The textile industry had been developing in Kežmarok
since 1860. The first mechanical flax and the cotton
weaving mill – Kežmarok Spinnerei – was established in
Kežmarok. In the 1870s, the factory was taken into the
ownership of the company called Regenhardt and sons.
In addition to the mechanical flax and the cotton
weaving mill, there was also established another textile
mill. Karol Wein had founded a factory in Stará Ľubovňa
already in 1882. In 1884, it was moved to Kežmarok. In
1885, he founded a limited company named Karol Wein
& Co. The weaving mill of this factory covered an area of
3,600 square meters and it had 400 mechanical weaving
looms. It also had a bleach and a dye-house. It produced
mainly a damask, tablecloths, napkins, towels, dishcloths,
bath towels, bed linens, sheets, white canvas, etc.
After the First World War in 1919, there was a crisis of
the linen industry in Slovakia. Karol Wein & Co. partly
dismantled the weaving mill and removed the dismantled
machines to the other Wein’s factory in Budafoku in
Hungary. On 3 August 1935, Karol Wein, the honoured
citizen of the town of Kežmarok, died in his summer
residency in Balatonakarattya in Hungary. He took an
immense credit for the development of the town. The
social conditions of employees in the Wein’s factory were
a little better than in other factories.
Under the so-called Slovak State in 1939 – 1945, Karol
Wein and Co. did not export products abroad. It produced
mostly for military purposes and for the domestic market.
In 1941, the company put a new flax-mill into operation.
In early 1945, the factory’s production was stopped and
the factory owners were evacuated. After the liberation
of Kežmarok on 1 January 1945, the production was
resumed.
On 28 November 2006, the factory of the former Karol
Wein & Co. was nationalized and continued in production
as a national enterprise Tatraľan.