{"id":876,"date":"2023-10-27T07:22:29","date_gmt":"2023-10-27T07:22:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hostelpekarna.eu?p=876"},"modified":"2023-10-27T07:28:29","modified_gmt":"2023-10-27T07:28:29","slug":"industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hostelpekarna.eu\/en\/industrija\/","title":{"rendered":"Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In Maribor, the industrialisation began during the second industrial revolution and it superseded the centuries-old leather handicraft and rafting traditions. In the first half of the 19th century, Maribor was predominantly an agrarian centre and a centre for artisans and merchants.\u00a0<\/p>

But when the first light bulb was ignited in Maribor a new era began, the era of electrification. The first harbinger of industrialisation was the Military dressing room factory, followed by litharge, cream of tartar, potash and coffee substitutes factories.<\/p>

The abolition of feudalism and guilds led to the opening of shops, handcraft workshops and factories.\u00a0<\/p>

But it was the opening of the Austrian Southern Railway between Vienna and Trieste in 1846 that radically changed the city. With the construction of the Carinthian railway line in 1863, Maribor became the intersection of two very important railway lines, which greatly influenced the economic development of the city. Maribor acquired two railway stations - the Main railway station and the Studenci Station, which also accelerated the spatial expansion of the industry.\u00a0<\/p>

Due to increased railway transport there was a growing need for the establishment of a railway maintenance plant. The Southern Railway company decided to build workshops for the renewal of the rolling stock in Maribor and thus, in 1860 workshops for maintaining and fitting the entire rolling stock of the company operating on the route from Semmering, Trieste, Pula, Rijeka and Belgrade were established. This was also the first company built outside of the city centre. Until the beginning of the World War I the Southern Railway employed 1200 workers in its plants. They were predominantly employing skilled workforce which later constituted the professional basis for the development of metal-working industry. Besides the machinery, the workshops also included a paint room, woodworking shops, wheelwright's workshops, carpentries, smitheries and locksmitheries.<\/p>

Gradually, other industries started to develop in Maribor, e.g. the flour milling industry, metalworking, chemical and timber industry. One of the most visible and widespread industries in Maribor was the textile industry and in the 20th century Maribor was the centre of the largest textile industry in Yugoslavia. More than a 1000 families earned their livelihood by working in the textile industry. For almost a century the everyday town throb in Melje, Pobre\u017eje and Tabor was determined by the arrivals and departures of textile workers. The textile factories daily produced enough kilometres of fabric to cover the distance from Maribor to Vrhnika (147 km). In 1939, 15 out of 21 of textile factories in Slovenia were located in Maribor. Even though spinning mills developed in the city they couldn\u2019t provide for the textile industry\u2019s needs, therefore the raw cotton had to be imported from USA and Great Britain, while cotton yarn was imported from Italy, Czechoslovakiaand Austria.\u00a0<\/p>

Due to accelerated development of the industry the city started to grow rapidly, which had an important impact on the image of the city. Bridges were built and they completely transformed the medieval image of the city. The industrial development stimulated the economic, demographic and spatial development. With the rapid growth of the city the need for construction materials grew as well and so several clay factories were developed.\u00a0<\/p>

The development was temporarily halted by the collapse of the Vienna Stock Exchange in 1873, but certain businesses continued to expand despite that. One of them was the Scherbaum mill company and also Franz\u2019s mill and pasta factory, while Gotz brewery was one of the most modern breweries in the Lower Styria.\u00a0<\/p>

Before the start of the World War I the economic development stopped again and all the factories ceased operating, except for one Southern Railway workshop. Post-war conditions were marked by instability in the financial field and as a result many businesses went bankrupt.\u00a0<\/p>

Due to the formation of new borders the Maribor\u2019s agricultural surroundings lost the Austrian market for exporting their produce. The trade was restricted to the local area which was partially also caused by high transport expenses. But despite that, the foreign capital inflow from Austria and the Czech Republic wasn\u2019t interrupted, since Maribor was located near the customs border and it was more economical to manufacture marchandise locally than to pay for customs.\u00a0<\/p>

Gradually leather, milling and brewing industries started to wane due to strong domestic and foreign competition. Textile and metalworking industry branches became the strongest. The industry started to boom because of the construction of the Fala hydroelectric power plant, which provided sufficient electric power, a cheap and hardworking labour force with a rich artisanal tradition as well as due to successful economic policy of Yugoslavia which was able to provide foreign capital which was successfully secured.\u00a0<\/p>

