Horváth M. Ferenc (szerk.): Vác The heart of the Danube Bend. A historical guide for residents and globetrotters (Vác, 2009)
Tartalom
VÁC IN THE 20TH CENTURY HOW DID THE PEOPLE OF VÁC EARN THEIR LIVING? One of the characteristics of the late 19th century was feverish factory-building. This continued in the first decades of the 20th century as well. Besides the old firms new ones were set up. In 1891 the employment rate in industry and trade was 18.08%, while in 1910 this sector included over half the population. Vác had become a bustling modern town. In addition to the large factories there were several smaller firms employing 5- 30 workers and craftsmen's workshops in the town, but the majority of employees worked In the new factories. The aim of the factories was no longer the satisfaction of local demands; their market expanded beyond the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy to the Balkans, sometimes even to Egypt. The fall of the Monarchy resulted in a new situation. Due to the changes in the circumstances, the loss of markets and raw materials, some factories were closed down, others were restructured. Let us have some typical examples. I n 1904 Sándor Neugebauer, the owner of a factory in Budapest manufacturing the Kobrák shoes, appealed to the leaders of the town for permission to build a factory in Vác. He was given a plot of land over the railway tracks, where construction started on 7 June 1905, and by the beginning of 1906 production had already begun. Near the factory houses were built for workers and managers. At first the number of employees was around 300-400, but by 1912 it had grown to 1000.The factory, which was equipped with modern American Letterhead paper of the Kobrák Shoe Factory machines, produced all kinds of footwear except for fine women's shoes. Its annual output was three million pairs of shoes. These products were mainly sold in Hungary, but they were also exported to Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Russia, the Balkans and Egypt. However, they could not compete with the I cheap American shoes that had been launched on . the European market. It was in 1912 that the expan- 1 sion of the comfortable but clumsy American shoes i was first pointed out. "The Hungarian shoe industry has been made bankrupt by the obsession of the I Hungarians with anything from abroad. The American shoe import has caused a loss of | several-million [Crowns] to Hungary." Despite the subsidy, in 1913 | the factory went bankrupt and the manager, Sándor Neu- I gebauer also disappeared. . In 1913 another factory was forced to close * down. Picot Lessive Phoenix, a detergent factory of | THE FIRST HALF OFTHE 20TH CENTURY 1928 1929 1938 1941-1945 May 1944 June 1944 5 December 1944 8 December 1944 The building of the water supply system Vác is a county town St Stephen memorial year World Warll The Jewish ghetto is formed The Jewish residents of Vác are deported American air raid The town is invaded by the Red Army
