the historian Hennig Köhler in the book "Deutschland auf den Weg zu sich
selbst " has mentioned.
This triple-educated
education, ranging from primary school to high school, was highly
efficient. Unlike the Anglo-Saxon states, it was not aimed at educating
elites, but on the formation of a wide population. It was precisely this
wide effect that provided the potential for the conditions of
well-educated people at the time, without which the innovative advantage
and thus the higher quality of German products could not have been
achieved. The "made in Germany", originally introduced by the
British as a sign of inferior quality, could only become the
world-renowned seal of quality.
In addition, the Wilhelminian policy succeeded in establishing a social
balance between the middle class and the working class, which in the
meantime was the basis of the future. At the same time, the social
insurance legislation of the 1980s, which was unique in Europe, and the
reforms of the post-Bismarck period were by no means a reaction to the
challenge of the powerful and effectively organized social-democratic
movement. They were, moreover, the consequence of conservative, partly
Christian, thinking among the ruling elites.
Nevertheless, the Prussian-dominated imperial empire remained a state of
social coexistence and not of coexistence. The officer felt sublime
about the merchant. The educated citizen gave himself to the simple man.
The townspeople looked down at the peasant. And yet, in spite of all the
internal cracks, this empire was not a class society. Above all, the
military and also the state service opened a so far unknown social
mobility over the origin.
Stabilizing the society in Wilhelminian Germany also had other
achievements. In the health care sector, for example, the death toll due
to infections has been managed thanks to great progress. The febrile
fever of the child was greatly diminished, and with the commencement of
the series of inoculations also plagues such as smallpox or typhus. Life
expectancy increased to 19.4 to 47.4 years in men and 50.7 years in
women. It was about twelve years higher than in the generation of
grandparents.
In spite of the
increasing life expectancy of broad population strata, there was no
question of an economic miracle, as the Federal Republic should
experience from the middle of the 1950s onwards. The increasing
urbanization and the concomitant housing shortage were opposed.
Nevertheless, people in Germany were better off than ever before. And
the certainty of being able to achieve a livelihood and even a certain
cosiness of life with strict economy was a source of satisfaction.
And something else for
the time of immense importance: Never before have so many people had
the social and economic opportunities to found families. Children's
wealth was regarded as a sign of success in the Kaiserreich, not only in
the lower classes. The consequence was a regular population explosion,
which created a further prerequisite for economic growth, which
accelerated rapidly again in the 1990s.
Thus the distance to the first economic and commercial power of England
rapidly declined. Until 1914, Germany had almost caught up with the
British competitors and in any case had far behind them in
future-oriented new industries. Germany and Great Britain were their
best customers. England mainly exported raw materials and semi-finished
products to the Reich, while German exports consisted mainly of finished
products.
The German success story,
however, showed a consequent deficit. Foreign policy was not in a
position to implement or even mediate the fundamentally peaceful
intentions of German economic life. Thus Wilhelm II, drunk with the rise
of Germany, sought the maritime competition with Britain's leading
grandeur. After the steam ships, which were one of the most important
prerequisites for globalization, the German tank cruisers now came. For,
according to the monarch, a strong fleet belonged to a self-confident,
powerful empire.
Without need, Wilhelm II, supported by the chauvinist-national part of
the bourgeoisie, demanded the naval power of England with his naval
policy. For the continental power of Germany did not need a battle fleet
either for its territorial security or for the protection of its trade
routes. The exchange of goods between the empire was mainly directed at
Europe. The overseas colonies, which had been acquired mainly in the
1980s, played no role in this. Less than four percent of the raw
materials came from there.
In the failed fleet policy the growing counterpart with the main trading
partner of England founded. In addition, London did not remain alone,
for the governments in Paris and Moscow also wanted to stop Germany's
rise in Europe. France sought the revenge for the defeat of 1870-71. And
Russia saw his interests with the Slavic brothers in the Balkans, who
collided with those of the German allies of Austria-Hungary.
The First World War was therefore
ultimately a consequence of the constellation of power, as it appeared
in the post-Bismarck period. Nevertheless, he was not the compelling
consequence of Germany, the neighbours' fearful rise to economic
magnificence.
The Reich did not reach for the power of the world, which historians
like Fritz Fischer and Hans-Ulrich Wehler wanted to believe. As Thomas
Nipperdey wrote in his work on "German History, 1866-1918," the
Kaiserreich had "an open future." In other words, Germany's
forgotten bloom would not have had to end that sudden end in August
1914.
from Ralf Georgreuth
Clouthe Cross
Clouth
Book
MACCO Rhenish Families "Clouth"
Nippes
as a company settlement, why there?
