The Swiss Textile Industry
31 August 2023
For a long time, Eastern Switzerland was one of the world’s most important and largest export regions for textile products. Around 1910, more than half of the world’s embroidery production came from Eastern Switzerland.
Embroidery was also the largest export sector of the Swiss economy, accounting for around one-fifth of the total. The First World War (1914-1918) brought an end to the heyday of embroidery in eastern Switzerland.
Already in 825, The St.Gallen Monastery Map produced clothing and other textiles. International trade started in the fifteenth century after the foundation of the first guild of weavers in St. Gallen.
The linen industry and international trade flourished until the early 18th century when it was replaced by the production of cotton textiles. After the invention of the hand embroidery machine, embroidery replaced the cotton industry around 1850.
The village and region of Herisau (Canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden) were not only among the most densely populated areas of Europe in the 17th century, but were also leaders in linen production. Trogen (Canton Appenzell Ausserrhoden) took over this role in the 18th century. Another important textile village was Teufen.
With the invention of the hand embroidery machine in 1828 by Josua Heilmann (1796-1848), embroidery increasingly replaced cotton production. Isaak Groebli (1822-1917) invented the Schiffli embroidery machine in 1863 and the textile industry reached its peak.
The Swiss textile industry was a serious competitor to the British industry. The British government sent in 1835 a parliamentary delegation to Switzerland to investigate this ‘economic miracle’. The parliamentarian John Bowring (1792-1872) wrote a report that in certain aspects is still topical today!
Today, numerous companies in Eastern Switzerland are still among the world’s leading and most innovative suppliers of (high-tech) textiles and related industries – from haute couture, plastics, and filters to conductor technology, and the St. Gallen embroidery is still regarded as a world leader.
Trade and the manufacture of textiles had a decisive influence on Eastern Switzerland – and vice versa, perhaps comparable with the watch industry in Western Switzerland.
Villages with the appearance of cities and the architecture, palaces and (former) textile factories in the city of St Gallen are the silent witnesses of international entrepreneurship, innovation and commitment to the ‘Heimat’.
St. Gall, Textilmuseum
The Rhine Valley is called the high-tech and textile valley. A centuries-old economy, nowadays linked to high-tech innovations in this sector.
(Source and further information: Textilland Ostschweiz; Textilmuseum St. Gallen; Museum Herisau; Jahrhundert der Zellweger; Textildorf Rehetobel; Sauer Museum)
Johannes Hädener, drawing, Herisau 1789.
Herisau, its palaces and the rosegarten, founded by the Landammann Laurenz Wetter (1654-1734) in 1695