TEXTILES.ORG
Johannes Zimmer of family-owned Zimmer Austria, a leading manufacturer of equipment for screen and digital printing, coating, drying, steaming and technical textiles, died on Feb. 20, 2021.
Zimmer was born on Sept. 20, 1930, in Warnsdorf, Bohemia, as Sudeten German/Austrian. His father and grandfather were reputable makers of textile machinery in the Warnsdorf factory with its own foundry for the base frame of textile roller printing machines.
After WWII, the family was expelled and relocated to Bad Gastein, Kufstein, and Vienna, Austria, through existing family ties. The family business was then restarted in Kufstein at a very small scale.
In 1958 Johannes moved to Klagenfurt to extend the Kufstein-based company. In 1960, the company built a new factory and grew into a leading company with more than 1,000 associates.
The company has endured the test of time and developed into a modern textile printing machine manufacturing company. The company’s plants in Klagenfurt and Kufstein employee several hundred associates. Until the end, Johannes called himself an entrepreneur.