"Clouth Gummiwerke" by Wickipedia
M. Backhausen
From Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clouth_Gummiwerke
Clouth
Gummiwerke AG was founded in 1868 by the entrepreneur of the
rubber industry Franz Clouth , who has written German industrial
history with its products. Parts of the company were temporarily
owned by Felten & Guilleaume and Continental AG. In 1990 Continental
took over nearly all shares. Later some of the company's parts were
sold and the remaining production at the Cologne site was shut down
in December 2005; the complete destruction of firm buildings for new
housing areas took place in 2015.
On September 10, 1862, Franz Clouth founded the company with the
name "Rheinische Gummiwarenfabrik" [1]
In the year 1864 the enterprise
in
the Cologne address book took place with the designation "Franz
Clouth, commissioned business in rubber goods for technical purposes";
The headquarters of the company continued to be in the Kölner
Sternengasse 3, where at the same time was also the flat of the
Franz Clouth family .
The scope of business expanded rapidly, which meant that the
business had to be relocated in wider areas.
This took place in 1868 in the district of Cologne-Nippes on
an area of initially 10,000 square meters.
Carl Vorberg, who was appointed as a procurator, rose in 1872 as
co-owner (until 1899), when Franz Clouth - Rheinische
Gummiwaarenfabrik oHG (sic) was founded.
It is reported that Clouth rode daily from the family seat in
Sternegasse 3 on horseback to Niehler Weg (now Niehlerstraße 102)
using Hohe Straße (High Street in regard to the position of the
Rhine).
First gum products were mainly household items such as milk bottle
suckers and hosier carriers, followed by industrial equipment such
as roller covers, conveyor belts or belts. In 1870 the firm
had already 70 employees.
A 50 m high chimney (1872) and a steam engine (1892) announced the
beginning of industrial production.
On September 14, 1891 the company management was transferred to the
electrical engineer Georg Zapf.
At this stage, the company diversified strongly; diving apparatuses
(1882) were manufactured, which made the company as sole supplier of
the Imperial Navy in 1887.
In 1890 the cable works were founded. Here, Guttapercha and fiber
cable telegraph cables as well as telephone cables for the
Reichstelegraphenverwaltung (1893) were established, the first
knotted cable cables were used as a city cable in Cologne (1895).
Land and sea cables
Due to its production, the cable division expanded to an area of
20,000 square meters with 600 employees. On May 11, 1898, it was
spun off into
Land- und See Kabelwerke AG, a company specially founded for this
purpose.
They were able to catch a spectacular order with the laying of the
third sea cable from Emden
to New York.
This project, which was carried out within the framework of the
German-Atlantic Telegraph Society, was put into operation on 1
September 1900, using the Clouth ship "von Podbielski".
Another order was the laying of cables 1898 in St. Petersburg, which
were only replaced in 2001.
A look at an underwater cable between Wangerooge and the lighthouse
Rotersand and the wiring of the North Sea Canal can also be seen.
The capital requirements of the maritime cable works were so large
that the leading Cologne and Berlin banks (Bankhaus A. Levy & Co.,
Cologne, Dresdner Bank AG, Disconto-Gesellschaft, Privatbanken
Bankhaus S. Bleichröder and Born & Busse [2]) as a bank consortium
of
50 percent, which they transferred 1901 to the Cologne cable
manufacturer Felten & Guilleaume.
F & G took over from the Clouth family the remaining 50 percent in
1904, so that the land and sea cables no longer belonged to the
Clouth family.
Wide product range
In
1901, the remaining company was transformed into a limited liability
company (Rheinische Gummiwarenfabrik Franz Clouth GmbH), which now
belonged to
Franz and his son Max Clouth.
Count
Ferdinand von Zeppelin visited the company in 1898 and brought an
order for 18 large drum-shaped balloons, which were to be hung into
the skeleton of the first
Zeppelin LZ1.
In July 1900, the company also supplied the fabric cover for the
LZ1.
Clouth also developed and produced gummed silk for the outer cover
of LZ1.
Ballonseide (gum silk fabric) was also produced in the company, and
finally the Clouth-Werke produced their own pallets: "Clouth I" to "Clouth
V".
The balloon "Clouth I" was put into operation in May 1908.
The airship was 42 m long, had a diameter of 8.25 meters and a gas
volume of 1700 cubic meters, which was relatively small.
Key to his development was Franz Clouth's son Richard.
On July 14, 1907, an airship hall, which was 45 meters long, 29
meters wide and 17 meters high, was constructed on the company site.
This was the first company-owned airship "Clouth I", which was put
into operation on 1 May 1908.
However, the affinity of the rubber industry for airship was no
special feature at the time. [3]
Clouth also manufactured tires, first for bicycles, later also for
automobiles.
As a manufacturer of bicycle tires, the company initiated the
founding of the Cölner Bicycle Club, which built the Riehler cycle
track in 1889, which also boosted the bicycle boom in Cologne. [4]
The
company has developed into a specialist in rubber compounds, a
combination of rubber and other materials.
In
addition to diving suits, rubberized fabrics for car and horse
corners, children's toys, suits for miners and sailors, aprons and
rubber gloves, tents, inflatable boats, medical rubber articles and
special products for defense technology.
