Algemene Kunstzijde Unie
A "thread counter", folding magnifying glass with the logo of the Vereinigte Glanzstoff-Fabriken
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| Manufacturer | |
| Industry | Artificial finer |
| Successor | Akzo |
| Founded | 19 September 1899 |
| Founders | Max Fremery and Johann Urban |
| Defunct | 1969 |
| Headquarters | Wuppertal, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, Germany |
Vereinigte Glanzstoff-Fabriken (VGF, United Rayon Factories) was a German manufacturer of artificial fiber founded in 1899 that became one of the leading European producers of rayon.
During the first thirty years VGF cooperated closely with the British manufacturer Courtaulds and other companies to share technology and maintain prices by avoiding competition. It merged with the Dutch firm Enka in 1929 under the holding company Algemene Kunstzijde Unie (AKU), but the two retained their legal identities. AKU made significant investments in rayon production in the United States. The company suffered government interference in Nazi Germany (1933–45) and lost competitive strength during World War II, but partly recovered after the war with American assistance.
In 1969 AKU merged with the Dutch manufacturer KZO to form AKZO, now part of AkzoNobel. Successor companies formed during various divestitures, mergers and acquisitions continue to be active in various related industries.
In 1857 the Swiss chemist Matthias Eduard Schweizer (1818–60) found that cotton could be dissolved in a solution of copper salts and ammonia and then regenerated. In 1890 the French chemist Louis Henri Despeissis invented the cuprammonium process for spinning fibers from cotton dissolved in Schweizer's reagent. Despeissis died in 1892 and his patent was not renewed.
Max Fremery (1859–1932), a German chemist, and Johann Urban (1863–1940), an Austrian engineer, were manufacturing lamp filaments in Oberbruch near Aachen in 1891 using cotton and Schweizer's reagent. Fremery and Urban decided to start making artificial silk (Glanzstoff), and patented a version of the Despeissis process with the addition of a practical method for spinning the fiber. They filed the patent under the name of Dr. Hermann Pauly (1870–1950) so as not to alert their competitors. The patent was challenged but was upheld. Fremery and Urban moved their headquarters to Elberfeld, now a suburb of Wuppertal. Vereinigte Glanzstoff-Fabriken (VGF) was launched on 19 September 1899 with 2 million marks of capital. The Bergisch-Märkischen bank provided financing.
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