The pioneers of the textile industry were Schonsky and Lobl who founded a weaving factory and a finishing plant in 1921 on the Ore\u0161ko nabre\u017eje embankment. It was later renamed into Mariborska tekstilna tovarna (Maribor textile factory) or MTT. Textile factories were mostly founded with the help of Czech capital as well as domestic, German and Jewish capital.\u00a0<\/p>

In 1938, Maribor had the biggest number of industrial plants in Slovenia. 6293 workers were employed in 27 factories.\u00a0<\/p>

During World War II metal industry developed as a new branch and the Southern Railway was the largest metal company, but it had peripheral position and therefore the owners weren\u2019t interested in renovating it. However, it still employed from 2100 to 2500 workers. The entire metal industry employed around 3700 workers. Due to demand factories that went out of business as a consequence of the World War I started to develop again, e.g. the factory of artificial abrasives Swaty started operating again as well as Zlatorog factory which developed from the old Bros\u2019 soap factory in Melje.\u00a0<\/p>

Maribor acquired a mineral oil refinery, a factory for spirits and non-alcoholic beverage, a chocolate, candy, baking powder, coffee substitutes and meat products factories. However, all of those were small-scale factories.\u00a0<\/p>

Due to a lack of space the industry started to expand outside of the urban area and the majority of industrial plants were located in Tezno and Melje industrial zones, along the Tr\u017ea\u0161ka cesta street and in the vicinity of the Studenci railway station. Smaller plants were located throughout the old part of the city and in the western periphery.\u00a0<\/p>

During the World War II the industry was included into the German war production. The Germans started to build the TAM aircraft parts factory and the Mariborski otok hydroelectric power station. The businesses in the metal field, e.g. Metalna and Strojna started to expand. During the World War II Maribor was one of the most bombarded cities in Slovenia. The bombardment was mostly aimed at the railway bridge and industrial facilities in Melje, Studenci and Tezno.\u00a0<\/p>

The first years in the post-war period were in the spirit of renewal and nationalization. In the first two years most of the industrial facilities were renovated, the era of accelerated nationalisation of factories begun and many smaller plants of the same or similar branches were joined into new and larger companies. 60 factories were nationalized and they were joined into 35 new companies, which also incorporated 11 industrial plants from the surrounding areas, 11 artisanal workshops and 5 factories that were founded during the war.\u00a0<\/p>

The first years in the post-war period were in the spirit of renewal and nationalization. In the first two years most of the industrial facilities were renovated, the era of accelerated nationalisation of factories begun and many smaller plants of the same or similar branches were joined into new and larger companies. 60 factories were nationalized and they were joined into 35 new companies, which also incorporated 11 industrial plants from the surrounding areas, 11 artisanal workshops and 5 factories that were founded during the war.\u00a0<\/p>

But the consequences of this integration were not too positive since the plants were scattered across the entire urban area and the production was dislocated. For instance, 18 companies were manufacturing their products at 56 different locations. This made the communication difficult and the possibility of rational organization of the production process was nearly impossible, while the transportation costs increased.\u00a0<\/p>

The stagnation of the Maribor economy was also caused by distribution of accumulated funds for the development of less developed regions, although the factories themselves urgently required upkeep and modernization.\u00a0<\/p>

Until 1951 thirteen of the twenty industrial branches in Slovenia were developed in Maribor, one of the new branches was electrical industry. After the war, the metal industry overtook the textile industry, but the latter still manufactured more than 50% of the gross domestic product of the city. It was followed by wood and chemical industry, and electrical industry. The capacities of the entire industry exceeded the level of utilization, the machinery was outdated and urgently needed reconstruction (more than a 50% level of wear), during the drought the level of electricity fluctuated, there was a shortage and poor quality of raw materials as well as the negative impact of the economic embargo during the Cominform period. The work productivity was lower due to a shortage of skilled labour and a big influx of unskilled workers.\u00a0<\/p>

In order to prevent the strengthening of the state, the Law on self-management was adopted after 1951, but the state kept interfering with economy. But the economic results have nonetheless improved, mainly due to the self-managed socialist market system.\u00a0<\/p>

In 1965, the economic reform enabled foreign capital investments, which enabled the development of new industrial branches and areas, however, this had a negative impact on Maribor\u2019s traditional manufacturing industry that already started to lag behind. \nThe industry in Maribor was falling behind primarily due to the following:<\/p>