Schunck
Schunck is the name of former fashion house and department store Firma Schunck in Heerlen, the Netherlands. It is also the name for the collection of buildings the firm has been housed in, one of which is known as the Glaspaleis, which is now a cultural centre and declared one of the 1000 most important buildings of the 20th century by the Union of International Architects.
The business grew from a small weaver's shop to the major department store in Heerlen and the innovating force in that town when coal mining declined. Over more than a century, it has been run by four consecutive generations of the family Schunck.
In current time, the Glaspaleis is a multidisciplinary cultural centre for contemporary art, architecture, music, dance and library named SCHUNCK.
Prelude – a family of weavers
In Eupen-Kettenis in the German-speaking part of Belgium, records show that a weaver named 'Schunck' was established as early as 1776. His eldest son, Nikolaus Severin Schunck, had six sons, of whom the third oldest, Arnold, would later found the firm in Heerlen. Because business was slow, only the one but youngest, Joseph, would remain in the weaving mill. But he appears to have survived, because to this day there is still a weaving mill in Kettenis run by descendants of Nikolaus.Wanderings (1858)
After his mother died in 1858, Arnold went to Eupen to learn the trade at P. Fremereij's factory, where he became a 'Meisterweber'. The family disputes over whether traditional or mechanised weaving was the way of the future made Arnold decide to use his obligatory travels as a Wanderbusche to decide for himself. From 17 April to 5 November 1860, he travelled to Silesia, Mannheim, Munich, Nuremberg, Berlin and Hamburg, but this only resulted in a few jobs as a handweaver and he never got to work in a mechanised weaving factory because the owners of these modern factories had little respect for the traditional 'Wanderburschen'. As a result, from then on, he always stuck to handweaving.He returned to Kettenis to work with his father. His brother Nicola, however, who had also struck out on his own in 1858, had switched to mechanised weaving, working in Aachen at the Delius textile factory, which had important international connections. He was persuaded by Russian entrepreneurs to set up a weaving factory in Białystok in Russia, a major centre of the textile industry at the crossroads of the important St Petersburg – Berlin and Königsberg – Odessa roads. So he went there in 1863 with Wilhelm, the second oldest son. Later that year, Arnold followed, but only to accompany Nicola's wife, and returned a year later, another useful experience richer.
When father Nikolaus Schunck died in 1865, Severin-Joseph, who was to take over the business, wanted to mechanise, but didn't have the financial means to do so. There were assets but little cash. So when in 1986 Wilhelm returned from Russia to get married, the brothers decided to leave Severin-Joseph the inheritance. Severin-Joseph no longer needed the handlooms now, so in return the other brothers would receive one of the hand-weaving looms each and five years later they would additionally receive 1000 Rheinische Thaler and cloth woven by Severin-Joseph. Luckily, the unification of Germany in 1870 opened new markets, which gave such a boost to the economy that he could easily hold up his end of the bargain.
First business and marriage (1866)
In 1866, Arnold and his youngest brother Ludwig set up a business in Hauset. Because they didn't have the thread to weave nor money to buy it, they decided to dye thread for the industry, but there was too much competition from the industry in Eupen and Aachen. In 1873, Arnold married Anna Küppers from Aachen and later that year their first son Peter was born. Luckily, that year, money and cloth from the inheritance became available, but because of the competition from Eupen and Aachen, the Verviers textile industry started selling its cloth dirt cheap, so the brothers didn't find any buyers for the cloth. From pharmacist Knittel in Vaals they heard that a new orphanage in Heerlen could do with someone to teach the orphans a trade like weaving. This pharmacist also bought his herbs from Heerlen and since Anna had worked at her father's gardening business she figured she could also package and sell medicinal herbs and could take over that business. In March 1874, the brothers went to the St Joseph market in Sittard with samples of the cloth to try to sell it, but were unsuccessful due to the competition from the Belgian Vesdre-manufacturers. Following Anna's advice, they returned via Heerlen, to speak to the rector of the orphanage, monseigneur Savelberg. Since Savelberg took a long time to decide, Arnold's old plans to go to either Russia or New Orleans in the USA were reconsidered. Anna didn't like the former because of Wilhelm's stories of hard work and inexperienced colleagues. But New Orleans appealed to her because according to an old Wanderbursche-friend of Arnold, Joseph Kops, who had emigrated there, there was a great need for artisans in the United States. In May they had even already started informing about the price of such a trip when word finally came from rector Savelberg. So in August 1874 they went from Hauset to Heerlen with three looms and some cloth.Although Heerlen is only 35 km North from Kettenis, transportation in those days wasn't much different from mediaeval times. So the travelling distance was much greater than it is now. But the cultural distance was much smaller. Both Kettenis and Heerlen had been part of the Duchy of Limburg for centuries. The then borders between the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium had only recently been drawn and regional sentiments were still much stronger than any national feelings. Limburgers still felt closer to nearby Germans than to Hollanders. The Duchy was even part of the German Confederation from 1839 to 1866. Arnold never naturalised and even his grandson Pierre had German citizenship until shortly before the Second World War.
