Textilmúzeum

The Goldberger Textile Collection was established in the place of the former Textile and Textile Clothing Industry History Museum (short name: Textile Museum). The Textile Museum was an institution preserving the material and intellectual heritage of the Hungarian textile and clothing industry in the III district of Budapest, Óbuda, which was considered an important site in the development of the domestic textile industry. The museum in this original form no longer exists; in its place the Óbuda Museum – Goldberger Textile Collection operates.

The history of the museum

The idea of creating a textile industry history museum was raised by the Textile Technical and Scientific Association in the 1960s. In 1968, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the nationalization of the textile industry, this demand was formulated at an association event, and it was supported by the then Ministry of Light Industry and the Textile Workers' Trade Union. The textile and clothing companies and institutes of that time welcomed the idea with great enthusiasm and began to collect the material and written memories of the textile industry.

Originally the Zichy Castle in Óbuda was designated as the future museum site, later the former Óbuda synagogue was intended for this purpose and the items collected at that time were also stored there. Later, however, experts determined that this building was not really suitable for this purpose and in 1975 the old building of the former First Hungarian Wool Washing Factory's Angyalföld weaving mill, where production had ceased in 1974, was selected for the museum. The building's conversion was completed in 1986, when the museum could open. Companies provided significant assistance for this, for example by reinstating the then still operational old machines. The museum operated at this location until 1992.

The current location of the museum, one of the original buildings of the former Goldberger Textile Factory, was chosen at the initiative of Professor Endrei Walter, a historian of technology, and Mihály Ráday, known for his urban preservation activities. Great assistance in the implementation was provided by László Vég, former deputy minister of light industry, later director general of the Cotton Printing Industry Company (PNYV). In this place, the renovation of the building and its conversion into a museum began in 1972, and the museum opened to the public in 1999. The museum was operated by the Textile Museum Foundation, which, however, due to a lack of sufficient financial resources, was forced in November 2011 to hand over the museum to the Municipality of Óbuda-Békásmegyer.

The museum in this form existed until the end of 2012. At that time, due to the sponsor's lack of sufficient financial resources, the museum building and its collection were offered to the district III municipality, which undertook the tasks associated with making the collection serve the public and to provide the necessary financial support. Thus, on January 1, 2012, the Goldberger Textile Collection was established, which as a separate unit of the Óbuda Museum took up residence in the renovated building of the former Textile Museum. A significant interior reconstruction and redesign was carried out, resulting in the reopening in September 2013 as the Óbuda Museum – Goldberger Textile Collection. Here primarily the history of the former Goldberger factory, its surviving relics, and the technology of indigo dyeing are presented.

The museum building

The Textile and Clothing Industry History Museum Foundation (Textile Museum Foundation), established in 1992, acquired the listed buildings at 136‑138 Lajos Street that were part of the dissolved Budaprint Cotton Printing Company (until its nationalization in 1948: the Goldberger factory) and had them renovated for the museum.

In the 18th century the houses were built, in 1784 they were purchased by the textile merchant Ferenc Goldberger and he established his blue‑dye manufactory here. From the small family workshop it became one of the country's largest textile combines, which lived more than 200 years, but the two main buildings remained part of the Óbuda factory throughout. In the ground‑floor halls of these, the Textile Museum operated between 1999 and 2011.

Based on their external appearance, the buildings also stand out as preserving their late‑18th‑century form, more or less unchanged:

Lajos Street 136.: The street wing was built in a closed row, one‑storey, with a romantic main façade, to which a one‑storey courtyard wing is attached on the north side of the plot. Six‑axis, single‑module main cornice, the façade is divided by a stone‑base. Two semicircular roof windows open the mansard roof on the façade side. At the gate, a ground‑floor raised‑level space is connected, as goods handling took place in this area in the early times.

Lajos Street 138.: The street wing was built in a closed row, a one‑storey street‑wing building. Six‑axis, Baroque façade, with a separating cornice between its two storeys. In the symmetry axis of the house there is a stone‑framed, wheel‑arched gate, which is currently the main entrance of the collection. On both the left and right of the gate there are commemorative plaques. The roof is broken by three fish‑eye‑shaped roof windows.

Permanent exhibitions of the former Textile Museum

The Tamási tutyi workshop: The tutyi – the house slipper worn by the domestic German community – was made in Tamási, one of the last textile‑industry manufactories, until 1991; its machines were shown in the earlier exhibition. The displayed wooden so‑called Jenny spinning machine was probably made at the turn of the 18th–19th century. The workshop produced the tutyi material from wool felt bound by machine, and the flat‑binding machine used for this was also part of the exhibition.

The history of textile printing: Textile printing is an important sector of the textile industry. The exhibition also highlighted details of its technical development: from traditional blue dyeing;

to hand printing being replaced by a still partially operating roller printing machine, the so‑called perotine;

to the cylinder printing machine, which revolutionized the industry's technology throughout Europe.

Objects of industrial‑historical significance: An industrial‑historical rarity is the 1912 jacquard silk loom controlled by a perforated tape, which was still operational at the time of the former exhibition.