The broad product range made the company the largest employer in the
district, with 680 employees (1910).
On June 3, 1910, the "Clouth" landed on the square in front of the
"Military Airship Bickendorf". After the death of Franz Clouth in September 1910 his son Max took over the
management of the GmbH, which still belonged to the widow and the
children of the deceased.
Core areas have increasingly become industrial molded articles (eg
for the automotive industry) and conveyor technology.
On 22 April 1920 the conversion to an AG (Rheinische
Gummiwarenfabrik AG Franz Clouth) took place with a basic capital of
6.5 million Marks.
This was taken over completely by the competitor F & G Carlswerk AG
in 1925.
In that year, a large expansion of the factory (halls 17, 18b) took
place with the pavilion (gate 2).
From 1939, the factory was almost exclusively used for war
production. [5] For this reason,
March 1942 targeted air raids against Clouth, which already caused a
destruction of about 70 per cent.
On October 15, 1944, the factory site was destroyed by 90% of the
air traffic; on March 6, 1945, US soldiers were employed.
Already in October 1945 the production started again,
since conveyor belts from Cologne in the Aachen area and the
Rheinischen brown coal mining were urgently needed.
Post-war
period:
When Max Clouth died in September 1951, Clouth's interest in the
company ended.
The Clall VIII rubber boot started in Bonn in December 1952 - Max
Clouth no longer experienced the start of his hobby.
Steel cable straps were produced starting in 1955, the large
production started 1957.
Now there was a rapid economic development, which also reflected the
growth in the number of employees.
In 1951, when only 700 workers were employed, their number rose to
2,100 in 1961, reaching a peak of 2,241 employees in 1962. In 1966 the tire manufacturer Continental AG acquired 50 percent of F & G's
stock, so that one of the customers of the Clouth products became a
shareholder.
The innovative product range of the company Clouth made inventions,
which led to a total of 30 patents. [6]
A vibration absorber is the elastic rail bearing known as "Cologne
Egg".
The "Kölner Ei" was developed by Mr. Hermann Ortwein, employee of
the company Clouth Gummiwerke in Cologne-Nippes and patent pending
on 30 June 1978. It was given the
order number 1403C.
The "Kölner Ei" was first installed in 1978 on the route Ebertplatz
- Lohsestraße.
Due to the excellent results (impact reduction), the "Kölner Ei" was
installed shortly afterwards on the track of the KVB (Cologne
transport companies) on a length of 1500 meters. Many other
sections followed.
The installation was carried out wherever a ballast bed was
undesirable for railroad tracks, for instance at stops.
The sound-absorbing invention was installed 30,000 times in Cologne
alone and is used worldwide.The
"ISAD" patent was used as a replacement for the starter, flywheel
and alternator in the car and led to the founding of the Clouth AG
subsidiary ISAD-Systems GmbH in 1997.
Since 1982, Clouth Gummiwerke
AG has been trading with the new shareholder (50 percent) Philips
Communications Industry PKI [7] and Continental AG (50 percent). In
1982, the factory area had grown to 146,000 square meters. 1988 saw
the creation of a high-performance production line for steel cable
straps, whose 90-meter-long line was able to produce steel cable
straps with an annual capacity of up to 80,000 meters. From 1987,
Clouth AG entered a company crisis, triggered by product liability
for defective products. This led to considerable losses, and the
bottom of the crisis was reached in 1989. [8] Continental increased
its shareholding to 98.29 per cent in share capital in 1990, after
the Bundeskartellamt had agreed in March 1990. [9]
End
of the company
One of the main production branches, the rubberized fabric, was
discontinued on 31 March 1992. In that year, the crisis
had been overcome.
Finally, the merger of Clouth Gummiwerke AG with Continental AG was resolved
retroactively with effect from January 1, 1997, where Clouth AG, which was
burdened with significant losses, was part of ContiTech.
The transport belt systems were integrated into Transportbandsysteme GmbH (Clouth
plant).
An area was not merged, but came to the group of the C. Hilzinger-Thum Group (Tuttlingen)
via Clouth Gummiwalzen GmbH & Co. KG (Bergheim).
On June 17, 2003, the City of Cologne decided to purchase the company's 160,000
square meters of commercial premises in order to use it for housing and
"non-interfering business".
In doing so, it was important to take into account that the development on the
Niehlerstrasse is a protected monument. Conveyor belts were successfully manufactured here until 16 December 2005,
since then Clouth Gummiwerke AG has been part of Germany's industrial history.
The demolition of the workshops began in March 2013.
On the free-standing site of approx. 14.5 hectares one of the largest new
settlements in Cologne were built. It was
intended and put into reality to build about 1,000 apartments.
In addition, commercial spaces with a total area of approximately 25,000
square meters are to be created, as well as a studio house of the CAP artists,
who had been established on the site since 1996. The
construction measures are to be completed by 2018.