Foundation of the Firm by Arnold Schunck (1874)
When the German weaver Arnold Schunck and his wife Anna Maria Küppers arrived in Heerlen on 25 August 1874 to set up a textile factory and a cloth and spice shop in the Willemstraat they had the good fortune that the coal mining industry was on the rise and Arnold realised that those miners needed a constant supply of sturdy clothing. In March of that same year, 1874, there had been some prospecting for coal and there were many requests for concessions between 1872 and 1880, so it is quite possible that Arnold had heard of these developments and based his decision to move here partly on the possibility of a rising industry. The mines would, however, only start up around 1900, so Arnold, who died in 1905, never experienced the growth of Heerlen they caused. Still, the business managed to flourish. One important reason for this was that despite Heerlen's small size, it functioned as a centre for this largely agricultural region, with several government offices, the postal service, schools and some small industries. But most importantly, the major regional markets were held here, twice a week, at the Church Square,which the surrounding businesses profited from, and it may be that especially this latter fact was another reason the young couple came to set up shop here. Also, Heerlen was already the textile centre of the region.
This first shop consisted of just one large room with rolls of cloth on one side and the herbs on the other side. Arnold, more of an artisan than a businessman, could remain focused on weaving because his wife, Anna Schunck Küppers dealt with the business-side of the shop. She had given up the spice section after just a year. With the little money they had they bought a small farm next to a brook in nearby Schandelen where Arnold could clean the wool he bought from the sheepfarmers. Apart from three looms for woollen clothing he had a fourth for a sturdy cloth called 'thirty'
.
After starting with the aforementioned orphans, Schunck later hired more weavers. But due to the success, still later, Schunck started buying cloth instead of weaving it all himself and ultimately he gave up commercial weaving altogether because a small handweaving business could not compete with the textile industry in Tilburg and Twente. So the planned weaving factory never really came off the ground. Instead, Arnold Schunck switched to clothes manufacturing, including ready-to-wear clothing, and continued with the shop. With success, despite stiff competition from eight textile businesses in nearby Aachen, which regularly advertised in the local newspaper 'Limburger Koerier'. So Anna had switched from selling herbs to selling cloth and Arnold had switched from weaving to buying cloth and clothes-manufacturing, decisions that proved to be fortunate.
Second shop (1882)
The shop moved to a bigger buildingat the Kerkplein in 1882. This was a much more strategic location because the market was held at the Church Square. The looms were brought along and remained in service for another 6 years until rector Savelberg called back the orphans for internal affairs at the monastery, after which the commercial weaving was abandoned altogether. The shop did so well that the clothes production could not keep up and Schunck started buying clothes through a connection in Groningen. The sale of herbs by Anna was also abandoned when they moved into the new shop, possibly because this business was taken over by friar Aloysius.
In 1893/1894, the new shop was torn down and rebuilt, extending it further to the back, joining it with other buildings Schunck had bought. A novelty was the use of concrete and shopping windows, 2 by 3 m, quite a sensation at the time for such a rural town and a prelude of what was to come later. In 1903, another extension took place, and around 1910, the house next door was added to the shop.
The location next to the market was ideal and the business kept growing. Especially good customers were the miners, as anticipated, but also farmers, who bought large batches of cloth and clothes when visiting the Sunday market. Some came to the shop only once or twice a year, with carts that were loaded full of cloth, which the farmer's wife would then make clothes out of. At first the children helped out selling in the shop, but by 1900 that didn't suffice and for the first time sales personnel was hired. In 1903, just before Arnold's death, the legal status changed to a general partnership, known as the Firma Schunck. This way, the children that worked in the shop could share in the profits. Another reason was that two daughters were to become nuns and this legal construct avoided their convents sharing in the inheritance.
Being more of an artisan than a businessman, Arnold developed new types of cloth in his later years, even though weaving was no longer part of the business. Later, his designs would be bought by van Moorsel in Eindhoven. After his death, Anna kept the remaining cloth and a loom in a special attick. When his grandson Pierre, who had also taken up weaving, wanted to inspect those in 1926, it turned out the loom and the books had been thrown out to make room. They had fallen victim to the success of the business, which was through most of its history looking for more room for expansion.
As Heerlen grew, a new market square was created, just to the west, at the Bongerd, a former canal that had been filled up in 1902. As a result, the business lost its prime location. Over time, the Schuncks bought more and more terrain and houses, to the north of the shop, toward the new market square, later culminating in the building of the Glaspaleis by Peter, who would still later start buying houses towards the south, until he owned the entire block in 1939.