page_title: Vereinigte Glanzstoff-Fabriken
section_title: Weimar Republic (1919–33)
hierarchical_section_title: Vereinigte Glanzstoff-Fabriken / Weimar Republic (1919–33)
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Bank-Fusion Deutschlands grösster Banken! Die Fusion der Deutschen Bank und der Disconto-Gesellschaft ist perfekt geworden. Der Präsident der Deutschen Bank Dr. Emil Georg von Strauss. Information added by Wikimedia users.Emil Georg von Stauss
context_page_description: Vereinigte Glanzstoff-Fabriken was a German manufacturer of artificial fiber founded in 1899 that became one of the leading European producers of rayon.
  During the first thirty years VGF cooperated closely with the British manufacturer Courtaulds and other companies to share technology and maintain prices by avoiding competition. It merged with the Dutch firm Enka in 1929 under the holding company Algemene Kunstzijde Unie, but the two retained their legal identities.
  AKU made significant investments in rayon production in the United States.
  The company suffered government interference in Nazi Germany and lost competitive strength during World War II, but partly recovered after the war with American assistance.
  In 1969 AKU merged with the Dutch manufacturer KZO to form AKZO, now part of AkzoNobel. Successor companies formed during various divestitures, mergers and acquisitions continue to be active in various related industries.
context_section_description: In the inter-war period VGF was the largest rayon producer in continental Europe.
  However, competition developed from companies in the United States, the Netherlands and Italy.
  VGF steadily increased its holdings in Bemberg and gained full control in 1920.
  In 1922 VGF invested in a new Japanese firm in partnership with Shitagau Noguchi (1873–1944) and Asahi Chemicals. The technology was licensed under conditions that prevented competition in VGF's home market, and ensured that VGF would receive the rights to any technical advances made in Japan.
  VGF built a factory in Obernburg in 1924.
  The European rayon price cartel was formed again after 1925.
  The arrangement was a form of cartel in which rayon patents and technology were shared between the partners.
  VGF, Courtaulds and the Comptoir shared technical advances until shortly before World War II (1939–45).
  VGF initiated lawsuits against IG Farben over rayon technology, but dropped them in 1924–25 when IG Farben agreed to join a price cartel in Germany and to reduce its production of rayon.
  In 1925 I. G. Farben acquired a stake in VGF and Bemberg.
  The joint venture with I. G. Farben lasted until the latter closed its Hölken rayon plant in 1929.
  In 1925 Courtaulds and VGF founded a joint venture named Glanzstoff Courtaulds to build and operate a large viscose manufacturing facility in Cologne.
  In April 1928 Glanzstoff Courtaulds began artificial silk production in the north of Cologne.
  In 1927 Courtaulds and VGF combined to buy a controlling interest in the Italian manufacturer SNIA Viscosa.
  A German director of VGF, Karl Scherer, replaced the company founder Riccardo Gualino (1879–1964) as head of the firm and cut output drastically.
  In April 1925 Fritz Blüthgen of VGF, suggested a joint venture with Courtaulds in the United States.
  When Courtaulds declined, VGF entered the US market in competition with Courtaulds.
  J. P. Bemberg and VGF organized the American Bemberg Corporation in 1925, and began making rayon using the cuprammonium process in October 1926 at a newly built facility near Elizabethton, Tennessee, nine miles from Johnson City, Tennessee.
  In the fall of 1928 VGF opened a viscose factory nearby.
  This was operated by the VGF subsidiary North American Rayon.
  By 1929 Bemberg and VGF had about 5,000 employees in the United States.
  The city of Elizabethton provided tax concessions and favorable rates for the large amounts of water used in rayon production. 
  There were ongoing labor problems, starting with a strike in March 1929, but the plants operated profitably throughout the Great Depression.
  As of 1929 VGF had a workforce of 13,400 in Germany, and was chaired by Fritz Blüthgen.
  Although thriving, VGF was deeply in debt. 
  That year Oscar Schlitter (1868–1939) of the Deutsche Bank arranged for VGF to combine with Nederlandsche Kunstzidje (Enka). 
  Enka was based in Arnhem, Netherlands.
  It had been founded in 1911. 
  A new German-Dutch company was created, Algemene Kunstzijde Unie (AKU), through an exchange of shares.
  Enka, VGF and Bemberg remained distinct legal entities owned by AKU as a holding company.
  The AKU supervisory board had four members from the Dutch group, four from the German group and one neutral member.
  Enka remained technogically behind the German facilities, and was relatively under-equipped.
  The German plants accounted for the bulk of AKU's production, and made 60% of the viscose in Germany in the early 1930s.
  VGF had five members of the seven-person management committee.
  Enka competed with Courtaulds with a factory in Britain established before the merger.
  After the merger AKU continued to operate in Britain despite strong protests from Courtaulds and lengthy negotiations to try to resolve the issue.
  AKU also had subsidiaries in Italy, Czechoslovakia and Austria.
  After the 1929 merger AKU opened a viscose plant in Asheville, North Carolina.
  The plant was operated by the American Enka Company, which had been organized in 1928.
  The company became the third largest rayon manufacturer in the United States after Courtaulds and DuPont.
  In 1930 VGF used
caption: Emil Georg von Stauss played an important role in the pre-war Nazi period
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