Literary journey into the past: Freisinger fire hoses for America

Created: 07/16/2022, 17:00

By: Andreas Beschorner

The Freisinger Hans Lorenzer presents his new work: It is an exciting journey through the company history of the cathedral city - with surprises.

This early aerial photograph shows the Feller cloth factory from above.

The new part of the district office in Freising is located on its perimeter.

© Lorenzer Collection

Freising –

Do you know the Brazilian tobacco factory on Luckengasse?

Did you know that Georg Bigerl's rope works delivered fire hoses all the way to America?

And are you familiar with Lorenz Port's wooden shoe factory on Landshuter Straße?

If not, the latest work by Hans Lorenzer, which is dedicated to the "Freising factories" from a bygone era, will help.

And if you already know everything, then the book will also help.

Lorenzer worked on the third book of this kind for a whopping six years - after "Freisinger Business" and "Freising und seine Moosaarme".

Finding a topic

Lorenzer came across the topic, he says, when there was a guided tour through Fabrikstrasse on the Day of the Open Monument, which he unfortunately wasn't able to take part in.

But he was interested in the topic of Freising factories, and Lorenzer started his research – “a tedious undertaking”, as he puts it.

Although he was born in 1946, he still knew quite a few things, mainly because he was a general cargo driver for Spedition Weber during the school holidays.

But there are no longer many eyewitnesses to earlier eras, some don't know much anymore, and often the next generation isn't even interested in what their parents actually did.

The latest work by Hans Lorenzer can be bought in Freising's bookshops.

© Repro: Lehmann

The research

Going through newspaper advertisements and press articles, directories and telephone books – all of that was tedious and time-consuming.

At the end there is now a 119-page book that (according to the bare numbers) deals with 190 years of factory, manufacturing and work history in Freising and presents 67 companies.

There have, of course, been brickworks in Freising since the 13th century and sawmills since the 14th century.

Lots of amazing

But Lorenzer, who has been a retired teacher since 2006, not only came across facts, but also many amazing things and events that he has saved from being forgotten: For example, there are all the companies that had their products long before globalization "made in Freising" exported to the USA - not only Bigerl his hoses, but also gloves from the Taubert company.

And dried vegetables were also brought across the pond.

A short guest appearance

Then there is Willy Schlieker, for example, who, like Neckermann and Schickedanz, was an economic prodigy and entrepreneur who was particularly successful in the steel sector and in northern Germany.

But in 1962 the entrepreneur built an electronics factory in the Lerchenfeld district at Kepserstraße 33, in which the electronics for the then brand new Starfighter Lockheed F-104 were manufactured.

Admittedly, the entrepreneur's guest appearance in the cathedral city was short - after a year he went bankrupt.

But HAWE and Texas Instruments are worthy successors.

A helpful work

And so in the book by Lorenzer, which he has bound himself and which can be bought in Freising bookstores (price: 20 euros), you will find many interesting stories, revealing events, plus lots of historical photos and facts, facts, facts from A for aluminum factory to Z for brick factory.

A helpful work in every respect - for those who are familiar with it and already know a lot, and for those who are not yet so familiar with the history of the Freising factory.