Krusche-Ender Factory

On Zamkowa Street in Pabianice stands an extensive industrial complex that for over one hundred years was among the most important textile mills in the city. The Krusche and Ender complex is today a listed building, but traces of its former power are visible from the street at every turn.

How the factory began

Gottlieb Krusche arrived in Pabianice from Saxony in 1825, and a year later established a small hand cotton mill. The firm developed rapidly: already by 1850, in the time of Benjamin Krusche, it employed 220 workers, and the first steam engine and mechanical looms entered production.

A partner from Saxony

In 1858 Karl Ender joined the firm, a master weaver also from Saxony, who married the daughter of Benjamin Krusche. In 1874 the enterprise adopted the official name Krusche and Ender, under which it operated until closure.

Peak of power

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries the mills employed over 4500 workers and operated 1899 mechanical looms. The firm had its own gas works and power station, a bleaching works, dyeworks and fabric printing plant, and in 1900 won a gold medal at the Paris exhibition for the quality of its cotton products. On the factory grounds, which covered 87 hectares, stood 24 workers' houses, a hospital with 50 beds founded in 1885, public baths and a primary school.

After the war and closure

After 1945 the enterprise was nationalised and renamed Pabianice Cotton Industry Works named after the 1905 Revolution. Production continued for several more decades, but competition on the world market led to its gradual reduction, until the factory finally closed in 2003.

Listed building and surroundings

The Krusche and Ender industrial building complex is today entered in the register of monuments of Łódź Voivodeship. It includes among other things the Ender family palace, and nearby stands the Evangelical Church of Saints Peter and Paul, with which the mill-owning families were connected by faith. Part of the former factory grounds, at a separate address, is today occupied by the Tkalnia shopping centre, whose structure echoes in brick colour the historical factory buildings.

Practical information

• Address: Zamkowa Street, Pabianice
• Access: Pabianice city centre, walking distance from Stary Rynek [Old Market Square]
• What to expect: listed industrial buildings viewed from outside, production buildings not accessible to visitors