Company Towns Economic History of the Bat’a Concern Franz Steiner Verlag History – Cases – Architecture Edited by Ondrˇej Ševecˇek and Martin Jemelka Company Towns of the Bat’a Concern Edited by Ondrˇ ej Ševecˇ ek and Martin Jemelka Company Towns of the Bat’a Concern History – Cases – Architecture Edited by Ondrˇ ej Ševecˇ ek and Martin Jemelka Franz Steiner Verlag This book was written within the scope of grant project no. P410/10/1995 “Company Towns of the Bat’a Concern” of the Czech Science Foundation. It was published with the support of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. Cover: View of the Bat’a family quarters of Podvesná and Zálešná in Zlín, CˇSR. [CˇR-MZA – Brno, SOkA Zlín] Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek: Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über <http://dnb.d-nb.de> abrufbar. Dieses Werk einschließlich aller seiner Teile ist urheberrechtlich geschützt. Jede Verwertung außerhalb der engen Grenzen des Urheberrechtsgesetzes ist unzulässig und strafbar. © Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2013 Druck: AZ Druck und Datentechnik GmbH, Kempten Gedruckt auf säurefreiem, alterungsbeständigem Papier. Printed in Germany. ISBN 978-3-515-10376-3 Table of Contents 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface ............................................................................................................... 9 I. Introductory Remarks Ondřej Ševeček 1. The Case of Company Towns of the Baťa Concern .............................. 15 1.1. Introduction ........................................................................................... 15 1.2. Refl ecting on the topic of period discussions, their second life, and the current state of understanding ................................................... 16 1.3. Company towns of the Baťa concern in the coordinates of contemporary research ...................................................................... 26 1.4. The Baťa concern – character of growth, structure, and its transformations ........................................................................... 33 1.5. On the genesis of the Baťa model of company towns: conditions and circumstances, premises and infl uences ........................ 36 1.6. “The ideal industrial town” – on the systematization of the concern’s program at the end of the 1930s .................................. 39 1.7. Conclusion ............................................................................................. 45 II. Refl ecting on Baťa’s History Martin Marek, Vít Strobach 1. Identity, Discipline and Order in the Baťa Concern .............................. 51 1.1. The employee – selection, records, control ........................................... 53 1.2. Body and character ................................................................................ 54 1.3. Moral decline and its treatment ............................................................. 55 1.4. Images and metaphors. The Baťa collective… ...................................... 56 1.5. … and its enemies .................................................................................. 58 1.6. Epilogue ................................................................................................. 60 Zachary Doleshal 2. Imagining Baťa in the World of Tomorrow: The Baťa Company, Czechoslovakia, and the 1939 New York World’s Fair ......................... 61 2.1. Historiography ....................................................................................... 63 2.2. Baťa’s Place in The World of Tomorrow ............................................... 65 2.3. A Fair after Munich? .............................................................................. 71 2.4. The Orphan Pavilion .............................................................................. 74 6 Table of Contents Antonie Doležalová 3. Baťa’s Search for Social Reconciliation in the Changing World of Social Justice ..................................................................................... 83 3.1. Introduction ........................................................................................... 83 3.2. Baťa’s concept of social reconciliation.................................................. 84 3.3. Baťa and his era ..................................................................................... 85 3.3.1. The era of the Habsburg monarchy ....................................................... 85 3.3.2. The First-Republic era ........................................................................... 87 3.4. Baťa’s sources of inspiration ................................................................. 88 3.4.1. Life experiences ..................................................................................... 89 3.4.2. American experiences ............................................................................ 90 3.4.3. The socioeconomic theories of the time ................................................ 91 3.4.3.1. The origins of Czech economic thinking ............................................... 92 3.4.3.2. Cooperative ownership .......................................................................... 93 3.4.3.3. Laboretism ............................................................................................. 95 3.4.4. Social concepts of the time .................................................................... 96 3.5. Conclusion ............................................................................................. 99 III. Baťa Towns – Case Studies Martin Jemelka 1. Ottmuth (Otmęt): A German Outpost of Batism? .................................. 103 1.1. Establishment of the company Deutsche Schuh-Aktiengesellschaft Bata, Berlin (1928–1930) ...................................................................... 103 1.2. Deutsche Schuh-Aktien Gesellschaft Bata, Ottmuth A.G. (1930–1938)........................................................................................... 105 1.3. OTA Schlesische Schuh-Werke Ottmuth A.G. (1938–1945) ................. 110 1.4. Economic development of the companies Deutsche Schuh-Aktien Gesellschaft Bata, Ottmuth and OTA, Schlesische Schuh-Werke Ottmuth, A.G. (1930–1945) ................................................................... 114 1.4.1. Footwear sales network ......................................................................... 114 1.4.2. Footwear production at the Ottmuth factory ......................................... 115 1.5. Construction development of the factory premises (1931–1945) ......... 118 1.6. Bata-Siedlung ........................................................................................ 121 1.7. Postwar development and OTA’s position in the Polish economy ........ 124 1.8. Conclusion ............................................................................................. 128 Tobias Ehrenbold 2. Putting Möhlin on the Map: The Swiss Baťa Town as an Integral Part of the Company’s National Image ............................... 129 2.1. A crisis-ravaged village ......................................................................... 130 2.2. A colorful bouquet of enemies ............................................................... 132 2.3. Baťa’s road to the status of a Swiss product .......................................... 133 2.4. Möhlin as a new center .......................................................................... 134 2.5. Baťa applies an imageological bricolage ............................................... 136 Table of Contents 7 2.6. What days should one celebrate? ........................................................... 136 2.7. What language should one speak? ......................................................... 138 2.8. What advertising should one use? ......................................................... 139 2.9. What occasions should one support? ..................................................... 140 2.10. From expansion to production stoppage ................................................ 143 2.11. Conclusion ............................................................................................. 144 Oľga Kvasnicová 3. Baťa in Ponitrie: On the development of the Slovak company towns of Velké Bošany and Baťovany (today Partizánske) ................... 147 Božena Malovcová 4. The Establishment and Development of the Baťa Factory in Svit (1934–1945) ............................................................................... 157 Elisabeth van Meer 5. Modernity on “Brabant’s Heath”: Building Batadorp in the Netherlands, 1933–1959 .............................................................. 165 5.1. North-Brabant before Batadorp: Consumer Goods Production and an Export-Oriented Infrastructure, 1800–1932 ............................... 166 5.2. Dutch Company Towns before Batadorp: The Modernity of Agnetapark, Heveadorp, Philipsdorp and Drents Dorp, 1880–1932 ............................................................................................. 169 5.3. Batadorp in North-Brabant: Becoming a Catholic Parish with a New Neighbor, 1933–1959 ......................................................... 175 5.4. Postscript: Batadorp Today .................................................................... 177 Eric J. Jenkins 6. “A Bit of Europe in Maryland”: The Baťa Colony in Belcamp ............ 179 6.1. Introduction ..........................................................................................