History of the DTNW

   

The DTNW looks back on a research history of more than 100 years. After World War 1, there was the major task of raw material procurement. It was also the time when considerable progress was made in finishing methods: Mercerized cotton, new dyes, dyeing methods, the first synthetic fibers came on the market.

The DTNW was founded as a textile research institute by the Krefeld textile industry, the associations of the silk, velvet and finishing industries, the city of Krefeld and the “Reichskuratorium zur wissenschaftlichen Förderung der Textilindustrie”.

In 1925, Dr. Wilhelm Weltzien from Berlin was appointed.

The “Öffentliche Prüfstelle” (Public Testing Institute), which had emerged from the “Oeffentlichen Seiden-Trocknungs-Anstalt zu Crefeld” (Public Silk Drying Institute at Crefeld) founded in 1842, was affiliated to the Textile Research Institute under Weltzien.

After the end of the war, the Textile Research Institute, which was now in the British-occupied zone, initially had to cease operations. Work could only be resumed on May 9, 1947.

With the laying of the foundation stone on May 9, 1955, the dream of having its own building on Frankenring came true.

On March 1, 1966, private lecturer Dr. Giselher Valk became director of the institute. He had been an assistant at the Wool Research Institute in Aachen.

In 1978, the DTNW was founded by the merger of the three research institutes on the Lower Rhine, the Textile Research Institute Krefeld (TFA), the Laundry Research Krefeld (WFK) and the Institute for Textile Metrology Mönchengladbach (ITM).

Since 1983, Prof. Dr. Eckhard Schollmeyer was head of the Institute for Textile Metrology. He came from Stuttgart on April 16, 1980 as department head of TFA. In 1984, he became an adjunct professor of physical chemistry at the University of Duisburg.

In 1986, the DTNW became an affiliated institutes of the University of Duisburg, now the University of Duisburg-Essen.

In 1987, the internal division into institute was abandoned and Prof. Dr. Eckhard Schollmeyer was appointed managing director.

Since September 1, 2010, Prof. Dr. Jochen Gutmann, Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Duisburg-Essen, has headed DTNW and the Public Testing Laboratory as Managing Director.

In 2011, the organizational structure of the DTNW was fundamentally revised in cooperation with the Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences. The research activities were spun off into the newly founded DTNW gGmbH. The services of the Oeko-Tex Group were transferred together with the Öffentliche Prüfstelle Krefeld e.V. to DTNW ÖP GmbH.